The Immortal Class: Bike Messengers and the Cult of Human Power
The Immortal Class: Bike Messengers and the Cult of Human Power (Paperback)
Description
Travis Hugh Culley went to Chicago to make his name in its thriving theater scene, yet found in his day job a sense of community and fulfillment—and a brotherhood of like-minded individualists—that he encountered nowhere else.
In The Immortal Class, Culley takes us inside the heart and soul of an American urban icon: the bicycle messenger. In describing his own history and those of his peers, he evokes a classic American maverick, deeply woven into the fabric of society—from the pits of squalor to the highest reaches of power and privilege—yet always resolutely, exuberantly outside.
Culley’s voice is at once earthy and soaringly poetic—a Gen-X Tom Joad at hyperspeed. The Immortal Class is a unique personal and political narrative of a cyclist’s life on the street.
About the Author
Travis Hugh Culley, a director and playwright, has worked as a bike messenger in Philadelphia and Chicago, where he currently lives.
Praise for The Immortal Class: Bike Messengers and the Cult of Human Power…
“A book that could be called Zen and the Art of Bicycle Messengering . . . Just try to ignore [Culley’s] story. . . . He lived to tell the tale, and it’s a great one.” —The Arizona Republic
“The Immortal Class deftly blends high theory with adrenaline-spiked tales from the front . . . that offer a fascinating look at a landscape few office workers ever glimpse.” —The Philadelphia Inquirer
“Culley has written a paean to his profession.”—Chicago
“An ever-kinetic prose straddling narrative and polemic, with an ear all the while for the small pebbles slipping beneath its feet.”—The Seattle Times
“Fresh . . . On the frenzied rawness of courier life, Mr. Culley excels . . . Lively prose.”—The Economist
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