Brundage, Slim, 1903-1990

Chicago house painter, writer, and founder and self-proclaimed "janitor" of the College of Complexes, a Near North Side forum where speakers and the audience debated controversial topics and read poetry.

During the late 1920's Brundage frequented the Dill Pickle Club, where he may have worked for a time. With this club's 1932 closing Brundage founded the first College of Complexes which lasted only a few months. He then started a hobo college, the Knowledge Box (1936-1937), operated a second College of Complexes (1951-1961), founded a similar organization called the Culture Vulture (1961-1962), and reinstated the College of Complexes in 1965. By the late 1960's Brundage began spending winters in Mexico and gradually ended his involvement with the College. He apparently moved to California in the mid-1970's and died there at the age of eighty six in 1990.

From the description of Slim Brundage papers, 1955-1991, (bulk 1964-1972). (Newberry Library). WorldCat record id: 53397895