Prison literature in the United States
Encyclopedia
American prison literature is literature written by Americans who are incarcerated. It is a distinct literary phenomenon which is increasingly studied as such by academics.
In the words of Arnold Erickson:
, who in 1894 spent a month in New York State’s Erie County Penitentiary. This transformative experience informed much of his writing.
, spent a year in prison (1919-1920), causing her to dedicate her life to exposing the horrors of prison conditions and the economic structure by which they were supported. Anarchist activists Emma Goldman
and Alexander Berkman
also wrote while imprisoned, deepening their philosophical convictions and influencing people worldwide.
One of the most widely-read early accounts of prison life in the twentieth century was My Life in Prison (1912), by Donald Lowrie
. The book inspired Thomas Mott Osborne
, who later became warden at Sing Sing
, to dedicate his career to prison reform. In 1924, after World War I, H.L. Mencken founded the American Mercury magazine and regularly published convict authors.
At the onset of the Great Depression, authorities began to perceive prison writing as more of a threat to American society. Manuscripts were potentially profitable subversive tools, and therefore all writing was suppressed.
In 1932, Robert E. Burns published his memoir I Am a Fugitive from a Georgia Chain Gang
, which was subsequently made into the movie I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang
. As a prison escapee, he wrote to expose the realities of prison slavery. During this time, the entire population felt the effects of poverty, crime, and hardship, making more people receptive to prison narratives.
Chester Himes
began writing after going to prison for armed robbery. He reported: "When I could see the end of my time inside I bought myself a typewriter and taught myself to touch type. I'd been reading stories by Dashiell Hammett in Black Mask and I thought I could do them just as well. When my stories finally appeared, the other convicts thought exactly the same thing. There was nothing to it. All you had to do was tell it like it is."
Another writer to emerge during the 1930’s was Nelson Algren
, whose short story “El Presidente de Mejico” explored his experience in a Texas jail.
, the book was published the same year that X was assassinated. Its impact cannot be understated in this tumultuous era of American history. Prisoners and ex-prisoners began using the printed word to participate in revolutionary activities. Among those influenced by Malcolm X were Eldridge Cleaver
, Iceberg Slim
, Piri Thomas
, and Jack Henry Abbott.
Prison writing’s literary renaissance coincided with social and political unrest of the 1960’s and 1970’s There was tremendous support for incarcerated writers, since they represented an important front of the culture war. Inner city riots and prison riots exemplified the volatile emotional state of the entire population. The 1971 escape attempt by a San Quentin inmate and author, George Jackson
(Soledad Brother), ended in bloodshed. Another activist author, Angela Davis
, was implicated in the event because a gun was used that was registered in her name. Jackson’s shooting lead to a mass hunger strike
at New York’s Attica Prison. The strike eventually lead to a prisoner uprising and a subsequent police assault leaving 128 wounded and 39 dead, 10 of them hostages.
By the late 1970’s, prison writing was being published extensively in “mass-market paperbacks, newspapers, magazines, major motion pictures.” In the 1980’s and 1990’s, however, there was something of a backlash. New York State led the legislative attack against prison writing. In 1977, the “Son of Sam” law
made it illegal for convict authors to collect money from the writings. Some claim that “[a]lthough ostensibly designed to ‘protect the victim’ and to keep criminals from profiting from their crimes, the real purpose of these laws was identical to the purpose of the repression of prison literature in the 1930s: to keep the American people in the dark about the American prison.”
According to Bell Gale Chevigny (1999), prison writing began to go out of fashion in the 1980’s. One event triggering this reaction was the 1981 publication of the letters that Jack Henry Abbott wrote from prison to Norman Mailer
. This enormously popular publication, entitled In the Belly of the Beast
, documented the rage Abbott had cultivated in his years of incarceration. Within a month of his release from prison, Abbott murdered a man during a fight.
One of the only institutions that still continues to support prison writing is the PEN American Center
.
In 1973, PEN began its annual prison writing contest. Though it had some very difficult years in the 1980’s, the contest has taken place every year since its inception. The Prison Writing Program continues to provide mentoring opportunities and to publish information concerning prison writing, as well as anthologizing contest winners.
In the words of Arnold Erickson:
- "Prison has been a fertile setting for artists, musicians, and writers alike. Prisoners have produced hundreds of works that have encompassed a wide range of literature. [...] Books describing the prison experience, including the Autobiography of Malcolm X, inspired an audience far outside the prison walls. The importance of these works have been recognized in this country's highest courts. See Simon & Schuster, Inc. v. New York State Crime Victim's Compensation Board, 502 U.S. 105, 121-122 (1991)(citing works by prisoners)."
Overview
The emergence of prison writing relied on convicts with the necessary writing skills to tell the story from the inside. Early writings came from prisoners who had already begun to publish before being arrested. Among these early twentieth century writers is Jack LondonJack London
John Griffith "Jack" London was an American author, journalist, and social activist. He was a pioneer in the then-burgeoning world of commercial magazine fiction and was one of the first fiction writers to obtain worldwide celebrity and a large fortune from his fiction alone...
, who in 1894 spent a month in New York State’s Erie County Penitentiary. This transformative experience informed much of his writing.
Early 20th century
Prison writing has often been an act of political resistance. In the first two decades of the 20th century, the prisoners who were published were primarily social activists. Socialist writer Kate Richards O'HareKate Richards O'Hare
Kate Richards O'Hare was an American Socialist Party activist, editor, and orator best known for her controversial imprisonment during World War I.-Biography:...
, spent a year in prison (1919-1920), causing her to dedicate her life to exposing the horrors of prison conditions and the economic structure by which they were supported. Anarchist activists Emma Goldman
Emma Goldman
Emma Goldman was an anarchist known for her political activism, writing and speeches. She played a pivotal role in the development of anarchist political philosophy in North America and Europe in the first half of the twentieth century....
and Alexander Berkman
Alexander Berkman
Alexander Berkman was an anarchist known for his political activism and writing. He was a leading member of the anarchist movement in the early 20th century....
also wrote while imprisoned, deepening their philosophical convictions and influencing people worldwide.
One of the most widely-read early accounts of prison life in the twentieth century was My Life in Prison (1912), by Donald Lowrie
Donald Lowrie
Donald Lowrie was an American newspaper writer and author. He became a well-known advocate of prison reform work upon the release of his book "My Life in Prison", in which he reflects on his ten-year incarceration in San Quentin State Prison north of San Francisco, California.-Early life:Accounts...
. The book inspired Thomas Mott Osborne
Thomas Mott Osborne
Thomas Mott Osborne was an American prison administrator, prison reformer, industrialist and New York State political reformer...
, who later became warden at Sing Sing
Sing Sing
Sing Sing Correctional Facility is a maximum security prison operated by the New York State Department of Correctional Services in the town of Ossining, New York...
, to dedicate his career to prison reform. In 1924, after World War I, H.L. Mencken founded the American Mercury magazine and regularly published convict authors.
At the onset of the Great Depression, authorities began to perceive prison writing as more of a threat to American society. Manuscripts were potentially profitable subversive tools, and therefore all writing was suppressed.
In 1932, Robert E. Burns published his memoir I Am a Fugitive from a Georgia Chain Gang
I Am a Fugitive from a Georgia Chain Gang
I Am a Fugitive from a Georgia Chain Gang is a book written by Robert Elliott Burns in 1932 and published by Grosset & Dunlap.The book tells the story of Burns' imprisonment on a chain gang in Georgia in the 1920s, his subsequent escape and the furor that developed...
, which was subsequently made into the movie I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang
I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang
I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang is a Pre-Code crime/drama film starring Paul Muni as a wrongfully convicted convict on a chain gang who escapes to Chicago. The film was written by Howard J. Green and Brown Holmes from Robert Elliott Burns's autobiography, I Am a Fugitive from a Georgia Chain...
. As a prison escapee, he wrote to expose the realities of prison slavery. During this time, the entire population felt the effects of poverty, crime, and hardship, making more people receptive to prison narratives.
Chester Himes
Chester Himes
Chester Bomar Himes was an American writer. His works include If He Hollers Let Him Go and a series of Harlem Detective novels...
began writing after going to prison for armed robbery. He reported: "When I could see the end of my time inside I bought myself a typewriter and taught myself to touch type. I'd been reading stories by Dashiell Hammett in Black Mask and I thought I could do them just as well. When my stories finally appeared, the other convicts thought exactly the same thing. There was nothing to it. All you had to do was tell it like it is."
Another writer to emerge during the 1930’s was Nelson Algren
Nelson Algren
Nelson Algren was an American writer.-Early life:Algren was born Nelson Ahlgren Abraham in Detroit, Michigan, the son of Goldie and Gerson Abraham. At the age of three he moved with his parents to Chicago, Illinois where they lived in a working-class, immigrant neighborhood on the South Side...
, whose short story “El Presidente de Mejico” explored his experience in a Texas jail.
Post-WWII
The Autobiography of Malcolm X, published in 1965, was the first full-length memoir of an African-American convict. Co-written by Alex HaleyAlex Haley
Alexander Murray Palmer Haley was an African-American writer. He is best known as the author of Roots: The Saga of an American Family and the coauthor of The Autobiography of Malcolm X.-Early life:...
, the book was published the same year that X was assassinated. Its impact cannot be understated in this tumultuous era of American history. Prisoners and ex-prisoners began using the printed word to participate in revolutionary activities. Among those influenced by Malcolm X were Eldridge Cleaver
Eldridge Cleaver
Leroy Eldridge Cleaver better known as Eldridge Cleaver, was a leading member of the Black Panther Party and a writer...
, Iceberg Slim
Iceberg Slim
Iceberg Slim aka Robert Beck was a reformed pimp and American author of urban fiction.-Early life:Born Robert Lee Maupin, in Chicago on August 4, 1918, he spent his childhood in Milwaukee and Rockford, Illinois until he returned to Chicago...
, Piri Thomas
Piri Thomas
Piri Thomas was a writer and poet whose autobiography Down These Mean Streets became a best-seller.-Early years:...
, and Jack Henry Abbott.
Prison writing’s literary renaissance coincided with social and political unrest of the 1960’s and 1970’s There was tremendous support for incarcerated writers, since they represented an important front of the culture war. Inner city riots and prison riots exemplified the volatile emotional state of the entire population. The 1971 escape attempt by a San Quentin inmate and author, George Jackson
George Jackson (Black Panther)
George Lester Jackson was an American convict who became a left-wing activist, Marxist, author, a member of the Black Panther Party, and co-founder of the Black Guerrilla Family prison gang...
(Soledad Brother), ended in bloodshed. Another activist author, Angela Davis
Angela Davis
Angela Davis is an American political activist, scholar, and author. Davis was most politically active during the late 1960s through the 1970s and was associated with the Communist Party USA, the Civil Rights Movement and the Black Panther Party...
, was implicated in the event because a gun was used that was registered in her name. Jackson’s shooting lead to a mass hunger strike
Hunger strike
A hunger strike is a method of non-violent resistance or pressure in which participants fast as an act of political protest, or to provoke feelings of guilt in others, usually with the objective to achieve a specific goal, such as a policy change. Most hunger strikers will take liquids but not...
at New York’s Attica Prison. The strike eventually lead to a prisoner uprising and a subsequent police assault leaving 128 wounded and 39 dead, 10 of them hostages.
By the late 1970’s, prison writing was being published extensively in “mass-market paperbacks, newspapers, magazines, major motion pictures.” In the 1980’s and 1990’s, however, there was something of a backlash. New York State led the legislative attack against prison writing. In 1977, the “Son of Sam” law
Son of Sam law
A Son of Sam Law is any American law designed to keep criminals from profiting from the publicity of their crimes, often by selling their stories to publishers. However, this is not in the same manner of asset forfeiture, which is intended to seize assets acquired directly as a result of criminal...
made it illegal for convict authors to collect money from the writings. Some claim that “[a]lthough ostensibly designed to ‘protect the victim’ and to keep criminals from profiting from their crimes, the real purpose of these laws was identical to the purpose of the repression of prison literature in the 1930s: to keep the American people in the dark about the American prison.”
According to Bell Gale Chevigny (1999), prison writing began to go out of fashion in the 1980’s. One event triggering this reaction was the 1981 publication of the letters that Jack Henry Abbott wrote from prison to Norman Mailer
Norman Mailer
Norman Kingsley Mailer was an American novelist, journalist, essayist, poet, playwright, screenwriter, and film director.Along with Truman Capote, Joan Didion, Hunter S...
. This enormously popular publication, entitled In the Belly of the Beast
In the Belly of the Beast
In the Belly of the Beast is a book written by Jack Abbott and published in 1981.Jack Abbott was an American career criminal and the book consists of his letters to Norman Mailer about his experiences in what Abbott saw as a brutal and unjust prison system...
, documented the rage Abbott had cultivated in his years of incarceration. Within a month of his release from prison, Abbott murdered a man during a fight.
One of the only institutions that still continues to support prison writing is the PEN American Center
PEN American Center
PEN American Center , founded in 1922 and based in New York City, works to advance literature, to defend free expression, and to foster international literary fellowship. The Center has a membership of 3,300 writers, editors, and translators...
.
PEN American Center Prison Writing Program
PEN American Center (Poets, Playwrights, Essayists, Editors and Novelists) is a national chapter of an international association of writers working towards peace. The Center established its Prison Writing Program in 1971, when PEN president Tom Fleming began lobbying for educational opportunities for prisoners. These efforts resulted in reduced censorship, better access to typewriters, classes, and improved prison libraries.In 1973, PEN began its annual prison writing contest. Though it had some very difficult years in the 1980’s, the contest has taken place every year since its inception. The Prison Writing Program continues to provide mentoring opportunities and to publish information concerning prison writing, as well as anthologizing contest winners.
Sources
- Chevigny, B. G. (Ed.) (1999). Doing time: 25 years of prison writing. New York: Arcade.
- Franklin, H. B. (Ed.) (1998). Prison writing in twentieth century America. New York: Penguin.
Works about life in prison
- Abu-Jamal, M. (1995). Live from death row. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
- Baldwin, J. (1974). If Beale Street could talk. New York: Dial.
- Davis, A. (1974). Autobiography. New York: Random House.
- Jones, G. (1976). Eva's man. New York: Random House.
- King, M. L. (1963). “Letters from Birmingham jail”. Retrieved *April 25, 2007.
- Knight, E. (1968). Poems from prison. Detroit: Broadside.
- Fanon, F. (1963). Wretched of the Earth. (C. Farrington, Trans.). New York: Grove.
- Foucault, M. (1977). Discipline and Punish. (A. Sheridan, Trans.). New York: Pantheon.
- Peltier, L. (1999). Prison writings: my life is my sundance. New York: St. Martins.
- Pinero, M. (1975). Short eyes. New York: Hill and Wang.
- Wright, R. (1940). Native son. New York: Harper.
International anthologies of prison writing
- Ball, D. (1977). The Experience of prison: an anthology of prose, drama, verse, and picture. London: Longman.
- Basset, E. (Ed.) (1978). Each in his prison: an anthology. London: S.P.C.K.
- Bould, G. (Ed.) (2005). Conscience be my guide: an anthology of prison writings. New York: Zed Books.
- Scheffler, J. A. (Ed.) (1986). Wall tappings: an anthology of writings by women prisoners. Boston: Northeastern University.
- Trupin, J. E. (Ed.) (1975) In prison: writings and poems about the prison experience. New York: New American Library.
Literary criticism of prison writing
- Israel, Michael (1983). 'Jack Henry Abbott, American Prison Writing, and the Experience of Punishment', Criminal Justice and Behavior 10:4, pp. 441-460.
- Platt, A. M. (1999). 'Prison Writing in 20th-Century America', Social Justice 26.
External links
- PEN America Center Prison Writing Program
- Course outline on European prison writing