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Prison Writings in 20th-Century America
from: Penguin (Non-Classics)

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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 810.809206927
EAN: 9780140273052
ISBN: 0140273050
Label: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 368
Publication Date: June 01, 1998
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Sales Rank: 69713
Studio: Penguin (Non-Classics)

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Editorial Review:

Product Description:
Harrowing in their frank detail and desperate tone, the selections in this anthology pack an emotional wallop...Should be required reading for anyone concerned about the violence in our society and the high rate of recidivism.-Publishers Weekly. Includes work by: Jack London, Nelson Algren, Chester Himes,Jack Henry Abbott, Robert Lowell, Malcolm X, Mumia Abu-Jamal, and Piri Thomas.

Amazon.com Review:
From the Autobiography of an Imprisoned Peon (1904), the memoirs of an indentured slave, to Jack Henry Abbott's In the Belly of the Beast, this collection presents sobering accounts of American prison life throughout the century. The stories come from all perspectives--innocent and guilty, comical and terrifying--but their common thread is the dehumanizing nature of prison existence. Sometimes poignant, sometimes violent, sometimes even funny, these stories are consistently disturbing and sobering glimpses into the incarcerated life. Prison Writing in 20th-Century America speaks for a largely silent but growing population. As the percentage of Americans who are incarcerated continues to climb, the stories in this book--and their testimonial to the depths to which both the jailed and the jailers can sink--become all the more urgent. --Lisa Higgins

Customer Reviews

Average Rating: out of 5 stars

Rating:

- "Real" stories
The writings in this book gave me an insight into some of the most "real" experiences in our history. The writings are moving and are so deep you actually feel like you are living what they're writing. It helped me understand to not be so quick to judge people in prison and to remember that although they are in there, they are still human beings.

Rating:

- Highly recommended
A great cross-section of prison literature in America. I especially appreciated the historical analysis, exploring how our modern penal system grew out of the post-Reconstruction backlash in the South. As more and more Americans are sent to prison, the culture of the prison becomes more and more relevant to us all.

Rating:

- Franklin's obssessive thoughts have skewed the literature.
As usual, Professor Franklin's interpretations are off-base due to his obsessive-compulsive readings of the texts. While many of the works collected herein are deserving of attention and can stand on their own, Franklin's one-note thought process and style ruins one's enjoyment of them. Apparently this is a problem for all of Franklin's works, and the courses he teaches, which often ignore the text and the human reality in favor of his (frequently cardboard leftist) theory du jour.

This is no way for a humanist to behave, and of course ultimately it hurts the causes he himself espouses. And most likely the humans he hopes to help. Criminals, after all, are not cartoon cut-outs who spout whatever it is Franklin wishes to hear.

A reader/professor based in Cambridge, Mass.

Rating:

- A most important contribution to American Literature
H. Bruce Franklin has assembled a remarkable collection of prose and poetry from America's most silenced corner. As a survey of prison literature (both poetry and prose), it educates and questions; as truth from America's most oppressed class of citizens, it is soul-shaking and heart-rending. The selections expose the ugly face of American justice, but also put human faces on its many victims. These days, it isn't popular to want to give prisoners anything, even credit for writing such powerful words. Yet their power cannot be denied. The men and women whose work appears in this book write to communicate their shattered lives with all the passion of any writer in the free world. Their words, sharp as razor wire, are hard to forget, and I commend Mr. Franklin for putting together such an unusual and revealing anthology. -Jeff Evans, Author of Undoing Time: American Prisoners in Their Own Words

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