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Prison Writing in 20th Century America
H. Bruce Franklin

                                   Penguin Books, 1998.
 

The definitive collection of 20th-century American prison writing.
 

Table of Contents

  • Acknowledgements 
  • Introduction by Tom Wicker 
  • Editor's Introduction 
  • From Plantation to Penitentiary 
    • Plantation Prison, Autobiography of an Imprisoned Peon (1904) 
    • Songs of the Prison Plantation 
      • "Go Down Old Hannah" 
      • "Midnight Special" 
      • "Easy Rider" 
  • The Early Modern American Prison 
    • Jack London, "'Pinched': A Prison Experience" and "The Pen" (1907) 
    • Donald Lowrie, from My Life in Prison (1912) 
    • Agnes Smedley, "Cell Mates" (1920) 
    • Kate Richards O'Hare, from Crime and Criminals (1921) 
    • Jim Tully, "California Holiday" (1928) 
    • Ernest Booth, "Ladies in Durance Vile" (1931) 
    • Chester Himes, "To What Red Hell?" (1934) 
    • Nelson Algren, "El Presidente de Méjico" (1947) 
    • Robert Lowell, "Memories of West Street and Lepke" (1956) 
  • The Movement and the Prison 
    • Malcolm X , from The Autobiography of Malcolm X (1965) 
    • George Jackson, from Soledad Brother (1970) 
    • Iceberg Slim, from The Naked Soul of Iceberg Slim (1971) 
    • Mshaka, "Formula for Attica Repeats" (1974) 
    • Piri Thomas, from Seven Long Times (1974) 
    • Jack Abbott, from In the Belly of the Beast (1981) 
    • Assata Shakur , from Assata (1987) 
  • The Literary Renaissance 
    • Malcolm Braly, from On the Yard (1967) 
    • Etheridge Knight 
      • "The Warden Said to Me the Other Day" (1968) 
      • "Hard Rock Returns to Prison, from the Hospital for the Criminal Insane" (1968) 
      • "For Freckle-Faced Gerald" (1968) 
    • Paul Mariah " 
      • Quarry/Rock: A Reality Poem in the Tradition of Genet" (1969) 
      • "Always We Watch Them" (1970) 
      • "Shakedown & More" (1971) 
    • Norma Stafford 
      • "In Santa Cruz" (1972) 
      • "The Gone One" (1973) 
    • William Wantling, 
      • from Sestina to San Quentin (1973) 
      • "Poetry" (1973) 
      • "Who's Bitter?" (1973) 
    • Michael Hogan 
      • "Spring" (1975) 
      • "Confessions of a Jailhouse Lawyer" (1975) 
    • Carolyn Baxter 
      • "Lower Court" (1979) 
      • "35 Years a Correctional Officer" (1979) 
      • "On Being Counted" (1979) 
    • Jimmy Santiago Baca 
      • "The New Warden" (1979) 
      • "The County Jail" (1979) 
      • "I Applied for the Board" (1982) 
    • Jackie Ruzas 
      • "Easy To Kill" (1975) 
      • "The Bus Ride" (1983) 
    • Edward Bunker, from Little Boy Blue (1981) 
    • Nathan C. Heard, from House of Slammers (1983) 
    • Charles Culhane 
      • "Of Cold Places" (1984) 
      • "Autumn Yard" (1985) 
      • "First Day of Hanukkah" (1986) 
    • Patricia McConnel, 
    • "Sing Soft, Sing Loud" (1989) 
    • Kim Wozencraft, from Notes, from the Country Club (1993) 
    • Jerome Washington 
      • "Diamond Bob" (1994) 
      • "The Blues Merchant" (1994) 
      • "Nobody's Hoss" (1994) 
      • "Barracuda and Sheryl" (1994) 
      • "Shing-a-Ling and China" (1994) 
    • Kathy Boudin 
      • "Our Skirt" (1997) 
      • "The Call" (1997) 
  • The American Gulag Today 
    • Dannie Martin 
      • "AIDS: The View, from a Prison Cell" (1986) 
      • "A Prescription for Torture" (1990) 
      • "A Mount Everest of Time" (1990) 
    • Mumia Abu-Jamal 
      • "B-Block Days and Nightmares" (1990) 
      • "Skeleton Bay" (1993) 
      • "Already Out of the Game" (1994) 
        • Jimmy Santiago Baca, "Past Present" (1992) 
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