Prison Writing in 20th-Century America

AcknowledgmentsForeword by Tom WickerIntroductionFrom Plantation to PenitentiaryPlantation PrisonAutobiography of an Imprisoned Peon (1904)Songs of the Prison Plantation"Go Down Old Hannah""Midnight Special""Easy Rider"The Early Modern American PrisonJack London"'Pinched': A Prison Experience" and "The Pen: Long Days in a County Penitentiary" (1907)Donald Lowriefrom My Life in PrisonAgnes Smedley"Cell Mates"Kate Richards O'Harefrom Crime and CriminalsJim Tully"A California Holiday"Ernest Booth"Ladies in Durance Vile"Chester Himes"To What Red Hell?"Nelson Algren"El Presidente de Méjico" (1947)Robert Lowell"Memories of West Street and Lepke" (1959)The Movement and the PrisonMalcolm Xfrom The Autobiography of Malcolm XGeorge Jacksonfrom Soledad Brother (1970)Iceberg Slim (Robert Beck)from The Naked Soul of Iceberg Slim (1971)Mshaka (Willie Monroe)"Formula for Attica Repeats" (1974)Piri Thomasfrom Seven Long Times (1974)Jack Henry Abbottfrom In the Belly of the Beast (1981)Assata Shakurfrom Assata (1987)The Literary RenaissanceMalcolm Braleyfrom 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 and More" (1971)Norma Stafford"In Santa Cruz" (1972)"The Gone One" (1973)William Wantlingfrom "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 Bunkerfrom Little Boy Blue (1981)Nathan C. Heardfrom 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 Wozencraftfrom 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)Dannie Martin ("Red Hog")"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"Jimmy Santiago Baca"Past Present" (1992)