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American Prison Literature
American prison literature is literature written by Americans who are incarcerated. It is a distinct literary phenomenon that is increasingly studied as such by academics. 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 has been recognized in this country's highest courts. See '' Simon & Schuster, Inc. v. Crime Victims 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 their stories from the inside. Early writings came from prisoners who had already begun to publish before being arrested. Among these early-20th-century writers was Jack London, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Prison Literature
Prison literature is a literary genre characterized by literature that is written while the author is confined in a location against his will, such as a prison, jail or house arrest.Tony Perrottet. "Serving the Sentence", ''New York Times Book Review'', July 24, 2011. The literature can be about prison, informed by it, or simply coincidentally written while in prison. It could be a memoir, nonfiction, or fiction. Notable examples of prison literature Boethius's ''Consolation of Philosophy'' (524 AD) has been described as "by far the most interesting example of prison literature the world has ever seen." Marco Polo found time to dictate a detailed account of his travels to China, ''The Travels of Marco Polo'', to a fellow inmate whilst he was imprisoned in Genoa from 1298 to 1299. Dante Alighieri wrote the ''Divine Comedy'' in exile, far away from his beloved home town of Florence, which he was not allowed to enter again after 1301. Sir Thomas Malory likely wrote ''Le Morte d'Arth ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alex Haley
Alexander Murray Palmer Haley (August 11, 1921 – February 10, 1992) was an American writer and the author of the 1976 book '' Roots: The Saga of an American Family.'' ABC adapted the book as a television miniseries of the same name and aired it in 1977 to a record-breaking audience of 130 million viewers. In the United States, the book and miniseries raised the public awareness of black American history and inspired a broad interest in genealogy and family history. Haley's first book was ''The Autobiography of Malcolm X'', published in 1965, a collaboration through numerous lengthy interviews with Malcolm X.Stringer, Jenny (ed), ''The Oxford Companion to Twentieth-Century Literature in English'' (1986), Oxford University Press, p 275 He was working on a second family history novel at his death. Haley had requested that David Stevens, a screenwriter, complete it; the book was published as '' Queen: The Story of an American Family.'' It was adapted as a miniseries, '' Al ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
PEN American Center
PEN America (formerly PEN American Center), founded in 1922 and headquartered in New York City, is a nonprofit organization that works to defend and celebrate Freedom of speech, free expression in the United States and worldwide through the advancement of literature and human rights. PEN America is the largest of the more than 100 PEN centers worldwide that together compose PEN International. PEN America has offices in New York City, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C. PEN America's advocacy includes work on Freedom of the press, press freedom and the safety of journalists, campus free speech, online harassment, artistic freedom, and support to regions of the world with challenges to freedom of expression. PEN America also campaigns for individual writers and journalists who have been imprisoned or come under threat for their work and annually presents the PEN/Barbey Freedom to Write Award. PEN America hosts public programming and events on literature and human rights, including ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
In The Belly Of The Beast
''In the Belly of the Beast'' is a book written by Jack Henry Abbott and published in 1981. Jack Henry Abbott was an American prisoner and the book consists of his letters to Norman Mailer about his experiences in what Abbott saw as a brutal and unjust prison system. Mailer supported Abbott's successful bid for parole in 1981, the year that ''In the Belly of the Beast'' was published. The book was very successful, and on July 19, 1981, ''The New York Times'' published a mixed to positive review. However, the day before, Abbott had killed waiter Richard Adan during a dispute at a restaurant called Binibon on 2nd Avenue in the East Village of New York City. Abbott was eventually arrested, convicted of manslaughter, and returned to prison for the rest of his life until his suicide in 2002. Adan's widow sued Abbott, winning the multi-million dollar royalty payments for ''Belly''; Abbott received only a $12,500 publishing advance. Adaptations In 1983–1985, William Petersen sta ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Norman Mailer
Nachem Malech Mailer (January 31, 1923 – November 10, 2007), known by his pen name Norman Kingsley Mailer, was an American novelist, journalist, essayist, playwright, activist, filmmaker and actor. In a career spanning over six decades, Mailer had 11 best-selling books, at least one in each of the seven decades after World War II—more than any other post-war American writer. His novel ''The Naked and the Dead'' was published in 1948 and brought him early renown. His 1968 nonfiction novel '' Armies of the Night'' won the Pulitzer Prize for non-fiction as well as the National Book Award. Among his best-known works is ''The Executioner's Song'', the 1979 winner of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. Mailer is considered an innovator of "creative non-fiction" or "New Journalism", along with Truman Capote, Joan Didion, Hunter S. Thompson, and Tom Wolfe, a genre which uses the style and devices of literary fiction in factual journalism. He was a cultural commentator and critic, expre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Son Of Sam Law
A Son of Sam law (also known as a notoriety-for-profit law) is an American English term for any law designed to keep criminals from profiting from the publicity of their crimes, for instance by selling their stories to publishers. Such laws often authorize the state to seize money earned from deals such as book/movie biographies and paid interviews and use it to compensate the criminal's victims. These laws have been criticized as violating the free-speech guarantee of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. The original and namesake law, from New York State, was itself ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of the United States, but New York and other states have since passed laws with similar goals that attempt to comply with the Court's decision. In certain cases, a Son of Sam law can be extended beyond the criminals themselves to include friends, neighbors, and family members of the lawbreaker who seek to profit by telling publishers and filmmakers of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Attica Prison
Attica Correctional Facility is a maximum security campus New York State prison in the Town of Attica, New York, operated by the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision. It was constructed in the 1930s in response to earlier riots within the New York state prisons. A CS gas system (chlorobenzylidine malononitrile) installed in the mess hall and industry areas has been used to quell conflicts in these areas. The prison now holds numerous inmates who are serving various types of sentences (short-term to life). They are often sent to this facility because of disciplinary problems in other facilities.See Attica Prison riot The prison is a maximum security facility. In 1984, immediately adjacent to the Attica prison, the construction of the Wyoming Correctional Facility was completed. The Wyoming prison is a medium security facility. Rebellions Attica was the site of a prison uprising in September 1971 in which inmates took control of the prison for se ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hunger Strike
A hunger strike is a method of non-violent resistance in which participants fast as an act of political protest, or to provoke a feeling 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 solid food. In cases where an entity (usually the state) has or is able to obtain custody of the hunger striker (such as a prisoner), the hunger strike is often terminated by the custodial entity through the use of force-feeding. Early history Fasting was used as a method of protesting injustice in pre-Christian Ireland, where it was known as ''Troscadh'' or ''Cealachan''. Detailed in the contemporary civic codes, it had specific rules by which it could be used. The fast was often carried out on the doorstep of the home of the offender. Scholars speculate that this was due to the high importance the culture placed on hospitality. Allowing a person to die at one's doorstep, for a wrong of which o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Angela Davis
Angela Yvonne Davis (born January 26, 1944) is an American political activist, philosopher, academic, scholar, and author. She is a professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz. A feminist and a Marxist, Davis was a longtime member of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) and is a founding member of the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism (CCDS). She is the author of more than ten books on class, gender, race, and the U.S. prison system. Born to an African-American family in Birmingham, Alabama, Davis studied French at Brandeis University and philosophy at the University of Frankfurt in West Germany. Studying under the philosopher Herbert Marcuse at the Frankfurt School, Davis became increasingly engaged in far-left politics. Returning to the United States, she studied at the University of California, San Diego, before moving to East Germany, where she completed a doctorate at the Humboldt University of Berlin. After returning to the United States, sh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Jackson (Black Panther)
George Lester Jackson (September 23, 1941 – August 21, 1971) was an American author, activist and prisoner. While serving an indeterminate sentence for the armed robbery of a gas station in 1961, Jackson became involved in revolutionary activity and co-founded the prison gang Black Guerrilla Family. In 1970, he was charged, along with two other Soledad Brothers, with the murder of Correctional Officer John Vincent Mills in the aftermath of a prison fight. The same year, he published ''Soledad Brother: The Prison Letters of George Jackson'', a combination of autobiography and manifesto addressed to an African-American audience. The book became a bestseller and earned Jackson personal fame. Jackson was killed during an attempted prison escape in 1971. Jackson and other prisoners took hostages during the attempt and five hostages were found dead in Jackson's cell after the incident. Biography Born in Chicago, Illinois, Jackson was the second son of Lester and Georgia Bea Jac ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Urban Riots
Riots often occur in reaction to a perceived grievance or out of dissent. Riots may be the outcome of a sporting event, although many riots have occurred due to poor working or living conditions, government oppression, conflicts between races or religions. Rapid urbanization has led to the rise of urban riots, often inner city. John F. McDonald and Daniel P. McMillen have identified Los Angeles's Watts Riots, in 1965, as the first "urban riots" in the United States. They were a part of what were known as race riots of the civil rights period. These riots in particular culminated in 1968–1969. The analyses of urban riots in terms of urban conditions influenced the emerging field of urban economics in the 1960s. Causes of urban riots Riots have occurred before the rapid urbanization starting in the mid-20th Century, hence the occurrence of riots in urban areas in itself is not special. While a riot may be initially sparked by a specific event, scholars, commentators and commiss ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jack Henry Abbott
Jack Henry Abbott (January 21, 1944 – February 10, 2002) was an American criminal and author. With a long history of criminal convictions, Abbott's writing concerning his life and experiences was lauded by a number of well-known literary critics, including author Norman Mailer. Due partly to lobbying by Mailer and others on Abbott's behalf, Abbott was released from prison in 1981 where he was serving sentences for forgery, manslaughter, and bank robbery. Abbott's memoir '' In the Belly of the Beast'' was published with positive reviews soon after his release. Six weeks after being paroled from prison, Abbott stabbed and killed a waiter outside a New York City cafe. Abbott was convicted and sent back to prison, where he died by suicide in 2002. Abbott described his life as being a "state-raised convict", spending much of his life since age 12 in confinement in state facilities, including solitary confinement. He wrote that because of confinement with other violent offenders ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
