''I Am a Fugitive from a Georgia Chain Gang!'' (1932) is a book written by veteran Robert Elliott Burns and published by Grosset & Dunlap. The book recounts Burns' imprisonment on a

chain gang A chain gang or road gang is a group of prisoners chained together to perform menial or physically challenging work as a form of punishment. Such punishment might include repairing buildings, building roads, or clearing land. The system was nota ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

in the 1920s, his subsequent escape to New Jersey, and the furor that developed. The story was first published in January 1931, serialized in ''True Detective Mysteries'' magazine. Later that year, Burns's story was adapted as the motion picture ''

I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang ''I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang'' is a 1932 American pre-Code crime tragedy film directed by Mervyn LeRoy and starring Paul Muni as a convicted man on a chain gang who escapes to Chicago. It was released on November 10, 1932. The film r ...

'', starring

Paul Muni Paul Muni (born Frederich Meshilem Meier Weisenfreund; September 22, 1895 – August 25, 1967) was an American stage and film actor from Chicago. He started his acting career in the Yiddish theater and during the 1930s, he was considered one of ...

. The book and movie were both credited with contributing to Governor

Ellis Arnall Ellis Gibbs Arnall (March 20, 1907 – December 13, 1992) was an American politician who served as the 69th Governor of Georgia from 1943 to 1947. A liberal Democrat, he helped lead efforts to abolish the poll tax and to reduce Georgia's votin ...

's effort in 1943 to reform deplorable conditions on Georgia chain gangs. A sequel, ''Out of These Chains'' (1942), was written by Burns' brother, Vincent Godfrey Burns, an

Episcopal priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deity, deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in parti ...

. The songwriter Jimmie Skinner, reading from his unfinished autobiography, recounts on Volume 6 of the compilation '"Doin' My Time" 1947-1963' that he wrote the country music classic "Doin' My Time" after reading the account of Robert Burns' imprisonment and escape in ''True Detective Mysteries'' magazine.

Bibliography

*Robert Elliott Burns, ''I Am a Fugitive from a Georgia Chain Gang!'', Vanguard Press, 1932; Gale Research, 1972; Beehive Press, 1994;

University of Georgia Press The University of Georgia Press or UGA Press is the university press of the University of Georgia, a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Athens, Georgia. It is the oldest and largest publishing house in Georgia and a me ...

, 1997,

References

*Doin' My Time" 1947–1963, Volume 6, Bear Family Records, BCD 16613 FK, Germany, 2003 1932 non-fiction books American memoirs Memoirs adapted into films Grosset & Dunlap books Memoirs of imprisonment {{US-bio-book-stub