WHILE MASS INCARCERATION of African Americans is one of the biggest tragedies of contemporary America, it is actually nothing new. Evidence of its effects is easy to ignore, though, unless one is directly affected, making the recent publication of a prison memoir ever more important. What might surprise you, however, is that a book that so illuminates us on the history of this problem was written on the eve of the Civil War.
In 2009, a leather bound manuscript turned up at Yale University’s Beinecke Rare Books and Manuscript Library. Entitled The Life and Adventures of a Haunted Convict, it told the story of a young African American arsonist from Rochester, New York, who had been convicted in 1833 while he was still a child. Its author, Austin Reed, and who is referred to as Rob in the book, served nearly six years in a Manhattan juvenile detention center, was released, and soon rearrested, at which point he began a stretch of incarceration at upstate New York’s Auburn State Prison that lasted until 1858.
There are many stories here – the pursuit of the provenance of the book, originally purchased at an estate sale, is its own adventure tale. Documenting its authenticity sent researchers into the archives, the census, into genealogical research, to paper and ink specialists, and finally resulted in the publication of this wondrous find by Random House. The book is due out later this month.
Preorder yours. This is what makes memoir great. It’s a tough story all around, but it is one that illuminates a contemporary problem we have yet to solve. Read up and learn.
Along the way of reading up on this manuscript I discovered a recent feature in Smithsonian on the story behind the book, as well as the apparent fact that many people have a real jones for prison lit. Who knew? (I guess I did, what with the popularity of Orange is The New Black). But why keep these sources to myself?
Here is Flavorwire’s list of top ten jailbird books, as well as a recent list from The Los Angeles Times of books written about or from prison. I love this last list, including, as it does a book by the great Fox Butterfield and, of course, Ted Conover’s Newjack, produced when the journalist got himself incarcerated in the infamous Sing Sing.
Read on. Got a favorite that’s not mentioned? Send it along.
Susan says
Come to think of it, Papillon! by Henri Charriere about his years in and escaping from prisons in French Guiana (1931-45) and living as a fugitive. It was one of the most unputdownable books I’d ever read back when I was 15. I should re-read it (40 years later) to see if it is still as riveting.