Bibliography
The Spirit Confined
In Time: Women's Poetry from Prison, edited by Rosanna Warren and Teresa Iverson (1995) Poetry written by women during workshops sponsored by the Lila Wallace Reader's Digest Fund at the Massachusetts Correctional Institute in Framingham. Copies of this book can be ordered for $1 from:
Rosanna Warren,
Proceeds benefit the Prison Education Fund at Boston University.
Boston University,
The University Professors
745 Common wealth Avenue
Boston , MA 02215This Prison Where I Live: The PEN Anthology of Imprisoned Writers, edited by Siobhan Dowd with a Foreword by Joseph Brodsky (Cassell, 1996) A collection of twentieth-century letters, diary entries, poems and memoirs from writers imprisoned as a result of political oppression published in celebration of the seventy-fifth anniversary of PEN. The selections are arranged roughly in the order of the prison experience from initial lockup to final release.
The Autobiography of Malcolm X, as told to Alex Haley (Ballantine, 1964) This is the personal story of a man who rose from a "hoodlum, thief, dope peddler, and pimp" to become one of the most dynamic leaders of the Black Revolution. At age twenty, in 1946, Malcolm Little was sentenced to ten years for robbery and served seven years. While at the Norfolk Prison Colony in Norfolk, Massachusetts, he was introduced to the teachings of Elijah Muhammad by his brother, Reginald, and he educated himself through voracious reading and correspondence courses. His autobiography describes this critical turning point in his life. A testament to one man's political, spiritual and emotional transformation.
Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela, (Little,Brown, 1995) Recipient of the1993 Nobel Peace Prize, president of the African National Congress, and head of the antiapartheid movement, Nelson Mandela is one of the world's great moral and political leaders. He spent a total of twenty-seven years in prison on various charges, all of them relating to his ceaseless fight for civil rights for black South Africans and against the oppressive system of Apartheid. In his memoir he tells the extraordinary story of his life - an epic of struggle, setback, renewed hope, and ultimate triumph. He wrote much of this autobiography clandestinely while serving a life sentence for conspiracy in the prison on Robben Island.
Angela Davis: An Autobiography, by Angela Davis.(Random House, 1974) Born in Birmingham, Alabama, Davis was a faculty member in Philosophy at UCLA when she joined the Communist Party and became active politically against racial injustice. In 1970, she was charged with murder, kidnaping and conspiracy and was kept in solitary confinement for a year before she was acquitted of all charges. Her political autobiography tells the story.
The Gulag Archipelago, 1918-1956: An Experiment in Literary Investigation, by Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn, translated from the Russian by Thomas P. Whitney (Harper & Row, 1974-1978) In 1945, while serving as a Soviet soldier on the German front, Solzhenitsyn was arrested for criticizing Stalin in letters to a friend. He was sentenced to eight years in labor camps, then exiled to Kazakhstan. This three-volume work describes his years within the harsh Soviet prison system.
"Letter from Birmingham Jail" in Why We Can't Wait., by Martin Luther King (Harper & Row, 1964) This fourteen-page letter was written to local white clergymen after King's arrest on Good Friday, 12 April 1963, for demonstrations at segregated lunch counters and a boycott of businesses in Birmingham, Alabama.
Letters and Papers from Prison, by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, edited by Eberhard Bethge, translated from the German by Reginald Fuller (Macmillan, 1962) Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German theologian working for the resistance movement in World War II, was arrested in April 1943 and confined in Tegel Prison, Berlin where he wrote many letters, poems and sermons stating his beliefs. On April 9, 1945, he was hanged.
Life and Death in Shanghai, by Nien Cheng (Grove Press, 1987) The widow of an official of the Chiang Kai-shek regime that was overthrown in 1949, Nien Cheng was targeted as a "corrupt element" during the Chinese Cultural Revolution. In 1967 she was arrested and held in solitary confinement for six years. This is a personal account of her years in prison and the death of her daughter during the Cultural Revolution.
Prison Poems, by Daniel Berrigan. Foreword by Philip Berrigan (Viking, 1973) A Jesuit priest, Berrigan was imprisoned from 1970-1972 for anti-war activities. He was sentenced in October 1968 for conspiracy and destruction of government property, the burning of draft records in protest against the Vietnam War. These poems were written in the Federal Prison in Danbury, Connecticut.
Psalms from Prison, by Benjamin F. Chavis (Pilgrim Press, 1983) Chavis, a minister in the United Church of Christ, grew up in a North Carolina family that had been active for centuries in the struggle for black freedom. He spent nearly four years in prison as one of the Wilmington Ten before his conviction for arson was overturned by a federal appeals court and he was released. He has been arrested numerous times for his work for civil rights. These psalms were written cryptically in cells of five different North Carolina prisons from 1976 to 1979.
Stroud's Digest on the Diseases of Birds, by Robert Stroud, illustrated by the author, photography by Harry Lacey (T.F.H. Publications, 1964) Originally sentenced in 1909 to twelve years for manslaughter, Stroud rescued four baby sparrows and thus began his love and study of birds while serving time in the Federal Prison in Leavenworth, Kansas. This book was smuggled out of prison and has become a classic in its field. Stroud died in 1963 after being confined for fifty-four years.
A special note of thanks to Nan Watkins, reference librarian at Western Carolina University's Hunter Library, for her generous help in preparing this annotated bibliography and considerable inspiration for the writing of "The Spirit Confined" program. If you are interested in the more extensive bibliography that Nan Watkins prepared for this project, you may e-mail her and request a copy.
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