The average American that has a crammed full Borders Books, a Barnes & Noble booksellers and the public library at their disposal scarcely realizes the pleasures of the printed page and leisurely reading. That is until they have been incarcerated in a Super Max prison or the local county pokey without the benefit of choice reading material.
According to literary lore, when transcendentalist writer Ralph Waldo Emerson paid a visit to his friend and fellow writer Henry David Thoreau, who was in a New England jail for tax evasion, Emerson was said to have said: “Henry, what are you doing in there?” Thoreau was said to have said: “Waldo, the question is, what are you doing out there?” Thoreau’s act of civil disobedience and time in the slammer was short lived because someone (maybe his mother or aunt) subsequently paid his tax bill.
What true reader and would be author has probably not subconsciously longed for a week or so in jail—of course one probably with the creature comforts of home minus the real life attitudes, treatment and mores of Pelican Bay State Penitentiary—as a means to have some uninterrupted reading time. As the world becomes a busier and hectic place some enterprising entrepreneur may just develop a short-term book hotel or Bed, Bread and Books a take on the popular vacation oriented Bed and Breakfast accommodations.
In modern day America Jailbirds are looked at with much scorn and derision; however, many of the authors that have brought us great reading joy and intellectual stimulation were in fact criminals, crooks, sundry petty thieves and prison inmates. The novelist and short story writer Chester Himes served 7 ½ years in an Ohio prison for armed robbery. However, with much time on his hands and little else to do, Himes picked up a pen and started to compose short stories and later novels. Books such as If He Hollers Let Him Go, Cotton Comes to Harlem, A Rage in Harlem and The Real Cool Killers are classic Himes and no doubt owe their origin to his incarceration.
Another writer that honed his craft while in the joint and was beloved by legions of readers was William Sydney Porter. Porter who was later known by his pen name O Henry was a master of the short story genre. He was imprisoned for three years in an Ohio prison in 1898 after being convicted of embezzling money from the First National Bank in Austin, Texas where he worked as a teller. By the time he died in 1910 Porter had written over 300 short stories. Many stories such as the Gift of the Magi, The Furnished Room and The Ransom of Red Chief have been much anthologized over the years.
However, probably the greatest influencer of reading, literature and learning despite the odds and socio-economic condition is Malcolm X. Malcolm Little, later known as Malcolm X after becoming a minister in Elijah Muhammad’s Nation of Islam, details in his autobiography (The Autobiography of Malcolm X) his love of reading. Little became an eyeglass wearing Malcolm X as a result of his long hours of reading with poor lighting late at night in jail. According to Malcolm “from then until I left that prison, in every free moment I had, if I was not reading in the library, I was reading in my bunk. You couldn’t have gotten me out of a book with a wedge”. Many a former jailhouse scholar and jailhouse lawyer owes his or her love of reading to Malcolm X’s literary tenacity. Of course the person whose name dons many a public school and/or street sign or recreation center Martin Luther King, Jr. spent many nights in jail as a result of his fight for African American civil rights. Many people are imprisoned for one reason or another but how many follow King’s example and write a letter that becomes popular reading? King’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail written in Birmingham, Alabama is classic reading.
Other popular books inspired by stints in jail or written by a jailed person are: The Prince by Nicolo Machiavelli, Don Quixote by Cervantes, The Writings of Saint Paul by Saint Paul, In the Belly of the Beast by Jack Henry Abbott, Monster by Kody Scott and Blue Rage, Black Redemption by Stanley “Tookie” Williams.
But short of going to jail for that longed for literary experience why not just go to your local public library or independent book store.
