Elementary Secondary Higher Ed Common Reads
0 0
Download high-resolution image Look inside

In the Belly of the Beast

Letters From Prison

Author Jack Henry Abbott
Look inside
Paperback
$16.00 US
Knopf | Vintage
On sale Jan 02, 1991 | 192 Pages | 9780679732372
Add to cart Add to list Exam Copies

While writing The Executioner's Song, Norman Mailer received a letter from Jack Henry Abbott, a convict, in which Abbott offered to educate him in the realities of life in a maximum security prison. This book organizes Abbott's classic letters to Mailer, which evoke his infernal vision of the prison nightmare.



"Astonishing...a work touched with dark greatness...In brutal prose that dredges up its own poetry, he inverts our reality and inserts his. Darkness, light, hunger, fear, sorry never have been more extremely defined."--Los Angeles Times Book Review
Born in Michigan in 1944, Jack Henry Abbott spent most of his childhood in foster care and his teen years in various detention centers. While serving a long sentence for killing a fellow inmate, he wrote to Norman Mailer and offered to write a truthful depiction of life in prison. Mailer agreed, and with his help Abbott published In the Belly of the Beast. Abbott died in prison in 2002. View titles by Jack Henry Abbott

About

While writing The Executioner's Song, Norman Mailer received a letter from Jack Henry Abbott, a convict, in which Abbott offered to educate him in the realities of life in a maximum security prison. This book organizes Abbott's classic letters to Mailer, which evoke his infernal vision of the prison nightmare.



"Astonishing...a work touched with dark greatness...In brutal prose that dredges up its own poetry, he inverts our reality and inserts his. Darkness, light, hunger, fear, sorry never have been more extremely defined."--Los Angeles Times Book Review

Author

Born in Michigan in 1944, Jack Henry Abbott spent most of his childhood in foster care and his teen years in various detention centers. While serving a long sentence for killing a fellow inmate, he wrote to Norman Mailer and offered to write a truthful depiction of life in prison. Mailer agreed, and with his help Abbott published In the Belly of the Beast. Abbott died in prison in 2002. View titles by Jack Henry Abbott

Related Articles

Literature History Sociology

Books for Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month

Every May we celebrate the rich history and culture of Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders. Browse a curated selection of fiction and nonfiction books by AANHPI creators that we think your students will love. Find our full collection of titles for Higher Education here.

Read more

Books for Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month

Literature History Sociology
Subscribe

Penguin Random House Higher Education

© 2025 Penguin Random House

Back to Top
0
    • 0
    Wish List (0)