[Joliet, IL?]: Vocational School Print Shop, [1940]. First Edition. Small 12mo (14.5cm.); original pale green pictorial staplebound card wrappers; 34pp.; illus. About Fine. Small broadsheet laid in providing data regarding "Escapes and Returned from Escape for Calendar Years Ending Dec. 31st, 1939" and "Average Inmate Per Capita Cost 20 Year..... More
Boston: D. Lothrop & Co, 1866. Sixth edition. 12mo; publisher's terra-cotta cloth, decoratively stamped on spine and covers; 236pp. Snag to cloth at crown of spine; old institutional blindstamp to half-title and title page (Hartford Theological Seminary); a Good, complete reading copy of this standard devotional work for prisoners. More
![Live Questions: Including Our Penal Machinery and Its Victims [Presentation Copy]. John ALTGELD,...](/pictures/medium/56611.jpg?v=1641872940)
Chicago: Donohue & Henneberry, 1890. First Edition. First printing. Octavo (22cm). Original green cloth, titled in gilt on front and spine; plain endpapers; 320pp. Contemporary ink inscription to f.f.e.p.: "Compliments of the Author." Straight and tight, cloth rubbed, textblock detached from case at front hinge, rear hinge half split, else..... More
London: Amnesty International Publications, 1977. First Edition. Quarto (27.5cm.); original blue staplebound card wrappers; 92p.; printed from typescript. Fine. Issued during Argentina's "Dirty War," contents include chapters on prisoners, disappearances, and torture, as well as Lord Avebury's description of Villa Devoto Prison and its female detainees. More
New York: Sacco-Vanzetti National League, [1927]. First Edition. Only printing. Octavo. Staple-bound, printed card wrappers; 21pp. Near Fine. Post-mortem examination of the Sacco-Vanzetti case by a mainstream left-wing commentator, citing evidentiary gaps, questionable witnesses, and the ultimate injustice of the imposed death penalty. More
[New York]: Published by the Author, 1889. Written during the author's 5-year sentence in Clinton Prison, New York, and self-published in the hopes that "If I can sell enough of my books to earn a living, the temptation that sometimes drives ex-convicts back to crime will, in my case at..... More
New York: Harper and Brothers, 1926. First American Edition. First Printing. (H-A)= August, 1926; Octavo (21.5cm.); green cloth spine over brown paper covered boards; red topstain, deckle edges; paper title plate; dustjacket; 332pp.; rubbing to boards mostly on bottom edge; small bump on right side of spine; minor foxing to..... More
New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1973. First Edition. Novel beginning on a prisoner's last day behind bars. "He has been respected by his friends as a successful criminal, but wants to avoid returning to that lifestyle. This desire, with no job in sight, fuels his pre-release anxiety, which he..... More
Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University, 1986. First Edition. First Printing. Octavo (23.5cm.); teal green boards stamped in red on spine; dustjacket; 241pp.; Fine condition in a (price-clipped) jacket with light rubbing only, else Fine. Novel about a Korean War veteran released in the '60s from a Louisiana prison farm where..... More
New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1916. First Edition. 12mo (19.25cm.); original red gilt-lettered cloth; vii,[1],127,[7](ads)pp. Minor edge wear, textblock fore-edge a bit foxed, minor soil spots to a couple of early leaves, else a Very Good, attractive and bright copy. Bierstadt's first book, a play set in prison. More
[London: Christian Action Publications, n.d., 1965]. First Edition. Octavo (21.5cm.); original black and white pictorial staplebound wrappers; 40pp. A Fine, partially unopened copy. "A Christian Action pamphlet" - upper wrapper. More
New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1930. First Edition. Octavo (19cm.); publisher's cloth in pictorial Art Deco dust jacket; [10],225pp. Jacket spine a bit toned, light shelf wear, slightly later ownership bookplate to front pastedown, else Very Good or better. The author's second novel, set on the day before the protagonist's..... More
New York: Random House, [1937]. First Edition. First Printing. Octavo (20.75cm.); original cloth in pictorial dust jacket by "Lieberman," grey topstain; 278pp. Light shelf wear, spine a bit toned, else Very Good to Near Fine. "The Story of a Reformed Bank Robber," who finds religion in the penitentiary. More
London: Paul Breman, 1972. First Edition. The Atlantic City, NJ author's first and only book, published seven years after his death in 1964 as a result of a drug overdose. Carrington spent most of his life from age 16 until his death in various jails and reformatories; it was in..... More
Orwigsburg, PA: Bacon and Freeman, 1989. No edition stated. Octavo (23cm); black paper wrappers w/ yellow lettering; 132pp. Minor handling wear and soiling; rubbing and scuffs to wrappers; Near Fine. Author Roy Chandler gives us a first hand account (accompanied by the memories of his father, prison guard Erville Chandler) of..... More
Orwigsburg, PA: Bacon and Freeman Publishers, 1989. First Edition. "This is a book about Alcatraz before prisoners controlled their own cell lights - before they had radios and talked as they wished. We write here of the prison's first four years, 1934-1938, when the big names and the hard guys..... More
N.p. by the Author, 1895. First and only edition. Octavo (20.5cm). Original pictorial cloth-covered boards; 128pp; illus. Mild external wear and soil; front free endpaper lacking; Good and sound. An exceedingly odd and correspondingly uncommon work. OCLC cataloguing identifies the author, certainly incorrectly, as the 19th French-Canadian journalist and poet..... More
New York: John Wiley, 1849. First Edition. First printing. 12mo (20cm). Green cloth, blindstamped, titled in gilt on spine; plain endpapers; [ii], [119]-332pp. A straight, tight copy, cloth rubbed and faded, water damage to lower corner of front board, browned with occasional heavy foxing: Good only. Sequel to his 1846..... More
Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, [1955]. First Edition. Second of four memoirs by Chessman, a San Quentin inmate whose first book - Cell 2455 Death Row - is one of the classic Death Row narratives. After publishing three books and exhausting a number of appeals, Chessman was finally executed in 1960. SUVAK..... More
[Washington, D.C.]: U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare - Welfare Administration, Children's Bureau, 1965. First Edition. Quarto. Staple-bound wrappers (softcover); 39pp. Fine. Summary analysis of findings, followed by statistical tables on "...the 245 public institutions for delinquent children that reported for the fiscal year 1964." More
Albany: New York State Temperance Society, 1835. Third edition. Octavo (21cm). Sewn, printed self-wrappers; 96pp; untrimmed. External soil and scattered foxing to contents; old damp-stain in gutter throughout; complete and Good. AMER. IMPRINTS 30906. More
Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1993. First Edition. Octavo. Cloth boards; dustjacket; 273pp; illus. Tight, Near Fine copy in lightly edge-rubbed jacket; appears unread. More
![Observations in the North: Eight Months in Prison and on Parole [Joseph Harrison Jun.'s copy]....](/pictures/medium/46017.jpg?v=1641872477)
Richmond: E.W. Ayres, 1865. The Confederate journalist's diary of his time in captivity following his capture while running a blockade aboard the steamer Grayhound. Pollard was first brought to New York and then up to Boston where he was confined at Fort Warren. Prior to being exchanged in January, 1865..... More
![Set in Authority. Mrs. Everard COTES, a k. a. Sarah [sic] Jeannette Duncan](/pictures/medium/41397.jpg?v=1641872390)
New York: Doubleday, Page & Company, 1906. First American Edition. Octavo (20.5cm.); publisher's green pictorial cloth stamped in blue and gilt, top edge gilt; [6],287pp. Light shelf wear, corners a bit bumped, else Very Good to Near Fine. Novel by the Canadian author, first serialized in the London Times, examining..... More
![First [through Fourth] Annual Report of the Board of Managers of the Prison Discipline Society,...](/pictures/medium/11366.jpg?v=1641872053)
Boston: Various Publishers, 1826-1829. Various Editions. Octavo (22cm.); cloth-backed boards with original paper spine label; 330pp (paginated continuously, but each report with a separate title page); six inserted leaves of woodcut plates. A solid, well-preserved copy with scattered foxing to text; Very Good. First four reports of Timothy Dwight's pioneering..... More
