About this item
This is the story of an author and his apprentice. It is the story of literary influence and tragedy. It is also the story of incarceration in America.Norman Mailer was writing The Executioner's Song, his novel about condemned killer Gary Gilmore, when he struck up a correspondence with Jack Henry Abbott, Federal Prisoner 87098-132. Over time, Abbott convinced the famous author that he was a talented writer who deserved another chance at freedom. With letters of support from Mailer and other literary elites of the day, Abbott was released on parole in 1981. With Mailer's help, Abbott quickly became the literary "it boy" of New York City. But in a shocking turn of events, the day before a rave review of Abbott's book, In the Belly of the Beast, appeared in The New York Times, Abbott murdered a New York City waiter and fled to Mexico.
About the Author
JEROME LOVING, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of English at Texas A&M, is the author of a number of biographies and critical studies in American literature, including "Walt Whitman: The Song of Himself" (1999) , "The Last Titan: A Life of Theodore Dreiser" (2005) , and "Mark Twain: The Adventures of Samuel L. Clemens" (2010) , all published by the University of California Press. His most recent book, "Jack and Norman: A State-Raised Convict and the Legacy of Norman Mailer's "'The Executioner's Song'" (Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin's) , was published in February, 2017. He has been a Fulbright scholar in the former Soviet Union and in France, where he also taught as a visiting professor at the Sorbonne. His fellowships include a Guggenheim and a "We the People" grant from the National Endowment of the Humanities.
