Prison literature is a fully formed genre. While locked up many people find the reflexive outlet of writing a way to pass the monotony. Others find that they feel they must write to express some wrong, either against themselves or others. While imprisonment has been the cause of great works, such as The Gulag Archipelago of Solzhenitsyn, please share those works, which are actually composed within prisons or jails.
Re: Prison literature
ok so this is what i found:
To Althea, from prison
Richard Lovelace
“Stone walls do not a prison make,
Nor iron bars a cage;”
These are the much quoted first lines of the final stanza of Richard Lovelace’s poem ‘To Althea, from prison.’ Richard Lovelace was one of the dashing young cavalier’s of the English civil war and is classed with the metaphysical poets. Sent to prison for presenting a royalist petition in support of pro-royalist bishops he used the time to compose this, his most famous poem. Written to, a possibly fictional, lover the poem expresses a theme common to much of the literature composed in jail; you cannot imprison the human mind. Despite the walls around him he can imagine his beloved and so he ends the poem with the lines-
“If I have freedom in my love
And in my soul am free,
Angels alone, that soar above,
Enjoy such liberty.”
Re: Prison literature
prison diaries by jeffery archer..............:D
Mein Kampf by hitler....
and Dus ka Dum by zardari..............:D(j/k)
Re: Prison literature
De Profundis
Oscar Wilde
While Lovelace found love set him free it was, for Wilde, love which led to confinement. After a serious of trials relating to his relationships with Lord Alfred Douglas and other men Wilde was sentenced to two years hard labor for gross indecency. While held in prison in Reading Wilde composed a long letter to Douglas which was later published posthumously as De Profundis. The work starts with an account of Wilde and Douglas’ relationship and how damaging it has been to Wilde. The tone is not accusatory but self-revelatory. The letter then turns towards the realizations that prison has forced on Wilde. Wilde ends with his plans for the future for, though we know his life would be cut short, he has learned-
“I have grown tired of the articulate utterances of men and things. The Mystical in Art, the Mystical in Life, the Mystical in Nature this is what I am looking for. It is absolutely necessary for me to find it somewhere.”
Re: Prison literature
please share some details 
Re: Prison literature
The Historie of the World
Walter Raleigh
“Whosoever, in writing a modern history, shall follow truth too near the heels, it may haply strike out his teeth.”
Raleigh, we may take it from the statement above, would not be welcomed by academic historians today but his unfinished history of the world is a masterpiece. Raleigh traces the history of the world from creation to the third Macedonian war in 168BC. The book serves to show how again how a man’s mind, though his body is held captive, can travel over time and space. Raleigh never finished his history though he was released, and was later beheaded. His history includes this meditation on death.
“O eloquent, just and mighty death… thou hast drawn together all the far stretching greatness, all the pride, cruelty, and ambition of man, and covered it all over with these two narrow words Hic Jacet [Here Lies].”
Re: Prison literature
Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus
Ludwig Wittgenstein
“What we cannot speak about we must pass over in silence.”
It is tempting to do just that with the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. It is undoubtedly one of the most influential philosophical works of the 20th century.
It is also undoubtedly a work which requires multiple readings to start to come to grips with. Wittgenstein started makes notes for the Tractatus while a soldier in the First World War. He completed it while held prisoner by the Allies at the end of the war. Part of the difficulty in reading the Tractatus is Wittgenstein’s style; he uses short declarations and sub-clauses to state his views, with very little in the way of argument.
Re: Prison literature
The Travels of Marco Polo
Rustichello de Pisa
Marco Polo left Italy with his father and uncle in 1271 and returned in 1295. In those years of travel Polo traveled to the then poorly understood Far East. On Polo’s return to Italy he was captured by the Genoese and held captive. While in prison he related his adventures to fellow prisoner Rusticello de Pisa. Rustichello wrote down what he heard and soon copies of the tale spread throughout Europe. For centuries the Travels of Marco Polo were the best information the West had about China. While Polo’s account can be questioned in some aspects of veracity it has certainly proved influential. Contact with China had existed (certainly in trade in the days of ancient Rome) before Polo but with the dissemination of his book fascination with the ‘exotic East’ was born. Other Europeans had travelled to China before Polo but none left as detailed an account
Re: Prison literature
Letters and papers from prison
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
“Mere waiting and looking on is not Christian behavior. The Christian is called to sympathy and action, not in the first place by his own sufferings, but by the sufferings of his brethren, for whose sake Christ suffered.”
Bonhoeffer had the many chances to lead an easy life. He was born into middle-class comfort in 1906 Germany. He might have followed his father in medicine or pursued music. Instead Bonhoeffer studied theology and did pastoral work in Harlem to become a pastor. When the Nazis took political power they also forced cooperative into positions of power. Bonhoeffer and other liberal churchmen form their own communion. He had many chances to move abroad and avoid persecution but, after intense internal debate, he chose to be in Germany for the duration of the war. Bonhoeffer was arrested in 1943 and held until just 23 days before the end of the war, when he was hanged. During his imprisonment Bonhoeffer wrote widely and this collection of his letter and papers contains much that is worth studying even if the finer details of Christian theology are not your cup of tea.
Re: Prison literature
Letter from Birmingham Jail
Martin Luther King Jr
“My Dear Fellow Clergymen:
While confined here in the Birmingham city jail, I came across your recent statement calling my present activities “unwise and untimely.” Seldom do I pause to answer criticism of my work and ideas…”
We can be glad that King did pause to answer his critics because the letter he wrote from jail, where he was held for protesting without a permit, is a ringing vindication of the rights of all people. Bonhoeffer, as a profound theologian, can sometimes speak in terms whose meaning eludes us. This letter talks to everyone; Christian or not. King’s letter was written in response to eight local clergymen who published a letter, A Call for Unity, which called for African-Americans to press their case for equal rights through the courts and not by demonstrations. Dr King responds calmly and, in a fairly brief space, sets out all the reasons that it is impossible for a man of conscience to allow injustice to continue. This is the best document for understanding the greatness of King’s leadership
Re: Prison literature
Prison is like the perfect place to write if you have resources :D
Re: Prison literature
Chaah e Yusuf se sada by Yousuf Raza Gilani.. A sequel is shortly expected : Likhe PaRhe hote agar to tumko khat likhte
Re: Prison literature
PTI leader Javed Hashmi wrote two of his books in prison namely 'Haan main baghi hoon' and 'Takhta e daar ke sae talle'.
Re: Prison literature
The moment I read the title the first person that came to mind was HITLER 
Re: Prison literature
Hitler was imprisoned?
Re: Prison literature
Hitler was imprisoned?
Ji after a failed attempt of armed coup............:D
Re: Prison literature
Ji after a failed attempt of armed coup............:D
What is the name of book he wrote in prison?
Re: Prison literature
What is the name of book he wrote in prison?
mein kampf .....................:D
i think that means my struggle/battle
Re: Prison literature
BTW Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto also wrote some books during imprisonment. If I'm not wrong his book 'If I'm assassinated' was written during his last days of imprisonment. The book remained banned during Zia regime.
Re: Prison literature
Which language you used in signature.......?sanskrit?