Description
SECOND HAND BOOK – EX LIBRARY
This book was written by four prisoners in Parramatta Gaol. In the words of their editor Rodney Hall, all four are “real poets – their dedication to their work is absolute and admirable”. Their writing is sometimes funny and sometimes deeply moving. All of it is worth reading and re-reading, for these are no ordinary men: they view life with tough and unsentimental directness, remarkably free from bitterness and defeat.
“I began writing poetry in my cell,” says Eric MacKenzie, “it helps to nudge the night along.” Jack Murray says: “Poetry has opened a new world.” In three lines Max Williams catches his life and the character of his poetry: “Bi-social/by necessity/By Joves!” And Robin Thurston, with the wit that marks the attitude to society of all these men, provides two sentences of expressive biography: “Left school to conquer the world in six months. No luck.”
Rodney Hall’s excited response conveys the impact of these remarkable poems: “When I first read them I declined to write comments in their margins. I had to go to the gaol and meet the authors and talk to them. When I had been once, I had to go again.”
Specifications:
Condition: Fair. Ex-library – spine and back cover have library stickers, end pages have library labels and stamps.
Publisher: University of Queensland Press
Year: 1973
Format: Hardback
Pages: 71
ISBN-10: 0702208744
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