The Alabama Pen Point. March - April 1952. Volume I, Number 6.
The Alabama Pen Point. March - April 1952. Volume I, Number 6.
[Carceral Studies / Prison Literature / Alabama]. Sanders, Clint (ed.)

The Alabama Pen Point. March - April 1952. Volume I, Number 6.

Regular price $350.00 $0.00

Speigner, Alabama: 1952. 10-3/4 x 8-1/4 inches. [6],82,[2]pp. + inside wrappers. Illustrated grey wrappers printed in blue and backed in brown linen. B&w illustrations. Wrappers toned and lightly soiled/stained; ink inscription to front wrapper, with some smears where ink has run; spine ends worn, with some loss to head of spine; crease to upper corner of front wrapper and slightly to beginning few leaves. Good.

Single issue of a short-run periodical published at Draper Prison, in Speigner, Alabama, and "representing the entire inmate body of the Alabama penal system." Notably, editors and contributers include incarcerated women as well as men, and the magazine was printed, composed and typeset by incarcerated men at Draper. The magazine appears to have run only from September 1951-1953, based on OCLC records.

Included in this issue is a lengthy article on Alabama's parole system, a brief article on the library and two book reviews, a sports quiz, a short biography of one of the staff members, an article about prisons from the perspective of the incarcerated ("So You Think You Know Prisons?"), and a spoof essay about a non-existent association, A.O.F.H. (All-Out-For-Honor) supposedly formed at the women's prison, Tutweiler. The last, written by associate editor Grace G. Wright, humorously offers the official flower of the organization, its emblem, its officers, and it's anthem, set to the tune of "My Country 'Tis of Thee" and with a nod to Mrs. Norman Gayle, Chairman of the State Board of Pardons & Parole, and J.M. Bloodworth and Neil O. Davis, Associate Members of the same board:

"Tutweiler 'tis of thee,
Land of no liberty,
O let us sing.
Long may our hopes was bright,
While these gates hold us tight,
And tempt us not to flight,
E'er freedom ring.

Let not our Parole Board freeze,
Their hearts with mercy grease,
This is our song.
Though we can spar right well,
We need a breathing spell,
you win -- so what the hell,
Do sound the gong.

Mrs. Gayle come on and sign,
Mister Bloodworth, please, we pine,
Si Davis, too,
Our mortgaged homes we'll lose,
Then we'll be Welfare Blues,
S'pose you were in our shoes?
Ach, mien der fu!"

OCLC locates two holdings of runs of this periodical, at the University of Alabama and Samford University.


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