In the Belly of the Beast

Random House, 1981-06-01. Hardcover. Good. Signed by Norman Mailer. 1981 first edition, Random House (NY), 5 5/8 x 8 3/8 inches tall hardbound in publisher's unclipped dust jacket, embossed grey paper-covered boards over black cloth spine, silver lettering to spine, xvi, [4], 166, [1] pp. Mild to moderate soiling, rubbing and edgewear to covers. Nicely signed beneath his name on the title page by Pulitzer-winning author Norman Mailer (1923-2007), who wrote the introduction. Otherwise, a very good copy - clean, bright and unmarked - in a moderately rubbed and edgeworn dust jacket which is nicely preserved and displayed in a clear archival Brodart sleeve. Because author Jack Henry Abbott was convicted of a murder he committed just a few weeks after the publication of this book and his release from prison, copies signed by Mailer are quite rare. Comes with a 2017 letter of authenticity from PSA/DNA, the largest and most trusted third party autograph authentication company in the world. ~CC~ Jack Henry Abbott (1944-2002) was released from prison in 1981, while serving sentences for forgery, manslaughter and bank robbery, after gaining praise for his writing and being lauded by a number of high-profile literary critics, including author Norman Mailer. In the Belly of the Beast consists of Abbott's letters to Mailer about his experiences in what Abbott saw as a brutal and unjust prison system. The book was very successful, and on July 19, 1981, the New York Times published a rave review of it. However, unbeknownst to the editors, the day before the review appeared, Abbott had killed a waiter during a row at a restaurant called Binibon on 2nd Avenue in the East Village. Abbott was eventually arrested, convicted of manslaughter, and returned to prison for the rest of his life until his suicide in 2002. Mailer was criticized for his role in getting Abbott released and was accused of being so blinded by Abbott's evident writing talent that he did not take into account the man's violent nature. In a 1992 interview in The Buffalo News, Mailer said that his involvement with Abbott was 'another episode in my life in which I can find nothing to cheer about or nothing to take pride in.' Abbot's second book, My Return (1987), was not as popular as In the Belly of the Beast. In 2001, he appeared before the parole board, but his application was denied because of his failure to express remorse, his lengthy criminal record, and disciplinary problems in prison. Abbott's distrust of the prison system and his refusal to express remorse for many of his actions stemmed from his belief that much of what he did was in response to a dehumanizing system. On February 10, 2002, Jack Abbott hanged himself in his prison cell using a makeshift noose constructed from his bedsheets and shoelaces. He left a suicide note, the contents of which have not been made public. Norman Kingsley Mailer was an American novelist, journalist, essayist, playwright, film-maker, actor, and political activist. His novel The Naked and the Dead was published in 1948. His best-known work was widely considered to be The Executioner's Song, which was published in 1979, and for which he won one of his two Pulitzer Prizes. In addition to the Pulitzer Prize, his book Armies of the Night was awarded the National Book Award.