He was a fugitive from the North, and his hard, lean looks, the result of a life in prison that consumed nearly 25 of his 37 years, enabled Jack Henry Abbott to mix in easily with the transient roustabouts who work the Louisiana oilfields. It was the sort of life where a man could, if he wanted to, virtually disappear. Earlier this year, Norman Mailer had led a campaign to secure parole for Abbott, largely on the basis of his writing talent. His letters from prison, collected under the title In the Belly of...
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