Anarchist activists Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman also wrote while imprisoned, deepening their philosophical convictions and influencing people worldwide.
At the onset of the Great Depression, authorities began to perceive prison writing as a threat to American society.
During this time, the entire population felt the effects of poverty, crime, and hardship, making more people receptive to prison narratives.
"[3] Another writer to emerge during the 1930s was Nelson Algren, whose short story "El Presidente de Mejico" explored his experience in a Texas jail.
[citation needed] Among those influenced by Malcolm X were Eldridge Cleaver, Iceberg Slim, Piri Thomas, and Jack Henry Abbott.
The 1971 escape attempt by a San Quentin inmate and author, George Jackson (Soledad Brother), ended in bloodshed.
The strike eventually lead to a prisoner uprising and a subsequent police assault leaving 128 wounded and 39 dead, 10 of the hostages.
By the late 1970s, prison writing was being published extensively in "mass-market paperbacks, newspapers, magazines, major motion pictures.
One event triggering this reaction was the 1981 publication of the letters that Jack Henry Abbott wrote from prison to Norman Mailer.
This enormously popular publication, entitled In the Belly of the Beast, documented the rage Abbott had cultivated in his years of incarceration.
PEN American Center (Poets, Playwrights, Essayists, Editors, and Novelists) is a national chapter of an international association of writers working towards peace.