Education of a Felon

by Edward Bunker, William Styron (Introduction)

Overview

In Education of a Felon, the reigning champion of prison novelists finally tells his own story. The son of an alcoholic stagehand father and a Busby Berkeley chorus girl, Bunker was—at seventeen—the youngest inmate ever in San Quentin. His hard-won experiences on L.A.'s meanest streets and in and out of prison gave him the material to write some of the grittiest and most affecting novels of our time.
From smoking a joint in the gas chamber to leaving fingerprints on a knife connected to a serial kiler, from Hollywood's steamy undersde to swimming in the Neptune pool at San Simeon, Bunker delivers a memoir as colorful as any of his novels and as compelling as the life he's lead.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780312280765
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	08/18/2001
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	470,049
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.71(d)

About the Author

Edward Bunker's novels No Beast so Fierce and The Animal Factory were made into the movies Straight Time with Dustin Hoffman and Animal Factory with Edward Furlong. Bunker played Mr. Blue in Quentin Tarantin's Reservoir Dogs and was a cowriter of the screenplay for Runaway Train. Education of a Felon is his first nonfiction book. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife and son.

Table of Contents

	Introduction	xi
1.	No Heaven, No Hell	1
2.	State-Raised in California	13
3.	Among the Condemned	26
4.	Whores, Hearst, and Hollywood's Angel	55
5.	Night Train to San Quentin	92
6.	Tick Tock Turns the Clock, '52, '53, '54, '55	110
7.	Awaiting Parole	128
8.	The Land of Milk and Honey	146
9.	The Run	166
10.	The Shit Hits the Fan	203
11.	On the Lam	213
12.	Adjudged Criminally Insane	225
13.	Stuck in Folsom Prison	247
14.	Prison Race War	264
	Afterword: Paris, Jost Before Spring	295

Editorial Reviews

In this picaresque, harrowing, humorous yet deeply sad excursion through his dark-starred youth, Bunker—arguably the most renowned convict writer in America—serves as both participant and witness to the mid-century carnival of L.A. crime immortablized by James Ellroy...a thought-provoking and richly re-created tale of a career criminal.” —Publishers Weekly

“Education of a Felon is a masterful summation of the hard and brutal life of crime and prison from which Edward Bunker chiseled the virogour prose that marks him as America's foremost chronicler of prison life...” —The Los Angeles Times

“Bunker writes in straight-ahead, unadorned prose and, refreshingly, he refrains from excessive psychologizing and sentimentalizing...a rough-hewn memoir by a rough-hewn man.” —The New York Times Book Review

From the Publisher

In this picaresque, harrowing, humorous yet deeply sad excursion through his dark-starred youth, Bunker (No Beast So Fierce, etc.)--arguably the most renowned convict writer in America--serves as both participant in and witness to the mid-century carnival of L.A. crime immortalized by James Ellroy. The bright, mischievous product of a Depression-era broken home, Bunker was raised in a worsening succession of institutions. In this account, he initially explores how the violence he experienced in these places directed him toward criminality, culminating in a stretch in San Quentin at age 17. These experiences instilled in Bunker the Convict Code, which boils down to: Don't ever snitch, and respond to all threats with uncompromised ferocity. This ferocity made him notorious among his jailers and peers. Bunker details experiences among pimps, prostitutes, gamblers, thieves and L.A.'s nascent gang and drug culture, plus flirtations with affluent society, in the person of a benefactor, Louise Wallis, a producer's wife for whom he worked as a chauffeur and who nurtured his literary dreams. He captures the kaleidoscope of postwar California's underworld with a disturbing seductiveness reminiscent of Ellroy. Bunker ultimately returned to prison for two long periods due to relatively minor infractions; he describes the dangers of California prisons, greatly worsened in the 1960s by racial polarization. Though out of prison now for 25 years, Bunker remembers the experience well: these chapters, as in his novels, present a uniquely searing portrait of life behind bars. Although the memoir ends abruptly with the 1974 acceptance for publication by W.W. Norton of one of Bunker's novels, it remains a thought-provoking and richly re-created tale of a career criminal. (Mar.) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.|

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Having served a total of 18 years in prison, Bunker has made a career out of being an ex-felon in the decades since his release. His four works of fiction (No Beast Too Fierce, Animal Factory, Little Boy Blue, and Dog Eat Dog) describe adolescents in trouble with the law--as he was. This memoir, his first nonfiction book, has stories similar to those in the other volumes, but this time the stories are apparently true. Bunker is sufficiently like the juvenile offenders of today to make his self-revelations hit home. The legal system that he describes, however, goes back several decades. Readers who are interested in how things used to be will find substance here; those who are looking for insights into today's correctional facilities may be misled. Bunker writes well, and his hard-boiled episodes can hold the readers' attention. Devotees will probably like this new volume; others may want to pass.--Frances O. Sandiford, Green Haven Correction Facility Lib., Stormville, NY Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.\

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