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"Birdman of Alcatraz" Robert Stroud 2x Signed ALS: "I am back on my fifteen hour per day work shedual on my book"
"Birdman of Alcatraz" Robert Stroud 2x Signed ALS: "I am back on my fifteen hour per day work shedual on my book"
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Stroud Robert


"Birdman of Alcatraz" Robert Stroud 2x Signed ALS: "I am back on my fifteen hour per day work shedual on my book…"

 

2pp ALS on a partly printed prison form letter on blue-lined cream paper 2x signed by notorious criminal Robert F. Stroud (1890-1963), the first as "Robert Stroud" at top left of first page, and the second as "Robert Stroud, 594" at bottom of second page. Written at the U.S. Federal Penitentiary at Alcatraz Island, California on May 2, 1949. With several sentences underlined and one margin notation inscribed in red colored pencil. In near fine condition, with expected paper folds, measuring 8" x 10.25".

 

Federal prisoner Robert Stroud, #594 wrote this letter from his Alcatraz prison cell in the spring of 1949. Stroud, a self-educated ornithologist and published author, frequently corresponded with fellow bird enthusiast Fred E. Daw of Coral Gables, Florida.

 

Stroud's letter is somewhat rambling in its organization, but discusses at length three subjects significant to the letterwriter: bird medicine, writing, and personal health. All excerpts from Stroud's letter include his idiosyncratic, and often phonetic, spelling and grammar.

 

Stroud and his correspondent Daw had been discussing the medical treatment of indigestion and blindness among birds. Regarding the former ailment, Stroud advised Daw:

 

"Now, about that treatment. There was no reason for adding that perborate to the mixture. If you will consult book, you will see that the perborate and effervescent mixture are in most cases employed seperately, in only one or two conditions are the mixed together, and then only a little bit at a time, because they do not keep when mixed together. When the Sal hepatica and citrocarbonate are mix, it is a good idea to spread the mixture out on a piece of paper and let it dry for a few hours, but it don't really hurt if it does cake in the bottle. You can break it up again and it is o.k. This is not true if the perborate is added. When that mixture cakes, you can only throw it away. That is why only a little, say one spoonful of each is mixed at a time."

 

Stroud referred to his book, probably the 1943 Stroud's Digest on the Diseases of Birds, the second edition reprint of his 1933 Diseases of Canaries. Stroud's prescription demonstrated his extensive knowledge of chemicals, such as sodium perborate, a white, water-soluble salt; Sal Hepatica, a mineral salt often used as a natural laxative; and citro carbonate, otherwise known as sodium bicarbonate, baking soda, or effervescent, which is used for digestive upset. Towards the end of his letter, Stroud also mentioned three antimicrobial and antibacterial agents called sulfamethazine, sulfamilamide, and sulfathiazole, which can be employed to reverse temporary blindness among birds.

 

Stroud's interest in birds began as an inmate at the U.S. Federal Penitentiary at Leavenworth, Kansas around 1920, after nursing some jail yard sparrows back to health. He later obtained permission to breed, house, and study up to 300 birds in 2 adjacent prison cells. He also maintained a research laboratory where he could have experimented with the abovementioned chemicals, or produced homemade mail-order bird medicine. Stroud's two published books on the causes, symptoms, and treatment of common bird diseases established him as a leading expert in the field. His mastery of the subject is even more impressive when one considers he was entirely self-taught.

 

Stroud's work had been interrupted by a recent incapacitating illness. The prisoner experienced intense recurring abdominal pain that he attributed to "epigrastric cramp" and "my old gall blader."

 

"I have been pretty sick since I wrote to you. I suffered from a series of violent epigrastric cramp, some of them so violent that I was doubled up in a knot for many hours, even after being given large doses of the most powerful sedatives, narcotics and antispasmodics. For I time, I was not at all sure I was going to make it…I was so bad for a while that I sent Marc my will, just to be on the safe side in case anything did go wrong."

 

Stroud loosely paraphrased four lines of Rudyard Kipling's poem "If" to describe his self-sustaining will power during a crisis. He later celebrated the Anglo-Saxon constitution by stating: "There are a lot of Englishmen and Scotchmen made like that, Fred." He assured his correspondent that he was responding well to treatment: "I am down about fifteen pounds, but I'll soon get that back, but really don't care whether I do or not, so long as I feel good. I am back on my fifteen hour per day work shedual on my book, and hope to have the first volume completed in a few weeks…If this book is published, some of the best writing in it will be that done at times when I was only able to white at all because the attackes were held in check by narcotics."

 

The "book" Stroud referred to was almost certainly the manuscript of what would become Looking Outward: A History of the U.S. Prison System from Colonial Times to the Formation of the Bureau Prisons. In it, Stroud sharply criticized the American prison system, highlighting its systematic mistreatment of prisoners and corruption among guards. He also treated the incendiary topic of homosexuality in all-male prisons. His lengthy manuscript was written on prison commissary issued legal notepads in Stroud's elegant script, and was only published well after Stroud's death.

 

Stroud had been transferred to Alcatraz in December 1942. The official reasoning is recorded in an Alcatraz warden's notebook as: "In view of this man's homicidal traits and impulsively dangerous tendencies, he cannot be released with general population…also wishes to call attention to need for eliminating the insanitary condition..from this man's bird breeding activities here…Rec. trans. to Alcatraz." In reality, Leavenworth prison officials had attempted to transfer Stroud as early as 1933 because of his unwelcome celebrity. Stroud remained at Alcatraz until 1959.

 

Robert Stroud spent 54 years in prison, 42 of which were in solitary confinement. After his initial 1909 arrest for manslaughter, Stroud compounded his sentence by assaulting fellow inmates and staff, as well as by killing a prison guard in 1916. At Alcatraz, prohibiting from caring for birds, he devoted his energies to learning French, studying the law, and writing.

 


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