The American short story writer O. Henry (18621910) served three years and three months in the federal penitentiary in Columbus, Ohio, for embezzling funds while he had been a teller with the First National Bank. He wrote some of his best stories in his cell including the collection he published in 1908 under the title The Gentle Grafter.
The Spanish novelist and dramatist Miguel de Cervantes (1547
1616) began his comic novel Don Quixote (pub 1605) in Seville prison after he was jailed for debt in 1597. The English writer John Cleland (170989) was put in Newgate prison in London for debt in 1749. While in jail, he was offered 20 guineas by a publisher named Dry butter to write a licentious novel. The result was Fanny Hill, or the Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure (1750), and the money Cleaned received for it secured his release.
Article extracted from this publication >> December 3, 1993
