The Birdman of Alcatraz. Imprisoned for murder at age 18, Stroud spent over 54 years in jail (47 of them in isolation!) where he became a self-educated authority on canaries and bird diseases, publishing Stroud’s Digest of the Diseases of Birds in 1942. Also a self-taught legal scholar, Stroud wrote an exhaustive history of the federal legal system. ALS signed “Bob, Robert Stroud #594,” he also writes his name on the top of the first page, one lined page both sides, 8 x 10.5, March 5, 1952. Letter to a friend, updating his medical condition and recommending a book. In part, “If you get a chance, Fred, you want to read Fountain Head by Ayn Rand. This is a very good book and is written in a style more like my own than anything else I ever read, and some of the characters might have been taken from my own life. Mama Keating is very typical. The mentally lazy Peter Keating is in many respects similar to Marc, & though I was the one who was…dominated until I was over thirty years old. Then I got over it. Mix Roark’s character with Peter’s edipus [sic] complex and you would have a good picture of me…That speech is very similar to one I wrote in 1946, but mine is written better, for I devoted more thought to the same dramatic contrast. Do you remember my arguments about socialized medicine. You will recognize most of the situations in the book.” In fine condition, with a light shade of toning and expected mailing folds. R&R COA.
