Notorious criminal (1890-1963) who, while imprisoned, became a self-educated authority on birds and earned the nickname 'The Birdman of Alcatraz.' TLS, one page, 8 x 10.5, January 22, 1939. Letter to his sister Mamie, written while imprisoned at Leavenworth Penitentiary. In part: "I close that deal with Ferguson and sold him $75.00 worth of birds, but I will not be able to ship them until the weather lets up a little bit. These are all finch-bred birds and they do not have as much feathers as ordinary canaries, and I do not think that it would do to ship them until the weather eases up a bit. I was shocked and saddened by hearing the announcement over the radio yesterday morning of the death of Mary McEllroy. she killed herself sometime Saturday night by shooting herself in the head with a 25 automatic…
I have no other news that is in the least exciting. I am still spending all of my spare time studying histology, and one of the doctors here was kind enough to loan me a book that all of them tell me is the best that has so far been written…it certainly is a dandy, and has some of the finest drawings in it that I have ever seen. By the time I have studied enough mice and rats to demonstrate every structure described in this work I will have a pretty good idea of it…A person does not begin to realize what a wonderful thing nature is until he starts to study her finer details. Did you ever come to think about why it is that senses which send sensations to your brain while you are awake do not do so when you go to sleep. Well, here is the answer to that one. Every so often along the nerve paths in your body there are places where the processes of one cell come to an end and another takes over; and at these places the nerve fibers break up into brush-like bundles of very fine fibers; and the two brush-like endings are inmeshed with each other. When that fiber is over worked or when you sleep these brush-like bundles are pulled apart; the connection is broken; and the sensations that would otherwise disturb you are kept away from your brain. In the brain the same system is used for sorting out sensations and ideas. When you cut your finger, the things that happen inside of your body are truly most amazing…
I think that Chamberlin at Munich, eighteen months ago, illustrated to the world that there are situations under which efforts for friendship can be carried much too far. If instead of going for himself he had sent a plane with enough brutal toxin to have exterminated Hitler and all of his cohorts there gathered, millions of lives would have been saved. If in 1931, when Japan first started to take over China, this country had ordered the fleet to Manila; the fortification of Guam; and abrogated the Japanese trade treaty—as it has now done—this whole series of wars we are now having would have been avoided at practically no cost." In fine condition, with a couple of small stains.
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