I Am a Fugitive from a Georgia Chain Gang!
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| Author | Robert Elliott Burns |
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| Publisher | Grosset & Dunlap |
Publication date | 1932 |
| ISBN | Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value). |
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I Am a Fugitive from a Georgia Chain Gang! (1932) is a book written by veteran Robert Elliott Burns and published by Grosset & Dunlap.
The book recounts Burns' imprisonment on a chain gang in Georgia in the 1920s, his subsequent escape to New Jersey, and the furor that developed.[1] The story was first published in January 1931, serialized in True Detective Mysteries magazine. Later that year, Burns's story was adapted as the motion picture I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang, starring Paul Muni.[2][3] The book and movie were both credited with contributing to Governor Ellis Arnall's effort in 1943 to reform deplorable conditions on Georgia chain gangs.
Plot
[edit | edit source]Burns was a World War I veteran who returned with post-traumatic stress disorder.[4] He was unwittingly linked to a petty crime and ended up in Georgia's system of prison labor.[5] He convinced another inmate to damage his shackles so he could escape.[6] He ended up in Chicago where he married and had a successful business.[7] He was recaptured, escaped again, and sold his story to film-makers. He returned to Georgia where he was successful in getting his sentence commuted to time served. His story brought national attention to the system of leasing convict labor in Georgia.
A sequel, Out of These Chains (1942), was written by Burns' brother, Vincent Godfrey Burns, an Episcopal priest.
The songwriter Jimmie Skinner, reading from his unfinished autobiography, recounts on Volume 6 of the compilation '"Doin' My Time" 1947-1963' that he wrote the country music classic "Doin' My Time" after reading the account of Robert Burns' imprisonment and escape in True Detective Mysteries magazine.
Bibliography
[edit | edit source]- Robert Elliott Burns, I Am a Fugitive from a Georgia Chain Gang!, Vanguard Press, 1932; Gale Research, 1972; Beehive Press, 1994; University of Georgia Press, 1997, Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
References
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- Doin' My Time" 1947–1963, Volume 6, Bear Family Records, BCD 16613 FK, Germany, 2003
