Customer Reviews

Birdman of Alcatraz

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Depicted in this book, not as the bizarre "Birdman" of legend, but as a real man with great courage, fortitude, and intelligence, Robert Stroud is seen as a man who, despite his 54 years of incarceration (43 of which were in isolation of one form or another) maintained a dignity rarely equaled. Even with the enormous obstacles in his way, Gaddisis was able to unveil many of the injustices shown to Stroud throughout his life in prison, the ways he struggled to keep his sanity, to go from a third-grade dropout to a world-renowned expert in the health and care of canaries to an old man who was not even allowed many of the sparse comforts afforded fellow inmates. Gaddis does not try to hide the violence in Stroud's past, yet he also makes it possible to view glimpses of the man that Stroud could have been. With the last words written only one year before Stroud's death, this book was able to lay open for public view not only one man's life but also many of the injustices and atrocities with which the history of the American prison system is riddled. I would highly recommend it to anyone.

Thomas E. Gaddis has produced an absolutely incredible work! The story of Robert Stroud's life in prison - in solitary confinement, is thoroughly interesting, gripping and thought-provoking. The reader really gets to know Robert Stroud, and is left with a feeling of great respect and admiration for a man who, despite the absolute horrors of a life spent mostly in solitary confinement, was nevertheless able to develop his potential to become a world famous ornithologist and author.

Birdman of Alcatraz is a story of human endurance under monumental restrictions and difficulties. An immensely encouraging book, as it demonstrates the incredible potential in man to overcome enormous hardship and injustice, and the ability to rise above it all and make an highly respected contribution to the world.

This book is nothing but a lie. Robert Stroud was an anti
social misfit would could not function in either the outside
world or within a prison. It was never a question of
rehabiliatation. Stroud was a smart, capable man who made
choices that put him where he was. He killed a man and went
to Jail. He would have got out of Jail but for his decision
to kill a guard.

And for killing the guard, he would have been executed but for
the intervention of a president (Wilson) who saved him. Out
of "gratitude", he made repeated threats to kill the federal
prosecuter who had prosecuted him for the murder of the guard.

At a time of brutal treatment in prisons and strict laws,
Stroud was given every chance imaginable. But rehabiliation
requires that a man be willing to change first. And Stroud
was never interested in changing.

If you can't function in the outside and you can't even function
in prison, you end up where Stroud did. Rehabiliation would
have started with Stroud being able to function within prison,
but he never even managed that first step.

What his interest in birds showed was that he was an
extremely gifted man in some respects, but he was also a
viciously anti-social killer. The one could not be seperated
from the other. And that makes it worse.

Stroud never became a productive member of anything. Even
with the birds, he could only function "productively" in
total isolation from other people.

Thomas E. Gaddis motivations for writing this book as he did
have never been clear. But he has created an enduring myth
and made a victim out of Stroud.

I am a former National Park Service volunteer, U.S. Penitentiary Alcatraz Island. I had access to many original records regarding the prison and its inhabitants as well as former guards and inmates. This book is an (almost) complete work of fiction. Robert Stroud did not keep birds at Alcatraz, he kept them at the U.S. Penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas but Gaddis knew it would sound better to call him the "Birdman of Alcatraz" than the "Birdman of Leavenworth." He was not mistreated by the guards at Alcatraz and he was not the touchy-feely guy portrayed in the book and movie. Because of this book, many people believed he was a great and sympathic man who should have been released from prison. Many wrote letters on his behalf and supported his release. But the real Stroud was a brutal murderer, a psychopath who married a woman (despite being gay) to use her to assist him in getting his books published. By the way, much of his book was plagiarized and much of it was simply incorrect. This book does a disservice to history and readers should not waste their time on it. If you want the true story of Stroud visit Alcatraz or contact one of the National Park Service Rangers for truthful information.

What an incredible and unbelievably sad story.I cried often whilst reading it - his love of birds, his inner strength, the adversity of the penal system and their unrelenting determination to keep him in solitary confinement and to take away his lifeline, his canaries. I am left with these questions: Was he still incarcerated when he died? When /where was he when the end of his ordeal happened? What was his age? The penal system was more than cruel to him: it was inhumane. A brilliant life story. Can't wait to try and find his other books now out of print: Stroud's Digest on the Diseases of Birds, Diseases of Canaries and Looking Outward: A History of the U.S. Prison System from Colonial Times to the Formation of the Bureau of Prisons.

Inspirational book about how a man overcomes the hardships and limitations of years in prison, transforming himself from a brutal illiterate into a man respected throughout the world for this contributions to science. Fascinating story, well told by the author. The movie, starring Burt Lancaster, is excellent as well, but read the book first.

Can a man who committed 2 murders be rehabilitated in prison? Robert Stroud, aka "The Birdman of Alcatraz" could. He transformed himself into a leader in the field of ornithology, a scientist and an expert on prison reform. Through his work with birds he taught himself not only to cure their diseases, but to heal himself. This man became a productive member of society under the most stringent, unfair conditions, and I believe should have been paroled long before his death 54 years after he first set foot in prison. A very moving book.

... but perhaps not an accurate one.

All biography is nothing but lies. Even a biography based entirely upon facts will have to suffer for the interpretations that lie between them and the motivations that are used to frame them. As such, those who call this book compelling or farcical have missed the point.

We will never know with real accuracy who Stroud was any more than we will who Jesus was. As a dead man who did not have the advantage of having his entire life transcribed by witnesses and whose thoughts were not captured for posterity, with the exception of his own writings which seem to portray a man who felt victimized and who was likely a bit of a hypochondriac, we have little to go on.

Moreover, the inclinations and purposes of Mr. Gaddis are also mysterious. Based on his other works, we can fairly, I think, assume that Mr. Gaddis was a proponent of change in the American penal system. It shouldn't surprise me overly if he had spent time within it himself, although I have no proof, of course.

It is automatically clear upon a careful reading that the book is not accurate (in case the disclaimer in the front was not enough). This is clear from the ever changing and growing list of people permitted to exchange letters with him, despite the claim that he was only permitted to exchange letters with three people (it actually became entertaining to watch the list grow throughout the novel, sometimes approaching hundreds).

One interesting thing about the book, however, can be noted on pg. 207 of the 1989 Comstock edition, wherein it cites the forces that caused convicts to slowly, inexorably go mad. Insightfully, it mentions that these same forces were operating on the guards. This, if present in the original edition, significantly predated the Stanford Prison Experiment and the Lucifer Effect (both by Philip Zimbardo) which elucidated the role of these forces on the guards.

Despite these problems, it was an interesting book. To those who would like a clearly biased book describing one inmate's time in the prison system in the early 20th century, pick this up. Otherwise, feel free to read something else.

Harkius