🎉 Up to 70% Off Selected ItemsShop Sale
HomeStore

You Can't Win

Product image 1

You Can't Win

"Much of this book is about loneliness. Yet its pages are bracingly companionable. It is one of the friendliest books ever written. It is a superb piece of autobiography, testimony that cannot be impeached. While it is a statement of an American tragedy, it has laughter, brevity, style; as a book to pass the time away with, it is in a class with the best fiction." — Carl Sandburg, New York World
"Nothing half as rewarding has come down the highway of books about thieves, tramps, murderers, bootleggers and crooks in years " — New Republic
"I believe Jack Black has written a remarkable book; it is vivid and picturesque; it is not fiction; it is a book that was needed and it should be widely read." — Clarence Darrow, New York Herald Tribune
A major influence on William S. Burroughs and other Beat writers, this lost classic was written by Jack Black, a drifter and small-time criminal. Born in 1872, Black hit the road at the age of 16 and spent most of his life as a vagabond. In this plainspoken but colorful memoir, he recaptures a hobo underworld of the early twentieth century, a time when it was possible to pass anonymously from town to town. Black's firsthand accounts of hopping trains, burglaries, prison, and drug addiction offer a compelling portrait of life outside the law and honor among thieves.
biography and autobiography;autobiography;memoir;influencer of william s burrough;influencer of beat writers;lost classic;drifter and small time criminal;memoir of drifter;vagabond;hobo underworld;firsthand accounts;hopping trains;burglaries;prison;drug addiction;life outside the law;honor among thieves;early twentieth century;twentieth century;crime;adventures;life journey;page turner;engaging
$5.23

Original: $14.95

-65%
You Can't Win—

$14.95

$5.23

Product Information

Shipping & Returns

Description

"Much of this book is about loneliness. Yet its pages are bracingly companionable. It is one of the friendliest books ever written. It is a superb piece of autobiography, testimony that cannot be impeached. While it is a statement of an American tragedy, it has laughter, brevity, style; as a book to pass the time away with, it is in a class with the best fiction." — Carl Sandburg, New York World
"Nothing half as rewarding has come down the highway of books about thieves, tramps, murderers, bootleggers and crooks in years " — New Republic
"I believe Jack Black has written a remarkable book; it is vivid and picturesque; it is not fiction; it is a book that was needed and it should be widely read." — Clarence Darrow, New York Herald Tribune
A major influence on William S. Burroughs and other Beat writers, this lost classic was written by Jack Black, a drifter and small-time criminal. Born in 1872, Black hit the road at the age of 16 and spent most of his life as a vagabond. In this plainspoken but colorful memoir, he recaptures a hobo underworld of the early twentieth century, a time when it was possible to pass anonymously from town to town. Black's firsthand accounts of hopping trains, burglaries, prison, and drug addiction offer a compelling portrait of life outside the law and honor among thieves.
biography and autobiography;autobiography;memoir;influencer of william s burrough;influencer of beat writers;lost classic;drifter and small time criminal;memoir of drifter;vagabond;hobo underworld;firsthand accounts;hopping trains;burglaries;prison;drug addiction;life outside the law;honor among thieves;early twentieth century;twentieth century;crime;adventures;life journey;page turner;engaging

You may also like

NEW
Thumbnail 1

1000 Poems from the Manyoshu

$19.95

NEW
Thumbnail 1

1300 Real and Fanciful Animals

$15.95

NEW
Thumbnail 1

103 Great Poems

$12.95

NEW
Thumbnail 1

1001 Palabras Inglesas Mas Utiles para Hispanoparlantes

$1.99

NEW
Thumbnail 1

100 Favorite English and Irish Poems

$3.00

NEW
Thumbnail 1

1001 Easy French Phrases

$4.95

NEW
Thumbnail 1

101 Great American Poems

$3.00

NEW
Thumbnail 1

1001 Most Useful Spanish Words

$2.25

NEW
Thumbnail 1

100 Best-Loved Poems

$3.00

-65%NEW
Thumbnail 1

100 Great American Short Stories

$14.00

$4.90

NEW
Thumbnail 1

"Easter 1916" and Other Poems

$3.00

NEW
Thumbnail 1

"To His Coy Mistress" and Other Poems

$3.00