Book Description

The Complete Rags of Time: A Season in Prison (Parts 1 and 2) publishes for the first time all the prison narrative I wrote in the six-month period (January 1971–June 1971) after my release from Federal Prison in November 1970. Rags of Time: A Season in Prison (Beacon, 1972) was only part 1 of the narrative. It was published because it was complete in itself, and Beacon wanted it out as quickly as possible. Beacon had just published, in book form for the first time, The Pentagon Papers, and desired, I think, a more human face to put on their antiwar efforts. I think too they hoped I would promote both books on tour. I disappointed them in that effort. I was not ready for a book tour and would not participate in such a venture. The manuscript has gathered dust over the decades, for at the time, I held out hope that Beacon would publish it. But in the pre-Watergate days, when Rags was published, mainstream reviewers would not pick it up. It did receive some positive reviews in alternative press venues, had a wide library circulation, here and in Canada, and was taught in college and university courses on both coasts. Before I too turn to dust, I feel it necessary, not only to complete the record, but to complete the story of my friends, fellow prisoners of war, who took their stand against the war to prison. Now, for all the victims of our war without end, NSA surveillance, the fascist Homeland Security apparatus, and the unconscionable strip searches of the rights and bodies of old and young, I feel the need to throw yet another book to the barricade.