Five Famous Books Written in Prison

Five Famous Books Written in Prison

The writer is an artist but also a thinker and sometimes an activist, a philosopher and even a politician. In addition, while not much happens these days, in the past an author had a much better chance of ending up behind bars, including if what he wrote about did not like the high places. Because of all those hours in prison when there was plenty of time to think and perhaps stroke the madness with the fingertips, these 5 famous books written in prison.

1- Don Quixote de la Mancha, by Miguel de Cervantes

2- De Profundis, by Oscar Wilde

3- Mein Kampf, by Adolf Hitler

4- Songbook and ballads of absences, by Miguel Hernández

5- The Devil on the Cross, Ngugi Wa Thiong'o

Don Quixote de la Mancha, Miguel de Cervantes

Miguel de Cervantes, who worked as a tax collector between 1594 and 1597, published the universal work of our literature in 1605. However, due to certain irregularities in his reports, the authorities have imprisoned the author in the Seville prison, where he spent three months. Years later, the prologue to his most famous work would mention the creation of Don Quixote in such a prison. Although it is not yet known whether it was there that he started writing or if it was simply born as an idea.

Mein Kampf, by Adolf Hitler

One of the most controversial books in history, it began to be written in 1924 by the Führer during his time in Landsberg prison, where he was serving a five-year sentence after the failed coup d'état in Munich. Through the pages of My Struggle, Hitler proclaimed himself Ubermensch (or Superman), spoke of the importance of getting space from Russia and justified the theory of the wise men of Zion, which defended a Jewish conspiracy that would eventually destroy the world taking over. Ideas that would be transferred to his infamous politics years later, though the book became censorship meat until Germany decided to republish it in early 2016 and became a bestseller.

De Profundis, by Oscar Wilde

After enjoying great national and foreign popularity, Wilde fell into the arms of Lord Alfred Douglas, son of the Marquis of Queensberry, who decided to publicize the romance between the two men in a Victorian era where sodomy was still a staple crime. From Reading prison, Wilde wrote this letter, which, like the Indian name, represents an introspective journey of the author in the form of a letter to a former lover with whom he apologized for his behavior. Despite being written in 1897, it was published after Wilde's death.

The Devil on the Cross, Ngugi Wa Thiong'o

After writing 'Ngaahika ndeenda' (I will marry when I want) in 1977, a play that would serve to revive the scenic setting of his rural Kenya, Thiong'o was jailed for a year for daring to challenge a colonialism that also in the form of cultural influence. During his months behind bars, and as a weapon against his executioners, the author wrote his first novel in Gikuyu, his native language: Caitaani Mutharabaini (The Devil on the Cross). He did it on the prison toilet paper, thick and rough enough to carry the ink, even though the inmates' intentions were different.

Songbook and ballads of absences, by Miguel Hernandez

After the end of the civil war, the members of the Republican side were divided among the various prisons of our country, including Miguel Hernández. Between the bars of the various prisons where he was held, the poet would promote the writing of a songbook and ballads of absence in which the young man analyzed his childhood and innocence, the condition of today's men and the precarious situation of a woman for whom he wrote the famous Onion Nanas. The work was left unfinished after the poet's death in Alicante on March 28, 1942.

These five famous books written from prison collect the ideas, feelings and thoughts of some authors who took advantage of their many hours behind bars to unleash an imagination that they would put on paper years (and even decades) later can put.