Product Description

It was "The Rock." Thirteen acres in the middle of San Francisco Bay, home to the most dangerous men of their time. There was no gas chamber, no gallows, no quick way out. Sealed off and separate, it brooded over its inmates.

Robert Stroud, grandson of a judge, was one. Sentenced to life in solitary confinement, he found solace in the birds that landed outside his cell window. For years he studied them, trained them and eventually wrote several books on their behavior. Remarkably, Stroud spent nearly 40 years in solitary before he died -- he never knew "alcatraz" means "pelican," or that early settlers called it "Bird Island."

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3517921 in Books
• Published on: 1955-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover

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Customer Reviews

The story of a man who was never defeated
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.

An Incredible book of the strength of human endurance
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
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.