BOOKS THAT CONVICTS READ

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 14691, 27 May 1911, Page 4 (Supplement)

BOOKS THAT CONVICTS READ

'Ax interesting peep into tlio literary tastes of convicts and other prisoners is given in the report of the Departmental Committee appointed to go into the quesion of prison libraries. The opportunity given to prisoners for reading and the quality of the books they read on the whole surpassed the expectations of tho committee. The ordinary demand which has to bo met by the library of a large prison is about as varied as that which is catered for by the circulating library of a provincial town, and at one or two prisons would compare favourably with it. Each convict, it teems, is allowed two library books a week throughout his sentence, while in local prisons there is what is known as the " progressive stage system," under which tho prospect of obtaining books is used as one of the regular incentives to 'good conduct and industry.

It is somewhat surprising the extent to which the works of the best English novelists are either spontaneously asked for by prisoners, or accepted and read with pleasure when recommended by the chaplain. There -is always a considerable number of ,prisoners , /who read Scott, Dickens, und .other standard writ-era, and even prefer them to other books. The " educated demand," however, is found chiefly among convicts. In local prisons it is the exception to find persons of any substantial degree of education, while in the smallei prisons they are almost unknown. At . Dartmoor, for example, besides Dumas, Rider Haggard and Mrs. Henry Wood, the committee found Dickens, Ihaekerav, Scott, Pope, Southey, and Chaucer have" also their adherents. Charles Reade s "Never Too .Late to Mend, which, of . course, deals with prison reform, is a great favourite in the gaols. The Most Popoular Authors. Each prison was asked by the committee to name the six favourite authors among its prisoners, and the" following tablo shows the number of prisons at which the author in question is ope of the six favourites :

.Mr*. Henry Wood 58 Charles Reado ... 9 Charles Dickens ... 46 Lord Lvtton ... • « G. A. Hcnty ... 20 Clark Russell ... « Rider Haggard ... 20 Chas. Kingsley ... ' Sir Walter Scott ... 19 Rolf Boklrewood ... 7 Wilkio Collins ... 17 Walter Besant ... 6 Capt. Marryatt ... 13 Rosa N. Corey ... 6 Alexandre Dumas;.... 12 Edna I^> all ° Silas Hocking ... 11 Conan Doyle ... 0 Miss Braddon ... 9 Hall Cain© ... 6

> Among the women at Holloway Mrs. Henry Wood is an especial favourite. _ At Borstal her pre-eminence is just maintained against Dickens, Clark Russell* Henty, •Fenimoro Cooper, Marryat, and other authors popular among boys. There is always a certain number ot ■highly-educated■■•prisoners, for whom even the best works of fiction are not sufficient. Such men are found among convicts., and for these tho, ordinary list requires to be supplemented by historical or philosophic: authors of the first rank. Among the con- ; victs at Maidstone there are men who will seldom read novels, but ask for such ; authors as Froude arid Freeman, Macaulay, Burke, and Gibbons, Ruskin and Carlyle, Spencer and Mill. They arc usually professional men, convicted of serious frauds,, •who have occupied good positions before their downfall. ■■ , '• A epYirious - form of this highly educated demand, so the committee found, arises from time to time, in the shape of a curitous fashion in books, which occasionally " t springs up and runs through a prison. It •tariseS..largely . from the egotism characteristic of many criminals, which often takes ' the' form of'making a show of great cultivation. One of the members of the com'mittee, Mr. Thomson, who was for five years governor of/Dartmoor Prison, remem- ' bers a time 1 when ''it became the fashion' 'among the convicts to ask for Shake- .-■ soere. ;