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Quarto ca. 26x20.2 cm (10 ¼ ? 8 in). 2 pp. Blue ink on laid paper. Fold marks, but overall a very good letter, written in a legible hand. Dated 24 May 1949, this rare private letter offers an uncensored insight into the mind of one of the most notorious criminals in the United States. The lonely "Birdman," Robert Stroud, wrote this letter the seventh year into his solitary confinement in Alcatraz and shortly after the maximum security prison stripped him both of his birds and his wings. One of the most famous inmates of Alcatraz, a federal prisoner and two-time murderer, Robert Stroud spent most of his seventy years behind bars in solitary confinement. At nineteen, Stroud murdered a bartender in Alaska in a quarrel over a dance hall queen and was sentenced to Leavenworth penitentiary for twelve years. In 1916, he stabbed a guard to death with an ice pack and was sentenced to life imprisonment in solitary confinement. During his time at Leavenworth, Robert, clinically diagnosed as a psychopath, started to study birds and was even allowed to maintain a lab. The murderer made important contributions to avian pathology and emerged as a prominent figure in American ornithology, authoring two books on birds: "Diseases of Canaries" (1933) and "Stroud's Digest on the Diseases of Birds" (1943). In 1942, Stroud was transferred to Alcatraz, where he was prohibited from experimenting on birds. The lonely "birdman" died in the Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Missouri, in 1963, going down in history as one of the most notorious murderers in the United States. This letter is addressed to Stroud's long-time friend and a former President of the Chicago Bird Club, Fred E. Daw (1907-1982). In the text, written from Alcatraz prison cell #594, the author agonizingly confesses that he suffers from an unresolved Oedipus complex and explicitly traces his first sexual experiences from the age of five to eleven. Further in the text, Stroud reveals a lesser-known fact from his biography and admits to trying to kill his father shortly after becoming sexually active. In the other parts of the letter, the lonely "Birdman of Alcatraz" speaks of his "leisure time" in solitary confinement and enthusiastically describes his projected multi-volume autobiography "Bobbie." Importantly, the letter includes interesting, never-before-shared excerpts from the book, offering an intimate insight into Stroud's relationship with his mother. Despite the author's explicit excitement over the book, "Bobbie" was prohibited from publication for decades and first became available to the public only in 2014. In the text, the author also mentions his forthcoming biopic (later known as "The Birdman of Alcatraz;" 1962) and eagerly calculates approximate incomes from the movie. Directed by John Frankenheimer and starring Burt Lancaster, the film proved a widespread success and was nominated for four Academy Awards. In the rest of the letter, the "Birdman of Alcatraz" talks about his previous experiments on birds' organs, dismisses Darwin's theory on the limited olfactory capability of birds, and provides precise recommendations to his fellow bird-lover on the effective sulfa drug doses for birds. Overall, a historically interesting original autograph manuscript letter by the lonely "Birdman of Alcatraz," offering an uncensored insight into the mind of one of the most notorious criminals in the United States. The text of the letter (original spelling and punctuation preserved): " Dear Fred: Yours of the 16th just arrived and I am glad that you are no longer worried. I had a rough time for a month, but am now feeling fine. I can still feel this old gallbladder occasionally, but my general health is improving so rapidly that I do not expect to have any more serious trouble for the present. Now to questions. Sulfanilamide is an obsolete drug - no longer used. All sulfa drugs are given in 1/10 gram doses to canaries into the crop, but the new drugs can also be give.
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