Now presented with a son's thirty years of research to provide new
context.
In June 1970, Sam
Melville pleaded guilty to a series of politically motivated bombings
in New York City and was sentenced to thirteen to eighteen years in
jail. His imprisonment took him to Attica, where he helped lead the
massive rebellion of September 9, 1971—and where, four days later,
he was shot to death by state police. During nearly two years in
prison, Melville wrote letters to his friends, his attorneys, his
former wife, and his young son. To read them is to eavesdrop on a
man's soul. Determinedly honest and deeply moving, they reveal much
about Sam and evoke the suffering of prisoners in America.
Collected after his death, the letters were originally published with
material by Jane Alpert, who was living with Sam when both were
arrested on bombing charges, and John Cohen, a close friend who
visited Sam in jail. Sam's letters begin with despair but end in
hope and defiance. He became a leader of the prisoners' struggle for
justice and humane treatment. At Attica he fought against and was a
victim of the state's brutality. Those who knew Sam found him a man
of extraordinary courage and determination, who rather than accede or
submit to injustice and racism chose to fight against them.
