Imprisoned for murder at the age of 18, Stroud spent more than fifty-four years in jail (forty-seven in isolation), where he became a self-educated authority on birds and bird diseases and author of an important reference, Stroud’s Digest of the Diseases of Birds, published in 1942. A self-taught legal scholar as well, Stroud wrote an exhaustive history of the federal legal system. ALS signed “Love, Bob, Robert Stroud, #594,” one page both sides of a lined 8 x 10 sheet of prison stationery, July 5, 1954. Stroud writes to his sister Mamie in Illinois on a variety of personal and political matters. In part: “There is not only a heap of politics with that farm surplus, but it is bad politics…. The politician always wants to do things that will be unpopular with special groups … but that is possible as cutting a dog’s tail off one inch at a time…. It is the same way with Ike’s trade bill. He wants to move toward free trade, a little at a time. It is also the same on his sound money politics. He wants a sound money, but he don’t want to [illegible] by doing away with all the new deal agencies that have been built up over the years. The only way that things could be corrected would be not by commissions, talk, conferences, but by just corrected them all at once. And it could be done easy if Ike had the courage, but he would love to shoot the works. He would have to go before the congress with a list of all of the boondogling [sic] agencies and tell them that he wanted them wiped out…. He should break diplomatic relations with every totalitarian country in the world, and he should do it without asking English permission. Then he should tell the congress, We are in a serious situation.” In fine condition, with usual folds and mild toning and handling wear. R&R COA.
