&sq=&lang=&file=File:Question_book-new.svg){kind=small} | This article needs additional citations for verification. (December 2008) |
Jack Black | |
|---|---|
&sq=&lang=&file=File:Jack_Black_SF_Call.jpg) Black in an undated photograph published in The San Francisco Call | |
| Born | 1871 New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada |
| Disappeared | 1932 (aged 60-61) |
| Status | Presumed dead by suicide |
| Other names | Blacky |
| Citizenship | Canadian, American |
| Occupation | Author |
| Notable work | You Can't Win |
Jack Black (1871–1932) was a Canadian and American hobo and burglar. Black is best known for his autobiography You Can't Win (Macmillan, 1926), describing his days on the road and life as an outlaw. Black's book was written as an anti-crime book urging criminals to go straight, but it is also his statement of belief in the futility of prisons and the criminal justice system, hence the title of the book. Jack Black was writing from experience, having spent thirty years (fifteen of which were spent in various prisons in Canada and the United States) as a travelling criminal, and offers tales of being a cross-country stick-up man, home burglar, petty thief, and opium addict. He gained fame as a prison reformer, writer, and playwright. He disappeared in 1932 in a likely suicide.