Apr 08, 2014 - Sale 2344

Sale 2344 - Lot 119

Price Realized: $ 6,656
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 10,000 - $ 15,000
(CRIME.) Research archive on Robert Stroud, the Birdman of Alcatraz, including his letters and publications. Many hundreds of items (2.5 linear feet), condition generally sound, collected by Stroud's biographer Thomas Gaddis, including original signed letters and documents by Stroud and his associates * original magazine articles by Stroud * Numerous pamphlets on prisons, and prisoner-published periodicals, collected as background research, 1906-75 * and a box of Gaddis's manuscripts and correspondence on various crime-related topics. Vp, circa 1906-1984
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Robert Stroud (1890-1963) was jailed in 1909 for killing an Alaskan bartender, which became a life sentence in 1916 when he killed a prison guard. In solitary confinement at Leavenworth, he began tending and studying canaries, and made significant scientific contributions to avian pathology from his prison cell. He was transferred to Alcatraz in 1942, and was never allowed to keep birds again. He spent his last four years in Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, MO. He achieved national celebrity with a 1955 book, "The Birdman of Alcatraz," by Thomas Gaddis (1908-1984). In the 1962 film adaptation of the same name, Burt Lancaster played the role of Stroud.
Offered here are research files of Stroud's biographer Thomas Gaddis. Highlights include: The original carbon-copied receipt to the deputy warden's office for a microscope, bearing Stroud's carbon-transferred signature. This gift allowed him to open new frontiers in his scientific research, and was discussed at length in The Birdman of Alcatraz. Leavenworth, KS, 15 April 1936. With a press photograph of Lancaster as Stroud receiving the microscope.
Typed Letter Signed from Stroud to Fred E. Daw of Oak Park, IL, discussing at length the breeding and coloration of his canaries. "It is strange, though, that for two hundred or more years zoologists the world over have known that robins, linits, etc lost their red color in captivity, but they have never had sense enough to figure out why. I knew why three months after I had hatch my first red chick." 3 pages. Leavenworth, KS, 6 October 1937
8 Autograph Letters Signed from Stroud to Frank Lipp (1880-1963), a bird enthusiast in Largo, FL. Springfield, MO, 1960-62. The first letter reports on the making of the "Birdman of Alcatraz" film: "Lancaster is quoted as saying that he was playing the part just as I had lived it, without any varnish whatsoever, and of course, that is exactly what I've always wanted" (25 December 1960). The second letter informs that all of his files are stored by "Tom" [Gaddis?], and boasts of his strong health: "I am 71 and look 50, and there are few men here in their 50s who could do the work that I do, and the harder I work, the better I feel" (31 January 1961). He discusses his atheism in the 4 September 1961 letter. His 6 December 1961 letter describes wrestling with a 17-year-old boy in the prison bindery: "I was thrown violently over the arm of a steel chair. Everyone thought my back would be broken, but there was not even a bruise." His 16 September 1962 letter expresses pleasure at the movie's success: "It is breaking box office records and expectations all over the country." The 23 September 1962 letter discusses the petitions being circulated to secure Stroud's freedom, while the final letter discusses an old flame: "Have not had a word from Dell since 1940. I kept in touch with her by synthetic ink for 5 years after they stopped our correspondence. . . . I would never marry anyone else. She was the first and only person who was absolutely faithful to me" (9 October 1962).
A pair of Typed Letters Signed from Stroud's business partner Della Jones, on letterhead for "Stroud's Specific for Avian Septicemias," to W.D. Bell of Detroit. Discusses Stroud's difficult working conditions and petitions being circulated for his release. With a 14-page Stroud's Specific pamphlet. Kansas City, MO, 1931-32
More than 30 copies or transcripts of letters by or about Stroud 7 issues of the Roller Canary Journal and Bird World featuring articles by Stroud, 1931-32 (including the same copy of the November 1931 issue which appears in the film)
The printed 1951 Supreme Court petition, Stroud vs. Swope, in which Stroud protested the loss of his birds Manuscripts and typescripts by Gaddis from projects spanning several decades, starting with accounts of his youthful travels in Minnesota from 1927, and an unpublished work titled "Death Watch in Atlanta" about serial killer Wayne Williams and much more.