Dry Guillotine: Fifteen Years Among the Living Dead 1938 Rene Belbenoit's Prison Memoir French Guiana Devil's Island Penal Colony buying

Title: Dry Guillotine: Fifteen Years Among the Living Dead

Author: Rene Belbenoit, Prisoner No. 46635. Introduction by William LaVarre
Illustrator: Illustrations by a fellow prisoner

Description: Early printing. Black cloth boards stamped in gilt on spine. Interior is clean and buying unmarked. 345 pages. Dust jacket has some shallow chipping at head of spine; surface wear at spine ends; one short closed tear on rear panel; in an archival mylar sleeve. Translated from the French by Preston Rambo.

Memoir of Rene Belbenoit (1899-1959), a French prisoner on the French Guiana penal colony of Devil's Island. Belbenoit recounts his struggle against death, insanity, and the many atrocities experienced in the penal colony. Includes an introduction by William LaVarre, an American geographer, who encountered Belbenoit after his escape.

Binding: Hardcover
Condition: Near Fine
Jacket Condition: Very Good

Publisher: E. P. Dutton and Company
Place: New York
Year: 1938

Keywords: Devil's Island, Bagne de Cayenne, French Guiana, penal colony, prisoners, memoirs, personal narrative, prisons,