The Story of Canada Blackie (Heathen Edition)

Anne Porter Lynes Field (later Lloyd, 1874-1947) was a poet and writer best known as the author of the 1915 book The Story of Canada Blackie, which she was compelled to pen after a chance meeting with New York State's most notorious criminal John E. Murphy, alias Canada Blackie. Serving a life sentence for a robbery gone awry, he was later given an additional 10 years for attempting a prison break, and vowed to defy all prison authority - until he met Thomas Mott Osborne at Auburn Prison and saw Osborne's "new penology" in action. Thereafter he championed reform within New York's prison system with the same vim and vigor he had used to combat it, becoming a model prisoner and powerful influence for good in his last days.