This "highly readable" memoir by a criminal awaiting execution on death row is "a sparkling contribution in the field of criminological thought" ( The New York Times ). In June 1948, 27-year-old petty criminal Caryl Chessman was sentenced in California on two counts of sexual assault, receiving two death sentences as punishment in a case that remains one of the most baffling episodes in American legal history. Maintaining his innocence of these crimes, Chessman lived in Cell 2455, a four-by-ten foot space on Death Row in San Quentin for the twelve years between his sentencing and eventual execution. He spent this time, punctuated by eight separate stays of execution, writing this memoir—a moving and pitiless account of his life in crime and the early life that produced it. Chessman's clarity of mind and ability to bring his thoughts directly to the page, even within the stifling walls of San Quentin, help make this work the most literate and authentic expose ever written by a criminal about his crimes. "With extraordinary energy, Chessman made, on very edge of execution, one of those startling efforts of personal rehabilitation [and] salvation of self." —Elizabeth Hardwick, Partisan Review "It is surely the crime book of the year—or almost any year." — Chicago Tribune