Louis, of one book above all others, the true confessions of a wandering West Coast safecracker, petty thief and hobo from the pre-WWI era named John “Jack” Black. Burroughs never made a secret of the profound influence upon his youthful mind, back in suburban mid-1920s St. Burroughs writes in the introduction to a paperback reissue of Jack Black’s classic story.
“I first read You Can’t Win in 1926, in an edition bound in red cardboard,” William S. Anthony Mostrom tells the story of Jack Black through his own words and those of Burroughs. With a film adaptation of the book, starring Michael Pitt, expected later this year, now is a good time to rediscover this classic road narrative. Burroughs and, through him, the other Beat writers. Jack Black was a burglar, rambler, jailbird and writer whose lone published memoir, You Can’t Win (1926), was an important early influence on William S.
