82189: Confessions of a Prison Bitch

by Henry Adams Bellows, Mikita Brottman (Introduction)

We are left with what might be described as an outsider memoir, or simply a document. Unrefined and unfinished, 82189 was written by a man – posthumously assigned the pen-name “Henry Bellows” – who died while serving a life sentence for rape, and who spent most his life in penal confinement. Whatever literary aspiration may have motivated Bellows’ late-life confessional writing, his text now invites interest for such insight that it may offer (or conceal) regarding the formative experiences and criminal exploits of a repeat sex offender who was also rape victim. In telling his story, Bellows embeds a coldly observed account of carceral culture and the grim reality of sexual violence and abjection behind prison walls.

In her introduction to this central text and in an appending interview, Mikita Brottman provides relevant background about its origins and her association with the author to frame a more probing interpretation not only of Bellows’ “unfinished memoir” as such, but of the psychosexual and institutional factors that inform and complicate broader societal narratives of sex crime and the the sexual victimization of prisoners.

152 pages, Paperback

Published April 3, 2021

About the author

Henry Adams Bellows was a newspaper editor and radio executive who was an early member of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission. He is also known for his translation of the Poetic Edda for The American-Scandinavian Foundation.

Reviews

[Maggie Siebert]

the text itself is unrateable for about 50 different reasons but brottman brings a cold lucidity to the proceedings with her introduction and the discussions that follow the narrative. bellows is a detestable (and in my opinion perhaps unreliable) narrator who is at the same time very much a product of the courts. if you’re here for “true crime” you’ll, uh, you’ll get it. just not how you think or want. really not for the squeamish

[Jeff B. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is intense. It took me roughly one hour to read from start to finish because I simply could not put it down. And I have to say – due to the subject matter – I am glad it is short. I do not mean that in a negative way either, the frank descriptions of what goes on in the mind of a rapist, and of what happens behind the walls of a prison, is one of this book’s greatest strengths. By the end, I found myself feeling both disgust and sympathy for the author and wondering what else he would have told us had he not died before finishing his story. I highly recommend this one for anyone interested in abnormal psychology and the truth about prison.

[Nicolas Koutsourais · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the greatest books I have ever read. Read entirely in one afternoon because I was so gripped. Will somehow make you sympathize with someone disgusting. I would make my hypothetical child just read this book if they were ever going down a dark path in life that led to federal prison.

Blurb on the back says it best, thank God it isn't you.