Jack Black

Who was Jack Black?

Jack Black was a late-19th-century/early-20th-century hobo and professional burglar, living out the dying age of the Wild West.

Born in 1871 near Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, he was raised from infancy in the U.S. state of Missouri. He wrote You Can't Win a memoir or sketched autobiography describing his days on the road and life as an outlaw. Black's book was written as an anti-crime book urging criminals to go straight but is also his statement of belief in the futility of prisons and the criminal justice system, hence the title of the book. Jack Black was writing from experience, having spent thirty years as a traveling criminal and offers tales of being a cross-country stick-up man, home burglar, petty thief, and opium fiend.

He gained fame through association with William S. Burroughs and his writings had a profound effect on the writings and lives of all the Beat Generation.