The convict and the stained glass windows

New York: John Day Co., 1961. First Edition. Hardcover. Very Good/Fair. Denim-blue cloth boards with red and gold titling on spine, lightly rubbed at extremities. Binding is sound. Interior is unmarked. Upper page edges toned. Unclipped dustjacket is chipped along edged and front is moderately rubbed. 8vo. Our photos depict actual book offered for sale. Books are carefully packaged by hand and shipped from our family-owned bookshop in the US. BOOK INFO: Illustrated with a short section of B&W photography. 'Carmelo Soraci grew up in the streets of New York, talented, intelligent, with the benefits of a good Italian mother and father. From early youth he showed an unusual gift for drawing and painting--and for getting into trouble. The latter was to put him in prison for most of his adult life; the former was to bring his eventual release. While serving a mandatory life sentence in Sing Sing on a fourth conviction for forging a twenty-one dollar check, he was asked by the warden if he would voluntarily go to Clinton State Prison...to paint a mural and make the designs for stained glass windows in the Catholic Church of the Good Thief being built there by the prisoners. ... There he not only completed a now-famous mural over the altar of the church showing St. Dismas on the cross; through a combination of sheer determination and artistic brilliance he learned for the first time to color and fire the glass, and actually erected windows representing all the Stations of the Cross. Upon completion of the church he was returned to Sing Sing where he designed and executed a number of windows in stained glass in both the Catholic and Protestant chapels.... Word of Carmelo Soraci's extraordinary achievements reached a judge who went to see his work and he was given his freedom. Now he earns his living as an artist. Here Carmelo tells in his own words how beauty and devlotion to art triumphed over poverty and frustration.' (-from the endflap). 253 p. 21 cm.