Once Upon a Time in America

Harry Gray wrote this autobiographical novel in a solitary cell at Sing-Sing Prison. As a member of a criminal gang feared by the entire country, he portrayed life in America during the Great Depression with stark realism: Prohibition, bootleggers, prostitution, robberies, and murders. The book’s heroes come from poor immigrant neighborhoods of New York. In a world of lawlessness and no work, they carve out a path through friendship and a pistol.