Stealing Through Life

"Over the years, Booth would have a police record that stretched from the greater Los Angeles area up to Oakland, Berkeley, Stockton, and Portland, resulting in no less than five prison sentences, mostly served in either Folsom Prison or San Quentin. It was in the latter where Booth met Robert Tasker, who, at the time, was editing the prison's in-house literary magazine. Recognizing Booth's ability to spin tales of past exploits, Tasker urged his fellow prisoner to contribute to the magazine. Before long they were both sending pieces to H. L. Mencken's American Mercury. Mencken was more than receptive, having long harbored a fondness for stories by convicts, criminals, and low-lifes, with their no-nonsense, tough guy style of writing...

"Booth seemed a natural writer when it came to putting his stories on paper. Though the result can be uneven, at times overly wordy, at other times too pulp-oriented, his writing, at its best, shimmers in its matter-of-fact honesty."