author
Wellington Scott
A firsthand account of crime, prison, and attempted reform gives this early 20th-century memoir its raw energy. The voice behind it remains elusive, which only adds to the book’s sense of mystery.
1 Audiobook
Seventeen Years in the Underworld
by Wellington Scott
About the author
Very little reliable biographical information about Wellington Scott appears to survive online. The strongest confirmed detail is that Wellington Scott was the name used for Seventeen Years in the Underworld, a memoir first published in 1916 and presented in some library and book records as a pseudonym.
The book itself is an autobiographical narrative about years spent in crime, jail, and the world surrounding habitual offenders. Its lasting interest comes from that first-person perspective: it is part confession, part social document, and part argument for understanding how prisons and hard circumstances can shape a life.
Because so few dependable facts about the author are readily documented, it is safest to let the work speak for him. What remains clear is that Seventeen Years in the Underworld has endured as a vivid reform-era memoir, still read for its direct look at criminal life and the possibility of redemption.