506
ELIZABETH HARDWICK
own. The kindly, manly interviewer, the restless kid, the nagging,
hysterical parents-the truth is so much worse than the "problem."
We know convicts and condemned men are people, but we are
always certain they are not the people in the movies. Their rest–
less, self-devouring emptiness, so like our own, has an unbearably
great importance because of their crimes against others and their
torture to themselves. Chessman's books, particularly
Cell 2455,
and many passages from his other books about his case, could
not possibly be negligent because of the information he was
peculiarly able to impart. And beyond that, the fact that he, from
whom nothing could have been expected, was able to write them
at all is a circumstance of compelling interest. It seems to suggest
that only through "art," through some difficult and utterly per–
sonal expression is reclamation and prevention possible. This is a
world beyond the therapy of the basketball court, the recreation
center, the social worker's hopeful sympathy. Its energy alone
could only be used up in some violent dedication.
The
Story:
Chessman's family, his early years, are not what
one would expect. He was an only child who loved his parents
and was loved by them. Perhaps this love lends itself to inter–
pretation because of his tendency to idealize his parents and his
failure to make them real. About his mother: "Hallie was a
dreamer, at heart a poetess with both feet firmly planted on the
ground and her soft, searching blue eyes
in
the heavens." In any
case, the affection on both sides was real and lasting. Chessman
was spared the blight of neglect, abandonment, beatings, drunken–
ness; his severe delinquency does not easily yield its secret and
the family situation is a clue to his strength rather than his
weaknesses. His parents urged him to "do the right thing," to
return to reform school when he had escaped and so on, but he
does not record any pressure more coercive than their mere hopes
and pleas. They were feeble trusting people. They believed what–
ever excuse their son gave for staying out all night and were always
surprised and dismayed to learn he had been "getting into
trouble." Chessman's schemes, his plans, his hopes, all expressed
in the vigorous distortions of his own personality, were of a
degree of vitality and daring beyond anything the parents could
