A Time To Die

In September 1971, inmates at Attica Correctional Facility in upstate New York seized part of the prison and took guards hostage, and among the outsiders they asked to come in as observers was Tom Wicker, a columnist for The New York Times. Wicker's account follows the days he spent in and around the prison yard in an uncertain role somewhere between negotiator and witness, dealing with prisoners and officials alike, and the armed assault by state forces that ended the uprising and left dozens dead. Drawing on his own background as a white Southerner, he examines race, power and the failures of the prison system. The book won the 1976 Edgar Award for Best Fact Crime.