 First edition | |
| Author | Lloyd L. Brown |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Proletarian literature |
| Publisher | Masses & Mainstream |
Publication date | 1951 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (Paperback) |
| Pages | 255 |
| OCLC | 30544433 |
Iron City is a 1951 prison novel by the American writer Lloyd L. Brown based on an actual court case and inspired by the author's experiences as a labor organizer and political prisoner in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania from 1936 to 1941. [1]
The novel tells the story of Lonnie James, a black youth falsely convicted of-and sentenced to death for the murder of a white businessman. From inside the "iron city" of the Allegheny County Jail in Pittsburgh, America's "iron city," three black Communist prisoners spearhead a fight to save James's life. Iron City confronts race relations in mid-twentieth-century America inside and outside prison walls and promotes a Communist vision of racial and class solidarity.
