In the Belly of the Beast

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In the Belly of the Beast is a book written by Jack Abbott and published in 1981.

Jack Abbott was an American career criminal and the book consists of his letters to Norman Mailer about his experiences in what Abbott saw as a brutal and unjust prison system. Mailer supported Abbott's successful bid for parole in 1981, the year that In the Belly of the Beast was published.

The book was very successful and on July 19, 1981, the New York Times published a rave review of it. However, the day before, Abbott had committed a senseless murder during a row with a waiter in a restaurant. Abbott was eventually arrested and returned to prison for the rest of his life until his suicide in 2002.

In 2004, a New York theatre company ran a play based on the book, named In the Belly of the Beast Revisited [1]

Despite the similarity of their titles, the 2003 action movie Belly of the Beast is unrelated to Abbott's book.