I Am a Fugitive from a Georgia Chain Gang! is the amazing true story of one man's search for meaning, fall from grace, and eventual victory over injustice. In 1921, Robert E. Burns was shackled to a chain gang for his part in petty robbery. He soon made a daring escape, dodging shotgun blasts, racing through swamps, and eluding bloodhounds on his way north, where for seven years he lived as a free man until his jealous wife turned him in to the police. Arrested as a fugitive from justice, Burns was promised lenient treatment and a quick pardon, but was back on a chain gang within a month. Undaunted, he did the impossible and escaped a second time, and was still a hunted man living in hiding when this book was first published in 1932. The book and its movie version, nominated for a Best Picture Oscar in 1933, shocked the world by exposing Georgia's brutal treatment of prisoners.