You Can't Win
Author	Jack Black
Publisher	Macmillan

You Can't Win (ISBN 1-902593-02-2) is an autobiography by Jack Black. The book tells of his experiences in the hobo underworld, freight hopping around the still Wild West of the United States and Canada, becoming a burglar and member of the yegg (criminal) brotherhood, getting hooked on opium, doing stints in jail, and escaping, often with the assistance of crooked cops or judges. The book was a best seller in 1926. It has recently^[when?] been republished in the Nabat series of radical autobiographies, by AK Press. William S. Burroughs cited it as an extremely influential book in his life, and lifts the book's style and stories in his 1953 book Junkie. Burroughs himself wrote the introduction to the AK Press reissue of the book. On the copyright page is a message from the publishers that any convict can obtain a copy of the book by mailing them ten dollars and a contact address (the list price is sixteen US dollars or eleven British pounds).

[edit] Publication history

• Black, Jack. You Can't Win. New York: Macmillan Company, 1926. Foreword by Robert Herrick. OCLC 238829961
• Black, Jack. You Can't Win: the Autobiography of Jack Black. New York: Amok Press, 1988. Foreword by William S. Burroughs. ISBN 0941693074 OCLC 153562506
• Black, Jack. Du kommst nicht durch. Berlin : Kramer, 1998. ISBN 3879562407 OCLC 75910135
• Black, Jack. You Can't Win. 2nd edition. Edinburgh: AK Press/Nabat books, 2000. ISBN 1902593022 OCLC 44737608
• Black, Jack. You Can't Win. [S.l.] : BN Publishing, 2007. ISBN 9562915093 OCLC 187421471

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