Cool Hand Luke

Cool Hand Luke is a novel by Donn Pearce published in 1965. It was adapted into the 1967 film Cool Hand Luke. The story is told in a first-person narrative from the perspective of a convict in a central Florida prison. He works on a chain gang maintaining the berms of highways. He recounts the story of a "legendary" fellow inmate whose nickname is Cool Hand Luke. The novel is based on Pearce's personal experiences while incarcerated with a Florida prison road gang. History Donn Pearce was busted for burglary and served two years at Raiford State Prison in central Florida, from 1949 to 1951, working hard labor on a road gang. At night, he began writing down some of the stories he saw and heard. He also began reading more seriously, such as Faulkner's Sanctuary. According to Pearce, about a third of Cool Hand Luke is his own story, a third is based on the stories he heard while doing time at Raiford, and another third is pure fiction. In 1959 after gaining freedom, Pearce broke a leg in a motorcycle accident and with time available decided to begin writing the novel based on his prison notes and memories. He wrote and re-wrote it six times over a six-year period. He had trouble finding a publisher, Fawcett Books finally agreed to publish the novel as a 'paperback original', paying Pearce $2,500. Scribners then published it as a hardback.