You Can't Win

You Can't Win is an autobiography by adventurer Jack Black, written in the early to mid-1920s and first published in 1926. The book tells of his experiences in the hobo underworld, freight-hopping around the still Wild West of the United States and Canada. He tells of becoming a thief, burglar, and member of the yegg (safe-cracking) subculture, exploring the topics of crime, criminal justice, vice, addictions, penology, and human folly from various viewpoints, from observer to consumer to supplier, and from victim to perpetrator.