Abstract
’The idea that writers imprisoned for their writings or opinions should be defended by other writers was implicit in the concept of PEN from the very beginning, though few, if any, of the forty-one writers who attended the inaugural dinner in London in 1921 could have foreseen the importance it would assume in our benighted twentieth century’ Michael Scammell, ex-editor of Index on Censorship and recently retired Chairman of International PEN'S Writers in Prison Committee.