Best Selling Books by Iceberg Slim

The ultimate anti-hero, Iceberg Slim, takes you into the secret inner world of the pimp, and the smells, sounds, fears and petty triumphs of his world. A legendary figure of the Chicago underworld, this is his story: from defending his mother against the evil men she brought into their lives to becoming a giant of the streets. A seething tale of brutality, cunning and greed, Pimp is a harrowing portrait of life on the wrong side of the tracks, and a rich warning from a true survivor.

"Mama Black Widow" is the nickname of Otis Tilson, a comely and tragic black queen adrift with his brothers and sisters in the dark ghetto world of pimpdom and violent crime. His story is told in the gut-level language of the homosexual underworld--an unforgettable testament of life lived on the margins of a racist and predatory urban hell.

The author that brought black literature to the streets is back. Weaving stories of deceit, sex, humor, and race, bestselling author Iceberg Slim brings us the story of a hustler who doesn’t just play the con game, he transforms it. This is the gritty truth, the life of a hustler in south side Chicago where the only characters are those who con and those who get conned. Trick Baby tells the story of “White Folks,” a blue-eyed, light-haired, con artist whose pale skin allows him to pass in the streets as a white man. Folks is tormented early in life, rejected by other children and branded a “Trick Baby,” the child conceived between a hooker and her trick. Refusing to abandon his life in the ghetto and a chance at revenge, Folks is taken under the wing of an older mentor, Blue. What happens next is not to be believed. Iceberg Slim’s story is now depicted in a major motion picture distributed worldwide. Iceberg Slim: Portrait of a Pimp shows Slim’s transformation from pimp to the author of seven classic books.

Robert Beck, the man known as Iceberg Slim, brings readers on a ride through the terrifying and elusive urban streets. Filled with unforgettable and distinctive prose, Airtight Willie & Me is further evidence that Iceberg Slim is the only author capable of capturing the language of the streets. Though originally published nearly 50 years ago, Slim''s stories are timeless accounts that continue to shed light upon a seedy underworld. Compelling always, funny sometimes, Slim''s short stories are six slices of city life that will leave readers thirsting for more.

This is the original mafia story that spawned all the rest—the story of Chicago’s ruthless and tireless mafia. Power hungry Don, Jimmy Collucci, is out to become the kingpin of Chicago’s “Honored Society.” However, his rise to the top can only be thwarted by one man fueled by revenge set out to destroy it—the “Black Warrior” Jessie Taylor. When ambitions collide, guns are drawn and blood is spilled. This is the original mafia story. The intensely real characters, the brutal overlords, their faithful lackeys, and their vengeful enemies all collide in acts of loyalty, lust, greed and death. Iceberg Slim''s story is now depicted in a major motion picture distributed worldwide. Iceberg Slim: Portrait of a Pimp shows Slim''s transformation from pimp to the author of seven classic books.

Iceberg Slim, best-selling author of Pimp and Trick Baby, brings us yet another riveting classic. Continuing the saga, Long White Con tells the story of the most incredible con man ever to have risen. Iceberg Slim''s story is now depicted in a major motion picture distributed worldwide. Iceberg Slim: Portrait of a Pimp shows Slim''s transformation from pimp to the author of 7 classic books. Picking up where Trick Baby left off we dive into the world of Johnny O''Brien, better known as White Folks. After learning to use his fair skin to his advantage to rise to the top of the Chicago con game, Folks is back for the big money and the big stakes of the long con. Following the death of his partner and mentor, Blue, Folks takes off for Canada. Having honed his skills and polished his acting, Johnny is done cheating marks out of small money. With a gang of grifters working with him, High Pockets Kate, High Ass Marvel and the Vicksburg Kid among them, Folks is after the biggest score of his life.

From the multi-million copy master of vernacular black literature and pioneeer of hip hop culture, a masterpiece of crime fiction set in Los Angeles'' meanest, toughest streets. Here is the newly discovered novel by Iceberg Slim, the creator and undisputed master of African-American "street literature," a man who profoundly influenced hip hop and rap culture and probably has sold more books than any other black American author of the twentieth century (not that he saw the royalties from those sales). In many ways Iceberg Slim''s most mature fictional work, Shetani''s Sister relates, in taut, evocative vernacular torn straight from the street corner, the deadly duel between two complex anitheroes: Sergeant Russell Rucker, an LAPD vice detective attempting to clean up street prostitution and police corruption, and Shetani (Swahili for Satan), a veteran master pimp who controls his stable of whores with violence and daily doses of heroin.

Doom Fox is the final instalment in Iceberg Slim''s searing sequence of highly-charged books that began with his critically acclaimed and multi-million selling autobiography, Pimp. Slim''s powerful, raw prose and eye-opening reflections of black ghetto realities have helped to redefine modern American literature, offering the reader a glimpse into lifestyles and language never before seen in print. Doom Fox tells the tragic story of three generations of the Allen family in post-war L. A. Written with Slim''s typically disturbing honesty and sharp humour, it paints their lives with compassion, telling their stories in their own words, in the language of the street. The result is another riveting and potent urban parable, a bitter coomentary on a society that has as its core a legalized policy of discrimination.

Night Train to Sugar Hill is a hybrid novel, a mix of hardcore crime fiction, mysticism, L.A. noir, literary naturalism, and street literature. It is one of the two final novels of black American writer Iceberg Slim.

The ultimate anti-hero, Iceberg Slim, takes you into the secret inner world of the pimp, and the smells, the sounds, the fears and petty triumphs of his world. A legendary figure of the Chicago underworld, this is his story: from defending his mother against the evil men she brought into their lives, to becoming a giant of the streets. A seething tale of brutality, cunning and greed, Pimp is a harrowing portrait of life on the wrong side of the tracks, and a rich warning from a true survivor.

1969. L''Amérique découvre Pimp, autobiographie explosive signée Iceberg Slim (alias Robert Beck). Il devient le proxénète le plus célèbre des Etats-Unis. Un peu malgré lui, Slim est propulsé au rang de porte-parole indigne de la communauté noire, dans la lignée des Black Panthers. Suivront Trick Baby et Marna Black Widow, textes très inspirés de son histoire qu''on peut lire comme des témoignages édifiants ou des romans noirs au charme brut. Les "héros" de Slim sont arnaqueurs, travestis ou gigolos. Ils ne refusent jamais une ligne de coke et sont prêts à tout pour quelques dollars. "Il n''y a pas de psychologie, de sermons ou de notes dans ce récit d''une vie. Les dialogues sont dans la langue crue des pédés, du ghetto, du Sud profond, des bas-fonds", affirme Slim lui-même. Livres de chevet de toute une génération de rappeurs ou d''écrivains comme Sapphire ou Maya Angelou, ces trois livres fondateurs ont d''abord paru aux Editions de l''Olivier dans la collection Soul Fiction, dirigée par Samuel Blumenfeld. Réunis pour la première fois en un seul volume, ils constituent une sorte de "trilogie du ghetto" unique dans la littérature américaine.

Here Beck tells the story of Otis Tilson, an incredibly comely and tragic queen of the ghetto. It is the story of black men living in ghetto torture chambers, niggerized and deballed.

This is the story of Iceberg Slim''s life, as he saw, felt, tasted, and smelled it. A trip through hell by the one man who lived to tell the tale. The dangers of jail, addiction and death that are still all too familiar.

La redécouverte de textes inédits de l''auteur culte de la "trilogie du ghetto", Pimp, Trick Baby et Mama Black Widow : Robert Beck, alias Iceberg Slim, célèbre proxénète noir qui a dynamité la littérature afro-américaine des années 1970 et inspiré tout un courant artistique (de Sapphire, l''auteur de Push et du Kid, à la vague de hip-hop actuelle). Une galerie de vignettes hallucinante sur le Chicago interlope des années 1940 et le Los Angeles underground des années 1960, la confession d''un mac repenti, profession de foi d''un homme en colère, en lutte contre le racisme et l''injustice sociale, engagé haut et fort dans le combat pour les droits civiques.