Airtight Willie & Me


Book Description

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.




Airtight Willie and Me


Book Description

Airtight Willie and Me is a collection of six tales from the underground, all of them characterized by Iceberg Slim's distinctive and unforgettable prose. From the opening story, in which Slim meets Airtight Willie, one of New York's slickest con men, to Satin, a classic tale of revenge in which a heist goes badly wrong, the reader is hooked into a rollercoaster ride through the badlands of urban America. Compelling always, funny sometimes, and typically bleak in their endings, Slim's slices of city life are important social documents that scorch most contemporary into submission. There is no moralizing bullshit, no romanticized illusions, few redemming factors - just straight-up sawn-off shotgun blasts from the 'King of the Ghetto'.




Trick Baby


Book Description

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.










Airtight Willie and Me


Book Description

Airtight Willie and Me is a collection of six tales from the underground, all of them characterized by Iceberg Slim's distinctive and unforgettable prose. From the opening story, in which Slim meets Airtight Willie, one of New York's slickest con men, to Satin, a classic tale of revenge in which a heist goes badly wrong, the reader is hooked into a rollercoaster ride through the badlands of urban America. Compelling always, funny sometimes, and typically bleak in their endings, Slim's slices of city life are important social documents that scorch most contemporary into submission. There is no moralizing bullshit, no romanticized illusions, few redemming factors - just straight-up sawn-off shotgun blasts from the 'King of the Ghetto'.




The Naked Soul of Iceberg Slim


Book Description

Iceberg Slim described himself as “ill…from America’s fake façade of justice and democracy,” an illness that may have been a detriment, but evolved into the tales that serve as a chilling reminder that we are all still inmates of one prison or another, and the time to break free has arrived. Iceberg Slim took the public into the raw, unseen, predatory reality of America with his first book, Pimp. This time around, he puts the emphasis on reality with his collection of personal essays. This is Iceberg, in California, broken down into a million pieces of anger, wisdom, but ready for a shift in his own consciousness. From the corrupt LAPD to a broken heart, Iceberg recounts woes that the average Joe can’t even fathom. Iceberg Slim takes us for a ride; this time not only through the harrowing world of a pimp, but through his brain, his soul, and his psyche. The racist, gut-wrenching universe Iceberg Slim inhabits throughout this novel and his struggle to endure is one that will be appreciated by all. The story’s arch of chaos to cleansing is startlingly honest. After all, one can’t help but root for the man who had the courage to rupture the bars of the cell society created for him, and the man who gave a voice to those too afraid to speak. In The Naked Soul of Iceberg Slim his voice reigns loud and clear, and ready for vengeance. 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.




Doom Fox


Book Description

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 commentary on a society that has as its core a legalized policy of discrimination.




Mama Black Widow


Book Description

"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.




Pimp


Book Description

“[In Pimp], Iceberg Slim breaks down some of the coldest, capitalist concepts I’ve ever heard in my life.” —Dave Chappelle, from his Nextflix special The Bird Revelation Pimp sent shockwaves throughout the literary world when it published in 1969. Iceberg Slim’s autobiographical novel offered readers a never-before-seen account of the sex trade, and an unforgettable look at the mores of Chicago’s street life during the 1940s, 50s, and 60s. In the preface, Slim says it best, “In this book, I will take you, the reader, with me into the secret inner world of the pimp.” An immersive experience unlike anything before it, Pimp would go on to sell millions of copies, with translations throughout the world. And it would have a profound impact upon generations of writers, entertainers, and filmmakers, making it the classic hustler’s tale that never seems to go out of style.