• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary navigation
  • Skip to footer

Crime Books

Prize-Winning Fiction

  • Home
  • Reference
    • Awards
    • Blogs
    • Reading List
      • The Best of The Best
      • International Crime
      • The Last Laugh
  • Index
    • Authors
    • Titles
    • Tags
  • E-Mail Updates
  • Search
  • Rating
    • ★ 5 Stars
    • ★ 4 Stars
    • ★ 3 Stars
    • ★ 2 Stars
    • ★ 1 Star
    • ★ Not Rated
  • Genre
    • Caper
    • Espionage
    • Historic
    • Legal Drama
    • Locked Room
    • Mystery
    • Police Procedural
    • Private Detective
  • Style
    • Cosy
    • Hard-Boiled
    • humorous
    • Literary
    • Narrative
    • Noir
    • Psychological
    • Pulp
    • Thriller
  • Region
    • British
    • European
    • Japanese
    • Nordic
    • North American
  • Era
    • Early 20th Century
      • 1900s
      • 1910s
      • 1920s
    • Mid 20th Century
      • 1930s
      • 1940s
      • 1950s
      • 1960s
    • Late 20th Century
      • 1970s
      • 1980s
      • 1990s
    • Early 21st Century
      • 2000s
      • 2010s
      • 2020s
  • Best Crime Fiction

Iceberg Slim

Recommended Reading

Three of Iceberg Slim’s books to try:

Trick Baby by Iceberg Slim
Get a Copy

Trick Baby: Slim wrote novels about what he knew — hustling on the unforgiving streets of Chicago. Not a feel good read. (Review)

⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 3 out of 5.
Mama Black Widow by Iceberg Slim
Get a Copy

Mama Black Widow: Corruption, petty crime and prostitution. There is nothing pleasant in the life of a queer black man living in Chicago’s criminal underworld. (Notes)

Pimp by Iceberg Slim
Get a Copy

Pimp: The semi-autobiographical tale of a Chicago pimp. Bleak, brutal and barbaric.(Notes)

Iceberg Slim

Image by Unknown

Biography

Iceberg Slim was the pen name of Robert Beck — born Robert Lee Maupin (1918 – 1992). Slim was born in Chicago; his father abandoned his mother when he was a child, leaving her to open a beauty shop in Milwaukee and raise Slim as a single parent.

The Life

At his mother’s beauty parlour, he first became aware of “the life”. Pimps and their whores frequented his mother’s business, and Slim became enthralled by their glamour and money.

“They were the only ones who always had the money to spend on their appearance… that’s how I got street poisoned.” (The New York Times)

Keen that her son didn’t fall into this world, his mother sent him to college in Alabama. His education didn’t last long; the college suspended him for bootlegging or gambling — depending on which commentator you believe.

According to his memoir Pimp, Slim started pimping in and around Chicago when he was 18. A career which he continued for twenty-four years despite a couple of stays in prison. During that time, he claims to have dominated over four hundred women. He beat them with wire hangers when manipulation and mind games wouldn’t control them. Slim was, as he admits, a callous and violent man.

Squaring Up

At forty-two, he decided to “square up” while serving time in Cook County jail. Pimping was no profession for a man his age.

“…because I was old. I did not want to be teased, tormented, and brutalized by young whores.” (Encyclopedia)

After leaving prison, he moved to California and took his stepfather’s surname, becoming Robert Beck. Here, he met Betty Shue, who became his common-law wife and helped him write his first semi-autobiographical novel. In 1976 Holloway House published Pimp under the pen name Iceberg Slim. Slim claimed that this was his street name as he had a slim stature and the ability to remain ice cool under pressure. In truth, he went under the name of Cavanaugh Slim. The Iceberg moniker was aspirational, as one of his characters explains:

‘I told you once, do I have to tell you a thousand times? Green-ass Nigger, to be a good pimp, you gotta be icy, cold like the inside of a dead-whore’s pussy. Now if you a bitch, a sissy or something let me know. I’ll put you in drag and you can whore for me. Stay outta my face Nigger, until you freeze up and stop that sucker grinning.’

Pimp

Brutal Writing Style

Iceberg Slim’s Books are blunt, and he pulls no punches. Slim will drag you into a deepening mire of despair, brutality and poverty as he doesn’t glamourise or embellish his experiences. They don’t come over as far-fetched or fictitious, simply a vicious reflection of his earlier life. Mama Black Widow — which some argue is his best book — charts the life of Otis Tilson, a black homosexual drag queen. The tale includes a fumbled backstreet abortion, a whore killed by a sex maniac after a ‘date’ arranged by a white pimp and a revenge killing leading to life imprisonment. Slim didn’t write feel-good books.

If that isn’t grim enough for you, Slim also recounted the racism he experienced in appalling detail.

‘…but my evening was ruined earlier. Johnny and I witnessed the most distressing thing at the theatre.’

‘An adult coon was doing the most horribly despicable things to an underage white baby girl. It’s nothing short of social catastrophe when coons can publicly violate the flower of white womanhood.’

‘Oh! How I wished for a policeman to take that black brute to the bastille. The coons have gotten completely out of hand in the North. Pete, where can one place the awful blame for this odious social condition?’

Trick Baby

Slim added a glossary of slang terms to the back of his novels. A handful includes:

  • Bottom woman: a pimp’s main woman, his foundation
  • Breaking luck: a whore’s first trick of a working day
  • Chilli pimp: a small-time, one whore pimp
  • Jasper: a lesbian
  • Peckerwood: a contemptuous term for white men
  • Square up: to get out of “the life”
  • Train: mass rape
  • Waste: to kill or murder

There is nothing pleasant about Iceberg Slim’s writing; it has all the subtlety of a riot squad van though it is shockingly believable.

Success and Notoriety

Slim became one of the best-selling black authors in the U.S. and is credited with being the Godfather of both Blaxploitation and Gangsta Rap. Both Ice-T and Ice Cube adopted his name for their own.

Despite his notoriety, being the original Gangsta didn’t play out well. The Black Panthers, a political force he respected and courted, were less than impressed by his behaviour, and his common-law wife left him. The biggest irony was that his children filed a lawsuit against his publisher thirteen years after his death. Despite writing ten novels and selling six million books, Slim died a poor man. Holloway House’s royalty checks never matched his sales figures.

The corporate establishment pimped Iceberg Slim.

Read more at The New Yorker

Iceberg Slim’s Books

Trick Baby by Iceberg Slim
Get a Copy

Trick Baby

Review

⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 3 out of 5.
Mama Black Widow by Iceberg Slim
Get a Copy

Mama Black Widow

Notes

Pimp by Iceberg Slim
Get a Copy

Pimp

Notes

Try Another Author

Ruth Rendell

Rith Rendell

Pierre Lemaitre

Pierre Lemaitre

Agatha Christie

Agatha Christie

Volker Kutscher

Volker Kutscher

J.K. Rowling / Robert Galbraith

Robert Galbraith

Tove Alsterdal

Tove Alsterdal

Donna Leon

Donna Leon

Dominique Manotti

Dominique Manotti

Martin Cruz Smith

Martin Cruz Smith

Steve Cavanagh

Steve Cavanagh

Peter Lovesey

Peter Lovesey

Natsuo Kirino

Natsuo Kirino

Fred Vargas

Fred Vargas

Dominique Sylvain

Dominique Sylvain

Iceberg Slim

Iceberg Slim

Philip Kerr

Philip Kerr

Joe Gores

Joe Gores

Anthony Price

Anthony Price

Ian Rankin

Ian Rankin

Joël Dicker

Joël Dicker

Zoran Drvenkar

Zoran Drvenkar

Henning Mankell

Henning Mankell

Jørn Lier Horst

Jørn Lier Horst

P.D. James

P.D. James

Sara Lövestam

Sara Lövestam

James Lee Burke

James Lee Burke

Hannelore Cayre

Hannelore Cayre

Donald E Westlake

Donald E Westlake

John Dickson Carr

John Dickson Carr

Arnaldur Indriðason

Arnaldur Indriðason

Peter James

Peter James

Peter May

Peter May

Mick Herron

Mick Herron

Martina Cole

Martina Cole

Roslund and Hellström

Roslund and Hellström

Hideo Yokoyama

Hideo Yokoyama

Lawrence Block

Lawrence Block

Chris Whitaker

Chris Whitaker

Johan Theorin

Johan Theorin

Georges Simenon

Georges Simenon

Ellis Peters

Ellis Peters

Elly Griffiths

Elly Griffiths

Patricia Highsmith

Patricia Highsmith

G.K. Chesterton

G.K. Chesterton

Andy McNab

Andy McNab

William L DeAndrea

William L. DeAndrea

Raymond Chandler

Raymond Chandler

Stephen Leather

Stephen Leather

Roberto Perrone

Roberto Perrone

John Grisham

John Grisham

Ross Thomas

Ross Thomas

S.G. MacLean

S G MacLean

Val McDermid

Val McDermid

Cameron McCabe

Cameron McCabe

Charles Willeford

Charles Willeford

Share this:

Subscribe via e-mail


This site contains sponsored links. I receive a small commission if you buy a book after visiting a link.
This doesn’t affect the price you pay. Click here to learn more.


Footer

Follow

  • E-mail
  • Facebook
  • goodreads
  • LinkedIn
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Reviews

  • Killed in the Ratings
  • The False Inspector Dew
  • Maigret and the Headless Corpse
  • The Great Swindle
  • A Time of Predators
  • The Hunting Dogs

Best Crime Fiction

Who are the best crime fiction authors? Enter your e-mail address in the box below to find out.

Affiliate Links · Contact · Site Map · Privacy Policy · Log In

This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use. To find out more, read the Privacy PolicyOK