Irvine Welsh

Robert Beck, who used the moniker Iceberg Slim, was a major-league pimp during the ’40s and ’50s. He decided to leave the pimping game having served his third and final stretch in jail. He moved to Los Angeles where he straightened out and began a career as a writer. Pimp was originally published in 1967.



He was many men and no man at all. He was a hysterical little bundle of possibilities that could never come true.

The Man With the Golden Arm

Nelson Algren

Everything was beautiful. The merchandise was moving like crazy. I was sure that when I got back home for the summer I would have enough scratch to turn everybody green with envy

Pimp: The Story Of My Life

Iceberg Slim