'I want to say at the outset that I have become ill, insane as an inmate of a torture chamber behind America's fake facade of justice and democracy. But I am not as ill as I was, and I am getting better all the time.' Iceberg Slim

Iceberg Slim's first three novels (Pimp, Trick Baby and Mama Black Widow) offered some of the rawest and bleakest visions of urban America ever put to paper. Their refusal to compromise, coupled with their reflection of society's underworld and underbelly, rapidly won him a major following.

The Naked Soul of Iceberg Slim, however, proves to be something of a departure in the sense that it is a series of short personal recollections. Make no mistake, the passion, razor-sharp perception and unflinching honesty remains and, if anything, is all the more chilling for its total directness.

The wisdom he gained from a life of serious excess and violence is to be found within this varied collection of soul-bearing confessions that reveal why Iceberg Slim has been revered so widely as the spokesman of the street.

This edition includes an introduction by Iceberg Slim's widow, Diane Millman Beck.