Low Road : The Life and Legacy of Donald Goines

by Allen, Eddie B., Jr.

• ISBN13: 9780312291242
• ISBN10: 0312291248
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2004-10-15
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Summary

Donald Goines was a pimp, a truck driver, a heroin addict, a factory worker, and a career criminal. He was also one of world's most popular Black contemporary writers. Having published 16 novels, including Whoreson , Dopefiend , and Daddy Cool , Goines's unique brand of "street narrative" and "ghetto realism" mark him as the original street writer. Now, in the first in-depth biography of Goines's life, author Eddie B. Allen explores exactly how one man could make the transition from street hustler to bestselling author. With exclusive access to personal letters, treatments from unwritten books, photographs, and family members, Allen uncovers Goines's personal experiences with drugs, prostitutes, prison, and urban violence. Fans of Goines's novels will note a dramatic parallelism between his life and his fictional tales.

Author Biography

Eddie B. Allen is a freelance writer and has covered national figures such as Bill Clinton and Louis Farrakhan. He has been published in the New York Times, The Detroit News, the Philadelphia New Observer, and The Michigan Chronicle. He lives in Atlanta, Georgia.

Table of Contents

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS	vii
FOREWORD	ix
PREFACE	xi
Prelude: Death in Retrospect	1	(2)
Maturing	3	(18)
War	21	(18)
Dope Fiend	39	(16)
Cash and Bitches	55	(28)
The Joint	83	(20)
Publisher	103	(18)
West Coast	121	(28)
Prodigal Son	149	(24)
Legacy: An Epilogue	173	(28)
Notes on Sources	201