1. Donald Goines was an African-American writer of urban fiction.
15 Facts About Donald Goines
1. 2.
Donald Goines's novels were deeply influenced by the work of Iceberg Slim.
3.
Donald Goines's parents were a middle-class Black Catholic couple that ran a laundry business.
4.
Donald Goines was the middle child of three, and the only son.
5.
At age 15, Donald Goines lied about his age to join the Air Force and fought in the Korean War.
6.
Donald Goines lived in several cities, including Kansas City, Missouri and Junction City, Kansas, but mostly in his native Detroit.
7.
Donald Goines was sentenced to prison several times, both state and federal.
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Iceberg Slim 8.
Donald Goines began writing while serving a sentence in Michigan's Jackson Penitentiary.
9.
Donald Goines initially attempted to write Westerns, but he decided to write urban fiction after reading Robert "Iceberg Slim" Beck's autobiography Pimp: The Story of My Life.
10.
Donald Goines continued to write novels at an accelerated pace in order to support his drug addictions, with some books taking only a month to complete.
11.
In 1974 Goines published Crime Partners, the first book in the Kenyatta series under the name Al C Clark.
12.
Holloway House's chief executive Bentley Morriss requested that Donald Goines publish the book under a pseudonym in order to avoid having the sales of Donald Goines's work suffer due to too many books releasing at once.
13.
Inner City Hoodlum, which Donald Goines had finished before his death, was published posthumously in 1975.
14.
Donald Goines's writing has had an impact upon several people, with several rappers inserting mentions of Donald Goines and his writing into their lyrics.
15.
Donald Goines' books have been utilized in several prison literacy programs.