Iceberg Slim

Iceberg Slim (August 4, 1918 – April 28, 1992) was a pimp who subsequently became an author. The tone of his fiction has been acknowledged as an influence by, Ice T. Iceberg Slim born Robert Lee Maupin, or Robert Moppins, Jr., born in Chicago, Illinois.

According to his memoir, Pimp, Slim started pimping at 18 and continued until age 42. The book claimed that he had over 400 black and white women working for him during his career. He said he was known for his frosty temperament, and at 6’2" and 180 lbs, he was indeed slim, and he had a reputation for staying calm in sticky situations, thus earning the street name Iceberg Slim. 

When verbal instruction and psychological manipulation failed to keep his women in line, he beat them with wire hangers; in his autobiography, he fully concedes he was a ruthless, vicious man. After serving time in prison, Iceberg Slim believed he was too old for the life of pimping, unable to compete with younger, more ruthless pimps. 

He moved to Los Angeles and changed his name to Robert Beck, taking the last name of the man his mother was married to at the time. He met his common-law wife while he was working as an insecticide salesman. His wife encouraged Slim to write his life story as a novel. Bentley Morris of Holloway House recognized the merit of Pimp, and it was published in 1967.

By 1973, it had been reprinted 19 times and had sold nearly 2 million copies. Pimp was eventually translated into German, French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, Swedish, Finnish, and Greek. Slim died on April 28, 1992. He was 73 years old.