I’ve read the autobiography of iceberg slim a couple times (about a pimp and con man from the 30s-50s). the guy admits to being extremely dishonest and manipulative in the book, which I’m sure carries over to his biography.
for example he claimed to have a 175iq, something that only happens to about 1 in 3 million people. despite it, his book is full of words less than 3 syllables, and his vocabulary is about as advanced As a 7th grader. not very impressive for a self described super genius.
so my question is (and I’m sure this message board is the best place to ask about iceberg slim) is did anyone ever investigate his history independently? I wonder what all was true, what was exaggerated and what was just made up. I mostly wonder if sweet Jones ever existed.
I read his book a long time ago. I think you can safely bet that it’s mixture of truth and fiction. Re someone without a fairly extensive educational background (ie more than a college dropout) scoring 175 on an English language IQ test is extraordinarily unlikely. Pimps bragging on their prowess is part of the street culture, I think you have to take what he says in the books with a reasonable sized chunk of salt.
Yeah, I get the impression the book was a mix of fact, fiction, braggado and stealth advice on how to pimp (to increase the market value of the book to wannabe pimps while couching it as a biography).
Nonetheless, my big points of curiosity are was Iceberg Slim really a well known, successful pimp (or was he a mediocre pimp nobody heard of), and was Sweet Jones a real person (the guy whose parents were supposedly lynched down south, who drove a dusenberg, who liked to drive white hookers to suicide, etc).