As a librarian in a large urban
library, I can attest to the popularity of writers like
Goines and Slim, as well as newer titles by Sister Souljah,
Terri Woods, Sheri Holmes, and others, among a large group of
readers who seem more grouped by socioeconomic status - class
- than by race or sex. If I may be permitted a bit of
literary profiling, these readers, many of whom have been
through the system or know folks who have, also enjoy Mario
Puzo and other organized crime writers, as well as true
crime, and also tend have a pointed interest in: Sidney
Sheldon! - men, too. They are often interested in learning
about what are to them lesser known writers from the past,
such as Himes and Clarence Cooper Jr., as well as folks like
John Ridley or Gary Phillips. We never seem to have enough
titles to meet the needs of this readership, which lately has
grown with interest from many younger readers from all walks,
brought in via hip-hop culture, and I sometimes scratch my
head at how sparse the trickle of new titles is.
Yet the bookstore respondent
makes a good point - we also face the same issue - Goines and
Slim suffer astonishingly high loss. We don't expect many
circulations out of these cheap pulp products - maybe 10 or
so before they fall apart
- but they rarely make it past 2 or 3 before they find there
get boosted. I have written a few Donald Goines 'readalike'
lists - you can find one on our library's website at
www.spl.org - and against my better nature I do wince when I
put one of these out there, as I just know that I'm
increasing the odds we'll lose everything on the list.
Someone needs to cultivate this genre as true pulp culture,
and come out with a periodical devoted to street
fiction.
===== David Wright - Seattle Public Library Fiction
Dept.
"Literature is a luxury; fiction is a necessity."
-G.K.
Chesterton
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