two decades after he wrote it, ‘Doom Fox’ remains fresh to the game.Iceberg slim portrait of a pimp official trailer betty beck, camille beck, diane beck) trailersvi. He writes in the introduction to “Doom Fox” that it “offers up the dark side of human instinct: an ugly underworld of addiction and greed in its various forms. Among his fans is rapper Ice-T, who took his name in tribute to Iceberg Slim. At 42, after his third incarceration, he decided to give up the street life in favor of writing about it. They include “Airtight Willie & Me,” “Death Wish,” “Long White Con,” “Mama Black Widow,” “The Naked Soul of Iceberg Slim” and “Trick Baby.” Beck knew well this world about which he wrote, having been a pimp in his native Chicago from the age of 18. His books, liberally sprinkled with sex and pimp pornography, have sold millions of copies in many languages and have come to be regarded as underground classics. The world about which Iceberg Slim wrote was a world of prostitutes, pimps and junkies living on mean city streets. edition had sold “3,500 or 4,000” copies, just “OK.” “His books are a revelation, profound, sensitive, articulate, good fast reading, but of another world.” Grove/Atlantic would not reveal sales figures for “Doom Fox,” but Canongate’s Byng said the U.K. He says Beck’s books were “incredible” sellers. I can’t in clear conscience say to you that on page 18, fourth line from the bottom, that’s not Bob Beck or that is Bob Beck.” An editor after a while begins to develop an understanding of the style and the thrust of the way an author writes. He expressed the opinion that there are a couple of flashes of what might be considered Bob Beck’s style, but he was very much concerned about whether this book was written by Beck.” Holloway House’s Morriss confirmed, “The book was brought to us, and one of our editors read it. She says his third daughter was excluded and Camille was disinherited in a codicil Beck signed about 18 months before he died.Ĭamille Beck’s suit notes that Holloway House, the Los Angeles publisher that discovered Iceberg Slim in 1968 when he was working as an exterminator, refused to publish “Doom Fox” because of “grave concerns” about its authorship. While Corber says he believes Camille Beck to be the rightful heir to her father’s estate, Diane Beck says only she and Melody were named in Beck’s will and were to split the estate. As for damages, Corber says he and his client want a jury trial and “are seeking whatever a jury will award us.” She says her brother, Dan Millman, a well-known New Age writer based in Marin County, “had nothing to do with it.”Ĭamille Beck wants any profits realized from the book and also wants the book taken off the market. ‘Doom Fox’ never seemed to be something he wrote.” ![]() She’s very knowledgeable about her father’s writing style. It needed a rewrite, but who can rewrite when a writer’s gone?”Ĭorber contends, “ brother wrote the book, according to what was admitted to at that meeting.” Corber says Camille Beck first became suspicious because of “the writing style. ![]() She acknowledges, “Of course it’s not one of his better books. She didn’t decide immediately to tackle the project, she says, and once she did it took some time to find the right agent. ![]() Six years passed between his death and publication of the book. She explained that her husband was by then suffering from diabetes-related health problems and “he did not have the fortitude to try to find a different home for his work.” She says further that she had his blessing to find a publisher for “Doom Fox,” telling her, “You can do whatever you wish with this after I pass.” publisher Holloway House, which had published all of Beck’s other work, including his last book, “Death Wish,” in 1977. “Doom Fox” was never published, she says, because Beck had had a financial falling out with Bentley Morriss, president of L.A. I have the original typed, yellowed-pages version, and I’ve had it since he brought it to our marriage.” Melody Beck could not be reached for comment.īeck’s widow, Diane Millman Beck, who lives in Silver Lake, calls the lawsuit “ridiculous.” She married the writer in 1982 and, she says, “Bob wrote this before we even met.
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