Donald Goines Biography and List of Works

American writer, a career criminal and addict who wrote his first two novels in prison. Goines's books have inspired a number of lyricists from Tupac to Noreaga. They have sold over 5 million copies - according to rumours the figure has reached 10 million.

Donald Goines was born in Detroit. He attended Catholic elementary school and was expected to go into his family's laundry business. Instead Goines enlisted in the US Air Force, falsifying his age to get in. He served from 1952 to 1955 in the army and by the time he got back from his last tour of duty in Japan, he was a heroin addict.

The next 15 years from 1955 Goines spent pimping, robbing, stealing, bootlegging, and running numbers, or doing time. His seven prison sentences totalled 6.5 years. While in jail he first attempted to write Westerns without much success. When he was introduced to the work of Iceberg Slim (Robert Beck), Goines wrote his semi-autobiographical novel Whoreson, which appeared in 1972. It was a story about the son of a prostitute who becomes a pimp. Goines was released in 1970, after which he published 16 novels with Holloway House. All of his books were paperback originals. They sold well but did not receive much critical attention. Goines's death was as harsh as his novels - he was shot dead on October 21, 1974.

During his career as a writer, Goines worked to a strict timetable, writing in the morning, devoting the rest of the day to heroin. His pace was furious; sometimes he produced a book in a month. The stories were usually set in the black inner city, in Los Angeles, New York or Detroit, which then was becoming known as 'motor city'.

Goines's style is unpolished; his language is a combination of Black English and poorly edited American Standard English. The books are populated with pimps, prostitutes, thieves, hit men, and dope addicts. They are people whose survival struggle in ghettos the author knew best. It has also been easy for his early readers, who have seen drug addicts and violence on the streets, to relate and identify with these stories. Although Goines's world is violent, there is love as in his novel Daddy Cool (1974). In the story a hit man shows his feelings after a pimp has lured astray his beloved daughter.

In the eighties and nineties, a new generation of African-Americans adopted Goines as part of their cultural heritage. In France the author gained a cult status and he was compared to Chester Himes.

Goines's serial hero, Kenyatta, was named after the 'father of Kenya', Jomo Kenyatta. The four-book series was published under the pseudonym Al C. Clark. Kenyatta is the leader of a militant organization, which aims at cleaning American ghettos of drugs and prostitution. All white policemen also are his enemies. In the fourth book, Kenyatta's Last Hit (1975), the hero is killed in a shootout.

For further reading: Donald Writers No More by Eddie Stone (1974); St. James Guide to Crime and Mystery Writers, ed. by Jay P. Pederson (1996) - Jomo Kenyatta (assumed name of Kamau Ngengi, c. 1894-1978). The first president of Kenya from 1964 until his death. Kenyatta was a member of the Kikuyu ethnic group. He was devoted to recovery of Kikuyu lands from white settlers. In 1953 he was sentenced to seven years' imprisonment for his management of the guerrilla organization Mau Mau, though some doubt has been cast on his complicity. Kenyatta's slogans were 'Uhuru na moja' (Freedom and unity) and 'Harambee' (Let's get going).

Dopefiend: The Story of a Black Junkie, (1971)