Literature
Donald Goines
1936–1974 · novelist
Detroit-born pioneer of urban crime fiction who wrote 16 novels in five years, among them Dopefiend and Whoreson, before being murdered in Highland Park in 1974.
- Born
Detroit, Michigan- Died
Highland Park, Michigan
aged 37- Also known as
- Al C. Clark
- Detroit years
- 1936–1974
- Field
- Literature
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Goines was born in Detroit into a middle-class family that ran a dry-cleaning business. At 15 he lied about his age to join the Air Force, served in the Korean War and came home addicted to heroin. Back in Detroit he spent years in the drug trade and in prison, and it was in Jackson State Prison, after reading Iceberg Slim, that he began writing. Between 1971 and 1974 the Los Angeles publisher Holloway House issued sixteen of his raw, fast-written novels about pimps, addicts and hustlers, including Dopefiend, Whoreson, Black Gangster and the Kenyatta series under the pen name Al C. Clark, most set in the streets of Detroit. In October 1974 he and his partner Shirley Sailor were shot dead in their Highland Park apartment; the killing was never solved. His books have never gone out of print and deeply influenced hip-hop.
Highlights
- 16 novels published between 1971 and 1974 by Holloway House
- Dopefiend (1971), Whoreson (1972), Black Gangster (1972)
- Never Die Alone (1974), filmed in 2004
- Began writing in Jackson State Prison
- Widely cited by rappers from Tupac Shakur to Nas and AZ
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 1
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Buried here · 1974
Detroit Memorial Park East
The historically Black-owned cemetery in Warren where he is buried, according to Wikidata.