The Scene is an urban half-world of drug pushers and users, of pimps and prostitutes and narcotics detectives, laid bare in this explosive novel. From The Panic, the time of no dope, to The Man, who controls its ebb and flow on the streets, The Scene is a gripping work of heightened, hellish realism--a harrowing masterpiece of drug literature.

Unable to match firepower with the competition--Sonny, a coiffed millionaire; Baby Doll, a 300-pound Jesus freak; and Studs, a ruthless lesbian--Giveadamn devises a shrewd scheme. His secret weapon: the Golden Fleece, a fantastical machine that defies all known laws of chemistry and physics. When word of it leaks out, Harlem is never going to be the same . . . .

First published in 1962, this novel is one of the most lyrical and authentic portraits of a jazz musician ever published. Born into violence, in the midst of a destructive tornado that flattens sections of East St. Louis, Raymond Douglas overcomes obstacles of family and race to become a jazz trumpeter whose music touches greatness. Rave praise for the Old School Books Series: "One of the most exciting literary revival series since the rediscovery of Jim Thompson's novels..." --Digby Diehl, Playboy "If you can't get enough of Shaft, Foxy Brown (the original one) or Dolemite, then check Old...

This 1976 first and only novel (potentially an upcoming movie) of forensic psychiatrist Roland Jefferson presents a frighteningly prophetic picture of the subterranean war between the races in America.

Goines, a career criminal and addict who took up writing during one of his seven prison sentences, has never been more hard-boiled that he is in this almost Shakespearean revenge fantasy about a hit man whose icy heart melts when his beloved daughter is lured astray by a smooth-talking pimp.

Black brings together three short novels by Clarence Cooper, Jr., a rediscovered genius of African-American writing. "The Dark Messenger" is a short, sizzling novel in which a reporter for a black newspaper discovers that truth and justice are no match for the next handout from the corrupt powers that be. "Yet Prices Follow" and "Yet We Many" are both sardonic crime novellas set in the worlds of the numbers racket and Black Muslims, respectively. All of them demonstrate the hard-edged, ultra-hip style of realism that was Clarence Cooper's trademark.

This streetwise novel chronicles the rise and fall of Lonnie Jack, a twenty-six-year-old Vietnam veteran and mid-level heroin dealer itching to knock the powerful Willis McDaniel off his perch as the number-one drug kingpin. It plunges the reader into the subculture of addicts, dealers, and corrupt cops as Lonnie Jack's bold and methodical challenge builds to a frightening climax.

A prosperous Black bourgeois family find their complacent lives shattered when they are taken hostage in their own home by two members of a Black militant group calling itself The Committee.