Soul on Ice (book)
1968 memoir by Eldridge Cleaver
Soul on Ice is a book of essays and letters written by Eldridge Cleaver while he was serving time in San Quentin State Prison and Folsom State Prison. His writings first appeared in Ramparts magazine in 1966, and were collected in book form in Soul on Ice, published by McGraw-Hill in 1968. Although the book ranges over many topics, it is usually classified as a memoir because much of it is a retelling of Cleaver's life, how he came to be in prison, and the evolution of his religious beliefs and radical politics.
Soul on Ice was widely read and discussed for its searing commentary on white society in America, and the black experience within it. The book was highly controversial, and subject to censorship, for its provocative statements and opinions. The author was hailed as "an authentic voice of black rage in a white-ruled world." The New York Times named Soul on Ice one of the 10 best books of 1968.
By autumn of 1970, two million copies were in print. Cleaver went on to publish other writings, but Soul on Ice remains his best-known work and a seminal volume in African-American literature.
Background
Eldridge Cleaver was born in August 1935 in Wabbaseka, Arkansas, at a time when pernicious racism prevailed in the segregated South. In 1946, his family moved to Watts, California, where he began engaging in petty crime.
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