Tales of Mean Streets

Without sentiment, glorification, or preaching, but with complete detachment, Morrison describes the lives of charwomen, pimps, and workers drifting down to destruction; their shabby attempts to retain respectability; and the perpetual danger of slipping into a life of crime for those living in the mean streets of London's East End. This was classic pulp fiction, not good stories or uplifting, but just to give a lurid, sexual glance into the gutter life of East London to thrill those who wouldn't think of investigating on their own. This collection of stories was so bad, they were afraid it would be pulled off the stands, so they got H. L. Mencken to write a preface for it.