Book excerpt: This book is a serious study of male hustlers using experiential dialogue to introduce the reader to real-life concepts and experiences that otherwise could not be effectively conveyed. An intriguing attempt to get into the mind and personality of the male hustler through a largely imagined series of dialogues between a well-known fictional hustler and his so-called amanuensis, Samuel Steward, this unique book covers all aspects of the hustler’s motivations, activities, life style, adjustments, advantages, and disadvantages. It accomplishes this dispassionately, without prejudgment, moral censure, approbation, or more than cursory involvement. Therapists and counselors in all fields of sexual functioning will find here some understanding of the causes and impulses (beyond the popular “broken home syndrome”) that lead young males into prostitution. It signals some of the signposts to danger and serious threats to health that accompany the profession of prostitution and also explains to counselors some of the activities and practices of the male prostitute, enabling them to have a better understanding of the fascination and peril of the hustler’s life. The brevity of success in such a calling is also considered, with some consideration for the necessity of long-range planning for the hustler’s future. Important contents: interview of a well-known hustler brief look at early male prostitution--Greek, Roman, Burton’s theory the peacock period and youth as a prerequisite for hustling lures of the profession--money, power, other motivations paths and mechanisms leading to hustling characteristics of different types of hustlers types of clients patronizing hustlers literary illuminations the modus operandi of the male hustler extraordinary dangers confronting the male hustler today the attractiveness of the “seeing-through” of a hustler to past clients quo vadis for the hustler after youth passes Readers will be amazed by the daily hazards and drawbacks as well fascinated by the curiosities and rewards of the hustler’s profession. Especially of interest to therapists and counselors, Understanding the Male Hustler is also valuable for sociologists, anthropologists, medical specialists, psychiatrists, psychologists.