CHESTER HIMES

'Chester Bomar Himes' (July 29, 1909 – November 12, 1984) was a famous African American writer. His works include ''If He Hollers Let Him Go'' and a series of Harlem Detective novels.

Contents

Life

Works

Novels and Stories

Autobiography

See also

References

External links

Life

Chester Himes was born in Jefferson City, Missouri on July 29, 1909. He grew up in a middle-class home in Missouri and in Ohio. Chester's parents were Joseph Sandy Himes and Estelle Bomar Himes.
Himes attended East High School in Cleveland Ohio. While he was a freshman at Ohio State University in Columbus Ohio, he was expelled for a prank. Years later, he entered prison for armed robbery. In prison, he wrote short stories and had them published in national magazines. Himes stated that writing and publishing was a way to earn respect from guards and fellow inmates, as well as avoid violence.
By the 1950s Himes had decided to settle in France permanently, a country he liked in part due to his critical popularity there. In Paris Himes was the contemporary of the political cartoonist, Oliver Harrington, and fellow writers, Richard Wright and James Baldwin.
Some regard Chester Himes as the literary equal of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler. Ishmael Reed says "[Himes] taught me the difference between a black detective and Sherlock Homes" and it would be more than 30 years until another Black mystery writer, Walter Mosley and his Easy Rawlins and Mouse series, had even a similar effect. ^[1]
Himes was a member of Alpha Phi Alpha, the first intercollegiate Greek-letter fraternity established for African Americans. [1]
The first biographical treatment of Himes's life is "The Several Lives of Chester Himes," by long-time Himes scholars Edward Margolies and Michel Fabre, published in 1997 by University Press of Mississippi. Later, novelist and Himes scholar James Sallis published much more deeply detailed biography of Himes called ''Chester Himes: A Life'' (2000).
A detailed examination of Himes's writing and what has been written about him in both America and Europe can be found in "Chester Himes: An Annotated Primary and Secondary Bibliography" compiled by Michel Fabre, Robert E. Skinner, and Lester Sullivan (Greenwood Press, 1992)
Mike Davies in "City of Quartz: Excavating the Future of Los Angeles", describes the prvalence of racism in Hollywood in the 40s and 50s, cites Himes' brief career as a screen-writer for Warner Brothers, terminated when Jack Warner heard about him and said "I don't want no niggers on this lot." (Davies, City of Quartz, pg 43, Verso 2006). Himes later wrote in his biography:
"Up to the age of thirty-one I had been hurt emotionally, spiritually and physically as much as thirty-one years can bear. I had lived in the South, I had fallen down an elevator shaft, I had been kicked out of college, I had served seven and one half years in prison, I had survived the humiliating last five years of Depression in Cleveland; and still I was entire, complete, functional; my mind was sharp, my reflexes were good, and I was not bitter. But under the mental corrosion of race prejudice in Los Angeles I became bitter and saturated with hate."
In 1969, fleeing oppression, Himes moved to Moraira, Spain, where he died in 1984 from Parkinson's Disease.

Works

Himes's novels encompassed many genres including the crime novel/mystery and political polemics, exploring racism in the United States.
Chester Himes wrote about African Americans in general, especially in two books that are concerned with labor relations and African American workplace issues. ''If He Hollers Let Him Go'' — contains many autobiographical elements—is about a black shipyard worker in Los Angeles during World War II struggling against racism as well as his own violent reactions to racism. ''Lonely Crusade'' is a longer work that examines some of the same issues. ''Cast the First Stone'' is based on Himes's experiences in prison. It was Himes's first novel but was not published until about 10 years after it was written. One reason may have been Himes' unusually candid treatment — for that time — of a homosexual relationship.
Himes also wrote a series of Harlem Detective novels featuring Coffin Ed Johnson and Gravedigger Jones, New York City police detectives in Harlem. The novels feature a mordant emotional timbre and a fatalistic approach to street situations. Funeral homes are often part of the story, and funeral director H. Exodus Clay is a recurring character in these books.
The titles of the series include ''A Rage In Harlem'', ''The Real Cool Killers'', ''The Crazy Kill'', ''All Shot Up'', ''The Big Gold Dream'', ''The Heat's On'', ''Cotton Comes to Harlem'', and ''Blind Man With A Pistol''; all written in the period 1957-1969.
''Cotton Comes to Harlem'' was made into a movie in 1970, which was set in that time period, rather than the earlier period of the original book. A sequel, ''Come Back, Charleston Blue'' was released in 1972. And ''For Love of Imabelle'' was made into a film under the title ''A Rage in Harlem'' in 1991.

Novels and Stories

# ''If He Hollers Let Him Go'', 1945
# ''The Lonely Crusade'', 1947
# ''Cast the First Stone'', 1952
# ''The Third Generation'', 1954
# ''The End of a Primitive'', 1955
# ''For Love of Imabelle'', alternate title ''A Rage in Harlem'', 1957
# ''The Real Cool Killers'', 1959
# ''The Crazy Kill'', 1959
# ''The Big Gold Dream'', 1960
# ''All Shot up'', 1960
# ''Run Man Run'', 1960
# ''Pinktoes'', 1961
# ''The Heat's on'', 1966
# ''Cotton Comes to Harlem'', 1965
# ''Blind Man with a Pistol'', 1969
# ''Black on Black'', 1973
# ''A Case of Rape'', 1980
# ''The Collected Stories of Chester Himes'', 1990
# ''Plan B'', 1993
# ''Yesterday Will Make You Cry'', 1998

Autobiography

#''The Quality of Hurt'' (1973)
#''My Life of Absurdity'' (1976)
A useful companion to the two volumes of autobiography is "Conversations with Chester Himes", edited by Michel Fabre and Robert E. Skinner, published by University Press of Mississippi in 1995.

See also

★ African American literature

References

1. http://www.math.buffalo.edu/~sww/reed/reed_ishmael0.html


★ Lipsitz, George. ''Rainbow at Midnight: Labor and Culture in the 1940s''. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1994.

★ Margolies, Edward, and Michel Fabre. ''The Several Lives of Chester Himes''. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1997.

★ Franklin, H. Bruce. “Self-Mutilations.” Rev. of ''Yesterday Will Make You Cry'', by Chester Himes. ''Nation'' 16 Feb. 1998: 28-31.

External links

★ Biography

★ Review of The Collected Short Stories Of Chester Himes

★ Overview and Review of Himes's Work

★ Audiobook (mp3) : Face in the moon, short story translated in french

★ Friends of Chester Himes website

★ [2]