Chester Himes

A Life

James Sallis

• Publisher: Open Road Media
• Year: 2022
• ISBN:
  9781504073899
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Social Science Biographies
• Index: Social Sciences

"[A] smart, conscientious, often stylish biography" of the great African American crime writer of the mid-twentieth century ( The New York Times ). Best known for The Harlem Cycle, the series of crime stories featuring Coffin Ed Johnson and Grave Digger Jones, Chester Himes was a novelist and memoirist whose work was neglected and underappreciated in his native America during the 1950s and '60s, even as he was awarded France's most prestigious crime fiction prize. In this major biography, literary critic and fellow writer James Sallis examines the life of this "fascinating figure, " combining interviews of those who knew Himes best—including his second wife—with insightful and poignant writing ( Publishers Weekly ). "Himes wrote some of the 20th century's most memorable crime fiction and has been compared to Jim Thompson, Raymond Chandler, and Dashiell Hammett. His life was just as spectacular as his novels. Sentenced to 25 years in prison for armed robbery when he was 19, he turned to writing while behind bars and, when released after serving eight years, published two novels. Their poor reception by the white establishment only confirmed Himes's beliefs about racism in America. He eventually moved to Paris, spending most of the rest of his life abroad. While in Paris, he began to produce the crime fiction that would make him famous, including A Rage in Harlem and Cotton Comes to Harlem ... [a] riveting biography." — Library Journal (starred review) "Satisfying, thoughtful, long-overdue." — Publishers Weekly "As intelligent, and as much fun to read, as a book by Himes himself. There is no higher praise." — The Times (London)

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Dedication
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• 1. Unnatural Histories
• 2. 59623
• 3. “One Way to Be a Nigger”
• 4. The Things a Writing Man Will Do
• 5. Round Us Bark the Mad and Hungry Dogs
• 6. “I’m Still Here”
• 7. A Street He Could Understand
• 8. Going Too Far and Too Far Gone
• 9. “I Don’t Have That Much Imagination”
• 10. Literature Will Not Save You
• 11. European Experience
• 12. Story-Shaped Life
• 13. Doubt, Passion, the Madness of Art
• 14. Beautiful White Ruins of America
• 15. A Serious Savage
• 16. A New Intelligence
• 17. Gone So Long
• 18. Black Ruins of My Life
• 19. The Bad Mother
• 20. “I Never Found a Place I Fit”
• Selected Bibliography
• Works by Chester Himes
• Notes
• Index
• About the Author
• Copyright