Chester Himes Summary

Himes, Chester (1909-1984) College dropout, pimp, bootlegger, and convicted armed-robber, Chester Himes began writing his acclaimed "Harlem Cycle" of crime novels in Paris in 1957. His m... Read more

His reputation rests largely on his detective novels, which in their own right rank with the best noir fiction, but Chester Himes (1909-1984) was hardly a man to be pigeonholed. In his lifetime he pub... Read more

Novelist, essayist, short-story writer, and journalist, Chester Himes made his mark as a satirist and as a writer of detective novels. In 1970 John A. Williams maintained that "Himes is perhaps the ... Read more

In 1957 Chester Himes was so down and out in Paris that he was ready to write almost anything to make a buck--even a detective novel. Himes was at that point a "serious" novelist who had never written... Read more

In the following interview, originally published in 1983 and translated from French by Fabre, Himes discusses topics such as the influence of his largely expatriate life on his writing, settings and t... Read more

In the following essay, Skinner analyzes two early Himes novels, If He Hollers Let Him Go and Lonely Crusade, comparing them to the works of such Los Angeles writers as James M. Cain and Raymond Chand... Read more

In the following essay, Cochran points out the ways in which Himes's detective novels show the dark side of American capitalism and a violent, absurd vision of the nation. In the penultimate... Read more

In the following essay, Braham compares the detective novels of Himes and Mexican writer Paco Ignacio Taibo II, arguing that each seeks to regain control of radical and popular history and to redefine... Read more

In the following essay, Turner comments on the mixture of violence and humor in Himes's detective fiction. Often mystery novels allow the reader vicarious confrontation with violence that ha... Read more

In the following essay, Gair uses references to the idiom of jazz in Cotton Comes to Harlem to point to the multitude of cultural meanings in the novel. There are two instances in Chester Himes�... Read more

In the following essay, Glasrud and Champion examine Himes's World War II-era short stories, novels, and essays, which reveal the effects of racism on both African Americans and other minoritie... Read more

In the following essay, Lindsay offers a tribute to Himes and a summary of his life's work. A black man from American's heartland, Chester B. Himes (1909-1984) wandered from pre-med s... Read more

Critical Essay by John M. Reilly Chester Himes began writing Tough-Guy fiction in 1957,… and the most striking of his "new angles" is the fact that his stories take place almost ... Read more

Critical Essay by A. Robert Lee Just as [his] earlier fiction was neither as solemn nor monotone as had casually been supposed so Himes's use of the thriller genre, ostensibly all pantomime an... Read more

In the following essay, Rosen discusses the presence of anti-Semitism in Himes's Lonely Crusade and its sources and implications. Most critics have considered Chester Himes's second n... Read more

In the following essay, Cochran discusses the portrayal of racial tensions in Himes's fiction and states that "Himes viewed race as a dialectical relationship which progressed toward inc... Read more

In the following review, Miller favorably reviews The Collected Stories of Chester Himes. Seven years after his death in Spain, Chester Himes remains as remote from American readers as he was durin... Read more

In the following essay, Sante discuses the effects of exile, translation, and genre on Himes's work. There is a peculiar purgatory of esteem reserved for those American artists who have been... Read more

In the following essay, Alter analyzes the role of Gravedigger Jones and Coffin Ed as mediators between the white world of the law and the black world of the streets in Himes's detective fictio... Read more