Chester Himes

Chester Bomar Himes (July 29, 1909 – November 12, 1984) was a famous African-American author. He 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.

Related Topics:
July 29 - 1909 - November 12 - 1984 - African-American - Author - Jefferson City - Missouri

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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. He entered prison for armed robbery some years after that. He began writing while in prison.

Related Topics:
Cleveland - Ohio - Ohio State University - Columbus - Prison

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His novels encompassed many genres including mystery and political, such as exploring the topic of racism in the United States. In 1969 Chester Himes moved to Moraira, Spain, where he died in 1984.

Related Topics:
Racism - United States - Moraira - Spain

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Himes wrote a series of detective novels featuring Coffin Ed and Gravedigger Jones, New York City police detectives. The novels feature a mordant emotional timbre and a fatalistic approach to street situations. Funeral homes are often part of the story, and a funeral director is a recurring character in these books. These novels convey a revelatory and wide-ranging picture of Harlem, a part of northern Manhattan.

Related Topics:
Coffin Ed - Gravedigger Jones - Funeral home

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The Coffin Ed/Gravedigger Jones books could easily be compared in literary quality to NYPD Blue, a 1990s television drama starring Dennis Franz and Jimmy Smits produced on ABC. In the generation of American music African-Americans have played a central role. The same could be said for Chester Himes in creating the overall tone of post-Perry Mason American crime television and crime films, including such shows as Columbo, Cannon, The ABC Movie of the Week and Get Smart and crime films like Point Blank and The Godfather series.

Related Topics:
NYPD Blue - Dennis Franz - Jimmy Smits - ABC - Perry Mason - Columbo - Cannon - The ABC Movie of the Week - Get Smart - Point Blank - The Godfather

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The titles of the Himes Harlem detective novels include For Love of Imabelle, The Crazy Kill, The Real Cool Killers, All Shot Up, The Big Gold Dream, The Heat's On, Cotton Comes to Harlem and Blind Man With A Pistol. The books were written in the mid-1900s. Cotton Comes To Harlem was made into a movie in 1965.

Related Topics:
Cotton Comes to Harlem

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Chester Himes also wrote about African-America in general, especially in two books that are concerned with labor relations and African-American workplace issues. If He Hollers Let Him Go is about a black shipyard worker in Los Angeles during World War II. Lonely Crusade is a longer work that examines some of the same issues.

Related Topics:
If He Hollers Let Him Go - Shipyard - Los Angeles - World War II - Lonely Crusade

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By the 1950s Himes had decided permanently to settle in France, in Europe, as a result of his overwhelming critical popularity there. There were many other notable Americans who made similar decisions, such as the writer Ernest Hemingway. This period of time mirrors a similar era in the 1920s, when Irish writers such as James Joyce and Samuel Beckett left Ireland to live in France, along with Americans such as Gertrude Stein.

Related Topics:
1950s - France - Europe - Ernest Hemingway - James Joyce - Samuel Beckett - Ireland - Gertrude Stein

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While in Paris Himes was the contemporary of Richard Wright and James Baldwin.

Related Topics:
Richard Wright - James Baldwin

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Chester Himes is regarded as the literary equal of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler. He has also been compared to Walter Mosely, another African-American mystery writer.

Related Topics:
Dashiell Hammett - Raymond Chandler - Walter Mosely - Mystery writer

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James Sallis wrote a biography of Himes called Chester Himes: A Life (2000).

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