A fascinating blend of hatred and tenderness, of hard-boiled
realism and generous idealism colors the writings of Chester Himes.
How did this gifted son of the respectable southern black family
become a juvenile delinquent? How did he acquire self-esteem and a
new sense of identity by writing short stories while in the Ohio
state penitentiary?
Chester Himes (1909-1984) had literary genius. Yet in his native
country, he is recalled more as the author of successful detective
novels ("Cotton Comes to Harlem") than as a practitioner of the art
of fiction. The genesis of his books is his own autobiography. In
"If He Hollers, Let Him Go" and in the fratricidal shootout of his
black detectives Grave Digger and Coffin Ed in "Plan B" he was an
unsparing witness to our changing times. His painful experiences in
American indelibly marked his fiction, which is filled with
reflections on his difficult relationships, especially with
women--his fair-complexioned mother, his African-American first
wife Jean, his many white lovers, and finally his English wife
Leslie. His career was beset by controversy, and he left America to
live on the Left Bank in the colony of expatriates and as a
colleague of Richard Wright. Eventually, he settled in Spain.
Drawn from his letters, notebooks, memoirs, and his fiction,
this straightforward account of Hime's varied, episodic life
attempts to trace the origins of his significant literary gift. It
details the socioeconomic, familial, and cultural background which
fed his ambivalent views on race in America. Hime's Deep South
childhood, his adolescence in the Midwest, his young manhood in
prison (1928-1936), his years as a menial laborer, his struggles as
an author in California and New York City, and finally his glory
days as an expatriate and celebrity in France and Spain are plumbed
deeply for their effects upon his works. This is the bittersweet
story of a man who found salvation in writing.
Edward Margolies is Professor Emeritus, English, and American
Studies, College of Staten Island, City University of New York.
Michel Fabre is Professor Emeritus, American Studies, Universite de
la Sorbonne.
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