Chester Himes: A Life

by James Sallis

Chester Himes's novels and memoirs represent one of the most important bodies of work by any American writer, but he is best known for The Harlem Cycle, the crime stories featuring Coffin Ed Johnson and Grave Digger Jones. His writing made him a major figure in Europe, but it is only recently that his talents have been acknowledged in the country that spurned him for most of his life, though his work is recognized as being on a par with that of Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, and Jim Thompson. In this major literary biography, acclaimed poet, critic, and novelist James Sallis explores Himes's life as no writer has attempted before. Combining the public facts with fresh interviews with the people who knew him best, including his second wife, Lesley, Sallis casts light onto the contradictions, self-interrogations, and misdirections that make Himes such an enigmatic and elusive subject. Chester A Life is a definitive study not only of the life of a major African-American man of letters, but of his writing and its relationship to the man himself, drawing a remarkable, deeply affecting portrait of a too often misunderstood and neglected writer. This is a work of high scholarship and of penetrating and passionate insight, a rare conjoining of two fine writers-and as much a work of literature as any of their novels.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, Biography Memoir, African American

350 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 2000

About the author

James Sallis (born 21 December 1944 in Helena, Arkansas) is an American crime writer, poet and musician, best known for his series of novels featuring the character Lew Griffin and set in New Orleans, and for his 2005 novel Drive, which was adapted into a 2011 film of the same name.

Reviews

[Chanika R. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chester Himes can be a difficult man to understand, but James Sallis beautifully chronicles his life, his literary achievements, and his difficulties finding a place in the world. Although Himes lived as an expat in France and Spain, he never truly felt at home, and his works didn't always garner the attention they deserved. Sallis's biography is quite easy to read, and I definitely recommend it to anyone interested in gaining more insight into Himes, the talented, sometimes abrasive, always brutally honest writer.

[Urenna Sander · Rating 3 out of 5]

Chester Himes, A Life, is an autobiography of the late African-American author. The book was written by James Sallis. According to Sallis, two of Himes’ books, which are considered stories, are autobiographies. They are The Third Generation, written in 1954 and The End of a Primitive, written in1955. Himes’ publishers considered the latter too daring and obscene in the 1950s. However, today, the book is written in its entirety.
In 1909, Himes, the middle child of three sons, was born into a middleclass family in Missouri.
His father was a college professor, and although hardworking, he moved the family from place to place. Himes’ mother, a housewife, was described as domineering, contentious and never satisfied.
In 1912, what would shape Himes life about race relations was an accident involving his brother, Joseph. Because he was being punished, Himes did not conduct a gunpowder demonstration with his brother. Joseph was blinded by the gunpowder.
When rushed to a hospital by his parents, Joseph was refused treatment because of his race. This shattered Himes. Himes blamed himself for his brother’s tragic accident.
Because of guilt concerning Joseph’s accident, I think Himes life spiraled out of control. In high school, he was expelled for being a prankster. As a young man, Himes was attracted to the seedy world of pimps, prostitutes, and thieves. He was expelled from Ohio State College for taking classmates to a house of prostitution after their spring dance.
Afterwards, according to Sallis, Himes, jailed for theft with a friend, appeared irredeemable. After a brief stint in jail, he had to earn his keep.
Himes worked in a hotel, where he fell 14 floors after being scorned by a white female worker. The fall, self-inflicted, required a six month hospital stay for limbs, neck and back injuries. Thereafter, he would suffer chronic pain.
After he recovered, Himes again returned to the sordid world of crime and prostitution. And, in 1925, Himes found himself sentenced to hard labor for 20 years, for armed robbery.
In jail, Himes made use of his time, writing about his prison experiences.
After reading novels by Dashiell Hammett in Esquire Magazine, Himes decided to try his hand at writing. His first article was published by Esquire in 1934. Himes wrote many articles thereafter for the magazine. At that time, Esquire had no idea Himes was black.
After 11 years, in 1936, Himes was released from jail into his mother’s custody. He married his first wife, Jean Johnson that year.
Himes didn’t want his wife, Jean, to work but there were times he was receptive to her prostituting to keep food on the table. During this period, he stayed home and wrote books.
In the 1940s, Himes and his wife moved to Los Angeles. There, Himes wrote If He Hollers Let Him Go and the Lonely Crusade concerning the black migration from the south to the north.
In 1945, his first book, If He Hollers Let Him Go was published. The movie version debuted in 1968, and starred Bill Cosby and Sidney Poitier. Cotton Comes to Harlem, written in 1965, debuted on the silver screen in 1970.
Considered one of the Harlem Renaissance writers along with his friends and fellow writers, the late Richard Wright and Langston Hughes, Himes wrote 20 books from 1945 to 1998. He is well known for his Harlem detective series. He was also friends with the late author, James Baldwin.

Himes received acclaim for his books in France. Feeling his writing was more acknowledged in France, and considering his wife Jean a liability, Himes left the States without telling her in 1953.
In the late 1950s, in Europe, Himes met his second wife, Lesley Packard Himes, a journalist for the Herald Tribune.
Himes and Lesley moved to Moraira, Spain in 1969. He died in 1984.
I didn’t enjoy reading James Sallis autobiography of Himes. Maybe I might have gotten a deeper view of Himes from his own autobiography. Maybe I wouldn’t like it.
However, from this biography, although Himes was a powerfully descriptive writer, my conclusion is he was a selfish, unprincipled man.
I am reading books by two other well-known late authors, Hemingway and Gordon Parks. The mot juste for these two writers, thus far, reveals their selfishness concerning the women that love them, their wives.

[Mark Phillips · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like many others, I came to appreciate Himes as the writer of the Harlem detective novels, but these came very late in his career while living in self-imposed exile in France. His fascinating life before that is full of drama, complexity, and passion. Himes was, quite simply, a trouble magnet, and his irascible personality, quick temper, alcoholism, and lust made it all the worse. But through all that nonsense, his dedication to his craft was impressive.

There are problems with this biography. Sallis sometimes lapses into rather highfalutin abstractions and meaning-of-life analyses that get old quickly. I had to take notes to try to keep the timeline straight, as he would jump ahead or introduce a necessary detail long after the episode that should've contained it. But the wealth of detail makes up for these minor annoyances. The insights into the black expat scene in Paris during the 1950s were fascinating and made me want to do further research. Himes was a pivotal character in this milieu. I just finished a history of the Blaxploitation films of the '70s, and I found in this bio descriptions of Himes' friendship with Melvin Van Peebles well before their work would kick off that whole subgenre.

[James Marshall · Rating 5 out of 5]

Entertaining biography of this great author. It shows the writer's struggle, self-doubt and years of rejection.

[Tolkien InMySleep · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the great black writers eulogised by a modern great of the crime fiction genre

[Eric Stone · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great biography of Chester Himes by a writer who writes some incredibly fine novels as well. Plus - we have the same agent.