Expatriate genius: a black man from America's heartland, Chester B. Himes wandered from pre-med studies to prison to poverty and exile in Europe. Still, he became a writer's writer - 1909-1984 - tribute - Critical Essay

Black Issues Book Review, Nov-Dec, 2001 by Tony Lindsay

Some writers are prolific. Some display highly original thought, and others write with perceptive wit that speaks to the malice and ills of their societies. Chester Bomar Himes did all this and more. My first exposure to his work came through the 1970 film Cotton Comes to Harlem. As a youth I wasn't much concerned with the author of the original 1965 novel adapted for Ossie Davis's screen directorial debut, starring Godfrey Cambridge and Raymond St. Jacques. Back then, like many young male filmgoers, I was simply thrilled by the humor and action of the movie. It wasn't until years later at a used bookstore that I came across a tattered copy of the text and began my admiration of Himes's own work and writing.

The characters in the novel left an even stronger impression on me. Coffin Ed Johnson and Grave Digger Jones were smart, mean, funny, and they cared about the people of Harlem. They were black detectives in the 1940s--black men with badges, assured black men accustomed to out-thinking their white bosses downtown. Although working for a racist, culturally uninformed New York City police department, these black men wielded power and kept a lid on their always simmering, volatile urban black neighborhood. Himes gave Coffin Ed and Grave Digger a say in the justice that was served upon Harlem's residents. These two officers were harsh protectors of the poor and oppressed citizens of Harlem. They decided who would be brought from Harlem streets to jail. They brutally enforced not The Man's law, but their laws. They cracked heads to get information on those who threatened Harlem's peace and presence. Riots were stopped and injustices corrected. As a writer with a conscience, Himes recognized how rare black characters of power were in the literature of his time, so he created them.

Himes developed memorable characters like Coffin Ed Johnson and Grave Digger Jones contending against racism in their own way. He used his characters as a mirror on society and what he reflected was not always pretty, but more than worthy of seeing and understanding. His characters are never wholly good or totally evil, neither completely subservient nor entirely ignorant.

It is not merely the creation of such anchored-in-reality characters that speak to the genius of Himes, but also his imaginative exploration of various themes. In the 196l novel Pink Toes, the character Mamie Mason, a married white woman, genuinely feels the race problem could be solved by interracial copulation and does her best to promote her belief. The satirical wit Himes displays in this work is not to be missed. Pink Toes offers an unforgettable perspective on black and white race relations and an original story.

Although satire and humor is dearly visible in much of Himes's work, he did not rely solely on levity. The 1952 novel Cast the First Stone has little to laugh about. The rawness, devastation and inhumanity of convict life is told in a voice strong enough to instill a wise fear of incarceration. James Monroe expresses misguided love, perverse emotion, bartered affection and unpredictable violence. Himes's graphic images and wordplay remain with me a decade after first reading the work.

Few writers can pen social satire, mysteries, protest novels and short stories with Himes's skill. He wrote under circumstances many people couldn't survive. The son of a conflicted and disintegrating Midwestern, middle-class black family (he was born in Jefferson City, Missouri, but lived in Cleveland during his critical coming-of-age years), he ended up in prison for armed robbery, and turned to writing while serving time. He wrote while working demeaning jobs. Even as he suffered from illness, he wrote. While living in poverty and exile in Europe, he wrote. He left America for good in 1953, and died in Spain in 1984.

Chester Himes was a writer's writer. He did what a writer should do: He created images and memorable characters with his words that caused society to look at itself. Himes was a prolific writer who kept his eyes on the prize of provoking social change. He was a master craftsman who should be read by any aspiring writer. I suggest beginning with his 1957 crime caper A Rage in Harlem, which was also adapted into a 1991 feature film directed by Bill Duke and starred Forrest Whitaker and Robin Givens. But readers, be warned: Himes's writing is addictive.

Chester B. Himes's Collected Works

If He Hollers Let Him Go,
1945, reissued 1995,
Thunder's Mouth Press/
Nation Books, $12.95,
ISBN 1-560-25097-6

Lonely Crusade,
1947, reissued 1997,
Thunder's Mouth Press/
Nation Books, $14.95,
ISBN 1-560-25142-5

The Third Generation,
1947, reissued 1989,
Thunder's Mouth Press/
Nation Books, $14.95,
ISBN 0-938-41073-3

Cast the First Stone,
1952, currently out of print.

The Primitive, 1955, reissued
as The End of a Primitive,
1997, in the Old School series,
W.W. Norton & Company,
$12.00, ISBN 0-393-31540-1

A Rage In Harlem, 1957,
reissued 1989, Vintage, $10.00,
ISBN 0-679-72040-5

For Love of Imabelle,
1957, currently out of print.

The Real Cool Killers,
1959, reissued 1988,
Vintage Books, $10.00,
ISBN 0-679-72039-1

The Crazy Kill,
1959, reissued 1989,
Vintage Books, $9.00,
ISBN 0-679-72572-5

The Big Gold Dream,
1960, reissued 1996,
Thunder's Mouth Press/
Nation Books, $12.95,
ISBN 1-560-25104-2

All Shot Up, 1960, reissued
1996, Thunder's Mouth
Press/Nation Books, $12.95,
ISBN 1-560-25103-4

Pink Toes, 1961, reissued 1996
University Press of Mississippi,
$40.00, ISBN 0-878-05819-2

Cotton Comes to Harlem,
1965, reissued 1988,
Vintage Books, $11.00,
ISBN 0-394-75999-0

The Heat's On, 1966, reissued
1988, Vintage Books, $11.00,
ISBN 0-394-75997-4

Run Man Run, 1966, reissued
1995, Carroll & Graf, $8.95,
ISBN 0-786-70209-5

Blind Man with a Pistol, 1969,
reissued 1989, Vintage, $11.00,
ISBN 0-394-75998-2

The Collected Stones of
Chester Himes, edited by
Calvin Hernton, 2000,
Thunder's Mouth Press/
Nation Books
ISBN 1-560-25268-5

The Quality of Hurt, The Autobiography
of Chester Himes,
Vol. 1, 1972, reissued 1996,
Thunder's Mouth Press/
Nation Books, $13.95,
ISBN 1-560-25093-3

My Life of Absurdity: The Autobiography
of Chester Himes,
Vol. 2, 1976, reissued 1995,
Thunder's Mouth Press/
Nation Books, $13.95,
ISBN 1-560-25094-1

Chester Himes: A Life,
by James Sallis, Walker & Co.,
March 2001, $20.00,
ISBN 0-802-71362-9