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This page lists novels, short story collections, and autobiographical books by Chester Himes and books about Chester Himes and his work.

Note that the publication dates and first cover image are for the first English language editions. Some of the books from the mid 1950s onward were first published in France.

A more detailed page that includes original French editions will be added.

By Chester Himes
- novels / short story collections
- omnibus editions
- autobiography

About Chester Himes
- biographical / critical

If He Hollers Let Him Go

Chester Himes

1945

"Robert Jones is a crew leader in a naval shipyard in Los Angeles in the 1940s. He should have a lot going for him, being educated, with a steady job and a steady relationship. But in the four days covered in this novel, the impossibility of life as a black man in a white world is made devastatingly clear. Jones is surrounded by prejudice, suspicion and paranoia, and his daily experiences influence his thoughts, dreams and behaviour."

Lonely Crusade

Chester Himes

1947

"This story deals with the efforts of college-educated Lee Gordon to unionize the small black workforce at an aircraft factory during World War II. He discovers he is being manipulated by white union officials, the Communists, white women and by his bosses."

Cast the First Stone

Chester Himes

1952

"James Munroe was a cool cat. He took his prison sentence without blinking and by the fourth year he had made it. Then a youngster named Dido moved into his cell block and Munroe's shell began to crumble."

The Third Generation

Chester Himes

1954

"Charles's mother looks white & feels white, but she is unalterably black, & hates it. Embittered & domineering, she is revolted by her husband's dark skin, scornful of his middle-class success-all her hopes center on her son. Charles has inherited her light skin & her rage-a rage that will catapult him past two societies into a violent no-man's-land of self-destruction. The heartbreaking love between these two mounts to tragic crisis as Charles, unable to adjust to black or white society, enters a nether world of vicious debauchery & self-ruin."

The Primitive

Chester Himes

1955

Later editions had the title The End Of A Primitive.

"Jesse Robinson wakes from his nightmare to dirty, fitful real life in a Harlem slum. Kriss wakes up alone divorced, disillusioned, in her plush Manhattan apartment. They have nothing in common. Just one amazing, passionate weekend in Chicago and a desire to meet again."

For Love of Imabelle

Chester Himes

1957

A Coffin Ed Johnson and Gravedigger Jones novel.

Subsequently published as A Rage In Harlem.

"Jackson's woman has found him a foolproof way to make money - a technique for turning ten dollar bills into hundreds. But when the scheme somehow fails, Jackson is left broke, wanted by the police and desperately racing to get back both his money and his loving Imabelle. The first of Chester Himes's novels to feature the hardboiled Harlem detectives 'Coffin' Ed Johnson and 'Grave Digger' Jones, A Rage in Harlem has swagger, brutal humour, lurid violence, a hearse loaded with gold and a conman dressed as a Sister of Mercy."

The Real Cool Killers

Chester Himes

1959

A Coffin Ed Johnson and Gravedigger Jones novel.

"The night's over for Ulysses Galen. It started going bad for the big Greek when a knife was drawn, then there was an axe, then he was being chased and shot at. Now Galen is lying dead in the middle of a Harlem street. But the night's just beginning for detectives Gravedigger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson. Because they have a smoking gun but it couldn't have killed Galen, and they had a suspect but a gang called the Real Cool Moslems took him. And as patrol cars and search teams descend on the neighbourhood, their case threatens to take a turn for the personal."

The Crazy Kill

Chester Himes

1959

A Coffin Ed Johnson and Gravedigger Jones novel.

"One early morning, Reverend Short is watching from his bedroom window as the A&P across the street is robbed. As he tries to see the thief get away, the opium-addicted preacher leans too far and falls out--but he is unscathed, thanks to an enormous bread basket outside the bakery downstairs.  As the crowd gathers to see what happened, a shocking discovery is made: There is another body in the bread basket, and Valentine Haines is dead, really dead. It's up to Gravedigger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson to find out who murdered Val."

The Big Gold Dream

Chester Himes

1960

A Coffin Ed Johnson and Gravedigger Jones novel.

"The Big Gold Dream is the explosive and shocking hardboiled classic that explores the shadowy underbelly of New York as an urban civil war erupts on the side streets of Harlem, pitting murderers and prostitutes against corrupt politicians and racist white detectives. Gravedigger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson attempt to maintain some kind of order—in the neighborhood they have sworn to protect—in a world gone mad around them."

All Shot Up

Chester Himes

1966

A Coffin Ed Johnson and Gravedigger Jones novel.

"A golden Cadillac big enough to cross the ocean has been seen sailing along the streets of Harlem. A hit-and-run victim's been hit so hard she got embedded in the wall of a convent. A shootout with three heistmen dressed as cops has left an important politician in a coma - and a lot of money missing. And Gravedigger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson are the ones who have to piece it all together."

Pinktoes

Chester Himes

1961

"All Mamie Mason ever wanted was to be "the hostess with the mostest" and inspire a lot of inter-racial loving at her famous parties in Harlem. A bawdy Rabelaisian tale of sex, food and gossip."

Cotton Comes to Harlem

Chester Himes

1965

A Coffin Ed Johnson and Gravedigger Jones novel.

"A preacher called Deke O'Malley's been selling false hope: the promise of a glorious new life in Africa for just $1,000 a family. But when thieves with machine guns steal the proceeds - and send one man's brain matter flying - the con is up. Now Gravedigger Jones and Coffin Ed mean to bring the good people of Harlem back their $87,000, however many corpses they have to climb over to get it. Cotton Comes to Harlem is a non-stop ride, with violence, sex, double-crosses, and the two baddest detectives ever to wear a badge in Harlem."

The Heat's On

Chester Himes

1966

A Coffin Ed Johnson and Gravedigger Jones novel.

"Detectives Coffin Ed and Gravedigger Jones have lost two criminals. Pinky ran off - but it shouldn't be hard to track down a giant albino in Harlem. Jake the dwarf drug dealer, though, isn't coming back - he died after Grave Digger punched him in the stomach. And the dwarf's death might cost them both their badges. Unless they can track down the cause of all this mayhem - like the African with his throat slit and the dog the size of a lion with an open head wound."

Run Man Run

Chester Himes

1966

"Walker, one of New York's not very finest, is a drunk, psychotic and viscious policeman. Staggering into a restaurant on a freezing day, he kills two Negro worker "because they were there", and pursues a third who witnessed the murders, determined to kill him as well."

Blind Man with a Pistol

Chester Himes

1969

A Coffin Ed Johnson and Gravedigger Jones novel.

"New York is sweltering in the summer heat, and Harlem is dose to the boiling point. To Coffin Ed Johnson and Gravedigger Jones, at times it seems as if the whole world has gone mad. Trying, as always, to keep some kind of peace - their legendary nickel-plated Colts very much in evidence - Coffin Ed and Grave Digger find themselves pursuing two completely different cases through a maze of knifings, beatings, and riots that threaten to tear Harlem apart."

Black on Black

Chester Himes

1973

"These collected pieces include seventeen short stories, five essays and a film scenario by one of the most important black writers of our time. They span four decades, and through them all run the common threads of Himes's work - the power and vividness of a master writer, and the grim desperation and gallows humour of the black man in America."

A Case of Rape

Chester Himes

1980

The 1980 publication is a limited edition of a work first published in France in 1963. A general edition was published in Howard University Press in 1984.

"This thought-provoking, jarring thriller examines the social and sexual relationships between the races. A white woman is raped and killed by four black American men in Paris. Or is she?"

The Collected Stories of Chester Himes

Chester Himes

1990

"Spanning 40 years and including Himes's first work, written during his imprisonment in the 1940s, this collection uncovers the internal struggles of black individuals caught between resignation and rage, probing the heart of the African-American experience with wit, indignation, and ruthless honesty."

Plan B

Chester Himes

1993

A Coffin Ed Johnson and Gravedigger Jones novel. The unfinished manuscript of this novel was edited and originally published in France in 1985.

"Tomsson Black, political visionary, business genius, and underground revolutionary, plots to avenge injustice by instigating racial turmoil. The roots of racism extend far back into his ancestry, and persecution and suffering have affected many generations of his family. Tomsson's own misfortunes are the impetus for him to found a criminal underworld whose ultimate purpose is the overflow of white society. This novel, the history of Tomsson Black and an indictment of racism in America, ends in apocalypse."

Yesterday Will Make You Cry

Chester Himes

1998

Complete and unexpurgated text of the early autobiographical novel that was originally published in an edited form as Cast the First Stone in 1952.

"By turns brutal and lyrical and never less than totally honest, it tells the autobiographical story of young Jimmy Monroe's passage through the prison system, which tests the limits of his sanity, his capacity for suffering, and his definition of love."

The Harlem Cycle Vol 1

Chester Himes

1996

An omnibus edition that combines the three novels: Rage in Harlem; Real Cool Killers; and Crazy Kill.

The Harlem Cycle Vol 2

Chester Himes

1996

An omnibus edition that combines the three novels: The Big Gold Dream; All Shot Up; and The Heat's On.

The Harlem Cycle Vol 3

Chester Himes

1998

An omnibus edition that combines the three novels: Cotton Comes to Harlem; Blind Man with a Pistol; and Plan B.

The Quality of Hurt: The Autobiography Of

Chester Himes

1973

Later editions have the subtitle The Early Year.

"In The Quality of Hurt, Chester Himes writes of black ghetto life and of his personal struggle with repressive American ways. The pain of his rejection of and by America is tempered by his own vitality and humor as an artist, making this important work not only a look at Chester Himes, but a sharp and often painful look at America itself."

My Life of Absurdity: The Autobiography Of: Volume II

Chester Himes

1976

"In this the second volume of his autobiography, Chester Himes deals with moving to Paris in the early 1950s, where he developed from an eloquent, influential "black writer" into a writer who was internationally known. Himes takes us to the heart of Paris expatriate cafe society and through the writing of his eighteen books and novels. He also paints fascinating glimpses of lowers, three continents, and friends such as Richard Wright, Ralph Ellison, and James Baldwin. My Life of Absurdity is the story of a life only Himes could have lived -- just on the edge of reality, about three steps short of fantasy, and three generations out of slavery."

Chester Himes

James Lundquist

Frederick Ungar

1976

"This is the first full-length study of the black novelist Chester Himes. His stark racial fiction and his series of black-detective novels are the expression of his terrifying vision of an America made mad by its racist obsession."

Chester Himes: A Critical Appraisal

Stephen F. Milliken

1976

Which Way Did He Go? The Private Eye in Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, Chester Himes and Ross MacDonald

Edward Margolies

1981

Two Guns From Harlem: The Detective Fiction of Chester Himes

Robert E. Skinner

1989

"Two Guns from Harlem" probes Himes s early life and career for the roots of this series and for its heroes, Coffin Ed Johnson and Gravedigger Jones. Skinner discusses how Himes s experience as a black man, combined with his unique outlook on sociology, politics, violence, sex, and race relations, resulted not only in an unusual portrait of black America but also opened the way for the creation of the ethnic and female hard-boiled detectives who followed."

Chester Himes

Gilbert H. Muller

Twayne Publishing

1989

Chester Himes: Author and Civil Rights Pioneer

M.L. WIlson

1990

"A biography of the Black novelist renowned for his series of detective stories."

Chester Himes: An Annotated Primary and Secondary Bibliography

Compiled by: Michel Fabre, Robert E Skinner and Lester Sullivan

1992

"A contemporary of Richard Wright, James Baldwin, and Ralph Ellison, Chester Himes wrote with perhaps more angry fire than his celebrated colleagues about black protagonists doomed by white racisim and self-hate. Among his writings is a series of hard-boiled detective novels featuring black detectives and a host of Harlem hustlers. The acclaimed Harlem series and much of his later work were written in France where Himes lived as an American expatriate from 1953 until his death in 1984. Exhaustively researched and well constructed, this comprehensive bibliography clears up mysteries and dispels misconceptions about the extent of Himes's work and its critical reception."

Difficult Lives: Jim Thompson – David Goodis – Chester Himes

James Sallis

1993

Paris without Regret: James Baldwin, Kenny Clarke, Chester Himes, and Donald Byrd

Ursula Broschke Davis

1994

"In the 1950s a number of Afro-American artists left the United States, seeking a community where their blackness could be accepted without racial nightmares and where they could practice their art with a freedom denied them in America. This sensitive narrative explores the self-exile of four renowned Afro-American artists; best-selling authors James Baldwin and Chester Himes; the father of modern jazz drumming, Kenny Clarke; and noted contemporary jazz musician and teacher Donald Byrd."

Conversations with Chester Himes

Editor: Michel Fabre and Robert E. Skinner

1995

"Compiled here for the first time and drawn from many sources, these interviews span Himes's career and present a bold picture of a proud, brilliant, and combative man who commands both attention and respect."

The Several Lives of Chester Himes

Edward Margolies, Michel Fabre

1997

"Drawn from his letters, notebooks, memoirs, and his fiction, this straightforward account of Himes' 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. Himes' 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."

The Critical Response to Chester Himes

Compiled by: Michel Fabre, Robert E Skinner and Lester Sullivan

Greenwood Press

1999

"The work of Chester Himes is now undergoing a critical and popular reevaluation as it gradually comes back into print after years of neglect. His protest novels from the 1940s and early 1950s, his Harlem Domestic crime books, first published in France and later released in English in the United States, and his remarkable two-volume autobiography are now gaining a wider readership through their republication. Nonetheless, the critical writings on his work remain scattered and are often difficult to obtain. This collection of reviews and essays from both popular and academic sources traces the critical response to his work from 1946 to 1996 and thus sheds light on the critical reputation of one of the most distinguished but underrated African American authors."

Chester Himes: A Life

James Sallis

2000

"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 Gravedigger 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 Himes: 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."

Dear Chester, Dear John: Letters Between Chester Himes and John A. Williams

Edited and selected by John A. and Lori Williams

2008

"Dear Chester, Dear John is a landmark collection of correspondence between these two friends, presenting nearly three decades worth of letters about their lives and loves, their professional and personal challenges, and their reflections on society in the United States and abroad. Prepared by John A. Williams and his wife, Lori, this collection contains rare and personal glimpses into the lives of Williams and Himes between 1962 and 1987. As the writers find increasing professional success and recognition, they share candid assessments of each others' work and also discuss the numerous pitfalls they faced as African American writers in the publishing world."

The Noir Atlantic: Chester Himes and the Birth of the Francophone African Crime Novel

Pim Higginson

Liverpool University Press

2011

"The Noir Atlantic follows the influence of African American author Chester Himes on Francophone African crime fiction. In 1953, Himes emigrated to Paris; he struggled there, just as he had in the United States. In 1957, his luck changed: the famous French Serie noire brought out the first installment of his Harlem crime series, La reine des pommes. Suddenly, he was a household name in France. Later, he would also have a significant influence on Francophone African writers; for them, Himes s blend of absurdist humor and violence offered an alternative to a high literary paradigm implanted during the colonial era. Likewise, his heterogeneous identity as American, black, and a writer of French bestsellers modeled an escape from the centripetal pull of the Metropole. Starting with Abasse Ndione s depictions of Senegal s marijuana-smoking subculture in La Vie en spirale (1982) and ending with Mongo Beti s 2001 Branle-bas en noir et blanc, set in Yaounde, Cameroon, Francophone African crime fiction rejected French criteria of literary success; it embraced a new postcolonial aesthetic that emphasized entertaining the reader while making a living."

Chester B. Himes: A Biography

Lawrence P. Jackson

2017

"In this definitive biography of Chester B. Himes (1909-1984), Lawrence P. Jackson uses exclusive interviews and unrestricted access to Himes's full archives to portray a controversial American writer whose novels unflinchingly confront sex, racism, and black identity. Himes brutally rendered racial politics in the best-selling novel If He Hollers Let Him Go, but he became famous for his Harlem detective series, including Cotton Comes to Harlem. A serious literary tastemaker in his day, Himes had friendships - sometimes uneasy - with such luminaries as Ralph Ellison, Carl Van Vechten, and Richard Wright. Jackson's scholarship and astute commentary illuminates Himes's improbable life - his middle-class origins, his eight years in prison, his painful odyssey as a black World War II-era artist, and his escape to Europe for success. More than ten years in the writing, Jackson's biography restores the legacy of a fascinating maverick caught between his aspirations for commercial success and his disturbing, vivid portraits of the United States."