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Chester Bomar Himes (July 29, 1909 – November 12, 1984) was an American writer.
Chester Himes (born July 29, 1909, Jefferson City, Mo., U.S.—died Nov. 12, 1984, Moraira, Spain) was an African-American writer whose novels reflect his encounters with racism. As an expatriate in Paris, he published a series of Black detective novels.
Feb 2, 2024 · For a nerdy kid who cut his crime fiction teeth on Chandler, Hammett and both Macdonalds (Ross and John D.), seeing this book written by a Black man about Black people — Black cops and con...
Aug 24, 2017 · Lawrence P. Jackson’s biography, “Chester B. Himes,” traces the seminal crime novelist’s path from prison to international success.
Jul 26, 2017 · Lawrence P. Jackson's meticulous big new biography of Himes, called simply Chester B. Himes, makes a convincing case for a writer who's always been something of a tough sell.
Chester Bomar Himes began writing in the early 1930s while serving a prison sentence for armed robbery. From there, he produced short stories for periodicals such as Esquire and Abbott's Monthly. When released, he focussed on semi-autobiographical protest novels.
Oct 15, 2018 · The prologue to Lawrence P. Jackson’s biography of Chester Himes begins with the twenty-five-year-old Himes sitting at a typewriter in the Ohio State Penitentiary. Himes developed his craft in prison through a voracious reading habit and a steady discipline of composing new stories.
Jul 29, 2009 · Chester Himes' pen name was his prison number — 59623. He did hard labor on a prison chain gang and wrote hard-nosed detective fiction.
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.
Chester (Bomar) Himes began his writing career while serving in the Ohio State Penitentiary for armed robbery from 1929 – 1936. His account of the horrific 1930 Penitentiary fire that killed over three hundred men appeared in Esquire in 1932 and from this Himes was able to get other work published.
