Books By Chester B. Himes, Chester B. Himes - Author

Chester Himes was born in 1909 in Missouri and began his writing career while serving in the Ohio State Penitentiary for armed robbery (1929-36). From his first novel, If He Hollers Let Him Go (1945), Himes dealt with the social and psychological repercussions of being black in a white-dominated society. In 1953 Himes moved to Europe, where he met and was strongly influenced by Richard Wright. It was in France that he began his best-known series of crime novels - including Cotton Comes to Harlem (1965) - featuring two Harlem policemen. As with Himes's earlier work, the series is characterized by violence and grisly, sardonic humour. He died in Spain in 1984.