The Autobiography of Chester Himes
"The Autobiography of Chester Himes" is a reflective exploration of the life and experiences of Chester Himes, an influential yet often overlooked African American writer of the twentieth century. Rather than a traditional autobiography, it presents a collection of poignant vignettes that reveal the deep scars left by racism and personal hardship. Himes's literary journey began in the Ohio State Penitentiary, where he drew inspiration from his own life experiences, including the tragic fire that claimed many lives in the prison during the 1930s. His early works gained critical recognition, and he became involved with various movements, including the Federal Writers' Project and the Communist Party.
Relocating to California during World War II, Himes produced a series of powerful novels that reflected his anger and frustration with societal injustices. After facing persistent racism and a tepid reception to his work in America, Himes moved to Europe, where he achieved greater acclaim. His detective fiction series, including titles like "Cotton Comes to Harlem," showcased his unique blend of humor, bitterness, and keen social commentary. Himes's writing often depicts the struggles of marginalized individuals and challenges simplistic interpretations of his work as merely social protest, revealing a complexity that resonates across cultures.
The Autobiography of Chester Himes
First published: Volume I The Quality of Hurt, 1972; Volume II My Life of Absurdity, 1976
The Work
“I grew to manhood in the Ohio State Penitentiary,” writes Chester Himes in The Quality of Hurt, a book that is less an organized autobiography than a series of poignant sketches, in which he writes about the many hurts that poisoned his life in the United States. Himes is one of the least known, most prolific African American writers of the twentieth century. Over a fifty-year career, Himes wrote scores of novels, short stories, articles, and poems, all marked by a naked sincerity and raging anger at racism.
Himes began writing, drawing on his experiences as a young man in prison. He gained critical attention first with a short story, “To What Red Hell,” a fictionalized account of the 1930 fire that killed more than three hundred inmates at the Ohio State Penitentiary.
Released during the Depression, Himes became involved with the Federal Writers’ Project, the labor movement, and the Communist Party. He also worked as a journalist in Cleveland. In 1941, Himes moved to California, where he began writing novels of rage and frustration, including If He Hollers, Let Him Go (1945), Lonely Crusade (1947), and Cast the First Stone (1952). By 1953, disgusted with the racism he encountered and the lukewarm, when not hostile, reception his work received, Himes left for Europe.
My Life of Absurdity is not a deep examination of his life so much as a commentary on the meaning of being a black expatriate writer. “No American,” he writes, “has lived a life more absurd than mine.” In Europe, Himes published the series of detective stories that brought him fame in later years. Among them are The Crazy Kill (1959), The Heat’s On (1966), and Cotton Comes to Harlem (1965). Himes also wrote stories that are sometimes painfully funny and often bitterly desolate. In them, cops, robbers, and all-around losers—the people Himes knew well in his youth— trade in the debased currency of lies and secrets.
Himes’s work resounds with wit and indignation but is too often incorrectly identified simply as social protest. His novels made the best-seller lists in foreign countries as well as in the United States.
Bibliography
Hairston, Loyle. “Chester Himes: ’Alien’ in Exile.” Freedomways 17, no. 1 (1977): 14-18. Focusing on Himes’s second volume, Hairston argues that Himes was a misanthrope who was personally offended by America’s failure to accept him. His hurt led him to alienate himself from other blacks in Europe and America.
Lundquist, James. Chester Himes. New York: Frederick Ungar, 1976. Examines the narrative of Himes’s work and gives a detailed plot synopsis of each text.
Margolies, Edward. Which Way Did He Go? The Private Eye in Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, Chester Himes, and Ross Macdonald. New York: Holmes & Meier, 1982. An excellent study that places Himes in the line of major writers of detective fiction.
Milliken, Stephen F. “The Summing Up.” In Chester Himes: A Critical Appraisal. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1976. In a full-length study of Himes’s work, Milliken argues that the two volumes should be classified not as autobiography but as a series of character portraits, unified by a theme of knowing the reality of pain. Milliken places Himes’s autobiographical volumes in the context of his fiction.
Sallis, James. Chester Himes: A Life. New York: Walker, 2001. Extensive biography of Himes written by a fellow crime-fiction author whose work was heavily influenced by that of his subject.
Silet, Charles L. P., ed. The Critical Response to Chester Himes. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1999. Collection of scholarly essays on Himes’s life and work.
Walters, Wendy W. At Home in Diaspora: Black International Writing. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2005. Includes a chapter analyzing the importance of Himes’s expatriate experience to his detective fiction.