Chester Himes

Author profile

born

July 29, 1909 in Jefferson City, The United States

died

November 12, 1984

gender

male

genre

Literature & Fiction, Mystery & Thrillers

About this author

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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.

In 1953, Himes emigrated to France, where he was approached by Marcel Duhamel of Gallimard to write a detective series for Série Noire, which had published works from the likes of Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett and Jim Thompson. Himes would be the first black author included in the series. The resulting Harlem Cycle gained him celebrity when he won France's Grand Prix de Littérature Policière for La Reine des Pommes (now known in English as A Rage in Harlem) in 1958. Three of t...more

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Books by Chester Himes

Average rating: 3.90 · 2,739 ratings · 274 reviews · 38 distinct works

	A Rage in Harlem (Harlem Cycle #1) 3.96 avg rating — 581 ratings — published 1957 — 20 editions	My rating:
	If He Hollers Let Him Go: A Novel by Chester Himes, Hilton Als (Foreword by) 3.91 avg rating — 508 ratings — published 1945 — 10 editions	My rating:
	Cotton Comes to Harlem (Harlem Cycle, #7) 3.83 avg rating — 363 ratings — published 1964 — 13 editions	My rating:
	The Real Cool Killers (Harlem Cycle, #3) 3.88 avg rating — 283 ratings — published 1958 — 12 editions	My rating:
	Blind Man with a Pistol (Harlem Cycle, #8) 3.56 avg rating — 161 ratings — published 1969 — 16 editions	My rating:
	The Heat's On (Harlem Cycle, #6) 3.90 avg rating — 119 ratings — published 1961 — 14 editions	My rating:
	The Crazy Kill (Harlem Cycle, #2) 3.99 avg rating — 85 ratings — published 2011 — 13 editions	My rating:
	All Shot Up (Harlem Cycle, #5) 3.97 avg rating — 71 ratings — published 1960 — 17 editions	My rating:
	Yesterday Will Make You Cry 4.03 avg rating — 70 ratings — published 1998 — 4 editions	My rating:
	Plan B (Harlem Cycle, #9) by Chester Himes, Michel Fabre, Robert E. Skinner 4.07 avg rating — 45 ratings — 4 editions	My rating:

More books by Chester Himes…

Series by Chester Himes

Harlem Cycle (9 books)
by Chester Himes

3.88 avg rating — 1,760 ratings

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Chester Himes

Author profile

combine editionsBooks by Chester Himes

Series by Chester Himes

Topics Mentioning This Author

combine editions
Books by Chester Himes