Volume 39, Number 1 & 2 · January 16, 1992
An American Abroad
By Luc Sante
BOOKS BY CHESTER HIMES DISCUSSED IN THIS ESSAY(in chronological order)
If He Hollers Let Him Go
Thunder's Mouth Press, 203 pp., $10.95 (paper)
Lonely Crusade
Thunder's Mouth Press, 398 pp., $10.95 (paper)
Cast the First Stone
(out of print)
The Third Generation
Thunder's Mouth Press, 350 pp., $11.95 (paper)
The End of a Primitive Virgin Publishing)
Allison and Busby (Allison and Busby titles are now distributed by, 201 pp., £4.99 (paper)
Pinktoes
(out of print)
A Rage in Harlem
Vintage, 159 pp., $8.00 (paper)
The Crazy Kill
Vintage, 160 pp., $6.95 (paper)
The Real Cool Killers
Vintage, 159 pp., $5.95 (paper)
Run Man Run
Allison and Busby, 192 pp., £5.99 (paper)
The Big Gold Dream
Allison and Busby, 156 pp., £3.99 (paper)
All Shot Up
(to be reprinted by Allison and Busby in June)
The Heat's On
Vintage, 174 pp., $5.95 (paper)
Cotton Comes to Harlem
Vintage, 159 pp., $8.00 (paper)
Blind Man With a Pistol
Vintage, 191 pp., $6.95 (paper)
The Quality of Hurt: The Early Years
Paragon House, 351 pp., $12.95 (paper)
My Life of Absurdity: The Later Years
Paragon House, 391 pp., $12.95 (paper)
The Collected Stories of Chester Himes
Thunder's Mouth Press, 429 pp., $12.95 (paper)
There is a peculiar purgatory of esteem reserved for those American artists who have been lionized in Europe while enduring neglect at home. The obligatory jokes about Jerry Lewis aside, the history of this ambiguity stretches back to Poe and forward to such disparate figures as Nicholas Ray, David Goodis, Sidney Bechet, Samuel Fuller, Memphis Slim, Jim Thompson, Joseph Losey, and the Art Ensemble of Chicago. These writers, musicians, and film makers failed to be prophets in their own country, were recognized too late or too little, in part because they worked the side of the street deemed 'popular' (although not sufficiently popular), ever a focus of American cultural insecurities. Some of them became exiles, some, like the blacklisted Losey, for explicitly political reasons.
Review, 5200 words
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