Description:
Chester Himes was born on 29 July 1909 in Jefferson City, Missouri, USA. He was a writer, known for Cotton Comes to Harlem (1970), Come Back Charleston Blue (1972) and A Rage in Harlem (1991). He was married to Lesley Himes and Jean Johnson. He died on 12 November 1984 in Moravia, Costa Blanca, Spain.
Birthday
July 29, 1909
Born In
Jefferson City, Missouri, USA
Spouse/Ex-
Lesley Himes 1978 - November 12, 1984 (his death),Jean Johnson 1937 - 1952 (divorced)
Trivia
Himes was arrested in September 1928 on the charge of armed robbery and
was sentenced to 20 to 25 years of hard labor at Ohio State
Penitentiary. He began writing seriously in prison. By the time of his
parole in 1937, Himes had published many stories about prison life in
Esquire magazine and elsewhere. Upon release, he married his long-time
girlfriend Jean Johnson and found work as a research assistant in the
Cleveland Public Library. Eventually he was hired by the Ohio State
Writers' Project to work on a history of Cleveland. When WWII began, he
moved to Los Angeles and began writing novels.
Quotes
The Harlem of my books was never meant to be real; I never called it real; I just wanted to take it away from the white man if only in my books.
