• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Ransom Center Magazine

  • Sections
    • Art
    • Books + Manuscripts
    • Conservation
    • Exhibitions + Events
    • Film
    • Literature
    • Photography
    • Research + Teaching
    • Theatre + Performing Arts
  • Archive
  • Print Edition

Knopf archive reveals details about Lonely Crusade author Chester Himes

February 26, 2021 - Harry Ransom Center

Knopf archive reveals details about Lonely Crusade author Chester Himes

Many writers and artists through history have developed their craft, and even published, while they were imprisoned. Among them is Chester Himes, an African American author who wrote about racism, prison life, and who is best known for his Harlem Detective series.

Records related to Himes are found in the Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. archive, which documents the history of the well-known publishing house. The papers contain correspondence, publicity materials, and/or manuscripts from a number of other African American writers, including James Baldwin, Lorraine Hansberry, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, James Weldon Johnson, John Oliver Killens, Nella Larsen, Alain Locke, Claude McKay, and Walter White.

Himes was born in Jefferson City, Missouri in 1909. Of his adolescence, Himes wrote that he was “lonely, shy, and insufferably belligerent.” 1 Himes was incarcerated at Ohio State Penitentiary at the age of 19, and two years into his 20-plus-year sentence for armed robbery, his first short story was published in an African American–owned magazine, The Bronzeman, in 1931. He also sold articles to Esquire, such as “Crazy in the Stir,” which appeared with the chilling byline “59623,” his prison number.

Knopf’s Manuscript Record for Chester Himes’s novel Lonely Crusade, 1946–1947. Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. Records, 1363.3. Harry Ransom Center.

After his release from prison during the Depression, he held dozens of jobs while focusing on writing novels, screenplays, and making connections with other writers. Himes favored protagonists who were less than heroic or likable, and the enthusiasm for his fiction by other African American writers was often tepid. However, Langston Hughes supported him by introducing his work to his own publisher, Blanche Wolf Knopf.

Knopf asked Hughes to provide a blurb for Himes’s second novel, Lonely Crusade (1947), a novel exploring racism and labor strife during World War II, but Hughes demurred. His reason? “Most of the people in it just do not seem to me to have good sense or be in their right minds; they behave so badly, which makes it difficult to care very much what happens to any of them.” 2

The dust jacket for Chester Himes’s novel Lonely Crusade, 1947. Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. Records, 1221.5. Harry Ransom Center.

In the summer of 1950, Himes taught a popular creative writing seminar at the North Carolina State Negro College in Durham, where for two weeks he was a celebrity figure. Below is Himes’s letter of gratitude written to Knopf music editor Herbert Weinstock for his publication advice to “new novelists.” 3

Chester Himes’s letter to Herbert Weinstock, July 18, 1950. Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. Records, 68.7. Harry Ransom Center.

Editorial Vice President Seymour Lawrence received this letter in 1964 from Himes, who by this time had expatriated to Paris. Himes writes that he felt it was time for him to publish his memoirs and in this letter, requests an advance on royalties of $400 per month for two years. The Quality of Hurt, volume one of his autobiography, was published by Doubleday in 1971.

Chester Himes’s letter to Seymour Lawrence, November 4, 1964. Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. Records, 411.4. Harry Ransom Center.

Between 1957 and 1969, Chester Himes eventually found popularity in France for his Harlem Detective novel series featuring detectives Coffin Ed Johnson and Gravedigger Jones.

Ishmael Reed wrote that Chester Himes was “[A] great writer and a brave man. His life has shown that black writers are as heroic as the athletes, entertainers, scientists, cowboys, pimps, gangsters, and politicians they might write about.” 4


[1] Chester Himes, The Quality of Hurt, (Paragon House, 1990), 14.
[2] Arnold Rampersand, The Life of Langston Hughes, (Oxford University Press, 1986 and 1988), 134.
[3] James Sallis, Chester Himes: A Life, (Walker & Co, 2000), 32.
[4] Stephen F. Milliken, Chester Himes: A Critical Appraisal, (University of Missouri Press, 1976), 220.

Filed Under: Authors, Books + Manuscripts, Featured1 Tagged With: African American Creators, African American History Month, African American literature

ABOUT MELANIE ALBERTS
Melanie Alberts works in the Office of the Director at the Harry Ransom Center. She serves on the Diversity and Inclusion committee, is a psychic artist, and writes lyric poems which have appeared in journals such as Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review.

Primary Sidebar

Archive

Tags

acquisition Alice's Adventures in Wonderland archive archives Art Books Cataloging Conservation Council on Library and Information Resources David Foster Wallace David O. Selznick digitization exhibition Exhibitions Fellows Find Fellowships Film Frank Reaugh Frank Reaugh: Landscapes of Texas and the American West Gabriel Garcia Marquez Gabriel Garcia Marquez archive Gone with the Wind I have seen the Future: Norman Bel Geddes Designs America Lewis Carroll literature Magnum Photos Manuscripts Meet the Staff Nobel Prize Norman Bel Geddes Norman Mailer Performing Arts Photography poetry preservation Publishing Research Robert De Niro Shakespeare theater The King James Bible: Its History and Influence The Making of Gone With The Wind Undergraduate What is Research? World War I

Recent Posts

  • The Knickerbocker Theatre Collapse
  • On the Record: Black Creators and the Jazz Age
  • Ransom Center experience leads to new challenge for Monte Monreal
  • Films represented in the Drawing the Motion Picture exhibition
  • Celebrate with us in 2023

Before Footer

Sign up for eNews

Our monthly newsletter highlights news, exhibitions, and programs.

Connect With Us

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

About

Ransom Center Magazine is an online and print publication sharing stories and news about the Harry Ransom Center, its collections, and the creative community surrounding it.

Copyright © 2023 Harry Ransom Center

Web Accessibility · Web Privacy