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Yesterday Will Make You Cry

'A stark depiction of the “alligator pond” of prison life … Rage tempered with compassion … [its] emotional core continues to smoulder’ The New York Times Book Review 
 
Thrill-seeking teenager Jimmy Monroe is serving a twenty-year sentence for robbery in the state penitentiary, where terror and chaos reign, corrupt guards inflict casual violence, and men try to preserve their dignity amid isolation and inhumanity. When a fire breaks out, setting hell and mayhem loose, it seems Jimmy’s entire world is unravelling. But as he develops a tender relationship with fellow convict Rico, hope begins to glimmer, and, through his eventual foray into writing, something resembling redemption. Originally published in 1952, in an expurgated version, as Cast the First Stone, Yesterday Will Make You Cry draws on Chester Himes’s own youthful experiences of imprisonment to face down the scouring truths of harm and love. 
 
‘Himes at the top of his game … what an amazing book it is’ Melvin Van Peebles

Chester Himes was born in Missouri in 1909. Aged nineteen he was arrested for armed robbery and sentenced to twenty-five years in jail, where he began to write short stories. Upon release, he took a variety of jobs while continuing to write fiction. He later moved to Paris where he wrote the first of his Harlem detective novels, A Rage in Harlem, which won the 1957 Grand prix de littérature policière. In 1969 Himes moved to Spain, where he died in 1984.

Thrill-seeking white teenager Jimmy Monroe is serving a twenty-year sentence for robbery. The penitentiary is a place where terror and chaos reign, where corrupt guards inflict casual and insidious violence, where men isolated from the outside world must preserve their dignity and find fulfilment through years of boredom and uncertainty. When a fire breaks out, setting hell and mayhem loose, it seems as though Jimmy’s entire world is unravelling. But, in the aftermath, as he develops a tender relationship with fellow convict Rico, hope begins to glimmer, and his eventual foray into writing channels the confusion of his experience into something finally resembling redemption. 
 
Originally published in 1952, in an expurgated version, as Cast the First Stone, this unsparing, intense yet affirming novel draws on Chester Himes’ own life – including his youthful imprisonment, his path to writing and his experience of the devastating Ohio Penitentiary fire in 1930. Yesterday Will Make You Cry faces down the scouring truths of harm and love, and demonstrates the astonishing lyric range of Himes’ prose.

If He Hollers, Let Him Go

The searing debut novel by Chester Himes, ‘written with youthful panache and a bellyful of anger’ (Observer) 
 
Robert ‘Bob’ Jones – crew leader, shipyard worker, educated, employed – is finding life impossible. Though he’s recently been promoted to supervisor, he is disrespected and resented by white colleagues; and despite his relationship with the high-class Alice, he is crudely baited by the manipulative Madge. Over the course of four fraught days in Los Angeles, he is plagued with increasingly violent urges as the bigotry and cruelty he faces day-in-day-out become unbearable. Chester Himes’s shattering debut is a masterful reckoning with the poisonous effects of racism, and a monumental protest novel. 
 
‘A relentless, gripping, classic novel, one of the most powerful exposés of what it is like to be black in America’ LA Times

Chester Himes was born in Jefferson City, Missouri in 1909 and grew up in Cleveland. Aged 19 he was arrested for armed robbery and sentenced to 25 years in jail. In jail he began to write short stories, some of which were published in Esquire magazine. Upon release he took a variety of jobs, from working in a California shipyard to journalism to script-writing, while continuing to write fiction. He later moved to Paris where he was commissioned to write the first of his Harlem detective novels, A Rage in Harlem, which won the 1957 Grand Prix du Roman Policier. In 1969 Himes moved to Spain, where he died in 1984.

Robert ‘Bob’ Jones – crew leader, shipyard worker, educated, employed – is finding life impossible. Though he has recently been promoted to supervisor at the Los Angeles shipyard where he works, he is disrespected and resented by white colleagues; and despite his relationship with the high-class Alice, he is crudely baited by white woman Madge. Over the course of four fraught days, he is plagued with increasingly violent urges as the bigotry and cruelty he faces in day-to-day interactions mounts. A masterful reckoning with the poisonous effects of racism and a monumental classic in the protest novel tradition, this 1945 novel is as shattering and trenchant today as it was on first publication.

Blind Man with a Pistol

The final novel in the trailblazing Harlem Detective series, set in a New York City at boiling point 
 
Bawdy and tough-talking, wickedly funny and wantonly sensual, Blind Man With a Pistol is a surreal joyride through Harlem in a heatwave. Detectives Grave Digger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson are side-tracked from investigating a series of organised race riots when a white man with a cut throat and no trousers falls dead at their feet. Told in a thrilling chaos of impressions over the course of one day and one night, this case will take Jones and Johnson into the pounding heart of Harlem.

The greatest find in American crime fiction since Raymond Chandler

A fine crime writer ... in a vein of sheer toughness very much his own

Chester Himes is one of the towering figures of the black literary tradition. His command of nuances of character and dynamics of plot is preeminent among writers of crime fiction. He is a master craftsman

Bawdy and tough-talking, wickedly funny and wantonly sensual, Blind Man With a Pistol is a surreal joyride through Harlem in a heatwave. Detectives Grave Digger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson are side-tracked from investigating a series of organised race riots when a white man with a cut throat and no trousers falls dead at their feet. Told in a thrilling chaos of impressions over the course of one day and one night, this case will take Jones and Johnson into the pounding heart of Harlem.

The Big Gold Dream

Fast-paced and hard-boiled, this Harlem Detectives novel follows a pile of stolen money – or it would if anyone could find it… 
 
Alberta Wright drops dead on the street during a sermon by the charismatic con man Sweet Prophet. Her partner rushes home to avoid the cops, only to find her apartment looted by someone looking for her stash of cash. But soon it becomes apparent that there are number of players in the race for Alberta’s dough. Coffin Ed Johnson and Grave Digger Jones are called in to investigate, but they know full well the bodies haven’t stopped dropping yet.

Alberta Wright drops dead on the street during a sermon by the charismatic con man Sweet Prophet. Her partner rushes home to avoid the cops, only to find her apartment looted by someone looking for her stash of cash. But soon it becomes apparent that there are number of players in the race for Alberta’s dough. Coffin Ed Johnson and Grave Digger Jones are called in to investigate, but they know full well the bodies haven’t stopped dropping yet.

The Crazy Kill

A classic thriller from the Harlem Detective series, where love, jealousy and many-peopled mayhem abound 
 
Big Joe Pullen is dead and his wake is getting boozy. When the opium-addicted Reverend Short falls out of a window trying to see a thief fleeing the robbed store opposite, his life is saved when he lands in a bread basket, cushioned by the corpse of Valentine Haines. It’s up to detectives Grave Digger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson to find out who stabbed Valentine – though no one at the wake is keen to say much to the police. Shot through with dry, dark humour, this is Chester Himes at his hardboiled noir best.

A fine crime writer... in a vein of sheer toughness very much his own

Big Joe Pullen is dead and his wake is getting boozy. When the opium-addicted Reverend Short falls out of a window trying to see a thief fleeing the robbed store opposite, his life is saved when he lands in a bread basket, cushioned by the corpse of Valentine Haines. It’s up to detectives Grave Digger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson to find out who stabbed Valentine – though no one at the wake is keen to say much to the police. Shot through with dry, dark humour, this is Chester Himes at his hardboiled noir best.

Cotton Comes to Harlem

'The new crime and espionage series from Penguin Classics makes for a mouth-watering prospect' Daily Telegraph 
A con-man is swindling the poor folk of Harlem out of their life savings - and now all hell's broken loose. 
The 'Reverend' Deke O'Malley has just made $87,000 by duping his followers, only for white gunmen to hijack the rally and escape with the cash hidden inside a bale of cotton. Now ace detectives Grave Digger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson must get the good people of Harlem their money back by any means necessary, in a raucous, breakneck adventure involving double-crosses, exotic dancers, a racist colonel and a whole pile of bodies...

The greatest find in American crime fiction since Raymond Chandler.

A bawdy, brazen rollercoaster of a novel . . . the wildest.

Chester Himes is one of the towering figures of the black literary tradition. His command of nuances of character and dynamics of plot is preeminent among writers of crime fiction. He is a master craftsman.

A fine crime writer ... in a vein of sheer toughness very much his own.

Chester Himes was arrested for armed robbery in 1928, aged 19, and sentenced to 25 years in jail. In jail he began to write short stories, some of which were published in Esquire magazine. Upon release he took a variety of jobs, from working in a California shipyard to journalism to script-writing, while continuing to write fiction. He later moved to Paris where he was commissioned to write the first of his Harlem detective novels, A Rage in Harlem, which won the 1957 Grand Prix du Roman Policier. In 1969 Himes moved to Spain, where he died in 1984.

A preacher called Deke O'Malley's been selling false hope: the promise of a glorious new life in Africa for just $1,000 a family. But when thieves with machine guns steal the proceeds - and send one man to the morgue - the con is up. Now Grave Digger Jones and Coffin Ed, highly unorthodox and gun-happy detectives, mean to bring the good people of Harlem back their $87,000, however many corpses they have to climb over to get it. 
 
Cotton Comes to Harlem is a non-stop ride, with violence, sex, double-crosses, and the two baddest detectives ever to wear a badge in Harlem.

Penguin Modern Classics

A Rage in Harlem

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'The greatest find in American crime fiction since Raymond Chandler' Sunday Times 
 
Jackson's woman has found him a foolproof way to make money - a technique for turning ten dollar bills into hundreds. But when the scheme somehow fails, Jackson is left broke, wanted by the police and desperately racing to get back both his money and his loving Imabelle. 
 
The first of Chester Himes's novels featuring the hardboiled Harlem detectives Coffin Ed Johnson and Grave Digger Jones, A Rage in Harlem has swagger, brutal humour, lurid violence, a hearse loaded with gold and a conman dressed as a Sister of Mercy. 
 
With an Introduction by Luc Sante

Himes wrote spectacularly successful entertainments, filled with gems of descriptive writing, plots that barely sidestep chaos, characters surreal, grotesque, comic, hip, Harlem recollected as a place that can make you laugh, cry, shudder.

Chester Himes is one of the towering figures of the black literary tradition.  His command of nuances of character and dynamics of plot is preeminent among writers of crime fiction.  He is a master craftsman.

A fine crime writer of Chandlerian subtlety though in a vein of sheer toughness very much his own

Chester Himes is the great lost crime writer, as well a great American dissident novelist per se, and an essential witness to his times. Every one of his beyond-cool Harlem novels is cherished by every reader who finds it.

He belongs with those great demented realists ... whose writing pitilessly exposes the ridiculousness of the human condition

That he could channel this pain and misery into some of the greatest crime novels ever written is a testament to his skill as a writer and his spirit as a man. If this is the first Chester Himes novel you will read then, believe me, you are in for a treat.

Jackson's woman has found him a foolproof way to make money - a technique for turning ten dollar bills into hundreds. But when the scheme somehow fails, Jackson is left broke, wanted by the police and desperately racing to get back both his money and his loving Imabelle. 
 
The first of Chester Himes's novels featuring the hardboiled Harlem detectives Coffin Ed Johnson and Grave Digger Jones, A Rage in Harlem has swagger, brutal humour, lurid violence, a hearse loaded with gold and a conman dressed as a Sister of Mercy. 
 
With a new Introduction by Luc Sante.

The Heat's On

'The greatest find in American crime fiction since Raymond Chandler' Sunday Times 
 
Detectives Coffin Ed and Grave Digger Jones have lost two criminals. Pinky ran off - but it shouldn't be hard to track down a giant albino in Harlem. Jake the drug dealer, though, isn't coming back - he died after Grave Digger punched him in the stomach. And his death might cost them both their badges. Unless they can track down the cause of all this mayhem - like the African with his throat slit and the dog the size of a lion with an open head wound. 
 
Chester Himes's hardboiled tales of Harlem have a barely contained chaos and a visceral, macabre edge all their own.

Detectives Coffin Ed and Grave Digger Jones have lost two criminals. Pinky ran off - but it shouldn't be hard to track down a giant albino in Harlem. Jake the drug dealer, though, isn't coming back - he died after Grave Digger punched him in the stomach. And his death might cost them both their badges. Unless they can track down the cause of all this mayhem - like the African with his throat slit and the dog the size of a lion with an open head wound. 
 
Chester Himes's hardboiled tales of Harlem have a barely contained chaos and a visceral, macabre edge all their own.

The Real Cool Killers

'The toughest crime stories in print' Sunday Times 
 
The night's over for Ulysses Galen. It started going bad for the big Greek when a knife was drawn, then there was an axe, then he was being chased and shot at. Now Galen is lying dead in the middle of a Harlem street. But the night's just beginning for detectives Grave Digger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson. Because they have a smoking gun but it couldn't have killed Galen, and they had a suspect but a gang called the Real Cool Moslems took him. And as patrol cars and search teams descend on the neighbourhood, their case threatens to take a turn for the personal. 
 
The Real Cool Killers is loaded with grizzly comedy and with all the raucous, threatening energy of the streets it's set on.

The night's over for Ulysses Galen. It started going bad for the big Greek when a knife was drawn, then there was an axe, then he was being chased and shot at. Now Galen is lying dead in the middle of a Harlem street. But the night's just beginning for detectives Grave Digger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson. Because they have a smoking gun but it couldn't have killed Galen, and they had a suspect but a gang called the Real Cool Moslems took him. And as patrol cars and search teams descend on the neighbourhood, their case threatens to take a turn for the personal. 
 
The Real Cool Killers is loaded with grizzly comedy and with all the raucous, threatening energy of the streets it's set on.

All Shot Up

'Outrageous, shocking, wonderful' The New York Times 
 
A golden Cadillac big enough to cross the ocean has been seen sailing along the streets of Harlem. A hit-and-run victim's been hit so hard she got embedded in the wall of a convent. A shootout with three heistmen dressed as cops has left an important politician in a coma - and a lot of money missing. And Grave Digger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson are the ones who have to piece it all together. 
 
All Shot Up is chaotic, bloody - and completely unforgettable. Chester Himes wrote detective fiction darker, dirtier and more extreme than anyone else dared.

A classic noir in the Elmore Leonard meets Ed McBain mould

A golden Cadillac big enough to cross the ocean has been seen sailing along the streets of Harlem. A hit-and-run victim's been hit so hard she got embedded in the wall of a convent. A shootout with three heistmen dressed as cops has left an important politician in a coma - and a lot of money missing. And Grave Digger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson are the ones who have to piece it all together. 
 
All Shot Up is chaotic, bloody - and completely unforgettable. Chester Himes wrote detective fiction darker, dirtier and more extreme than anyone else dared.

Chester Himes

Best known for his hardboiled Harlem Detective series, Chester Himes was also a superb literary writer, beginning his creative life by writing short stories in the 1930s while serving jail time for armed robbery. Selected here are some of his best stories – from a satirical tale about a student bet that purportedly disproves the existence of racism in Los Angeles to a chilling drama in which a snake invades a family home.

Chester Himes

Books by Chester Himes

Articles featuring Chester Himes

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A short history of literature’s love affair with cats

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