Thursday, July 9, 2020

#CatThursday - #Authors and #Cats (96) Chester Himes


Welcome to the weekly meme that celebrates the wonders and sometime hilarity of cats! Join us by posting a favorite lolcat pic you may have come across, famous cat art or even share with us pics of your own beloved cat(s). It's all for the love of cats! Share the link to your post with your comment below.

The second Cat Thursday of each month is Authors and Cats Thursday. Each time I will feature an author (with a birthday during the month), pictured with their/a cat(s), or guest posts by cat loving authors who also (sometimes) write about cats.


Each time I discover another cat loving author, my heart sings!


Chester Bomar Himes (b. July 29, 1909, d. November 12, 1984) 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 focused 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 these novels have been adapted into movies: Cotton Comes to Harlem, directed by Ossie Davis in 1970; Come Back, Charleston Blue (based on The Heat's On) in 1972; and A Rage in Harlem, starring Gregory Hines and Danny Glover in 1991.

In 1968, Himes moved to Spain where he made his home until his death. (Goodreads)




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3 comments:

Thank you for visiting and taking the time to comment. It means so much.

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  1. I never know which author might pop up here Michelle. Himes isn't an author I'm familiar with but reading this I'm a bit surprised that there isn't a film about his life.

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    1. He definitely had an interesting life. Another black author who hasn't received the recognition he deserves. Perhaps now he will be. If it does happen, at least now we will know who he is, right?

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  2. Fantastic highlight! I need to read some of his books. What a cute kitty!

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