SOURCE: Storhoff, Gary. “Slaying the Fathers: The Autobiography of Chester Himes.” a/b: Autobiography Studies 11, no. 1 (spring 1996): 38-55.

In the following essay, Storhoff traces “Oedipal” themes in the two volumes of Himes's autobiography, noting that Himes repudiates not only his familial and literary “fathers” but also the traditional form of autobiography itself.

In a crucial moment in The Quality of Hurt for the history of African-American literature, Chester Himes relates the famous argument between Richard Wright and James Baldwin about Baldwin's essay “Everybody's Protest Novel.” In the essay, Baldwin criticizes “protest literature,” implying that Wright's work is similar in intent to Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin. Wright had his opportunity to retaliate when Baldwin, wishing to borrow money, asked Wright to meet him at a restaurant, and Wright requested Himes to accompany him. Unlike Baldwin, Himes recalled the event as rancorous.¹ The argument's climax occurs when Baldwin...