SOURCE: "Chester Himes: Black Guns and Words," in Alteratives, edited by Warren Motte and Gerald Prince, French Forum Publishers, 1993, pp. 11-24.

In the following essay, Alter analyzes the role of Gravedigger Jones and Coffin Ed as mediators between the white world of the law and the black world of the streets in Himes's detective fiction.

Chester Himes's literary career has traditionally been divided into three distinct parts, corresponding to, and partly influenced by, the three different countries of his residence. His first writings date from between 1933 and 1953, while he was living in the United States. They include short stories, written while in prison, and, after his release, longer fictions that have been termed "protest novels." These novels offer sharp and often violent political commentaries about black life in a deeply racist white America. Though he received immediate success and publicity after his first novel, If He Hollers Let...