ENG - In Harlem nobody knows Chester Himes

The 110th street that borders Central Park on the north is now called Central Park North. This is where the Democratic politician Casper Holmes lived in All Shot Up. From his window, he could see the children of the black bourgeoisie of Harlem ice-skating in the park. I interview passersby. They are interested when I tell them about Himes but have never heard of him.

I continue towards the north of Manhattan. In Washington Heights, Edgecombe Drive (now Edgecombe Avenue) overlooks the Harlem River and the Yankee Stadium in the Bronx to the east. This is where two historic buildings of Harlem - the 409 and the 555 - are located, the latter also known as Roger Morris.

These two buildings are quite present in several novels of Himes: in The Crazy Kill, "[Johnny Perry] and Dulcy, along with other well-heeled Harlem pimps, madams and numbers bankers, lived on the sixth floor of the flashy Roger Morris apartment house”. In The Big Gold Dream: "Without hesitation, Dummy entered the ornate lobby of the Roger Morris Apartment House, better known as 555. In its day, it had been a very pretentious apartment dwelling for upper income whites, but now it was occupied for the most part by successful colored racketeers, jazz musicians, madams and current prize fighters."

Today, like the 409, the Roger Morris has lost much of its grandeur. The building has become middle class. The beautiful, somewhat weathered lobby remains. I speak with a resident: he does not know Himes.

Melvin Van Peebles wrote in 1993: “Despite the fact that Chester, this literary giant, had been publishing essays, short stories, and novels for over a quarter of a century, I, a black American, had grown up, gone to college and never once heard his name mentioned in the myriad literature courses I had taken. This spoke volumes about the walls of prejudice and the barriers of racism.” (Preface to Yesterday will make you cry).

New York, November 2011