Chester Himes did, I believe, seven years for armed robbery.
He was inside when he started to consider writing seriously.
Influenced by Hammett's work in Black Mask, and novels such
as Sanctuary by Faulkner, Himes began to write short fiction.
His first novel, Cast the First Stone, was recently published
in an unexpurgated form under the title Yesterday Will Make
You Cry. The novel was based on his experiences inside.
However, the protagonist was white.
A prison fire, which was the basis for both a short story and
a pivotal scene in the novel, was a catalyst to his needing
an escape from the walls around him. Himes chose
writing...
He never went back inside and died in Spain in 1984.
-- # To unsubscribe, say "unsubscribe rara-avis" to majordomo@icomm.ca. # The web pages for the list are at http://www.miskatonic.org/rara-avis/ .
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 01 May 2000 EDT