...[a] captivating biography ... Himes became a writer while incarcerated. Jackson refuses to romanticize Himes’s life or his motivation for becoming an artist. There is no moral redemption in the transformation Himes undergoes while locked away. Rather, Jackson posits that Himes began writing to work through the trauma of a deadly prison fire that amplified the suffering and shame he had felt since childhood ... Many of the details of Himes’s life appear in other books, but Jackson’s research is unimpeachable. The biography is based on a kaleidoscopic mix of archival materials, close readings of Himes’s published writing and personal letters and conversations with people who knew him. Himes had a mercurial personality and led a thrilling life that might tempt a biographer to conjure a book in the spirit of its subject, but Jackson avoids this pitfall. The book is neatly written and accessible, without cheap tricks to build suspense or sway readers’ opinions ... All told, Chester B. Himes is a bracing journey through the life of an uncompromising writer who considered himself 'an evil, highly sensitive, unsuccessful old man — but … not an American Negro in the usual connotation of the word.'

As interesting as Jackson's account of Himes' later life is — including his eventual self exile in Paris, a deep friendship with Malcolm X and the turn to writing the detective novels that would bring him fame and financial success — it's the long section of this biography about Himes' prison years that's most absorbing ... Himes, like the literature he created, was difficult and sometimes cruel; but Jackson insists he's worth the trouble. At the end of this biography, Jackson memorably characterizes Himes' great gifts as a writer, describing 'his spirited realism from the bottom that defied fear and always cut hard enough to draw blood.' That sentence, and many more like it, make me intrigued enough to want to read Himes' work beyond the detective novels I already know.

In his vivid, engrossing biography, Lawrence Jackson, a professor at Johns Hopkins, gives us an in-depth portrait of Himes, an African American writer whose 20 published books stirred controversy with their depictions of sexuality, racism and social injustice ...writings were often more sensational than revered — and raised questions as to Himes’s place in modern literary history ... One of Jackson’s most important projects is observing how Himes created autobiographical fictions... Jackson tells the story with remarkable insight and care... Jackson is a fine biographer fully attentive to Himes’s personal history and to his place in literary history. He has indeed written the definitive biography that Himes — who died in 1984 — deserves.

...[an] exhaustive and fascinating biography ... Jackson, a fluid writer who has published vivid first-person essays in this magazine, mostly restrains himself here, allowing the startling facts of his subject’s life to speak for themselves. But if there is a flaw in the book, it is Jackson’s reliance on a somewhat pat determinism; the gender and color dynamics of Himes’s childhood home are too readily invoked to explain his behavior as an adult.

The latest, by Lawrence P. Jackson, a professor of English and history at Johns Hopkins, may well prove to be the definitive book about Himes. In this exhaustively researched work, Mr. Jackson has provided a sympathetic portrait of the novelist that also captures much of the times in which he lived... Mr. Jackson does a fine job of following that career and Himes’s life, from his struggles to publish novels and even to support himself, to his own doomed first marriage, to his flight from America and permanent residence in Europe... As Himes’s biographer, Mr. Jackson maintains a crucial distance, conveying admiration but not worship, recognizing the importance of his subject’s work while withholding judgment, for the most part, about his life, except to pull back on occasion to make a clear-eyed summation of his general character — less condemnation than observation.

Himes’ life, eventful enough for several writers, is both blessing and curse to a biographer: Is it possible to have too much material? Fortunately, Jackson is more than up to the task, producing a cradle-to-grave account as meticulously detailed as it is psychologically insightful ... While two other Himes biographies exist, Jackson succeeds in his bid to offer a definitive life treatment.

...an insightful study of an exceptional storyteller ... In this comprehensive yet nimble book, Jackson gives Himes’ prose the perceptive critical analysis it deserves. But if he’s an unabashed fan of the work, Jackson is also determined to avoid hagiography: When Himes’ behaves horrendously, as he did in some of his romantic relationships, Jackson offers no excuses for his subject’s actions. An English and history professor at Johns Hopkins University, Jackson began researching Himes’ life in 2002. His efforts have yielded an illuminating portrait ... Jackson’s book — big, intelligent and unflinching — is what literary biography looks like when it’s done right.

In Jackson’s thorough biography of author Chester Himes, the times come alive more than the subject, who shines through mostly in his own words rather than in Jackson’s interpretation ... One of the most illuminating sections concerns Himes’s response to the WWII internment of Japanese-Americans, which he strongly opposed. The biography is exhaustive, covering both Himes’s life and the times he lived in, but unfortunately it flattens both.

Jackson takes a confusing, twisted tale of a writer and lays it out in a readable, straightforward biography ... A tumultuous life rendered in never-dull, enlightening fashion.