94circulation of around 100,000: Donald Joyce, “Magazines of Afro-American Thought on the Mass Market: Can They Survive?,” American Libraries (December 1976): 680–81; Abby Johnson and Ronald Johnson, Propaganda and Aesthetics: The Literary Politics of African-American Magazines in the Twentieth Century (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1990), 109–11.
95“put in the ‘cripple’ company”: CH, “Prison Mass,” CH-CSS, 152, 163.
95“I might not have believed: Ibid., 186.
96“the whiteness of Swiss cheese”: Ibid., 152, 170.
96“He wanted to do”: Ibid., 191.
97“What right had a ‘nigger’ ”: CH, “A Black Man Has Red Blood,” Chicago Defender, June 2, 1934, 9.
97“we ate our good-doin’ bread”: CFS, 188.
97Sentenced to ten years: “#67175 Rico, Prince,” Ohio Penitentiary Register of Prisoners, Ohio History Connection, microfilm 1536, pp. 293–94.
98“was the boy in the story”: CH to CVV, March 11, 1952, CVVP, box He–Hols, folder “Himes, Chester B. 1952–1955.”
98“I think Mother talked”: Joseph Himes to Robert E. Skinner, September 23, 1988, MF, box 8, folder 26.
100Esquire had a newsstand circulation: Arnold Gingrich, Nothing but People: The Early Days at Esquire; A Personal History 1928–1958 (New York: Crown, 1971), 107.
100“ample hair on its chest”: Arnold Gingrich to Ernest Hemingway, February 24, 1933, quoted in Michael Reynolds, Hemingway: The 1930s (New York: W. W. Norton, 1997), 123.
100“any trace of any kind of accent”: Gingrich, Nothing but People, 95.
100“compulsory and universal”: Esquire, February 1934, contents page.
100“If you print the story”: “The Sound and the Fury: Foul Blow from Philly,” Esquire, February 1934, 12.
101“Don’t you think having”: “The Sound and the Fury: Citation from Oklahoma History,” Esquire, February 1934, 12.
101“By all means shoot”: “The Sound and the Fury: A Lift from Voltaire,” Esquire, February 1934, 12.
101“your readers would appreciate”: “The Sound and the Fury: Some Like It Hot,” Esquire, February 1934, 12.
101“one of these golden”: Langston Hughes, “A Good Job Gone,” Esquire, April 1934, 142.
101“through correspondence”: CH to JAW, October 31, 1962, DJDC, 17.
101seventy-five dollars: Ibid., 18.
101“a long-term prisoner”: CH, “Crazy in Stir,” Esquire, August 1934, 28.
102a sample of 862 men: W. F. Armine, “London Prison Farm: Unstable Character of Population,” State of Ohio Thirteenth Annual Report of the Department of Public Welfare (December 1935), 286–87.
102“He would see what”: CH, “Crazy in Stir,” 114.
102powerful short story: “Along the Literary Front,” New York Amsterdam News, October 6, 1934, 8.
103Blackie has a “queer feeling”: CH, “To What Red Hell,” Esquire, October 1934, 100.
103“big blonde guy kissing”: Ibid., 101, 122.
104“White faces, gleaming”: Ibid., 100, 122.
104“received the greatest”: MLA, 26.
105On August 2, 1934: “#59623 Himes, Chester” and “#67175 Rico, Prince” files.
105“had a full and complete”: CH to CVV, March 11, 1952.
105“the farm was the way”: CFS, 346; “#59623 Himes, Chester” file.
105the population fluctuated: T. C. Jenkins, “The London Prison Farm,” State of Ohio Fifteenth Annual Report of the Department of Public Welfare (December 1934), 514.
106“so many upbraidings”: Chester B. Himes #59623 to Miss Armine Mail Censor, n.d. [c. 1934], MF.
106“Glad you’re through”: Prince Rico to CH, March 13, 1936, CHP-Y, box 3, folder 9.
107lauded in the press: “Prisoner’s Songs Go into His Opera,” clipping from unknown periodical, January 20, 1935, CHP-Y, box 3, folder 9.
108parole was finally granted: “#59623 Himes, Chester” file.
5. WHITE FOLKS AND THE DAYS
109“ ‘This can’t be my home’ ”: CH, “On Dreams and Reality,” CH-CSS, 217.
110“We’ll put the big pot”: Joseph Himes to CH, November 24, 1973, JSH, box 6, folder 4.
110the director of research: “Blind Student Awarded Ph.D. by Ohio State,” Atlanta Daily World, July 5, 1938, 1.
110Chester served out the maximum sentence: Polly Johnson, interview with Michel Fabre, n.d., MF, box 6, folder 31.
110“more hysterical”: QH, 66.
111“Several times”: Ibid.
112“with the past kind of living”: Roddy Moon to Henry Lee Moon, July 2, 1936, HLM, box 3, folder 33.
112Chester met Cleveland’s most famous: MMH-DCDJ, 200; Bud Douglass, “Langston Hughes Safe in Cleveland; Denies That He Is Lost in Spain,” Cleveland Call and Post, August 6, 1936, 3.
112living with his mother: “Dates Changed on Little Ham; Opens June 9,” Cleveland Call and Post, June 4, 1936, 7.
112“because I am both a Negro”: “Langston Hughes at Paris Conference,” Cleveland Call and Post, August 5, 1937, 2.
112giving lectures at middle-class teas: “Alpha Art Club,” Cleveland Call and Post, July 2, 1936, 4.
113“America’s principal servant”: CH, “A Salute to The Passing,” Opportunity, March 1939, 75–76.
114“I had it hard”: CH to JAW, October 31, 1962, DCDJ, 17.
114increased his fee: Ibid., 18.
114Jean was living: Jean Plater v. Harry Plater, “Affidavit for Service by Publication,” No. 453701, January 20, 1937, Court of Common Pleas, CUY.
115“I grew to love her too”: QH, 70.
115“gross neglect of duty”: Jean Plater v. Harry Plater, “Petition for Divorce,” No. 453701, March 15, 1937, Court of Common Pleas, CUY.
115on Tuesday, July 13, 1937: CH and Jean L. Plater, Marriage License, No. A43102, CUY.
116“just be a nigger”: CH, “All God’s Chilluns Got Pride,” The Crisis, June 1944, 189.
116“Until then there had been”: QH, 70.
116“They have all admired”: CH to Henry Lee Moon, September 15, 1937, MHLM, box 3, folder “Henry Moon and Chester Himes 1937–1942.”
117“the leading American teacher”: Advertisement, “Fiction Writing,” Thomas H. Uzzell, New York Times Book Review, September 24, 1933, 27; advertisement, “Ten Talks on Fiction Writing,” Thomas H. Uzzell, New York Times Book Review, September 13, 1936, 31.
117“Did You Ever Catch a Moon”: CH, “A Nigger,” typescript with handscript revisions [fragment], CHP-T, box 26, folder 5.
117“outlined in my mind”: CH to CVV, November 23, 1952, CVVP, box He–Hols, folder “Himes, Chester B. 1952–1955.”
117“discerning cosmopolite”: “A New Magazine for Men,” Bachelor, May 31, 1937, 134–135; editorial page, Bachelor, February 1938, 25.
117“You call out to the Negro”: CH, “Scram!” Bachelor, February 1938, 27.
118“enjoy[ed] the recognition”: ATB, 12.
118a career liftoff: Henry Lee Moon, “Liberia Recovers Under New Regime,” New York Times, August 30, 1936, E7; Henry Lee Moon, “Law on Lynching Is Pressed Again,” New York Times, April 18, 1937, 71; Henry Lee Moon, “Housing Problem Is Still Acute,” New York Times, June 20, 1937, 63; Henry Lee Moon, “Policy Game Thrives in Spite of Attacks,” New York Times, July 25, 1937, 56.
118“I could not hire you”: QH, 71.
118“pile of manuscripts”: Henry Lee Moon to Mollie Moon, May 20, 1938, MHLM, box 1, folder “Correspondence.”
119“rather depressing”: Virginia Bird to Gideon Kishur, March 10, 1938, Crowell-Collier Publishing Company Records, box 134, folder 382–401, Manuscript and Archives Division, New York Public Library, New York City.
119“I hope I am not presumptuous”: CH to “Editor American Magazine,” May 22, 1938, ibid.
119“We were very much interested”: American Magazine to CH, May 31, 1938, ibid.
119“It does not occur”: CH, “Statement of Plan of Wo
rk” (1944), p. 3, CH-RF.
120“bitterly resentful [of] that fate”: Ibid., p. 5.
120“I am happy to know”: CH to Sterling Brown, May 30, 1938, SAB, box 8, folder “H.”
121“the first clear, pointed”: CH to Brown, November 25, 1938, ibid.
121“What seems ‘tragically desperate’ ”: Ibid.
122“packing in a maze of essentials”: CH to Henry Lee Moon, June 29, 1938, MHLM, box 1, folder “Correspondence.”
12278,000 WPA workers: “Works Progress Administration,” Encyclopedia of Cleveland History, http://ech.case.edu/cgi/article.pl?id=WPA1; “15.2% of All WPA Workers Are Colored,” Cleveland Call and Post, March 17, 1938, 6.
122white-collar work: “Are We to Have a WPA Scandal?,” Cleveland Call and Post, March 24, 1938, 6.
122Chester wrote letters: CH to JAW, October 31, 1962, 18.
122demand the inclusion: “ ‘Colonel Alexander Has Insulted Our Entire Race,’ Says Payne,” Cleveland Call and Post, May 26, 1938, 1.
123“He filled with a recurrence”: CH, “With Malice Toward None,” Crossroad, April 1939. The story is reprinted in CH-CSS; quotation at 51.
124the practice of demoting foremen: “WPA Discrimination,” Cleveland Call and Post, June 30, 1938, 6; “Supervisors, Foremen Using Layoff ‘Authority’ to Prune WPA Rolls of Negro Workers,” Cleveland Call and Post, April 27, 1939, 1; “Harrington Promises Probe of Discrimination in Cleveland WPA Projects,” Cleveland Call and Post May 4, 1939, 1; “18 Month Rule Resurrects a Wave of Discrimination,” Cleveland Call and Post, September 14, 1939, 1.
124Charles Dickinson being appointed: “Ohio WPA Administrator Appoints Negro as Employment Investigator,” Cleveland Call and Post, September 29, 1938, 2.
124“favorable impression”: CH to Henry Lee Moon, June 29, 1938.
124pay jumped to $95: CH to JAW, October 31, 1962, 18.
125“Most of Cleveland’s Negroes”: Ohio Writers’ Project, Ohio: The Ohio Guide (New York: Oxford University Press, 1940), 218.
125“While on the Writers’ Project”: QH, 72.
126She told him about a new book: CH to Richard Wright, n.d. [Christmas 1945] RW, box 99, folder 1393.
126“This’ll be good for you”: Ruth Seid to Michel Fabre, June 23, 1988, MF, box 6, folder 31.
127“an effective campaign for jobs”: Henry Lee Moon, “Negroes Win Help in Fight for Jobs,” New York Times, August 28, 1938, E10.
127“Sam Katz opened a wine store”: Jo Sinclair, “Cleveland’s Negro Problem,” Ken, December 15, 1938, 76, 79.
127“insidious Jewish chauvinism”: CH to Jo Sinclair, December 21, 1945, Jo Sinclair Papers, box 36, folder 14, Boston University, Boston.
127using Chester’s life: Alan Wald, Trinity of Passion: The Literary Left and the Anti-Fascist Crusade (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2007), 242.
128“to catch up on financially”: CH to Henry Lee Moon, August 10, 1938, MHLM, box 1, folder “Correspondence.”
128his $900 annual salary: “Chester Himes,” 1940 U.S. Census, Ohio, Cuyahoga County, April 5, 1940, sheet no. 3A.
128Ohio governor John Bricker: QH, 72.
128“medium for creative talent”: “ ‘Crossroad,’ New Art Magazine Makes Bid for Negro Works,” Cleveland Call and Post, February 16, 1939, 11.
129“My God, politics isn’t fatal”: CH, “A Modern Fable—Of Mr. Slaughter, Mr. McDull, and the American Scene,” Crossroad (summer 1939): np.
130“which would inspire Negro art”: CH to Henry Lee Moon, September 16, 1939, MHLM, box 1, folder “Correspondence.”
130sales of $15 million: “Plane Parts, Tools: Many Companies Gear Operations for Share of Business,” Wall Street Journal, May 18, 1940, 1.
130“what racial prejudice is like”: QH, 72.
130“shunted away”: “Cleveland Plants Ignoring President’s Order, But Are Careful to Make Excuses,” Cleveland Call and Post, August 9, 1941, 1A.
131conversation like a “tonic”: CH to Henry Lee Moon, February 23, 1940, MHLM, box 1, folder “Correspondence.”
131He also wrote the text: CH to Henry Lee Moon, June 30, 1940.
132“Looking Down the Street”: CH, “Looking Down the Street: A Story of Import and Bitterness,” Crossroad, Spring 1940, 85.
13290 percent: Todd Michney, “Changing Neighborhoods: Race and Upward Mobility in Southeast Cleveland 1930–1980,” PhD diss., University of Minnesota, 2004, 93–94.
132mutual friend Langston Hughes: “Langston Hughes Speaks Here Sunday,” Cleveland Call and Post, April 25, 1940, 3; Arnold Rampersad, The Life of Langston Hughes, vol. I, 1902–1941, I, Too, Sing America (New York: Oxford University Press, 1986), 383.
132“attacking Esquire”: C. Himes to Henry Lee Moon, June 1, 1940, MHLM, box 1, folder “Correspondence.”
133“felt called” to enter: Ibid.
133“Bigger Thomas came alive”: CH, “Review and Comment: ‘Native Son’: Pros and Cons,” New Masses, May 21, 1940, 23.
134she was “quite swept away”: C. Himes to Henry Lee Moon, June 22, 1940, MHLM, box 1, folder “Correspondence”; “Karamu Dancers to Show at Worlds Fair: Group to Give Tune Up Performance on June 21st,” Cleveland Call and Post, June 22, 1940, 7.
134saluted with two asterisks: Edward J. O’Brien, ed., The Best Short Stories 1940 (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1940), 519.
134“what with Hitler looking westward”: CH to Henry Lee Moon, June 30, 1940.
135Chester began to note her personal traits: Mollie Moon to Henry Lee Moon, July 10, 1940, MLHM, box 1, folder “Correspondence.”
135“big fat mannish woman”: CH to JAW, October 31, 1962, 19.
135he might begin collecting material: CH to Henry Lee Moon, June 1, 1940.
135“I found the job of editing”: CH to Henry Lee Moon, November 19, 1940, MLHM, box 1, folder “Correspondence.”
136“Chester, you have paid”: QH, 71.
137“People coming from”: CH, “This Cleveland: E. 55th–Central,” Cleveland News, November 8, 1940, 12.
137“boys down there blew”: CH to Henry Lee Moon, November 19, 1940.
137steel mill sprawl: CH, “This Cleveland: Broadway at Central at Woodland,” Cleveland News, November 22, 1940, 6.
137“is there not a little of disappointment”: CH, “This Cleveland: Shaker Square,” Cleveland News, November 20, 1940, 10.
138“struggling to inject continuity”: Editorial note, “Face in the Moonlight,” Coronet, February 1941, 63.
138Jellifes entertained a man: Russell Jellife to Zell Ingram, December 17, 1940, Karamu House Papers, box 8, folder 120, Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland, Ohio.
139“poor man’s [Somerset] Maugham”: Charles Poore, “Books of the Times,” New York Times, November 15, 1945, 17.
139Booming and profane: Robert Van Gelder, “An Interview with Mr. Louis Bromfield,” New York Times Book Review, March 29, 1942, 2.
139crammed their apartment: CH to CVV, September 13, 1946, CVVP, box He–Hols, folder “Himes, Chester B. 1946–1947.”
140“queer nonsense”: CH, “Face in the Moonlight,” Coronet, February 1941, 63.
140“Chester B. Himes writes”: Editorial note, “Face in the Moonlight,” 63.
140“one of those periods”: CH to CVV, February 18, 1947, CVVP, box He–Hols, folder “Himes, Chester B. 1946–1947.”
140“I’d hate to see mother”: CH to H. Moon, November 19, 1940.
141“I had the story”: CH to CVV, February 18, 1947.
6. RUIN OF THE GOLDEN DREAM
142on June 5, 1941: CH to Henry Lee Moon, June 27, 1941, MHLM, box 1, folder “Correspondence.”
142“I had to give up”: Ibid.
142“I would be content”: CH to Carl Van Vechten, September 13, 1946, CVV, box He–Hols, folder “Himes, Chester 1946–1947.”
143they were paid $120: Ibid.
143“until I’m numb”: Ivan Scott, Louis Bromfield, Novelist and Agrarian Reformer (Lewiston, U.K.: Edwin Mellen
Press, 1998), 356.
143“Them that works, eats”: Ellen Bromfield Geld, The Heritage (1962; repr., Athens: Ohio University Press, 1999), 105.
143“exceedingly hard”: CH to CVV, September 13, 1946.
143“The main reason”: CH to Henry Lee Moon, June 27, 1941.
144“extremely well and vividly”: Ibid.
144“write so well I’d hate”: Ibid.
144three trips from Ohio to Los Angeles: Frederick C. Othman, “Noted Author Has System All His Own,” Washington Post, August 19, 1941, 8; Thomas Brady, “Hollywood Strikes a New ‘Bell,’ ” New York Times, August 24, 1941, 142.
144promised his new butler: CH to Langston Hughes, October 20, 1941, LH, box 30, folder 1531.
144Urging Chester to go west: MMH-DCDJ, 203.
145“tall, gangling man”: CH, Lonely Crusade (1947; repr., New York: Thunder’s Mouth Press, 1997), 168; QH, 98.
145“ ‘There is no place like America’ ”: CH, Lonely Crusade, 174–75.
146“compulsion to agree”: Ibid., 175.
147“I hope that they will”: Leah Moon to Henry Lee Moon, October 17, 1941, HLM, box 3, folder 33.
147by 1944 that figure would jump: Rick Moss, “Not Quite Paradise: The Development of the African American Community in Los Angeles Through 1950,” California History (Fall 1996): 224.
147“a drab panorama”: CH, Lonely Crusade, 15.
147“remote districts”: Langston Hughes to Maxim Lieber, December 17, 1940, Selected Letters of Langston Hughes, ed. Arnold Rampersad and David Roessel (New York: Knopf, 2015), 216.
148so dubbed “Rochester Lane”: Donald Bogle, Bright Boulevards, Bold Dreams: The Story of Black Hollywood (New York: Ballantine, 2006), 269.
148“was in those days ten or fifteen years”: Dizzy Gillespie with Al Frazier, To Be or Not to Bop (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1979), 248, 243.
148“ten, fifteen, or twenty” cars: CH, “Zoot Riots Are Race Riots,” The Crisis, July 1943, 201.
148California Sanitary Canning Company: “Chester Himes Paints Local Scene in Novel,” Los Angeles Tribune, January 7, 1946; CH-RF.
148“the city a little better”: CH to Hughes, October 20, 1941.
149remembered by the foreman: “Report,” November 25, 1944, pp. 3–4, CH-FBI; “Report,” January 8, 1945, CH-FBI.
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