A Kind of Friendship

Perhaps nothing can be more revealing to an aficionado or scholar of literature than to gain a glimpse into the inner lives of a writer. When that opportunity is rewarded with a close view of two writers, then the reader receives a double bonus. John A. and Lori Williams’ carefully edited compilation, Dear Chester, Dear John: Letters between Chester Himes and John A. Williams, provides rare insight into the lives and careers of two of the past century’s most productive, yet under-celebrated, African-American writers: Chester Himes and John A. Williams. This compilation of letters between Himes and Williams may not answer the question of why scholars and the U.S. reading audiences have relatively ignored these writers in comparison with other twentieth-century African-American writers. However, the letters do reveal the challenges besetting two very politically and socially astute writers who were forerunners in establishing new genres in African-American literature and tackling unprecedented issues in their fiction; writers who thrived without cushy academic appointments, patrons with largesse, and hefty advances.

Himes and Williams meet in New York City in the apartment of Carl Van Vechten in 1961 (x). Author of the controversial novel Nigger Heaven (1926) and also known for fostering the careers of Harlem Renaissance writers Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, and Nella Larsen, to name a few, Van Vechten continues to be on the scene and becomes the conduit through which Himes and Williams solidify their friendship. Van Vechten’s letter to Williams, dated August 2, 1962, initiates the collection. Van Vechten writes: “Chester likes you too. People say bad things about him because he doesn’t like most people and shows it. I have known him a long time, and we have never had an argument” (1). Williams’ letter to Van Vechten is omitted from this collection; nonetheless the reader gets a sense that Williams was tentative about the outcome of meeting the older and more established writer, Chester Himes. Van Vechten’s prescient words foreshadow trouble that arises many years later between Williams and Himes, which precipitates a ten-year break in the exchange of correspondences, from July 23, 1973, to November 2, 1983. But before this riff occurs, Williams and Himes engage in frequent correspondence that initiates sometime in the fall of 1962 and does not end until November 1983.

The first letter between the two writers is one from Himes to Williams. In this letter, Himes takes the liberty of not only chronicling his publication history and professional challenges, but also requesting Williams to act in the role of quasi-representative or agent, and general go-between by retrieving Himes’ manuscripts from his agent, James Reach. Himes also asks Williams to find him another agent. Williams’ unabashed support of Himes’ professional career and personal life becomes one of the defining characteristics of their friendship. Williams, who is sixteen years younger than Himes, falls in line and does his best to assist Himes in what appears to be a very unsavory and unsatisfactory relationship with Reach. This letter is one of many that punctuates Himes’ struggles with agents, editors, and publishers, and allows a rare view into the professional, and ostensibly economical, issues that plagued Himes throughout his career.

The development of Himes’ and Williams’ friendship and professional relationship is not only unveiled through these letters, but this compilation allows an unadulterated access to mostly Himes’ insight into the black expatriate communities in France and Spain that included famous writers like Richard Wright, James Baldwin, and Melvin Van Peebles, and less publicly known writers such as Ollie Harrington, Alain Albert, Bill Smith, Herb Gentry, and Phil Lomax. Himes also answers a question that plagued this reviewer throughout reading these letters: why would a black expatriate with Himes’ political savvy take up permanent residence in Spain, given the fascist regime of Francisco Franco? According to Himes, he resided in and eventually built a home in Spain because of “the prohibitive...