1.
Encouraging
young men to read

2.
Chester Himes
• Themes
– The inherent corruption of institutions
(government and church)
– Harlem as a symbolic locus of African-
American life
– Corruption of African-Americans by white
outsiders
– Lust inevitably leads to destruction

3.
Chester Himes
• The Harlem Domestic Series
– A Rage in Harlem (1957)
– The Real Cool Killers (1959)
– The Crazy Kill (1959)
– The Big Gold Dream (1960)
– All Shot Up (1960)
– The Heat’s On (1966)
– Cotton Comes to Harlem
(1965)
– Blind Man with a Pistol (1979)

4.
Chester Himes
• A Rage in Harlem
(1957)
– A gang of con men
swindle a naïve
hearse driver by
convincing him
they can “raise”
$10 notes into
hundreds in a
special oven.

5.
Chester Himes
• The Real Cool Killers (1959)
– A white man is shot down in Harlem
and the alleged perpetrator is
kidnapped by a gang of
teenagers dressed up as
Arabs. Meanwhile Coffin Ed,
suspended over an accidental
shooting searches for his
teenaged daughter, unaware
that she is a member of the
teen “Arabs.”

6.
Chester Himes
• The Crazy Kill (1959)
– During a wake for a
distinguished Harlemite, a
man is discovered
stabbed to death, lying
in a basket of bread in
front of an A & P store.
The dead man is brother
to the wife of a
charismatic gambler.
Meanwhile a storefront
preacher accuses the
wife adultery. But with
whom?

7.
Chester Himes
The Harlem Domestic Series
– The Big Gold Dream (1960)
– A domestic worker comes
home from a religious street
demonstration to find all
her furniture gone and her
shiftless boyfriend missing.
Coffin Ed and Grave Digger
follow a tangled thread to a
hoard of missing money.

8.
Chester Himes
• All Shot Up (1960)
– A series of bizarre deaths and the
kidnapping of a powerful Harlem politician
leads the detectives on the hunt for
mysterious killers and an embezzled
political war chest.

9.
Chester Himes
• The Heat’s On (1966)
– A white gang leader, a
black conjure woman,
and Coffin Ed and
Grave Digger all
search for missing
heroin while an albino
giant dyes himself
purple to elude a killer.

10.
Chester Himes
• Cotton Comes to
Harlem (1965) –
– Two con men, one
posing as a preacher
and another posing as
a southern “colonel”
race Coffin Ed and
Grave Digger to a bale
of cotton containing
$84,000 bilked from
Harlemites who think
they’re returning to
Africa.

11.
Chester Himes
• Blind Man with a
Pistol (1979)
– Three different
groups of marchers
set off a violent riot in
Harlem as Coffin Ed
and Grave Digger
search for the
perpetrator of several
homosexual murders.

12.
Chester Himes
• Stand Alone
– Run Man Run (1966) –
• A young black restaurant
worker witnesses the
execution of several other
black men by a white
policeman, and spends the
rest of the novel trying to
prevent the killer from
shutting him up.
– The Collected Stories of
Chester Himes (1991)

13.
George Pelecanos

14.
George Pelecanos
Themes:
• Tests of loyalty between friends on
different roads
• The power of self-redemption
• Importance of taking responsibility for
your self and others
• The power of bonds between fathers
and sons

15.
George Pelecanos
• The Marcus Clay/Dimitri
Karras Cycle
– The Big Blowdown (1996) –
Washington D. C. in the 1950s
– King Suckerman (1997) -
Washington in the 1960s/ode
to the Blaxploitation film
– The Sweet Forever (1998) –
Summer of the riots
– Shame the Devil (2000) –
Dimitri Karras gets straight

16.
George Pelecanos
• The Derek Strange
Cycle
– Right as Rain (2001)
– Hell to Pay (2002)
– Soul Circus (2003)
– Hard Revolution (2004) –
Derek’s beginnings as a
street cop during the
1970s

17.
George Pelecanos
• Stand Alone Novels
– Drama City (2005)
– The Night Gardener
(2006)
– The Turnaround (2008)
– The Way Home (2009)

18.
Walter Mosley

19.
Walter Mosley
Themes:
• The Easy Rawlins Series
– Determination in the quest of a goal
– Loyalty to friends
– Stoicism in the face of adversity
– Importance of a stable home and family

20.
Walter Mosley
• The Easy Rawlins Series
– Devil in a Blue Dress (1990)
– Red Death (1991)
– White Butterfly (1992)
– Black Betty (1994)
George Pelecaos
– A Little Yellow Dog (1996)
– Gone Fishin’ (1997)
– Six Easy Pieces (2002)
– Bad Boy Brawly Brown
(2002)
– Little Scarlet (2004)
– Cinnamon Kiss (2005)
– Blonde Faith (2007)

21.
Walter Mosley
Themes:
• The Fearless Jones/Paris Minton
Series
– Importance of search for knowledge
– Sense of community
– Learning is it own reward

22.
Walter Mosley
• The Fearless
Jones/Paris Minton
Series
– Fearless Jones (2001)
– Fear Itself (2003)
– Fear of the Dark (2005)

23.
Walter Mosley
• The Socrates Fortlow
Series
– Always Outnumbered,
Always Outgunned (1998)
– Walkin’ the Dog (1999)
– The Right Mistake (2008)
• Themes:
– Search for redemption
– Dignity inherent in hard
work
– Passing on hard-won
knowledge to younger
generations