Five Volume Set; Run, Man, Run; Pinktoes; The Heat's On; The Big Gold Dream, Cotton Comes to Harlem by HIMES, Chester - 1975

New York: Various, 1975. First Edition Paperbacks. Small Octavos. (10 cm. x 18 cm.) Illustrated pictorial wrappers. Minor edgewear on a few volumes. Very Good overall. First Edition paperback set featuring American noir crime author, Chester Himes. These pulpy paperback volumes are how most readers, mostly Black Americans, were first introduced to Himes' dark, brutal and exciting crime worlds. His punchy, gritty style of writing was as exhilarating as the Harlem setting he so often used for his novels. This set includes three books with his most famous characters, "Grave Digger Jones" and "Coffin Ed Johnson". The book, "Pinktoes", is an erotic novel, a departure for Himes but still contains his sharp, sometimes sardonic scrutiny of racial and social hypocrisy. Himes' books are understandably scarce in paperback as they are usually read more than once.