Garden City, Doubleday, 1972. Himes's autobiography, inscribed to Ossie Davis, who co-wrote and directed the 1970 film Cotton Comes to Harlem, based on Himes's novel of the same name. Inscribed: "For Ossie Davis, Salut et Fraternite/ Chester Himes." Himes's series of hard-boiled crime novels featuring Gravedigger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson used the genre to explore and reveal little-known aspects of the black culture of postwar Harlem in much the same way that Walter Mosley's novels have done for the black subculture of postwar Los Angeles. Because Himes lived most of his adult life in France, books signed by him are relatively uncommon. Significant association copies of books by Himes are genuinely rare. Here offered together with an original photograph of Davis on the set of the film, with actors Godfrey Cambridge and Raymond St. Jacques. The book is stamped "Property of Ossie & Ruby Davis" on the first blank, below the inscription; a near fine copy in a supplied, near fine dust jacket. The 5-1/2" x 7" silver gelatin print of Davis by John Rodriguez is dated 8/1969 and is matted and framed. [#032877] SOLD