"Raise Up Off Me", Hawes' autobiography, written with Don Asher and published in 1974, shed light on his heroin addiction, the bebop movement, and his friendships with some of the leading jazz musicians of his time. It was the first book about the bebop era written by a musician, and won the ASCAP Deems Taylor Award for music writing in 1975. Critic Gary Giddins, who wrote the book's introduction, called "Raise Up Off Me" "a major contribution to the literature of jazz." "The Penguin Guide to Jazz" cites it as "one of the most moving memoirs ever written by a musician, and a classic of jazz writing."