Jackson advocate., 1952-12-06
Chestnut
Continued from Page One)

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hunting for literary scholarship.
Chestnut was. the first Negro Am
erican writer to receive serious
attention for his stories and novels.
Around the turn of the century he
was a frequent contributor to the
Atlantic Monthly and other liter
ary magazines, and his books were
published by the Houghton Mifflin
Company before his racial identity
was generally known. Among the
literary figures Of the era who ap-
plauded his work were William
Dean Howells, James Lane Allen,
George Washington Cable, Albion
Tourgee, Walter Hines Page, and
Albert Bushnell Hart. In most
cases their admiration for his
stories led to continued CORES
pondence, and these letters en-
rich the Chestnut collection at Fisk.
Actually Chestnut was literary
disciple Of Cable who invited the
young Negro writer to NOrthamp-
ton, Mass. to be his secretary. Soon
thereafter, however, work as a
court stenographer in Cleveland
and then the beginning Of sue
cessful law practice Of his own
solved Chesnutt's most pressing
personal problems and made it pos
sible for him to combine two bril-
liant careers in the Ohio city of his
birth.
Chesnutt's published fiction in
cludes The COniure Woman l899),
The Wife of His Youth and other
Stories of the Color Line (1899),
The House Behind the Cedars
$4,000, The Marrow of Tradition
(19O1 and The Colonel's Dream
(19O5). In his boom year, 1899,
Chestnut also published an excel
lent biography of Frederick Doug
lass, the inspiring Negro leader Of
the nineteenth century. The au-
thor's own copies Of all these are
in the Chestnut Collection, along
with his contracts with his pub
fishers, correspondence with the
editors, clippings Of reviews and
comments in the public press, let
ters from readers, and finally the
Spingarn Medal awarded the au-
thor in 1928, for his pioneer work
as a literary artist depicting the
life and struggle of Americans Of
Negro descent
Chestnut left many unpublished
writings in manuscript. He carried
on a long and faithful correspond
ence with Booker T. Washington.
He kept in touch with w. E. B. Du-
Bois in the days Of the famous
Atlanta Studies, during the launch
ing Of the Niagra Movement and
the founding of the National AS
sociation for the Advancement of
Colored People. He was active in
the half forgotten and somewhat |
OPEN LETTER CLUB
in which Gable was associated with |
James c. Napier Of Nashville and |
William M. Baskerville.
Chesnutt's personal library con-
tained books and pamphlets of un-
usual interest. The special limited |
editions of the Rowfant Club, for
example, of which he was men,
Der, are valued by dealers, in the |
case of at least one title, at more |
than three hundred dollars. Many |
pamphlets and fugitive magazine |
pieces which Chestnut preserved in
his files are now rare.
The Goopheared Grapevine
Chesnutt's first published story, ap-
peared in the Atlantic Monthly in
1887. Though it dealt with Negro
life, it was written with such OBJ
jectivity that few if any readers
suspected the racial identity of the
author. The same was true of
Chesnutt's subsequent writing, and
when the matter became a subject
of literary gossip, he calmly OBJ
served, 1T never occurred to me to
claim any merit because it it (his
Negro blood), and l have always
resented the denial Of anything on
account Of it,
Yet he had a sociological inter
est in color beyond that revealed in
his fiction, and his collection of
pamphlets and magazine articles
on the subject, with the manu-
script copies Of papers he wrote
on the subject, may yet be explored
profitably.
Hl,,,AAt. L.