Charles Waddell Chesnutt

Charles Waddell Chesnutt (1858-1932), American novelist and short-story writer, regarded as one of the most accomplished late-19th-century American writers of fiction. His works describe the complex social relations created in the United States by slavery.

Chesnutt was born in Cleveland, Ohio, where his family had moved in the 1850s to escape racial persecution in the South. He had little formal education, but he taught himself and also received tutoring. His family returned to the South after the American Civil War (1861-1865). Chesnutt later became a teacher.

In the 1870s Chesnutt began to write for magazines and newspapers, eventually concentrating on fiction. His story “The Goophered Grapevine” (1887) became the first work written by a black author to be published in the magazine The Atlantic Monthly. In 1899 two collections of his short stories were published: The Conjure Woman and The Wife of His Youth. Both books portray black American culture and describe characters who suffer under the system of slavery. Chesnutt's use of irony and humor in these works prevented the alienation of white readers. By the middle of the next decade, however, race relations in the United States had deteriorated, and it was difficult for Chesnutt to earn a living from his writing. He returned to Cleveland to run a legal stenography business, writing fiction only occasionally. Although he received recognition in the North as an important literary figure, his reputation gradually waned. He remained, however, an advocate for the rights of black Americans, and for his efforts he received the Spingarn Medal in 1928 from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

Chesnutt’s novels include The House Behind the Cedars (1900), The Marrow of Tradition (1901), and The Colonel's Dream (1905). In the late 20th century, scholarly interest in Chesnutt's writings was rekindled, and several previously unpublished novels appeared in print. They included Mandy Oxendine (1997), Paul Marchand, F.M.C. (1998), and The Quarry (1999).