A Recovered Early Letter by Charles Chesnutt

Abstract

In preface to first volume of their edition of Charles Chesnutt's letters, Joseph McElrath and Robert Leitz HI contend that Chesnutt among most visible figures . . . testing commercial viability of Afri can-American authorship at turn of [twentieth] century.1 In a letter to Hough ton, Mifflin & Co. dated 8 September 1891, however, Chesnutt downplayed his racial heritage: In his case, he insisted, the infusion of African blood is very small?is not in fact a visible admixture.2 And in a recently discovered letter signed with a pseudonym?the earliest extant personal letter he sent anyone?Chesnutt both hid his biracial identity and seized opportunity to vent his frustrations. this was a private letter, not intended for publication, it provides additional evidence that Chesnutt wanted to hide or at least obscure his racial identity. In an article entitled The Color Line in Kate Field's Washington for 19 December 1894, Field editorialized on a controversy over admission of a black woman to Chicago Woman's Club. Although virtually unknown today, Kate Field (1838-1896) was most prominent female journalist in United States during last half of nineteenth century. She was a contributor to early issues of Atlantic Monthly and had numerous articles printed in Nexo York Tribune between 1866 and 1889. In her es say, Field argued that Because men's clubs draw color line is very reason why women should set their brothers a good example by displaying a more catholic spirit.. . . Were Christ to walk on earth he would assuredly make no distinction between white and black.3 Chesnutt responded to Field's editorial in a letter published in paper a few weeks later but hitherto lost to scholarship:4