Tales of Conjure and the Color Line by Charles Waddell Chesnutt

Tales of Conjure and the Color Line by Charles Waddell Chesnutt

A pioneer in the development of fiction giving voice to the African-American experience, Charles Waddell Chesnutt (1858-1932) found literary success with his conjure tales -- vignettes from black folk life, recounted partially in the vernacular -- and later with his stories of the color line, which addressed more directly the problems of race in America.
This outstanding, affordable volume presents a selection of the best of both conjure and color line tales. Ten stories include The Goophered Grapevine, widely considered Chesnutt's best work, Po' Sandy, Sis' Becky's Pickaninny, The Doll, The Wife of His Youth, Dave's Neckliss, The Passing of Grandison, A Matter of Principle, The Sheriff's Children, and a wry look at the American intelligentsia, Baxter's Procrustes.
Brimming with wit, charm, and insight, these stories testify to the qualities that have earned Chesnutt an enduring place in American literature and have made his fiction required reading for scholars and students of African-American history and culture. This edition features an informative Introduction by African-American literature expert Joan Sherman that provides valuable background information on Chesnutt and his work.

Charles W. Chesnutt (1858-1932) was an African American author, lawyer, and political activist. Born in Cleveland to a family of free persons of color from North Carolina, Chesnutt spent his youth in Ohio before returning to the South after the Civil War. As a teenager, he worked as a teacher at a local school for Black students and eventually became principal at a college established in Fayetteville for the purpose of training Black teachers. Chesnutt married Susan Perry--with whom he had four daughters--in 1878 and moved to New York City for a short time before settling in Cleveland, where he studied law and passed the bar exam in 1887. His story The Goophered Grapevine, published the same year, was the first story by an African American to appear in The Atlantic. Back in Ohio, Chesnutt started the court stenography business that would earn him the financial stability to pursue a career as a writer. He wrote several collections of short stories, including The Conjure Woman (1899) and The Wife of His Youth and Other Stories of the Color-Line (1899), both of which explore themes of race in America and African American identity as well as employ African American Vernacular English. Chesnutt was also an active member of the NAACP throughout his life, writing for its magazine The Crisis, serving on its General Committee, and working with such figures as W.E.B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington.