Charles W. Chesnutt to Jerome B. Howard, 15 December 1899
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64 Brenton St.,
Cleveland, O.,
Dec. 15, 1899.
My dear Mr. Howard,
I am more than pleased at your approval of my Life of Douglass. It is only a little thing, but I tried to do justice to the subject, and yet not overdo it. The book is receiving many commendations. My other books, too, are doing well, and my publishers hope for a large sale of the "Wife of His Youth and Other Stories of the Color Line," which came out about simultaneously with the Douglass.1
I shall take great pleasure in sending a copy of the life of Douglass to Mr. Tilton, and hope he may not find it out of harmony with his
own estimate.2 If I should happen to be in Paris within the next two or three years, which is not unlikely if all goes well with me—there is a charm about the place which draws one back—I shall look Mr. Tilton up personally and make myself known to him.3
I have never seen Pillsbury's "Acts of the Anti-Slavery Apostles," though I looked in the libraries here for it when I was writing the Douglass.4 If you have a copy to spare I shall be very glad to have it; and if you have only one I will return it when I have read it.
You may be interested to know that I am going to try the lecture platform, as a
M-2812.2
method of diversifying the literary life, promoting the sale of my books, and replacing some of the income cut off by my withdrawal from the shorthand field.5 If you should hear in your travels, or around Cincinnati, of any society or individual who would like to set up a reading for a green author, and will put me in communication with them, I think I can convince them beforehand that I can give them a pleasant entertainment. I merely throw this out as a suggestion, in case any such opening should come to your notice incidentally.
With kind regards, and thanks for your cordial appreciation, I remain as ever
Sincerely yours, Chas. W. Chesnutt. Jerome B. Howard, Esq., Palmyra, Mo.Correspondent: Jerome Bird Howard (1857–1923), originally from Palmyra, Missouri, was the President of the Phonographic Institute Company in Cincinnati, Ohio, which published many handbooks and readers about short-hand techniques. He started out his career as a reporter for Cincinnati newspapers, and it is likely that Chesnutt had made his acquaintance or that the two men knew of each other through this legal work. In addition to being a prominent member of the political scene in Cincinnati, Howard was also a founder of the City Club and held a position on the City Council. ("Jerome B. Howard Dies: Cincinnati Publisher Passes Away at Palmyra, Mo.," Cincinnati Enquirer, 8 October 1923: 9.).
1. The Wife of His Youth and Other Stories of the Color Line was published by Houghton, Mifflin & Company in December 1899. It was reprinted once in 1901; in 1924, the printing plates were melted down because of low demand. [back]
2. Theodore Tilton (1835–1907) was a novelist, poet, journalist, prominent antislavery and pro-women's suffrage lecturer, and editor of the Independent (1856–1871). In 1895, Tilton published his poems, Sonnets to the Memory of Frederick Douglass, and Chesnutt included a poem from this collection in the conclusion of his Frederick Douglass. [back]
3. It is unclear whether Chesnutt had any correspondence with Theodore Tilton, as there are no known letters between the two. Chesnutt traveled to England and Paris previously in 1896 and again, July 28 through August 15 or 16, 1912, so Tilton and Chesnutt most likely never had this introduction (cf. Sylvia Lyons Render, Charles W. Chesnutt [Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1980], 12; Helen M. Chesnutt, Charles Waddell Chesnutt: Pioneer of the Color Line [Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina Press, 1952], 254–255). [back]
4. Parker Pillsbury (1809–1898) was a minister, lecturer, newspaper editor, abolitionist, and women's rights advocate from Hamilton, Massachusetts. He was a graduate of Gilmanton Theological Seminary (1839) and studied under social reformer John A. Collins before becoming the minister of a proslavery church in Loudon, New Hampshire; in 1840 he was excommunicated and his Congregational license to preach was revoked. This experience was the basis for his popular pamphlet, The Church As It Is; or the Forlorn Hope of Slavery (1847), which would inspire several themes for the Acts of the Anti-Slavery Apostles (1883), which is a collection of Pillsbury's memories of the Garrisonian crusade and defends it against the contemporary allegations of nonresistant abolitionism stances. [back]
5. Chesnutt began lecturing in 1899. His first lecture was on Saturday, August 12, 1899, substituting for Walter H. Page at Greenacre, a summer school in Elliot, Maine, in hopes of garnering publicity for his recent books. He had a few reading engagements that fall, and by December 1899, Chesnutt's name was filed in the lecturer's bureau while he actively sought speaking engagements. In February 1900, Chesnutt gave a speech in Boston, MA, which led to another lecture in Worcester. His southern lecture tour began in 1901, and by 1904, Chesnutt was lecturing more than writing. His lecturing continued for the rest of his career (Susan Lyons Render, Charles W. Chesnutt, Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1980: 12; Helen M. Chesnutt, Charles Waddell Chesnutt: Pioneer of the Color Line [Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina Press, 1952], 113, 130, 140, 145, 208). [back]
