Charles W. Chesnutt to Richard W. Gilder, 1 January 1901
| Textual Feature | Appearance |
|---|---|
| alterations to base text (additions or deletions) | added or deleted text |
| passage deleted with a strikethrough mark | |
| passage deleted by overwritten added text | Deleted text Added text |
| position of added text (if not added inline) | [right margin] text added in right margin; [above line] text added above the line |
| proofreading mark | ‸ |
| page number, repeated letterhead, etc. | page number or repeated letterhead |
| supplied text | [supplied text] |
| archivist note | archivist note |
64 Brenton St.,
Cleveland, O.,
Jan'y 1, 1901
My dear Mr. Gilder,—
Permit me to thank you for the copy of the Century sent me, containing my story, "The March of ‸Progress". The story has a good place among excellent company, and the illustration is very effective. It is a pleasure to see a specimen of one's work in your columns, & I hope it may not be the last.
Permit me to thank you also, on behalf of several readers,
for the poem by Paul L. Dunbar1 "The Haunted Oak," which appeared in the December Century.2 If trees could talk, the single oak could probably be only one of a large chorus.
Correspondent: Richard Watson Gilder (1844–1909) was the editor of The Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine from 1881 until his death. Under his leadership, The Century became one of the most influential general-interest magazines in the United States. In 1889, Gilder rejected an essay by Chesnutt and in 1890 he rejected "Rena Walden." Both had come to him via George Washington Cable. Of the essay, "An Inside View of the Negro Question," Gilder wrote to Cable, it is "so timely and so political—in fact so partisan—that we cannot handle it. It should appear at once somewhere." He also gave his comments on "Rena Walden," in a letter to Cable, which Cable shared with Chesnutt. In 1901, Gilder accepted the short story "The March of Progress" for publication in the Century.
1. Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872–1906) was born in Dayton, Ohio, published his first poem in a Dayton newspaper, and by the time of his death at age 33 of tuberculosis he had published twelve volumes of poetry and eight volumes of fiction. His poetry was internationally acclaimed, often for its use of dialect; Frederick Douglass described him as "one of the sweetest songsters his race has produced"; and his works have remained touchstones for generations of writers. [back]
2. "The Haunted Oak" is about the lynching of an innocent Black man. Dunbar published 30 poems in The Century between 1895 and 1905, and many were in dialect. "The Haunted Oak" is not. [back]
