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Charles W. Chesnutt to William Dean Howells, [3 February 1900]

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  (AC972) The Dalhousie 40 to 48 West 59th Street1 Dear Mr. Howells,

I was in Boston yesterday, & Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin & Co. suggested that I see you on my way thro New York. This is an unconscionable hour to make a call, but I wanted to find out if I could see you this morning for a few minutes, if possible before 10 o'clock.

Sincerely, Chas. W. Chesnutt. Mr. W D Howells



Correspondent: William Dean Howells (1837–1920) was a White novelist and critic, seen as the dean of late 19th-century American letters and a champion of literary realism. He served as editor of The Atlantic Monthly from 1871–1881 and later, as a continuing contributor, praised Chesnutt's short stories in the Atlantic Monthly(May 1900, pp. 699–701). In 1901, for the North American Review, he reviewed Chesnutt's Frederick Douglass biography (August 1901, pp. 280–288), and The Marrow of Tradition (December 1901, pp. 881–883). Chesnutt was very much aware of Howells' writing and his influence, and the two writers briefly corresponded in 1900.



1. This letter is undated. However, Chesnutt wrote to his wife Susan on February 3, noting that he "[h]ad an interview with the famous Mr. Howells this morning" (Helen Chesnutt, Pioneer of the Color Line [Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1952], 140). This suggests that Chesnutt's letter to Howells was also written on the 3rd, as it inquires about seeing Howells "this morning."[back]