Charles W. Chesnutt to Arthur H. Clark, 1 September 1922
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September 1, 1922.
Arthur H. Clark, Esq.,
Care Arthur H. Clark Company,
4027-37 Prospect Avenue,
City.
Dear Mr. Clark:
I have your note of August 22nd with reference to the Baer Valentine volume.1 I left Cleveland August 1st on my vacation, taking with me the material for this book, with the firm intention of having the manuscript ready by my return.2 But the delights of bass fishing and other amusements at a summer resort have sidetracked my scheme.3 However, I did some work on it and will get at it again hammer and tongs and will have the manuscript ready for submission in a few weeks.4
Yours very truly, CWC/FLCorrespondent: Arthur H. Clark (1868–1951) was a White publisher who was originally from England and had worked for several publishing companies before coming to Cleveland in the 1890s. Initially he worked as a specialist in rare books for Cleveland publisher Burrows Brothers, but then founded his own bookstore and publishing house, Arthur H. Clark Company, specializing in Americana and the history of the Western United States. Clark was an avid book collector and a member of the Rowfant Club, like Chesnutt and Frank H. Baer (1863–1940), whose joint book on valentines he was going to publish before the project was abandoned.
1. Frank House Baer (1863–1940) was a White Clevelander. He was an agent for the Nickel Plate Road (New York, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad) railway company and then served on the Chamber of Commerce as transportation commissioner (1918–1937). An avid book collector, he was, like Chesnutt, a member of the Rowfant Club, and locally known for his collection of over 2,000 valentines written between 1720 and 1870. Portions were exhibited locally (and sometimes nationally) from the late 1890s into the 1920s. A joint book project with Chesnutt on the collection was apparently launched in 1922 but abandoned after 1924. [back]
2. Chesnutt's joint book project with Frank H. Baer (1863–1940), a collectors' edition of Baer's collection of valentines, with commentary and transcriptions, was likely begun in 1922. The Rowfant Club was interested in publishing the book, working with local publisher Arthur H. Clark (1868–1951), another book collector and member of the club. It is not known why and when the project was abandoned; no correspondence after May 1923 refers to it, although the forthcoming book is still mentioned in the club's Year Book for 1923 (Cleveland: Rowfant, 1924), pp. 80-81, and in its printed invitation to a speech by Chesnutt on valentines on February 14, 1924, which included a display of material from Baer's collection. About 90 pages of notes, including copies of valentine poems and portions of commentary on the history of valentine cards and gifts are in the Charles Waddell Chesnutt Papers at the Western Reserve Historical Society. [back]
3. Starting in 1922, the Chesnutts spent every summer until Chesnutt's death in Idlewild, in Lake County, Michigan, about 380 miles northwest of Cleveland. Idlewild was a popular lakeside resort for hundreds of Black families from the urban Midwest from the 1910s to the 1960s, when racism excluded them from many resort towns. In the spring of 1924, Chesnutt purchased a plot of land, where he had a summer home built in 1925. [back]
4. See Chesnutt's similarly worded response to an inquiry about the project by Frank H. Baer (1863–1940) from the same day, September 1, 1922. [back]
