Charles W. Chesnutt to Elmer Adler, 25 March 1931
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March 25, 1931
Dear Mr. Adler:
Permit me to express to the editors of The Colophon1 my sincere appreciation of the very handsome dress in which my contribution was presented, and of the very flattering position it was given in the magazine.2 The illustration was appropriate, and suggestive,3 and I like the descriptive name which you gave the article.4
This number is a very beautiful one, and I hope there will be many more.
A friend of mine to whom I showed the article inquired of me if it were possible to procure a copy of this number, since he is not a book collector and would therefore not be interested in getting the magazine regularly. I told him I would write and inquire if it would be possible to procure a copy, and if so, at what price. I presume the copy I received was my regular subscription number.
With regards and best wishes, Cordially yours, Mr. Elmer Adler, Care The Colophon, 229 West 43rd Street, New York City.Correspondent: Elmer Adler (1884–1962) was a book collector and graphic designer as well as the founder and editor of The Colophon: A Book Collector's Quarterly (1930–1940).
1. The Colophon: A Book Collector's Quarterly was a high-quality, high-cost periodical edited by Elmer Adler (1884–1962), a book collector and graphic designer. Published in its original large format only from 1930 until 1935 (and only sporadically between 1935 and 1948), it included Chesnutt's essay "Post Bellum, Pre-Harlem" in Part 5 (February 1931). The Colophon was available only by subscription ($15 a year), and at the height of its success printed in runs of three thousand copies (parts 5–12). [back]
2. The essay, titled "Post-Bellum, Pre-Harlem," appeared in Colophon, 2, Part 5, in February 1931. In preparation, according to his daughter, Chesnutt "exhumed his scrap books [and] reread old letters" (see Helen M. Chesnutt, Charles Waddell Chesnutt: Pioneer of the Color Line [Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1952], 311. It was reprinted in The Crisis Vol.40 (June 1931) and later by Elmer Adler in his collection Breaking into Print (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1937). [back]
3. The illustration, a two-tone woodcut, was unsigned and evidently the choice of the editors of The Colophon. See Adler's inquiry on September 16, 1930, about any "illustrative material" to accompany the essay and Chesnutt's reply when he submitted the essay on November 28, 1930. [back]
4. The title "Post-Bellum, Pre-Harlem" was apparently chosen by The Colophon editors. Chesnutt had submitted his essay in late November 1930 as "My First Book;" see his letter to Ferris Greenslet on December 29, 1930. [back]
