Elmer Adler to Charles W. Chesnutt, 26 March 1931
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The Colophon
a book collectors' quarterly1
26 March 1931
Dear Mr.Chesnutt:
We are very happy to learn from yours of March 25th that you like the way your article was handled, and it likewise was a great deal of satisfaction to the editors.2
Unfortunately, we cannot arrange to have extra copies of any one of the parts of The Colophon. As you know, we limit our printing to the 3000 that are sold to our subscribers, and it is not possible for us to have extra copies for contributors. We have had quite a few requests, especially for Part Five, and in each instance must give the answer that we are now writing you. It would be impractical for us to attempt any other plan, and I hope that you will appreciate the situation and explain it to your friend.
A number of your other friends have written in and several have subscribed to The Colophon because of your contribution.
We hope that we will succeed in making each part of The Colophon as good as you consider Part Five, and I am
Cordially yours, Elmer Adler Charles W.Chesnutt, Esq. 9719 Lamont Avenue Cleveland, Ohio Publication office of The Colophon Ltd • 229 West 43rd Street • New YorkCorrespondent: 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]
