Harry J. Warwick to Charles W. Chesnutt, 1 July 1932
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[1]
Bradhurst 2-9341
320 West 139 St.,
New York City
July 1, 1932
Dear Mr. Chesnutt:
Mrs. Wiley Wilson, of New York, whom you may remember better as Miss Inez Richardson,1 gave me your address, and gave me permission to refer myself to her in writing you.
I have some first editions of your published works, and would like very much to have you autograph them. I have a considerable collection of American Negro books, almost complete from Booker T. Washington's time to the present, mainly in original editions.2 I was fortunate enough to obtain an autographed set of Mr. Washington's works.
1
[2]
My chum, (Floyd Miller) and I are collecting together and will eventually present the collection to some Negro university library.
Will you be gracious enough to permit me to send you the first editions of your books for autographing, together with postage for yo their return?
My chum joins me in wishing you many years of health and happiness.
Sincerely. Harry J. WarwickP.S. You may have noticed a rather "amateurish" sonnet of mine in the April "Crisis." Sadly enough, a rough draft was mailed to the magazine and the first line is of only four feet instead of five. It should read "I spend the glaring, sunlit hours as white."3
Correspondent: Harry J. Warwick (life dates unknown) was a self-professed collector of books by Black authors who approached Chesnutt to get books autographed. He and a friend, Floyd Miller, who has not been further identified, apparently collected books together. It is not known whether their books were eventually donated to an HBCU, as Warwick's first letter to Chesnutt suggested they would be.
1. Inez Richardson Wilson (1896–1961) was a Black activist and suffragist originally from Cleveland. She married one of the first Black doctors with a surgical practice in Harlem, Wiley M. Wilson (1882–1962) in the 1920s. She worked for the NAACP's Women's Auxiliary in New York City in the 1920s and 1930s. [back]
2. Booker T. Washington (1856–1913), one of the most well-known Black activists of the early 20th century, was born into slavery in Virginia. In 1881, he became the president of what would become the Tuskegee Institute, advocating widely as a speaker and writer for technical education for Blacks, whose entry into American industry and business leadership he believed to be the road to equality. His political power was significant, but because he frequently argued for compromise with White Southerners, including on voting rights, he was also criticized by other Black activists, especially by W. E. B. Du Bois. [back]
3. As published in the April 1932 Crisis, Harry J. Warwick's sonnet "Passing" begins with the line "I spend my daylight hours as white." [back]
