William B. Pratt to Charles W. Chesnutt, 15 September 1921
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HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
SYNDICATE BUREAU
W. B. PRATT MANAGER
4 PARK STREET BOSTON
FICTION
BIOGRAPHY
NATURE SERIES
CHILDREN'S STORIES
JUVENILE VERSE
SPECIAL ARTICLES
Sept. 15th, 1921
Charles W. Chestnutt, Esq.,
c/o Messrs. Chestnutt & Moore,
1106 Williamson Bldg.,
Cleveland, Ohio.
Dear Mr. Chestnutt:
Thank you for your letter of the 13th. I congratulate you on arranging with the Chicago Defender1 for the serial publication of "The House Behind the Cedars".2 As a matter of record, will you let me know what price they are paying, and whether the check will be sent to you or to us? As to this point, it is of course immaterial to us, but in case you arranged to have payment made to us I was going to make a record to have three-fourths of the amount credited to you, in accordance with your special arrangement with you.3
I am very much interested to hear how the motion picture propositions are progressing.4 Hope you have been able to make progress both for your and our sake.
Yours very truly, W. B. Pratt Manager Syndicate Bureau. WBp/BCorrespondent: William Brace Pratt (1886–1961) was a White Bostonian who graduated from Yale in 1906. He worked for Houghton Mifflin's Special Sales department from 1907 to 1929; as the manager of the syndicate bureau, he frequently correspondended with Chesnutt about the film rights to his works in the 1920s.
1. The Chicago Defender, a Black weekly newspaper, was founded in 1905 by Robert S. Abbott (1870–1940), who was its publisher and editor until his death. From early on, the paper had an anti-segregation, anti-lynching platform, encouraged Blacks to move North, and reached a broad national audience. Chesnutt's The House Behind the Cedars was serialized in the paper in 1921–1922. [back]
2. The House Behind the Cedars (Houghton Mifflin, 1900) was Chesnutt's first published novel. House evolved over more than a decade from a short story, "Rena Walden," first drafted in the late 1880s. It was the only novel by Chesnutt to be serialized, once in 1900-1901 in the monthly Self Culture and again in 1921-1922 in the Black weekly Chicago Defender. House was also his only novel to be adapted to film (1924 and 1932). [back]
3. While possibly prompted by discussions about a combined serialization and movie-rights contract involving Micheaux Film Corporation and the Chicago Defender in the summer of 1921, Chesnutt ultimately decided on a separate contract with the Defender for the serialization rights of The House Behind the Cedars for $125.00, of which $31.25 (25%) went to Houghton Mifflin. The novel was serialized in 19 weekly parts from October 29, 1921, to March 4, 1922 (part 1 on pages 1 and 8; parts 2–11 on page 8 only; and parts 12–19 on page 2 of the weekly paper's new "Feature Section"). [back]
4. Between January and September 1921, Oscar Micheaux negotiated with Chesnutt to pay $500 in five installments for the film rights to Chesnutt's novel The House Behind the Cedars. This was a low sum for movie rights to a novel, but Chesnutt likely took into account that Black-produced films had low budgets. Ultimately, 25% (rather than the originally suggested 33%) of the money received went to Chesnutt's publisher, Houghton Mifflin Company. Several of the payments were delayed, and Chesnutt never received the final installment. Micheaux's film adaptation was released in December 1924. [back]
