Charles W. Chesnutt to George Washington Cable, 25 July 1890
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Cleveland O. July 25, 1890.
Dear Mr. Cable:—
I send you herewith new draft of "Rena Walden."1 I have endeavored to removeobviate as far as I can see them the things complained of by Mr. Gilder.2 In the first place I have given the mother more heart, I think to the improvement of the character. A few passages intended to have that effect may be found at the bottom of page 6, and on page 7. Pages 19 and 20 the dialogue is rewritten with this intention. At the bottom of page 35 and on pages 36 & 7, the night interview, are similar passages; also the interview at parting, bottom of page 37.
With regard I have also shaded Wain down so that he is not quite so melodramatic a villain, and Rena's speech and so forth so that she is not quite so superior a being, but leaving her to depend for her interest more on the element of common humanity. The apparent intimated attempt of the old woman to poison Rena is ascribed to senile idiocy, so to speak.
I have tried to word the dialogue so as to give the people a little more imagination, a little broader outlook. In one place Mis' Molly says she "wouldn' lose her daughter fer all de riches er Solomon," and Wain observes that a "ride behin' dat mare would wake de dead," etc. And I have also taken pains to shaperefer in terms on p. to the narrowness as of their lives, and to ascribe it to the influence of their surroundings. I Have
I I have endeavored to have the mother and daughter realize, vaguely, theirher own terrible speciousness (–I think I have even got your word speciousness in there (p 5)) while I have not
There is a preaching passage on page 10 beginning: "If with the fine analytic mind" and ending with "handiwork," which can be left out if an editor should think best, without disturbing the story. The little apostrophe to dreamland on page 30 I think rather pretty, though rigid pruning might require it to be obliterated.
In short, I have rewritten the story so that I not ten pages of the last draught remain unchanged. and I am afraid the length is awkward for a magazine but, the story "Little Venice" in the July Century was longer than this.3
I have put so much of my time and my heart in this story, it has been so very well spoken of by all who have read it (some half a dozen people, the last was a cultivated gentleman who is familiar with English & French literature, ) that with whom I went on a journey a few weeks ago) that I mean to have it published. I send it to you with carte blanche, with only the request that you kindly give it as early attention as your own business will permit. I imagine you mean, if you think t it sufficiently improved, to offer it again to the Century, If they do not want although as I said before, I personally would not have the temerity to do so. If it is not accepted by the people to whom you send it, I shall offer it to The Atlantic, and if rejected there, shall either publish it in book form with some other stories, or rewrite it into a volume of about three times its present length.
With renewed thanks for your kindness and appreciation, I remain as ever,
Yours sincerely, Chas. W. Chesnutt.Correspondent: George Washington Cable (1844–1925) was a White reporter, novelist, and critic. He began his career at the New Orleans Times-Picayune, writing nearly one hundred columns in two years. After working on a collection of journalistic essays based mostly on historical accounts, Cable turned to writing short stories, novellas, and novels, typically set in New Orleans. In the 1880s, Cable began lecturing, writing essays, and forming organizations focused on social reform, specifically in the areas of Black rights and prison conditions, and in 1885 he moved to Northampton, Massachusetts. Cable and Chesnutt met for the first time in Cleveland, on December 21, 1888, at the Congregational Club's Forefather's Day celebration, where Cable was the principal speaker. They began corresponding immediately, and in mid-1889 Cable offered to employ Chesnutt as his secretary in Northampton; Chesnutt declined. Cable visited the Chesnutt home in the fall of 1889, and for two years, their correspondence was frequent, typically about Cable's political efforts on race issues, Chesnutt's writings, or recent publications. After 1891, they corresponded only occasionally.
1. "Rena Walden" was a short story Chesnutt worked on intermittently over ten years, ultimately becoming the novel The House Behind the Cedars (1900). In 1889 and 1890, Chesnutt shared several drafts with George Washington Cable. It was rejected by The Century and the Atlantic Monthly in 1890, and in 1891 by Houghton Mifflin as part of a collection Chesnutt proposed and wanted to title "Rena Walden and Other Stories." [back]
2. Richard Watson Gilder (1844–1909) was the editor of The Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine from 1881 until his death. Under his leadership, The Century became one of the most influential general-interest magazines in the United States. In 1889, Gilder rejected an essay by Chesnutt and in 1890 he rejected "Rena Walden." Both had come to him via George Washington Cable. Of the essay, "An Inside View of the Negro Question," Gilder wrote to Cable, it is "so timely and so political—in fact so partisan—that we cannot handle it. It should appear at once somewhere." He also gave his comments on "Rena Walden," in a letter to Cable, which Cable shared with Chesnutt. In 1901, Gilder accepted the short story "The March of Progress" for publication in the Century. [back]
3. "Little Venice: A Story of the St. Clair Flats," by Grace Denio Litchfield, was published in the July 1890 issue of The Century. [back]
