Charles W. Chesnutt to Frank H. Baer, 1 September 1922
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September 1, 1922.
Mr. Frank H. Baer,
Care Cleveland Chamber of Commerce,
City.
My dear Baer:
I left Cleveland August 1st for my vacation, and have just returned.1 I took material for the valentine book with me, firmly intending to have the manuscript ready for submission upon my return.2 But the pleasures of bass fishing, hunting frogs for bait, bathing and swimming, and rowing and dancing, and eating and sleeping, and other amusements of a summer resort knocked my plans galley west. However, I did some work on the manuscript, and will get at it immediately and have it ready for submission in a few weeks.3
Yours very truly, CWC/FLCorrespondent: Frank House Baer (1863–1940) was a White Clevelander. He was an agent for the Nickel Plate Road (New York, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad) railway company and then served on the Chamber of Commerce as transportation commissioner (1918–1937). An avid book collector, he was, like Chesnutt, a member of the Rowfant Club, and locally known for his collection of over 2,000 valentines written between 1720 and 1870. Portions were exhibited locally (and sometimes nationally) from the late 1890s into the 1920s. A joint book project with Chesnutt on the collection was apparently launched in 1922 but abandoned after 1924.
1. Starting in 1922, the Chesnutts spent every summer until Chesnutt's death in Idlewild, in Lake County, Michigan, about 380 miles northwest of Cleveland. Idlewild was a popular lakeside resort for hundreds of Black families from the urban Midwest from the 1910s to the 1960s, when racism excluded them from many resort towns. In the spring of 1924, Chesnutt purchased a plot of land, where he had a summer home built in 1925. [back]
2. Chesnutt's joint book project with Frank H. Baer (1863–1940), a collectors' edition of Baer's collection of valentines, with commentary and transcriptions, was likely begun in 1922. The Rowfant Club was interested in publishing the book, working with local publisher Arthur H. Clark (1868–1951), another book collector and member of the club. It is not known why and when the project was abandoned; no correspondence after May 1923 refers to it, although the forthcoming book is still mentioned in the club's Year Book for 1923 (Cleveland: Rowfant, 1924), pp. 80-81, and in its printed invitation to a speech by Chesnutt on valentines on February 14, 1924, which included a display of material from Baer's collection. About 90 pages of notes, including copies of valentine poems and portions of commentary on the history of valentine cards and gifts are in the Charles Waddell Chesnutt Papers at the Western Reserve Historical Society. [back]
3. See Chesnutt's similarly worded letter to Arthur Clark (1868–1951) from the same day, September 1, 1922. [back]
