John M. Siddall to Charles W. Chesnutt, 23 November 1907
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THE AMERICAN MAGAZINE1
341 FIFTH AVENUE
NEW YORK
The Phillips Publishing Company
November 23rd, 1907.
Mr. Charles W. Chesnutt,
1105 Williamson Bldg.,
Cleveland, Ohio.
Dear Mr. Chesnutt:
I have not acknowledged the receipt of your letter and of the photograph2 until now because I wanted to show your letter to Mr. Baker.3 He has read it and wants to assure you that he thinks his article on the mulatto will be entirely in accord with your feelings.4
Very sincerely yours, John M. SiddallCorrespondent: John McAlpine Siddall (1874–1923) was a White journalist and newspaper editor who was born in Ohio and worked at the Cleveland Plain Dealer until 1904, then in New York at McClure's Magazine, and after its founding, at the American Magazine, where he was associate editor (1906–1911) and editor in chief (1915–1923).
1. The American Magazine (1906–1956) was a monthly magazine that emerged from the earlier periodical Frank Leslie's Popular Monthly. Journalist Ray Stannard Baker (1870–1946) was one of its founders and a key contributor. The magazine was published by the Phillips Publishing Company, based in Springfield, Ohio, until 1911. [back]
2. In September 1907, The American Magazine had requested a photograph from Chesnutt as an illustration for Ray Stannard Baker's forthcoming essay, "The Tragedy of the Mulatto." Chesnutt's reply and enclosure have not been located, but his photograph was used as one of 17 accompanying Baker's essay (see American Magazine 65, no. 6 [April 1908]: 586) and was also included when Baker's piece was reprinted in book form as a collection of essays. See Following the Color Line: An Account of Negro Citizenship in the American Democracy (Doubleday, Page & Co., 1908), interleaf between pages 214 and 215. [back]
3. Ray Stannard Baker (1870–1946) was a White journalist best known for writing about President Woodrow Wilson. Following the Atlanta Race Massacre in September 1906, he began to write about race in the American Magazine, a monthly he co-founded. He later joined the NAACP. Chesnutt read his 1907 and 1908 articles with interest and was in favor of the Committee of Twelve—a group of Black activists founded by Booker T. Washington—reprinting Baker's account of the Atlanta events. [back]
4. "The Tragedy of the Mulatto" by Ray Stannard Baker (1870–1946) was the third in a series of eight articles on Black Americans published in The American Magazine between February and September of 1908 (see vol. 65, no. 6, April 1908, pages 582–598). This series followed Baker's 5-part series in the same venue in 1907 following the 1906 Atlanta Race Massacre. Chesnutt read both series with interest and mentioned them in several letters. [back]
