William B. Pratt to Charles W. Chesnutt, 12 August 1920
| Textual Feature | Appearance |
|---|---|
| alterations to base text (additions or deletions) | added or deleted text |
| passage deleted with a strikethrough mark | |
| passage deleted by overwritten added text | Deleted text Added text |
| position of added text (if not added inline) | [right margin] text added in right margin; [above line] text added above the line |
| proofreading mark | ‸ |
| page number, repeated letterhead, etc. | page number or repeated letterhead |
| supplied text | [supplied text] |
| archivist note | archivist note |
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
SYNDICATE BUREAU
W. B. PRATT MANAGER
4 PARK STREET BOSTON
FICTION
BIOGRAPHY
NATURE SERIES
CHILDREN'S STORIES
JUVENILE VERSE
SPECIAL ARTICLES
Aug. 12, 1920.
Mr. Charles W. Chesnutt,
Cleveland, Ohio.
Dear Mr. Chesnutt:
We are very much interested in your letter1 advising that a motion picture producer is considering using a portion of THE CONJURE WOMAN.2 We will be only too glad to co-operate with you in this and authorize you to make the necessary arrangements.3
In our present contracts it is customary to specify an equal division of motion picture sales but in the present case, our participation in the returns of this sale might well be on the basis of two-thirds to you and one-third to ourselves.4 We believe this is an equitable arrangement in view of the fact that the sale will be comsummated by you.
We will be very much interested to hear from you what definite arrangements you succeed in making with the Micheaux Book and Film Company.5
With kindest regards, we remain, Very truly yours, Houghton Mifflin Company WBP WBP/GCorrespondent: 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. Chesnutt's letter to William B. Pratt at Houghton Mifflin Company predating August 12, 1920, has not been located, but it would have informed Pratt about his earliest discussions with the Micheaux Film Corporation. See George Anderson's letter on behalf of Micheaux on July 7, 1920, and Chesnutt's response of August 8, 1920. [back]
2. Chesnutt's collection of short stories, The Conjure Woman, was published by Houghton, Mifflin & Company in March 1899. [back]
3. When the Micheaux Film Corporation first negotiated with Chesnutt in 1920, Oscar Micheaux (1884–1951) seemed interested in adapting portions of Chesnutt's short story collection The Conjure Woman before settling on an adaptation of The House Behind the Cedars. Oscar and Swan E. Micheaux brought up the collection frequently in the fall of 1921, but no précis, script, or treatment by Chesnutt has been located. It is unclear whether Micheaux's lost 1926 film The Conjure Woman, starring Evelyn Preer (1896–1932), was an unauthorized adaptation, since no plot description has survived and he sometimes used known titles to draw attention to unrelated film plots. [back]
4. When the only movie contract that Chesnutt arranged was eventually drawn up (for The House Behind the Cedars), Chesnutt's share was further increased, to 75%. [back]
5. The Micheaux Film Corporation began in 1919 as the Micheaux Book and Film Company. Founded by Black novelist, film director, and film producer Oscar Micheaux (1884–1951), it was based in Chicago, with offices in New York City and Roanoke, Virginia, and became the most successful Black-owned film company of the 20th century. In the 1920s and '30s, Micheaux produced at least three dozen films featuring Black actors and themes he believed to be of particular interest to Black audiences, three of them based loosely on Chesnutt's work. In 1928, the company voluntarily filed for bankruptcy, reorganized, and survived until 1940. Most of the films are lost. [back]
