Fleta Harrison to Charles W. Chesnutt, 20 October 1921
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502 N. Pine St.,
San Antonio, Texas.
Oct. 20, 1921.
Mr Chas. W. Chesnut,
Dear Sir:—
I am writing you in regard to the book "The House Behind the Cedar,"1 I would like very much to obtain the book from you or how I could come in possession of it. Also the price.2 Inform me soon as possible. I am,
Miss Fleta HarrisonCorrespondent: Fleta Harrison (b. 1903) is listed at the given San Antonio address as the 17-year-old niece of Alexander Harrison, a Black farmer, in the census of 1920. By the 1930 census, she is double-listed as living with her parents and working as a maid. No additional information about her life has been found.
1. The House Behind the Cedars (Houghton, Mifflin & Company, 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]
2. The original price for The Conjure Woman was $1.25; The Wife of His Youth cost $1.50, as did each of Chesnutt's three novels. Several letters from 1921 indicate that Chesnutt was aware that the prices had increased to $1.50 and $1.75, respectively, but two surviving annual copyright statements sent to Chesnutt by Houghton Mifflin Company for 1921 and 1922 indicate that the price forThe Conjure Woman had further increased to $2.00, and for The Wife of His Youth and The House Behind the Cedars to $3.00. The new edition of the The Conjure Woman published in 1928 cost $5.00. [back]