Charles W. Chesnutt to Glenn Frank, 27 October 1922
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October 27, 1922.
Mr. Glenn Frank,
Editor Century Magazine,
353 Fourth Avenue,
New York.
Dear Mr. Frank:
A few days prior to June 20th, which was my birthday, you addressed to me a letter of congratulations and good wishes, together with a copy of the Century Magazine, both of which were delivered.1 Unfortunately the letter was opened by a member of my family who laid it aside among other papers and it was not brought to my attention until several months thereafter.2
Please accept my apologies for not having acknowledged the receipt of the letter and the magazine before now, and believe that I appreciate in the highest degree your courtesy and good wishes.
Most sincerely, CWC:FLCorrespondent: Glenn Frank (1887–1940) was a White orator, writer, and editor from Queen City, Missouri. He became first associate editor (1919–1921) and then editor in chief (1921–1925) at Century Magazine before serving as president of the University of Wisconsin-Madison (1925–1937). In both roles, he spoke out against the KKK and white supremacy.
1. The illustrated monthly Century Magazine was edited from 1881 to 1909 by Richard Watson Gilder (1844–1909). Chesnutt corresponded with Gilder and then-assistant editor Robert Underwood Johnson (1853–1937; editor 1909–1913). The magazine published articles and stories by Black writers and their White allies (including Chesnutt's story "The March of Progess" and work by his correspondents George W. Cable, Booker T. Washington, and W. E . B. Du Bois), but also by writers criticized by Chesnutt for their racism, like Thomas Nelson Page and Harry S. Edwards. After some turbulent years at the magazine, Glenn Frank (1887–1940) became first associate editor and then editor in chief (1919–1925). [back]
2. Chesnutt's birthday was June 20, 1858. Several other birthdays and anniversaries in the family also fell in June (see Helen Chesnutt, Charles Waddell Chesnutt: Pioneer of the Color Line [Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1952], 263, 302), followed by summer vacations in July and August; as a result, Chesnutt's replies to summer mail were often delayed. [back]
