Charles W. Chesnutt to Cassie Mae Reed, 25 April 1932
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[1]
April 25, 1932
Miss Cassie Mae Reed,
Dunbar High School,
Little Rock, Ark.1
My dear Miss Reed:
I have your letter of April 19th, with reference to your graduating essay, for which you ask me for information regarding myself. I see you refer to me as an outstanding poet. I am very sorry to say that I am not a poet. I have written a little verse, as every writer has, but have never posed as a poet, or been called a poet, so you are off on the wrong foot, so far as that is concerned.
As for personal information about myself, if it will help you to graduate, I quote the following item from "Who's Who in America" for 1931:
"CHESNUTT, Charles Waddell, author; b. Cleveland, O., June 20, 1858; married Susan U. Perry, 1878. Nine yrs. teacher in public schools of North Carolina; at 23 became principal of the State Normal School, Fayetteville, N. C.; in 1884 spent some months as newspaper writer in New York; admitted to Ohio bar, 1847; since practiced law in Cleveland. Club: Rowfant. Author: The Conjure Woman, 1899, 1929; The Wife of His Youth and Other Stories, 1899; Life of Frederick Douglass, in Beacon Biographies, 1899; The House Behind the Cedars, 1900; The Marrow of Tradition, 1901; The Colonel's Dream, 1905. Home: 9719 Lamont Av., N. E. Office: 1646 Union Trust Bldg., Cleveland, O."2
I judge from the name of your high school that you are a colored girl. I can add to the above information that I am a lawyer by profession, and have lived in Cleveland since 1885 -- in fact, I was born there in 1858, lived there eight years, and went to Fayetteville, North Carolina, the former home of my parents, and lived there until I was twenty-five years old.
[2]
My books have been in the form of short stories and novels, and have dealt almost exclusively with phases of Negro life, North and South.
I regret that I have not a good photograph to spare, but I mail you under another cover copy of "The Clevelander", the organ of the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce, which contains an article by me, accompanied by a very good picture.3
I wish you success in your project, and remain,
Sincerely yours, CWC:ES4Correspondent: Very probably Cassie Claudetta Reed, who graduated from Paul Laurence Dunbar High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, in May of 1932 as one of 64 graduates. No further information about her is available.
1. Paul Laurence Dunbar High School and Junior College in Little Rock, Arkansas, replaced the city's only Black high school when it was built in 1930. Built partly with support from the Rosenwald Fund, it initially had an emphasis on industrial arts. It is now on the National Register of Historic Places. [back]
2. This paragraph is copied from Who's Who In America, Vol.16, 1930–1931, ed. Albert Nelson Marquis (Chicago: A.N. Marquis Co., 1930), 507. The book gives the correct year of Chesnutt's admission to the bar (1887, not 1847). [back]
3. Chesnutt's 1930 essay "The Negro in Cleveland" was published in The Clevelander 5, no. 7 (November 1930): 3–4, 24–27. It was accompanied by a portrait. [back]
4. Emilie Skarabotta (1908–1990), the daughter of Hungarian immigrants, was a stenographer and notary public who worked for Chesnutt's and Helen Moore's stenography business in the early 1930s. She was eventually listed on the firm's letterhead. [back]
