Benjamin Brawley to Charles W. Chesnutt, 27 March 1922 Benjamin Brawley Stephanie P. Browner Kenneth M. Price Transcription, encoding, and annotation Anderson, Antje Millhorn, Lauren Weakly, Laura K. Barney, Brett Center for Digital Research in the Humanities, University of Nebraska-Lincoln The New School 2024 The Charles W. Chesnutt Archive
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 Benjamin Brawley to Charles W. Chesnutt, 27 March 1922 March 27, 1922 Transcription derived from scan of microfilmed original. Western Reserve Historical Society Charles Waddell Chesnutt Papers MS 3370 1 2 Correspondence Perry, Bliss Talley, Thomas Washington Maran, René Batouala Negro Folk Rhymes, Wise and Otherwise A Short History of the English Drama A Social History of the American Negro typed letter signed Brawley, Benjamin Brockton, Massachusetts Chesnutt, Charles W. (Waddell) Cleveland, Ohio Unknown Unknown Antje Anderson made further corrections Brett Barney checked; corrected Laura K. Weakly review Antje Anderson annotated, made further corrections Lauren Millhorn transcribed, encoded [1]
MESSIAH BAPTIST CHURCH BROCKTON, MASS. PASTOR BENJAMIN BRAWLEY 390 QUINCY STREET
March 27, 1922.
Mr. Charles W. Chesnutt, 1106 Williamson Building, Cleveland, Ohio.
Dear Mr. Chesnutt:--

Thank you very, very much for your kind letter. It came to me in the last mail on Saturday afternoon and gave me good cheer and encouragement for the work of yesterday.

I especially value your good words, for I know how much you have thought and pondered on all these large questions of life that interest us. You will be pleased to know that throughout the country the "Social History" seems to have been kindly received. This is the more gratifying to me because the book was written under tremendous pressure. When I returned from Africa I locked myself up and less than a year could I give to the special research and composition necessary. Within this time, however, my time was given absolutely to the book and naturally I had the results of previous labors to draw upon. The "English Drama" is a work of very different scope, being intended simply as a outline college textbook. I shall get no formal report about it for some time yet, but I understand that it has already been adopted as a text in several representative institutions. The very first to adopt it was the State Normal School [2]

MESSIAH BAPTIST CHURCH BROCKTON, MASS. PASTOR BENJAMIN BRAWLEY 390 QUINCY STREET
in Wisconsin. Professor Bliss Perry strongly recommended it to one of his classes at Harvard, so that while it is not exactly a regular text it has had considerable sale in Cambridge. I remark these things only because of your kind interest which has always been a great inspriation to me.

I quite agree with you about Maran's "Batouala." The literary power of the book is unmistakable. Somehow its dealing with the primitive brings to my mind another recent book of very different method, Professor Talley's collection of "Negro Folk Rhymes." Have you seen this book? It is published by Macmillan. It too in its own way has considerable literary quality and is really painstaking and scholarly. Just now, however, when the Negro people throughout the country are so very sensitive I am wondering just how the book will be received.

Please permit me to trust that this letter will find you enjoying the best of health. I hope that you have fully recovered from your illness of some time ago. Before many more years pass I hope also that I shall have the pleasure of seeing and talking with you personally.

Sincerely yours, Benjamin Brawley