Reviews

Unpublished readers' reports

For forty years (1891-1931), Chesnutt submitted fiction to the Boston publishing firm Houghton Mifflin for possible publication. The readers' reports were, of course, evaluations of the literary merits and commercial prospects of submissions. The original documents, now held at the Houghton library, Harvard University, provide a window into how Chesnutt's fiction was read at the firm. The readers' reports have been all but ignored until very recently. Although Chesnutt interacted with numerous publishers in his career, his ongoing interest in publishing with Houghton Mifflin—despite recurrent rejections—is striking. For an extended analysis of these documents, see Antje Anderson, Stephanie P. Browner, Lauren Millhorn, and Kenneth M. Price, "Houghton Mifflin Readers' Reports and the Shape of Charles W. Chesnutt's Literary Career," New England Quarterly 98, no. 4 (December 2025), 490-532.

Readers' reports

Published contemporary reviews of Chesnutt's works

The following section offers the most complete collection of contemporary reviews of Chesnutt to be found anywhere. We will supplement this collection further as more reviews are located, and we are grateful when users alert us to missing items.

During his lifetime, Chesnutt's works earned publication notices and reviews in a wide variety of newspapers and magazines. Our collection includes reviews published in city newspapers, regional magazines, and national outlets. The collection includes materials from the Black press as well as the White press.

In the late 1990s John M. Freiermuth, then a graduate student in the Department of English, University of North Carolina, Greensboro, collected a large batch of reviews and offered them to project co-editor Stephanie Browner for use on the initial version of the Chesnutt Archive. Since then many more reviews have been located thanks to the increasing availability of historic periodicals through online databases. Samantha Gilmore of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln has led the effort to discover and document more reviews, an effort that has vastly increased our ability to study Chesnutt’s early reception.

You can find reviews for specific Chesnutt works here, or browse all reviews below.

Pagination

312 results

[Review of The Wife of His Youth]

  • Date:
    • August 13, 1898
  • Creator(s):
    • Anonymous
  • Format:
    • periodical
  • Source:
    • The Kansas City Star

[Review of The Wife of His Youth]

  • Date:
    • August, 1898
  • Creator(s):
    • Anonymous
  • Format:
    • periodical
  • Source:
    • The Bookman

[Review of The Conjure Woman]

  • Date:
    • October 1898
  • Creator(s):
    • Anonymous
  • Format:
    • periodical
  • Source:
    • The Bookman

[Review of The Conjure Woman]

  • Date:
    • March 30, 1899
  • Creator(s):
    • Anonymous
  • Format:
    • periodical
  • Source:
    • Waterbury American

A New Afro-American Humorist

  • Date:
    • March 31, 1899
  • Creator(s):
    • Anonymous
  • Format:
    • periodical
  • Source:
    • The Philadelphia Record

[Review of The Conjure Woman]

  • Date:
    • April 1, 1899
  • Creator(s):
    • Anonymous
  • Format:
    • periodical
  • Source:
    • The Cambridge Tribune

[Review of The Conjure Woman]

  • Date:
    • April 1, 1899
  • Creator(s):
    • Anonymous
  • Format:
    • periodical
  • Source:
    • Saturday Evening Gazette

Some Recent Light Novels

  • Date:
    • April 2, 1899
  • Creator(s):
    • Anonymous
  • Format:
    • periodical
  • Source:
    • Philadelphia Times

Studies in 'Local Color' and Dialect

  • Date:
    • April 2, 1899
  • Creator(s):
    • Anonymous
  • Format:
    • periodical
  • Source:
    • New York Tribune Illustrated Supplement

[Review of The Conjure Woman]

  • Date:
    • April 2, 1899
  • Creator(s):
    • Anonymous
  • Format:
    • periodical
  • Source:
    • The Sunday News

[Review of The Conjure Woman]

  • Date:
    • April 2, 1899
  • Creator(s):
    • Anonymous
  • Format:
    • periodical
  • Source:
    • Boston Courier

[Review of The Conjure Woman]

  • Date:
    • April 3, 1899
  • Creator(s):
    • Anonymous
  • Format:
    • periodical
  • Source:
    • The Nebraska State Journal

The Conjure Woman, a Book to be Read

  • Date:
    • April 9, 1899
  • Creator(s):
    • Anonymous
  • Format:
    • periodical
  • Source:
    • The Plain Dealer Sunday Magazine

[Review of The Conjure Woman]

  • Date:
    • April 9, 1899
  • Creator(s):
    • Knight, Lucien L.
  • Format:
    • periodical
  • Source:
    • The Constitution

Plantation Tales

  • Date:
    • April 9, 1899
  • Creator(s):
    • Anonymous
  • Format:
    • periodical
  • Source:
    • The Morning Times

[Review of The Conjure Woman]

  • Date:
    • April 9, 1899
  • Creator(s):
    • Anonymous
  • Format:
    • periodical
  • Source:
    • The Commercial Appeal

[Review of The Conjure Woman]

  • Date:
    • April 10, 1899
  • Creator(s):
    • Anonymous
  • Format:
    • periodical
  • Source:
    • The Cincinnati Times-Star

[Review of The Conjure Woman]

  • Date:
    • April 10, 1899
  • Creator(s):
    • Anonymous
  • Format:
    • periodical
  • Source:
    • The Daily Inter Ocean

[Review of The Conjure Woman]

  • Date:
    • April 10, 1899
  • Creator(s):
    • Anonymous
  • Format:
    • periodical
  • Source:
    • The Portland Daily Advertiser

Conjure Woman Reviews

  • Date:
    • April 15, 1899
  • Creator(s):
    • Anon.
  • Format:
    • periodical
  • Source:
    • New York Times

"The Conjure Woman"

  • Date:
    • Apr. 15, 1899
  • Creator(s):
    • Anonymous
  • Format:
    • periodical
  • Source:
    • Boston Beacon

Hoodooed

  • Date:
    • April 15, 1899
  • Creator(s):
    • Anonymous
  • Format:
    • periodical
  • Source:
    • The Baltimore Sun

[Review of The Conjure Woman]

  • Date:
    • April 15, 1899
  • Creator(s):
    • Anonymous
  • Format:
    • periodical
  • Source:
    • Outlook

[Review of The Conjure Woman]

  • Date:
    • April 16, 1899
  • Creator(s):
    • Anonymous
  • Format:
    • periodical
  • Source:
    • The Bulletin

[Review of The Conjure Woman]

  • Date:
    • April 16, 1899
  • Creator(s):
    • Anonymous
  • Format:
    • periodical
  • Source:
    • Los Angeles Herald

[Review of The Conjure Woman]

  • Date:
    • April 20, 1899
  • Creator(s):
    • Anonymous
  • Format:
    • periodical
  • Source:
    • The Gazette

[Review of The Conjure Woman]

  • Date:
    • April 21, 1899
  • Creator(s):
    • M. L. D.
  • Format:
    • periodical
  • Source:
    • City and State

"The Conjure Woman," Etc.

  • Date:
    • April 22, 1899
  • Creator(s):
    • Alexander, Charles
  • Format:
    • periodical
  • Source:
    • The Freeman

"The Conjure Woman"

  • Date:
    • April 23, 1899
  • Creator(s):
    • Anonymous
  • Format:
    • periodical
  • Source:
    • The St. Paul Globe

[Review of The Conjure Woman]

  • Date:
    • April 23, 1899
  • Creator(s):
    • Anonymous
  • Format:
    • periodical
  • Source:
    • The Nashville American

[Review of The Conjure Woman]

  • Date:
    • April 24, 1899
  • Creator(s):
    • Anonymous
  • Format:
    • periodical
  • Source:
    • The Indianapolis Journal

[Review of The Conjure Woman]

  • Date:
    • April 27, 1899
  • Creator(s):
    • Anonymous
  • Format:
    • periodical
  • Source:
    • The Interior

[Review of The Conjure Woman]

  • Date:
    • April 29, 1899
  • Format:
    • periodical
  • Source:
    • The Philadelphia Press

"The Conjure Woman"

  • Date:
    • April 29, 1899
  • Creator(s):
    • Anonymous
  • Format:
    • periodical
  • Source:
    • The St. Paul Dispatch

[Review of The Conjure Woman]

  • Date:
    • April 30, 1899
  • Creator(s):
    • Anonymous
  • Format:
    • periodical
  • Source:
    • San Francisco Chronicle

[Review of The Conjure Woman]

  • Date:
    • Apr. 30, 1899
  • Creator(s):
    • Anon.
  • Format:
    • periodical
  • Source:
    • The Springfield Sunday Republican

"The Conjure Woman—Truth is Stranger than Fiction"

  • Date:
    • April 30, 1899
  • Creator(s):
    • Anonymous
  • Format:
    • periodical
  • Source:
    • The News and Observer

[Review of The Conjure Woman]

  • Date:
    • May 1, 1899
  • Creator(s):
    • Anonymous
  • Format:
    • periodical
  • Source:
    • The Index

[Review of The Conjure Woman]

  • Date:
    • 4 May 1899
  • Creator(s):
    • Anonymous
  • Format:
    • periodical
  • Source:
    • Public Ledger

[Review of The Conjure Woman]

  • Date:
    • May 7, 1899
  • Creator(s):
    • Sanborn, Annie W.
  • Format:
    • periodical
  • Source:
    • The Daily Pioneer Press

[Review of The Conjure Woman]

  • Date:
    • May 11, 1899
  • Creator(s):
    • Anonymous
  • Format:
    • periodical
  • Source:
    • The Christian Register

Darkey Superstition

  • Date:
    • May 16, 1899
  • Creator(s):
    • Anonymous
  • Format:
    • periodical
  • Source:
    • Rock Island Union

[Review of The Conjure Woman]

  • Date:
    • May 18, 1899
  • Creator(s):
    • Anonymous
  • Format:
    • periodical
  • Source:
    • The Congregationalist

[Review of The Conjure Woman]

  • Date:
    • May 20, 1899
  • Creator(s):
    • Anonymous
  • Format:
    • periodical
  • Source:
    • The Church Standard

[Review of The Conjure Woman]

  • Date:
    • May 25, 1899
  • Creator(s):
    • Anonymous
  • Format:
    • periodical
  • Source:
    • The Christian Advocate

[Review of The Conjure Woman]

  • Date:
    • May 1899
  • Creator(s):
    • Anonymous
  • Format:
    • periodical
  • Source:
    • The Southern Workman

[Review of The Conjure Woman]

  • Date:
    • June 1, 1899
  • Creator(s):
    • Anonymous
  • Format:
    • periodical
  • Source:
    • The Nation

[Review of The Conjure Woman]

  • Date:
    • June 7, 1899
  • Creator(s):
    • Anonymous
  • Format:
    • periodical
  • Source:
    • Zion's Herald

[Review of The Conjure Woman]

  • Date:
    • June 10, 1899
  • Creator(s):
    • Anonymous
  • Format:
    • periodical
  • Source:
    • The Evening Express

[Review of The Conjure Woman]

  • Date:
    • June 12, 1899
  • Creator(s):
    • Anonymous
  • Format:
    • periodical
  • Source:
    • The Daily Inter Ocean

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