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Reviews

This 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.

Reviews

312 items

[Obituary, Charles Waddell Chesnutt]

  • Date: January 1933
  • Creator(s): Du Bois, W. E. B.
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: The Crisis

In Memorium: Charles W. Chesnutt

  • Date: December 1932
  • Creator(s): Brown, Sterling A.
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: Opportunity: Journal of Negro Life

[Obituary, Charles W. Chesnutt]

  • Date: November 26, 1932
  • Creator(s): Anonymous
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: Publishers Weekly

C. W. Chesnutt, Negro Author, Dies

  • Date: November 16, 1932
  • Creator(s): Anonymous
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: The New York Times

The Negro as Writer

  • Date: February 1930
  • Creator(s): Chamberlain, John
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: The Bookman

[Review of The Conjure Woman]

  • Date: May, 1929
  • Creator(s): J. B. H.Hubbell, Jay B.
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: American Literature

[Review of The Conjure Woman]

  • Date: April 1929
  • Creator(s): Anonymous
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: The Crisis

A Chesnutt Reprint

  • Date: February 16, 1929
  • Creator(s): Anonymous
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: Public Ledger

Du Bose Heyward's "Mamba's Daughter's" and Republication of Chesnutt's "The Conjure Woman" Makes This "Negro Literature Week"

  • Date: February 2, 1929
  • Creator(s): Davis, Elrick B.
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: Cleveland Press

Lewis-Addams Urge 'Jim-Crow Y.'

  • Date: November 17, 1928
  • Creator(s): Smith, Harry C.
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: The Gazette

The Fourteenth Spingarn Medal

  • Date: August 1928
  • Creator(s): Anonymous
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: The Crisis

Spingarn Medal

  • Date: June 30, 1928
  • Creator(s): Anonymous
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: The Gazette

Fittingly Bestowed

  • Date: June 15, 1928
  • Creator(s): Anonymous
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: The Plain Dealer

Author Wins Spingarn Medal

  • Date: June 14, 1928
  • Creator(s): Anonymous
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: The New York Times

Spingarn Medal

  • Date: June 1928
  • Creator(s): Anonymous
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: Washington D.C. Eagle

Mencken

  • Date: October 1927
  • Creator(s): Du Bois, W. E. B.
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: The Crisis

That Alleged 'Chamber' Report

  • Date: February 13, 1926
  • Creator(s): Anonymous
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: The Gazette

Charles Waddell Chestnut (sic)

  • Date: 1919
  • Creator(s): Anonymous
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: National Cyclopedia of the Colored Race

[Review of The Colonel's Dream]

  • Date: October 11, 1906
  • Creator(s): Anonymous
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: Life

[Review of The Colonel's Dream]

  • Date: April 9, 1906
  • Creator(s): Anonymous
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: The Chicago Daily Tribune

The Colonel's Dream

  • Date: March 1906
  • Creator(s): B. J. R.
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: Book News

[Review of The Colonel's Dream]

  • Date: February 1906
  • Creator(s): Anonymous
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: The Voice of the Negro

The Colonel's Dream

  • Date: January 20, 1906
  • Creator(s): Anonymous
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: The Indianapolis News

[Review of The Colonel's Dream]

  • Date: January 13, 1906
  • Creator(s): Anonymous
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: THE ATHENÆUM

[Review of The Colonel's Dream]

  • Date: January 1906
  • Creator(s): Anonymous
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: AME Church Review

Review of Charles W. Chesnutt's Latest Book with a Brief Appreciation of his Character

  • Date: December 9, 1905
  • Creator(s): Brascher, Nahum Daniel
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: Cleveland Journal

The Colonel's Dream

  • Date: December 1905
  • Creator(s): Daniels, John
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: Alexander's Magazine

[Review of The Colonel's Dream]

  • Date: December 1, 1905
  • Creator(s): Anonymous
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: The Utica Observer

[Review of The Colonel's Dream

  • Date: November 21, 1905
  • Creator(s): Anonymous
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: Boston Evening Transcript

A Tale of the New South

  • Date: November 20, 1905
  • Creator(s): Anonymous
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: The Argonaut

Books of all Sorts and Kinds now Flood the Literary Mart

  • Date: November 19, 1905
  • Creator(s): Anonymous
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: Los Angeles Herald

Three American Novels

  • Date: October 29, 1905
  • Creator(s): Bettany, F. G.
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: Sunday Times and Sunday Special

Social Studies in Story

  • Date: October 28, 1905
  • Creator(s): Anonymous
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: The Congregationalist and Christian World

The Colonel's Dream

  • Date: October 28, 1905
  • Creator(s): Anonymous
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: The Knoxville Sentinel

Answers Thomas Dixon

  • Date: October 28, 1905
  • Creator(s): Seibel, George
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: The Pittsburgh Gazette

Chesnutt's Latest Story

  • Date: October 15, 1905
  • Creator(s): Daniels, John
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: Alexander's Magazine

[Review of The Colonel's Dream]

  • Date: October 7, 1905
  • Creator(s): Anonymous
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: Seattle Post Intelligencer

[Review of The Colonel's Dream]

  • Date: October 5, 1905
  • Creator(s): Anonymous
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: The Independent

The Colonel's Dream

  • Date: September 30, 1905
  • Creator(s): Anonymous
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: The News Leader

[Review of The Colonel's Dream

  • Date: September 30, 1905
  • Creator(s): Anonymous
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: The Outlook

[Review of The Colonel's Dream]

  • Date: Sepember 30, 1905
  • Creator(s): Anonymous
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: The Chicago Evening Post

Achievements of the Negro Race

  • Date: September 29, 1905
  • Creator(s): Miller, Kelly
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: Voice of the Negro

[Review of The Colonel's Dream]

  • Date: September 23, 1905
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: Detroit Free Press

[Review of The Colonel's Dream]

  • Date: September 18, 1905
  • Creator(s): Anonymous
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: The Cleveland News

[Review of The Colonel's Dream]

  • Date: September 16, 1905
  • Creator(s): Anonymous
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: The Evening Star

A Story of North and South

  • Date: September 16, 1905
  • Creator(s): Anonymous
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: The Courier-Journal

[Review of The Colonel's Dream]

  • Date: September 10, 1905
  • Creator(s): Anonymous
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: Savannah Morning News

Dream Doesn't Come True

  • Date: September 9, 1905
  • Creator(s): Anonymous
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: The Globe and Commercial Advertiser

[Review of The Marrow of Tradition]

  • Date: July 20, 1905
  • Creator(s): Anonymous
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: The New York Age

[Review of The Marrow of Tradition]

  • Date: August 22, 1903
  • Creator(s): Alexander, Charles
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: The Cleveland Journal