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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

[Review of The Conjure Woman]

  • Date: June 1899
  • Creator(s): Morgan, Florence A. H.
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: The Bookman

[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

[Review of The Conjure Woman]

  • Date: June 15, 1899
  • Creator(s): Anonymous
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: The Index

[Review of The Conjure Woman]

  • Date: June 15, 1899
  • Creator(s): Anonymous
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: Public Opinion

[Review of The Conjure Woman]

  • Date: June 15, 1899
  • Creator(s): Anonymous
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: The Country Gentleman

"The Conjure Woman"

  • Date: June 20, 1899
  • Creator(s): Anonymous
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: The Commercial Advertiser

[Review of The Conjure Woman]

  • Date: June 20, 1899
  • Creator(s): Anonymous
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: The New England Magazine

[Review of The Conjure Woman]

  • Date: June 24, 1899
  • Creator(s): Anonymous
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: The Literary World

Stories of Negro Superstitions

  • Date: June 26, 1899
  • Creator(s): Hart, J. A.
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: The Argonaut

The Author of "The Conjure Woman," Charles W. Chesnutt

  • Date: July 1899
  • Creator(s): Shipman, Carolyn
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: The Critic

[Review of The Conjure Woman]

  • Date: July 1899
  • Creator(s): Anonymous
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: The Critic

[Review of The Conjure Woman]

  • Date: July 1, 1899
  • Creator(s): MacArthur, James
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: Outlook

[Review of The Conjure Woman]

  • Date: July 9, 1899
  • Creator(s): Anonymous
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: St. Louis Democrat

Mr. Charles W. Chestnut, Esq.

  • Date: July 15, 1899
  • Creator(s): Anon.
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: The [Cleveland] Gazette

Among the Superstitious

  • Date: August 1899
  • Creator(s): Anonymous
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: Current Literature

Negro Authors and Professionals

  • Date: August 12, 1899
  • Creator(s): Landon
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: New York Evening Post

An Aboriginal Author

  • Date: August 23, 1899
  • Creator(s): Bouve, Pauline Carrington
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: Boston Evening Transcript

[Review of The Wife of His Youth]

  • Date: September, 1899
  • Creator(s): Anonymous
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: The Book Buyer

Literature of the American Negro

  • Date: September 9, 1899
  • Creator(s): Anonymous
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: Time and the Hour

[Review of The Conjure Woman]

  • Date: September 10, 1899
  • Creator(s): Anonymous
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: The Sunday Times-Union and Citizen

[Review of The Wife of His Youth]

  • Date: November 14, 1899
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: The Evening Express

[Review of The Conjure Woman]

  • Date: November 25, 1899
  • Creator(s): Bruce, John Edward
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: The Colored American

[Review of The Wife of His Youth]

  • Date: December 1, 1899
  • Creator(s): Anonymous
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: The Burlington Hawk-Eye

[Review of The Wife of His Youth]

  • Date: December 6, 1899
  • Creator(s): Anonymous
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: Zion's Herald

[Review of Frederick Douglass]

  • Date: December 9, 1899
  • Creator(s): Anonymous
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: The Buffalo Enquirer

[Review of Frederick Douglass]

  • Date: December 10, 1899
  • Creator(s): Anonymous
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: The Illustrated Buffalo Express

[Review of The Wife of His Youth]

  • Date: December 10, 1899
  • Creator(s): Anonymous
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: Los Angeles Herald

Two New Books by Charles W. Chesnutt

  • Date: December 10, 1899
  • Creator(s): Anonymous
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: The Plain Dealer Sunday Magazine

Life of Frederick Douglass

  • Date: December 10, 1899
  • Creator(s): Anonymous
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: The Denver Republican

[Review of The Wife of His Youth]

  • Date: December 10, 1899
  • Creator(s): Anonymous
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: The Bulletin

[Review of Frederick Douglass]

  • Date: December 11, 1899
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: Worchester Evening Gazette

Tales of Negro Life

  • Date: December 11, 1899
  • Creator(s): Anonymous
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: The Worchester Evening Gazette

[Review of The Wife of His Youth]

  • Date: December 13, 1899
  • Creator(s): Anonymous
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: The Portland Daily Advertiser

The New Books by Mr. Chesnutt

  • Date: December 15, 1899
  • Creator(s): Anonymous
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: The Index

[Review of The Wife of His Youth]

  • Date: December 15, 1899
  • Creator(s): Anonymous
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: The Index

[Review of The Wife of His Youth]

  • Date: December 16, 1899
  • Creator(s): Anonymous
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: The Chicago Journal

Mr. Chesnutt's New Book and Some Others

  • Date: December 16, 1899
  • Creator(s): Hanscom, Alice E.
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: Town Topics

[Review of Frederick Douglass]

  • Date: December 16, 1899
  • Creator(s): Anonymous
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: Rochester Democrat and Chronicle

[Review of Frederick Douglass]

  • Date: December 16, 1899
  • Creator(s): Anonymous
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: Time and the Hour

[Review of The Wife of His Youth]

  • Date: December 16, 1899
  • Creator(s): Anonymous
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: The St. Louis Globe-Democrat

Mr. Chesnutt's New Book and Some Others

  • Date: December 16, 1899
  • Creator(s): Hanscom, Alice E.
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: Town Topics

Chesnutt's Tales

  • Date: December 16, 1899
  • Creator(s): Anonymous
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: Boston Evening Transcript

Review of [The Wife of His Youth]

  • Date: December 10, 1899
  • Creator(s): Anonymous
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: The Outlook

Review of [The Wife of His Youth]

  • Date: December 16, 1899
  • Creator(s): Anonymous
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: The Living Age

[Review of The Wife of His Youth]

  • Date: December 17, 1899
  • Creator(s): Anonymous
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: The Springfield Sunday Republican

[Review of The Wife of His Youth]

  • Date: December 17, 1899
  • Creator(s): Anonymous
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: The Illustrated Buffalo Express

[Review of The Wife of His Youth]

  • Date: December 17, 1899
  • Creator(s): Anonymous
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: The Times

American Biographies for Busy Men

  • Date: December 17, 1899
  • Creator(s): Anonymous
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: Los Angeles Times