The Portable Charles W. Chesnutt »

Charles W. Chesnutt (1858—1932) published two short story collections and three novels, while devoting essays and speeches to agitation for civil rights for African Americans, especially in the South. William L . Andrews is E. Maynard Adams Professor of English and senior associate dean for fine arts and humanities at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Henry Louis Gates, Jr.,, is the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research at Harvard University. He is the author of numerous books, as well as a producer and writer of documentaries on African American history and culture.

Collections from two of our most influential African American writers—under the general editorship of Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

An icon of nineteenth-century American fiction, Charles W. Chesnutt—an incisive storyteller of the aftermath of slavery in the South—is widely credited with almost single-handedly inaugurating the African American short story tradition and was the first African American novelist to achieve national critical acclaim. This major addition to Penguin Classics features an ideal sampling of his work: twelve short stories (including conjure tales and protest fiction), three essays, and the novel The Marrow of Tradition. Published here for the 150th anniversary of Chesnutt's birth, The Portable Charles W. Chesnutt will bring to a new audience the genius of a man whose legacy underlies key trends in modern black fiction.

General Introduction Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Gates, Henry Louis, Jr.

Introduction William L. Andrews Andrews, William L.

Suggestions for Further Reading

A Note on the Texts

The Portable Charles W. Chesnutt Chesnutt, Charles W.

I Short Stories

The Goophered Grapevine 5

Po' Sandy 19

Mars Jeems's Nightmare 30

Sis' Becky's Pickaninny 46

The Wife of His Youth 58

The Sheriff's Children 71

A Matter of Principle 89

The Passing of Grandison 109

Uncle Wellington's Wives 128

The Web of Circumstance 163

Dave's Neckliss 181

Baxter's Procrustes 194

II Novel

The Marrow of Tradition 209

III Essays

What Is a White Man? 451

The Disfranchisement of the Negro 460

Post-Bellum - Pre-Harlem 481