The Conjure Woman

"The Conjure Woman" by Charles W. Chesnutt was published in 1899 by Houghton, Mifflin and Company of Boston and New York and printed by The Riverside Press of Cambridge. This First Edition copy of the book, which measures approximately 4 ¾ x 7 inches, contains 229 pages and is hard bound in brown cloth covered boards with gilt printing on the front and spine, plus colored illustrations on the front cover. A bookplate of a previous owner is attached to the inner front cover, and a handwritten note on the title page reads "Cleveland's first Negro author of distinction". The front free end paper is detached, the book's pages are lightly tanned, and there is slight fraying at the top and bottom of the spine. Considering all of these factors, the book can still be considered to be in very good condition.

The front pastedown bookplate is that of the late Leland Schubert, educator and benefactor who donated a million dollars to Cleveland's Mayor Carl B. Stokes to help promote employment opportunities, improved housing and education for Cleveland's poor. Mayor Stokes was the first Afro-American mayor of a major American city.

This is Chesnutt's first book – a collection of short stories entitled The Conjure Woman published in 1899. The collection's seven stories features black characters who speak in Negro dialect, as was popular in much contemporary southern literature portraying the antebellum years in the South, as well as the postwar period. The stories are told as reminiscences by an old Negro gardener, Uncle Julius.

The illustrations above show:
• The front cover of the bookmark
• The bookplate on the inside front cover
• The Title page
• The table of Contents
• The first page of the first story

Charles Waddell Chesnutt (June 20, 1858 – November 15, 1932) was an African-American author, essayist, political activist and lawyer, best known for his novels and short stories exploring complex issues of racial and social identity in the post-Civil War South. Many families of free people of color were formed in the colonial and early Federal period; some attained education and property; in addition there were many mixed-race slaves, who as freedmen after the war were part of the complex society of the South. Two of his books were adapted as silent films in 1926 and 1927 by the African-American director and producer Oscar Micheaux. Following the Civil Rights Movement during the 20th century, interest in the works of Chesnutt were revived. Several of his books were published in new editions, and he received formal recognition. A commemorative stamp was printed in 2008. [Wikipedia]