The Wife of his Youth and Other Stories of the Color Line, and Selected Essays
E-text prepared by Suzanne Shell, Andrea Ball, and the Project Gutenberg
Online Distributed Proofreading Team
The Wife of His Youth and Other Stories of the Color Line, and Selected Essays
Charles W. Chesnutt
1899
Charles Waddell Chesnutt (1858-1932)—African-American educator, lawyer, and activist—was the most prominent black prose author of his day. In both his fiction and his essays, he addressed the thorny issues of the color line and racism in an outspoken way. Despite the critical acclaim resulting from several works of fiction and non-fiction published between 1898 and 1905, he was unable to make a living as an author. He kept writing, however, and several works which were not published during his lifetime have been rediscovered (and published) in recent years. He was awarded the Springarn Medal for distinguished literary achievement by the NAACP in 1928. The library at Fayetteville State University, in North Carolina, is named after him.
Suzanne Shell, Project Gutenberg Project Manager
The Wife of His Youth
Her Virginia Mammy
The Sheriff's Children
A Matter of Principle
Cicely's Dream