UNITED STATES AUTHOR · FICTION · AFRICAN AMERICANS
Charles Waddell Chesnutt
Also known as: Charles W. Chesnutt, W. Charles Chesnutt
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. 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 was revived. Several of his books were published in new editions, and he received formal recognition. A commemorative stamp was printed in 2008.
THE TUCKAHOE is a quiet creek.
— from Frederick Douglass, 1970
Most acclaimed
Paul Marchand, F.M.C
After living for many years in France, the wealthy and sophisticated Paul Marchand, a Free Man of Color, returns to his home in New Orleans. He discovers through a will that he is white and now head of a prosperous and influential family. Since mixed-race marriages are illegal in Louisiana, he must renounce his mulatto wife and bastardize his children. Charles W. Chesnutt wrote this novel in the 1920s at the beginning of the Harlem Renaissance but set it in the past. Published now for the first time, Paul Marchand, F.M.C., examines the system of race and caste in nineteenth-century New Orleans. Chesnutt reacts here against the traditional stance that leading American writers of the previous generation - Cable, Mark Twain, and William Dean Howells - had taken on the issue of miscegenation in their novels.
Frederick Douglass
1970
"We are deeply honored to announce that Thornwillow Press is working with renowned literary critic, historian, filmmaker, and Harvard University professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. to publish an exquisite letterpress, hand-bound edition: Frederick Douglass: Portrait of a Free Man. This exciting publication brings together the powerful Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, with two monographs by Professor Gates, which offer readers new and profound insights. In many ways, Henry Louis Gates Jr.'s scholarship has defined the field of African American studies. He is one of the foremost public intellectuals of our day. "As any biographer of Douglass knows," says Gates, "there was not a Frederick Douglass; there were many Douglasses. And that, for him, was his ultimate claim on being fully and equally and complexly human." In Frederick Douglass: Portrait of a Free Man, Gates brings us the monograph "Binary Opposition in Douglass' Narrative", which explores the literary conventions and binary oppositions Douglass used, and gives the reader a deeper insight into the narrative. Gates second monograph, "Camera Obscura", examines the vital power photos have on public opinion, both in terms of abolition and contemporary society, and brings to light the fact that Frederick Douglass was the most photographed American of the 19th century. In a time when caricatures in mainstream media portrayed Black people as naturally subjugated and unintelligent, Douglass knew that art, in the hands of racist whites, did not depict reality. Photography, on the other hand, gave a true "likeness" and as a tool for social change, could be key in altering long-held stereotypes and prejudices about Black people. Douglass posed for 160 photographs over the course of his lifetime, and in doing so, gave people a new image: that of a dignified, intelligent, free Black man. Because how we see things, says Henry Louis Gates Jr. in Frederick Douglass: Portrait of a Free Man is how we view them. The edition contains fine art photographs throughout to illustrate this salient point. The timing of the publication of Frederick Douglass: Portrait of a Free Man is particularly poignant because Thornwillow Press calls Newburgh, NY home, and in 1870, Frederick Douglass visited our city to commemorate the passage of the Civil Rights Act that enforced the terms of the 15th Amendment. In honor of his visit to Newburgh and his legacy of voter rights, a city-wide commemoration is being planned for 2020. We are exceptionally pleased to bring this publication into being at such an auspicious moment."--Publisher's kickstarter prospectus (viewed 2019 May 13).
Great American Short Stories
Washington Irving -- The legend of sleepy hollow -- The spectre bridegroom -- Nathaniel Hawthorne -- [Young Goodman Brown]( [Rappaccini's Daughter]( Edgar Allan Poe -- [The murders in the Rue Morgue]( [William Wilson]( [The pit and the pendulum]( [The cask of Amontillado]( Harriet Beecher Stowe -- Captain Kidd's money -- Herman Melville -- Benito Cereno -- The lightning-rod man -- Fitz-James O'Brien -- The diamond lens -- Mark Twain -- The celebrated jumping frog of Calaveras County -- The stolen white elephant -- The man who corrupted Hadleyburg -- Bret Harte -- The luck of roaring camp -- Tennessee's partner -- Ambrose Bierce -- [An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge]( A horseman in the sky -- Henry James -- The turn of the screw -- The jolly corner -- Sarah Orne Jewett -- The courting of Sister Wisby -- The Hiltons' holiday -- O. Henry -- The love-philtre of Ikey Schoenstein -- One dollar's worth -- Art and the bronco -- The furnished room -- Calloway's code -- Edith Wharton -- The Rembrandt -- The recovery -- Stephen Crane -- Maggie -- The bride comes to yellow sky -- Willa Cather -- The clemency of the court -- Lou, the prophet -- A night at Greenway Court -- Jack London -- To the man on trail -- The son of the wolf -- The wife of a king -- William Faulkner -- [That Evening Sun]( Ernest Hemingway -- The killers -- John Steinbeck -- The leader of the people -- Flannery O'Connor -- A late encounter with the enemy.