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Charles W. Chesnutt: 1858-1932

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From: Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, The
Date: 20001031
Author:

Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, The
10-31-2000
Charles W. Chesnutt: 1858-1932

Charles W. Chesnutt was the nation's first commercially successful
African-American writer of fiction. He published his first short story at
the age of 14. Over the course of a long career, he wrote three novels, a
biography of Frederick Douglass, and some 80 short stories.

Chesnutt was born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1858. His parents were free-born
blacks who had moved to Ohio from North Carolina. His father was a grocer.
The Chesnutts had very light complexions and easily could have passed for
whites. But after the ...

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