biography
| name: |
Chesnutt, Charles W(addell)
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| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1858–1932)
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| biography:
| Lawyer and writer, born in Cleveland, Ohio, USA. The son of North Carolina emancipated blacks, he returned to his parents' native state after the Civil War to attend a teacher's training college in Fayetteville, where he became a teacher and later the principal (1872–83). Lack of opportunity to advance led him to New York City, where he worked as a journalist while studying law. He moved back to Cleveland in 1887 and established a successful law practice. In 1889 he published his first collection of short stories, The Conjure Woman, followed by his first novel, Behind the Cedars (1890). Along with his critical essays on other African-American writers, his works of fiction, some of which dealt realistically with the effects of racial discrimination on American society, gained him the reputation of being the first serious African-American writer. His later years were marked by ill health. |
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