form for a comic – though important – story, Chesnutt stays true, I think, to the
rhetorical intentions of traditional slave narratives. While Douglass, Bibb, Jacobs, and
other authors of “ literal ” slave narratives tried through their writings to convince
presumably reasonable white readers to reconsider their views of slavery (and blacks
in general), “ The Passing of Grandison ” asks later generations of white readers to do
much the same, especially in terms of their regard for African Americans. For here ’ s
a story in which a stereotypically acquiescent and dim
-
witted slave
–
Chesnutt
’
s
depiction of Grandison for much of the story might make modern readers distinctly
uncomfortable – ultimately outwits his “ superiors ” by engineering his escape and that
of his family. Thus, while “ The Passing of Grandison ” certainly amuses, it also sug-
gests that readers might have to reevaluate their views of African Americans. In the
story, both the plantation owner and his son, relying on racial stereotypes, misread
Grandison – Chesnutt seems to offer this story in the hope that it might convince his
readers not to fall into the same trap.
In addition to stories about the South or escaping from the South, roughly half of
Chesnutt ’ s stories focus on the lives of Northerners, primarily, but not exclusively,
African Americans and those of mixed blood. Indeed, two of his best works, “ Her
Virginia Mammy
”
and
“
The Wife of His Youth,
”
focus on characters living and
working in “ Groveland, ” Chesnutt ’ s fi ctionalized twin of Cleveland.
Typical of Chesnutt ’ s “ Northern ” stories is “ Her Virginia Mammy, ” a tale that,
while in many ways an apparently conventional sentimental love story, is infused with
such controversial topics as miscegenation, passing, and the consequences of slavery.
First published in The Wife of His Youth and Other Stories of the Color Line in 1899, the
story recounts a period in the life of Clara Hohlfelder, the adopted daughter of German
immigrants who refuses to marry her fi anc é , John, until she can verify the worthiness
of her “ blood ” family. Clara ’ s postponement of the marriage to a man of “ pure ” heri-
tage – his genealogical roots include “ the governor and the judge and the Harvard
professor and the Mayfl ower pilgrim ” ( Wife 82) – derives from her fear that her origins
won ’ t favorably compare with his. During the course of the story, though, readers
Charles W. Chesnutt
75
learn that the light - skinned Clara doesn ’ t come from a poor white family, as she fears;
rather, we and two of the three main characters discover (although Clara never does)
that her
“
blood
”
mother is an ex
-
slave. When the two women meet and Clara
’
s
mother, Mrs Harper, learns of her daughter
’
s predicament, she and Clara
’
s fi anc
é
choose to withhold the genealogical truth from her, thus insuring a “ happy ” ending
– a marriage, but one between a white man and a black woman. The story thus seems
to endorse miscegenation, a precarious position for a turn - of - the - century black writer
to take.
Although not at all provocative in tone or mood, “ Her Virginia Mammy ” offers
some of Chesnutt ’ s most daring messages – that “ blood ” (and race) don ’ t matter much
and also that, perhaps, one ’ s racial identity is not quite as secure as he or she may
think. For Clara ’ s happiness at the end of the story – now that she “ knows ” her ancestry
– comes at high cost: her continued ignorance about the one issue she considers most
important. Chesnutt thus seems to minimize the importance of “ blood ” and “ heritage ”
and even the past, at one point having Clara ’ s fi anc é dismissing her concerns by saying,
“ For the past, we can claim no credit, for those who made it died with it. Our destiny
lies in the future ” ( Collected Stories 118). Even more provocatively, though, Chesnutt
seems to mock the very idea of a secure racial identity, as the story implicitly calls
into question the unexamined assumptions about race and the past that his readers
Also set in “ Groveland, ” “ The Wife of His Youth ” offers a similarly complicated
view of the remaking of America at the micro, or family, level. In that story, Mr.
Ryder – the “ dean ” of a society of socially and fi nancially successful “ individuals who
were … more white than black ” (Duncan, Northern Stories 65) and who look down on
those of darker complexion
–
has decided to marry a young, very light
-
skinned
woman. But he must reconsider those plans when his slave wife, who has been search-
ing for him for twenty
-
fi ve years, unexpectedly arrives on the day he intends to
propose. Thus, Ryder must choose between reconnecting with his (slave) past and
beginning a new life in the North with a new (younger, paler, and prettier) wife. Like
so many of Chesnutt ’ s works, “ The Wife of His Youth ” has at its core the very notion
of storytelling, as Ryder ’ s long - lost wife, ‘ Liza Jane, tells of her search for him in a
long, uninterrupted narrative. Here, then, an ex - slave has the chance to articulate her
life story as an embedded narrative in the midst of a story about the “ New ” North.
Chesnutt thus uses this narrative arrangement to explore issues one fi nds throughout
his short fi ctions: the ongoing consequences of slavery, the formation and re - formation
of the American family, and the implications of race – which, in this case, have to do
with intra - racial prejudice. In this and so many others of his Northern fi ctions –
“ A Matter of Principle, ” “ Mr. Taylor ’ s Funeral, ” and “ White Weeds, ” to name only
a few – Chesnutt examines race not as an abstraction but as it pervades the lives of
Americans living in a nation struggling to redefi ne itself in the midst of a profound
and ongoing “ reconstruction. ”
Given the central, even defi ning role the issue of race plays in the author ’ s short
fi ctions, it ’ s almost startling to fi nd that perhaps Chesnutt ’ s best short story, “ Baxter ’ s
76
Charles Duncan
Procrustes, ” makes no explicit mention of race whatsoever (although it ’ s certainly
possible to interpret the story as a racial allegory). “ Baxter ’ s Procrustes ” traces the arc
of a fi nely wrought practical joke perpetrated on snobbish book collectors who value
the accoutrements of book publishing – wide margins, fi ne lettering, and exquisitely
embroidered covers – far more than the textual contents. When Baxter, a poet whose
biography very much resembles that of Chesnutt, decides to turn the pretensions of
the Bodleian Club – a fi ctitious twin of the Rowfant Club, a society of book co
llectors
in Cleveland to which Chesnutt belonged – against it, the resulting story offers a
wide - ranging satire of book collectors, literary critics, and the reading public. Given
absolute control over the publishing of his epic poem, The Procrustes , a publication
the members of the Bodleian hope to profi t from, Baxter instead publishes a volume
of blank pages. The resulting ecstatic reviews – by club members who refuse to “ cut ”
(or actually read) their copies of the book and thus reduce the profi t they might realize
– offer a hilarious send - up of a culture all too eager to value the trappings of a book
(including the race of its author) over its content. While the story seems initially to
mock a pompous subset of late nineteenth - century culture without having anything
to do with race, one can nevertheless appreciate Chesnutt ’ s satire on other levels as
well; for Baxter is an author who, like Chesnutt, refuses to submit willingly to the
Procrustean bed that his readers seem to insist upon. Like Chesnutt, Baxter can only
try to redirect (and occasionally subvert) the expectations of readers far too comfort-
able with their preconceived notions of “ America ” and its stories.
It
’
s tempting, fi nally, to assume that Charles W. Chesnutt
’
s importance as an
American short story writer derives primarily from the seeming oppositions he both
embodied and addressed in his short fi ction. A self - identifi ed African American author
(but of “ mixed ” heritage) who was born in the North but grew up in the Reconstruc-
tion South, Chesnutt did use his short fi ction to explore, in intricate and complex
ways, our national obsession with race. Most of his best short stories tended to focus
on race both in broad, sociological terms – the outcomes, intended and unintended,
of Reconstruction, the ongoing consequences of racialized thought, etc. – and its
effects on individuals and, especially, families in an America trying to put itself back
together following the Civil War. Ultimately, though, Chesnutt ’ s depiction of our
national reconciliation, while delivered through the prism of race, had more to
do with his unique vision of an America – a country well schooled in invention –
re - inventing itself all over again.
References and Further Reading
Andrews , William L. The Literary Career of Charles
Brasch , Walter M. Brer Rabbit, Uncle Remus, and
W. Chesnutt . Baton Rouge : Louisiana State Uni-
the “ Cornfi eld Journalist ” : The Tale of Joel Chandler
versity Press , 1980 .
Harris
.
Macon, GA
:
Mercer University Press
,
— — — . To Tell a Free Story: The First Century
2000 .
of Afro
- American Autobiography, 1769 – 1865 .
Chesnutt , Charles W. “ Baxter ’ s Procrustes . ” Atlan-
Urbana : University of Illinois Press , 1986 .
tic Monthly 93 (June 1904 ): 823 – 30 .
Charles W. Chesnutt
77
— — — . Collected Stories of Charles W. Chesnutt . Ed.
Short Fiction . ” North American Review 173
and Intro. William L. Andrews . New York :
(December 1901 ): 872 – 88 .
Mentor , 1992 .
Kaplan , Amy . “ Nation, Region, and Empire . ”
— — — . The Conjure Woman . Boston : Houghton
Columbia History of the American Novel . New
Miffl in , 1899 .
York :
Columbia
University
Press ,
1991 .
— — — . The Conjure Woman and Other Conjure
240 – 66 .
Tales .
Ed.
and
Intro.
Richard
Brodhead .
Keller , Frances Richardson . An American Crusade .
Durham, NC : Duke University Press , 1993 .
Provo
:
Brigham Young University Press
,
— — — . “ The Goophered Grapevine . ” Atlantic
1978 .
Monthly 60 (August 1887 ): 254 – 60 . Rpt. in
McElrath , Joseph R. , Jr. , ed. Critical Essays on
Conjure Woman . 1 – 31.
Charles W. Chesnutt
.
New York
:
G. K. Hall
,
— — — . “ Her Virginia Mammy . ” Collected Stories.
1999 .
114 – 31 .
McElrath , Joseph R. , Jr. , and Robert C. Leitz III ,
— — — . “ The Wife of His Youth . ” The Wife of His
eds.
“
To Be an Author
”
: Letters of Charles W.
Youth and Other Stories of the Color Line . Boston :
Chesnutt, 1889 – 1905 . Princeton, NJ : Princeton
Houghton Miffl in , 1899 . Ann Arbor: Univer-
University Press , 1997 .
sity of Michigan Press, 1968.
McElrath , Joseph R. , Jr. , Jesse Crisler , and Robert
Chesnutt , Helen . Charles Waddell Chesnutt: Pioneer
C. Leitz III , eds. Charles W. Chesnutt: Essays and
of the Color Line . Chapel Hill : University of
Speeches . Stanford, CA : Stanford University
North Carolina Press , 1952 .
Press , 1999 .
Davis , Charles T. , and Henry Louis Gates , Jr. , eds.
— — — . An Exemplary Citizen: Letters of Charles W.
The Slave ’ s Narrative . Oxford : Oxford University
Chesnutt, 1906 – 1932 . Stanford, CA : Stanford
Press , 1989 .
University Press , 2002 .
Duncan , Charles . The Absent Man: The Narrative
McWilliams , Dean . Charles W. Chesnutt and the
Craft of Charles W. Chesnutt . Athens : University
Fictions of Race . Athens : University of Georgia
of Ohio Press , 1998 .
Press , 2002 .
— — – . The Northern Stories of Charles W. Chesnutt .
Olney , James . “ ‘ I Was Born ’ : Slave Narratives,
Athens : University of Ohio Press , 2004 .
Their Status as Autobiography and as Litera-
Fraiman , Susan . “ Mother - Daughter Romance in
ture . ” In Davis and Gates , eds., The Slave ’ s Nar-
Charles W. Chesnutt ’ s ‘ Her Virginia Mammy. ’ ”
rative , 148 – 75 .
Studies in Short Fiction 22 . 4 (Fall 1985 ):
Sundquist , Eric J. To Wake the Nations: Race in the
443 – 8 .
Making of American Literature . Cambridge, MA :
Howells , W. D. “ Mr. Charles W. Chesnutt ’ s
Belknap Press , 1993 .
Stories . ” Atlantic Monthly 85 (May 1900 ):
Warren , Kenneth . Black and White Strangers: Race
699 – 701 .
and American Literary Realism . Chicago : Univer-
— — — . “ A Psychological Counter - Current in
sity of Chicago Press , 1993 .
6
Mark Twain and the American
Comic Short Story
David E. E. Sloane
As America ’ s premier humorist and literary comedian, Mark Twain ranks among the
great short story writers in the world. He is not the fi rst great writer
of comic short
fi ction in America; even Washington Irving, despite his importance, could not make
that claim. Nor is he the last, if we recognize William Faulkner ’ s use of the tradition
or Woody Allen, more generally, but he is the focal point. Almost every critic sees
Twain as a unique culmination of nineteenth - century American traditions of humor,
as he will be treated here. In his writing, he gathers together comic modes from before
his time, and his infl uence radiates down to current humor writers. To understand
the tradition of the comic short story in America, then, we need to look back in
American literary history and even to Europe. Mark Twain, however, is a central refer-
ence point for a historical view of the medium and the American context. Twain and
the tradition represent national characteristics embodied in a broad generic form
which was recognized as unique as early as the 1830s, if not before. Often, his
expanded burlesques of townsfolk and roughhouse antics are accounted for by the
Southwestern tradition, but his intellectual exaggeration and more sophisticated
ethical ideas owe a great deal to the tradition of Northeastern humor, and the result
is truly national.
British and European models for the comic short story or humorous episodic
adventure abound. The Travels and Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen bulks
large in references to Twain, to offer a single reference to a larger fi eld of study.
First among equals for British infl uences on American comic writers would be the
episodic classic, Laurence Sterne ’ s Life and Adventures of Tristram Shandy, Esq. , and
from that we move easily to Rabelais, Cervantes, Montaigne, and Swift, among
others. Dickens and Thackeray follow. The Spectator and Vanity Fair each had a role
in developing the American satiric tradition, beginning with the sarcasm in Colonial
and early Federal sources. On our own side of the Atlantic, Benjamin Franklin has
to be recognized as one of our earliest comic storytellers. Whether in the neoclassic
mode of “ The Ephemerae ” written for Madame Helvetius, or in the newspaper style
Mark
Twain
79
of “ The Witch Trial at Mount Holly ” in 1730, his attitude and materials are dis-
tinctly American.
The fi rst major recognition of the comic American short story by a British source
was in 1830. Mary Russell Mitford , indefatigable English sketch writer and antholo-