Charles Chesnutt Reappraised: Essays on the First Major African American Fiction Writer - Paperback

by David Garrett Izzo (Editor), Maria Orban (Editor)

One of the best known and most widely read of early African American writers, Charles W. Chesnutt published more than fifty short stories, six novels, two plays, a biography of Frederick Douglass, and countless essays, poems, letters, journals, and speeches. Though he had light skin and was of mixed race, Chesnutt self-identified as a black man, and his writing was often boldly political, openly addressing problems of racial identity and injustice in the late 19th century.

This collection of critical essays reevaluates the Chesnutt legacy, introducing new scholarship reflective of the many facets of his fiction, especially his sophisticated narrative strategies.

Author Biography

The late David Garrett Izzo was an emeritus professor of English who published 16 books and 60 essays of literary scholarship, as well as three novels and two plays. He lived in Haw River, North Carolina. Maria Orban is an assistant professor of English at Fayetteville State University in Fayetteville, North Carolina.