CB Brownell's Profile

Chesnutt's conjure tales

Chesnutt had to walk a tightrope between literary distinction and
marketability, between writing that reflected his identity as an African
American man and writing that would be bought by the predominantly white reading
public.

Chesnutt is alternately hailed as the first serious African American writer of
fiction and spurned for following Harris and other plantation writers in
perpetuating the myth of the glorious South and the stereotypical