Charles Waddell Chesnutt

Chesnutt, Charles Waddell (1858–1932), African-American educator, lawyer, and fiction author. The Conjure Woman (1899), a group of short stories, related incidents of slavery in a dialectic, folktale style and was his first and best-known book. Chesnutt was the recipient of the Spingarn Medal (1928) for his literary depictions of the struggles faced by blacks in America. He ceased writing in 1905 but continued to practice law until his death. Other works include The Wife of His Youth and Other Stories of the Color Line (1899), The House Behind the Cedars (1900), and The Marrow of Tradition (1901).