The Quarry [Paperback]

Charles W. Chesnutt (Author), Dean McWilliams (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 1999

Was Donald Glover really what he seemed--a handsome, dedicated, and clever African-American star of the Harlem Renaissance, whose looks made him the "quarry" of a variety of women? Or could the secrets of his birth change his destiny entirely? Focusing on the culture of Harlem in the 1920s, Charles Chesnutt's final novel dramatizes the political and aesthetic life of the exciting period we now know as the Harlem Renaissance. Mixing fact and fiction, and real and imagined characters, The Quarry is peopled with so many figures of the time--including Booker T. Washington, W. E. B. DuBois, and Marcus Garvey--that it constitutes a virtual guide to this inspiring period in American history. Protagonist Glover is a light-skinned man whose adoptive black parents are determined that he become a leader of the black people. Moving from Ohio to Tennessee, from rural Kentucky to Harlem, his story depicts not only his conflicted relationship to his heritage but also the situation of a variety of black people struggling to escape prejudice and to take advantage of new opportunities.

Although he was the first African-American writer of fiction to gain acceptance by America's white literary establishment, Charles W. Chesnutt (1858-1932) has been eclipsed in popularity by other writers who later rose to prominence during the Harlem Renaissance. Recently, this pathbreaking American writer has been receiving an increasing amount of attention. Two of his novels, Paul Marchand, F.M.C. (completed in 1921) and The Quarry (completed in 1928), were considered too incendiary to be published during Chesnutt's lifetime. Their publication now provides us not only the opportunity to read these two books previously missing from Chesnutt's oeuvre but also the chance to appreciate better the intellectual progress of this literary pioneer. Chesnutt was the author of many other works, including The Conjure Woman & Other Conjure Tales, The House Behind the Cedars, The Marrow Tradition, and Mandy Oxendine. Princeton University Press recently published To Be an Author: Letters of Charles W. Chesnutt, 1889-1905 (edited by Joseph R. McElrath, Jr., and Robert C. Leitz, III).

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Access to the work of pioneering African American fiction writer Chesnutt has expanded in recent years with the release of his previously unpublished novels Mandy Oxendine and Paul Marchand, F.M.C. The trend continues with this publication of Chesnutt's final novel. Completed by 1928, the novel reflects several of Chesnutt's major themes, including the quest for racial identity. The tale of Donald Glover is, in many ways, similar to other stories of racial passing common to the period but with some surprising twists. Editor McWilliams (English, Ohio Univ.) provides a brief but helpful introduction and notes. Although this final work does not approach such Chesnutt classics as The Conjure Woman and Other Stories (1899) and The Marrow of Tradition (1901), it will be of interest to scholars of African American literature, particularly for Chesnutt's views on the Harlem Renaissance.ALouis J. Parascandola, Long Island Univ., Brooklyn, NY
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

paper 0-691-05996-9 Like the recently rediscovered Paul Marchand, F.M.C., this novel (completed in 1928) was rejected by publishers because it abandoned the popular style of Chesnutts fables, with their Negro dialects, in favor of a straightforward social-problem narrative. Here, Chesnutt (18581932) returns to the theme of his second story collection, the issue of mixed racial heritage, arguing both passing as white and against black separatism. The narrative centers on the exemplary life of Donald Glover, a foundling of uncertain parentage, who develops into a preeminent man of letters. Along the way, he confronts social and intellectual temptations representative of the challenges facing gifted Negroes in the first quarter of the 20th century. From an early age, when his white adoptive parents discover his black blood and reject him, light- skinned Donald commits himself to the uplift of his race. Raised in Ohio, he moves with his second set of parents to the South, where he experiences segregation for the first time. Byronically handsome, hes almost tricked into an early marriage but goes off instead to an integrated college in Kentucky thats eventually segregated by law. At Columbia, where he gets his Ph.D., Donald is tempted by a movie director who promises him a successful career if hell pass as white; by a local hustler who schools him in the ways of Harlem life; and by a character representing back-to-Africa proselytizer Marcus Garvey. Later employed by a Booker T. Washington figure, Donald decides that his obligations as a member of the talented tenth require loyalty to his true mentor, Dr. Lebrun, who stands in for Chesnutts own role model, W.E.B. DuBois. Although it makes an interesting contrast with Wallace Thurmans recently reprinted Infants of the Spring, which rejects the high- minded race consciousness of older intellectuals like Chesnutt, this formulaic, overly determined novel seldom transcends its obvious plot devices and emblematic characters. However meritorious, strictly for scholars and literary historians. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Princeton University Press (February 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0691059969
• ISBN-13: 978-0691059969
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 4.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #255,436 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Hidden Treasure Found, June 28, 1999

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This review is from: The Quarry (Paperback)

This is one of the three novels that Chesnutt wrote late in his career that were rejected by the publishers. The publishers apparently found THE QUARRY too controversial and in deed it is. The basic story line has been done before - the Puddin Head Wilson theme that John Twain wrote of where a man is raised as black but is indeed white. Chesnutt varies the theme and while telling the story of Donald Glover also tells the story of hypocricy in American life. For those who did not like Chesnutt's early stories that relied heavily on dialect and folk tales, I would urge them to try his later works. I recently read THE COLONEL'S DREAM which is an excellent study of the New South. The Quarry is an excellent view of America in the early part of the 20th Century and perhaps today.