The Marrow of TraditionPaperback, 29 April 2023

The Marrow of Tradition (1901), Charles Chesnutt's second novel, is one of the most prominent entries in the canon of post-bellum, pre-Harlem Renaissance Black writing. Notable for its fictionalized retelling of the 1898 Wilmington Race Riots, the novel is called to by scholars and readers for its acute depiction of America's turn-of-the-century racial atmosphere. The Norton Library edition features the original 1901 text, explanatory endnotes, and a sweeping introduction by Autumn Womack that details the work's historical context, literary achievements, and groundbreaking critique of white supremacy.