North Carolina: departure and return -- A very young teacher -- "I think I must write a book" -- Principal of the State Normal School at Fayetteville -- Stenographer, lawyer, author -- George W. Cable and the Open Letter Club -- Family interlude -- An absorbing and profitable business -- Educating the children -- Chesnutt and Walter Hines page -- "The Wife of His Youth" -- "The Conjure Woman" -- Going into the author business -- A choice of publishers -- "The House Behind the Cedars" -- Living at high tension -- "The Marrow of Tradition" -- Business and social life in Cleveland -- Chesnutt and Booker T. Washington -- "The Colonel's Dream" -- Mark Twain's birthday dinner -- Chesnutt's family in Europe -- The everlasting problem -- Honored citizen of Cleveland -- A summer abroad -- Family and civic affairs -- Racial tension in the first World War -- The Chesnutt home a mecca -- The passing years -- The Spingarn Medal -- End of a rich, full life.