The Black Cat Club. Negro humor & folk-lore.

“Character studies of Negro life as it may be observed in the great cities of the North. The scene has been laid in Chicago…”—Preface

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Corrothers was a Midwestern African American, a clergyman and poet. “His newspaper sketches were later published as The Black Cat Club: Negro Humor and Folk-lore (1902). Although the work was severely criticized and he later regretted its publication, it is nevertheless an important, pioneering book of humorous Negro literature.” (DANB).

The author frames his stories via a fictional “Black Cat Club” in Chicago:

Some of the stories used or old Negro folk-lore details which I heard from my grandfather, uncles, and others. ... They have been told around Negro cabin-fires for hundreds of years; but, so far as I know, have never before appeared in print. Believing them worthy of preservation, I have endeavored to retell them faithfully through the medium of the “Black Cat Club,” a setting which, I hope, will give the reader a clearer insight into certain phases of Negro life and character, not only as they appeared on Southern plantations in ante-bellum times, but as they may be observed under certain conditions to-day. (pp8–9)

Corrothers’s book is profusely illustrated throughout by J.K. Bryans including handsome full-page silhouettes and marginal vignettes. His wide-eyed black cats add an air of wonder to these folk tales.

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