Charles Alexander was an editor and publisher of black magazines and newspapers and a pioneering black literary critic during the first quarter of the twentieth century. Although his publications were plagued by the financial difficulties typical of black publications of that period, they were praised for the high quality of their literary content and editing.

Alexander was born in Natchez, Mississippi, to James and Angerline Thompson Alexander. He grew up in New London, Connecticut, and was educated in that city's public schools. He studied literature under private tutors and completed the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle course in 1893. The four-year, home-reading course covered European and American history and literature. Alexander then moved to Boston, where he entered the merchant tailoring business and became a journalist, working on the Reflector newspaper.

When the Reflector failed in 1894 Alexander launched the Monthly Review magazine and founded the Monthly Review Press. Published...