chesnutt wrote three more of the stories between 1887 and 1889 he called "conjure tales," two of which would eventually appear in "the conjure woman." the stories were "po' sandy" published in "the atlantic monthly" in 1888, and "the conjurer's revenge" published in overland monthly in june 1889. in march of 1898, page wrote chesnutt to inform him that houghton mifflin would consider publishing a short-story collection with "the same original quality" as "the gophered grapevine" and "po' sandy." over the next two months, chesnutt wrote six additional stories, four of which were selected by page and other editors at houghton mifflin to appear in "the conjure woman", including "mars jeems's nightmare," "sis' becky's pickaninny," "the gray wolf's ha'nt," and "hot-foot hannibal."