Books By  Paul Laurence  Dunbar

The Collected Poetry of Paul Laurence Dunbar  / The Sport of the Gods / Majors and Minors  / The Heart of Happy Hollow

Lyrics of Lowly Life  / In His Own Voice: Dramatic & Other Uncollected Works

Little Brown Baby  / Paul Laurence  Dunbar Reader  / Best Stories of Paul Laurence  Dunbar

Collected Works of  Paul Laurence  Dunbar   / The Fanatics  / Folks from Dixie

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Paul Laurence Dunbar 

(1872-1906) 

First African-American Professional Poet 

Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906)was a poet and an author who was acknowledged as the first important black poet in American literature.

His ability was recognized from early childhood and he enjoyed his greatest popularity in the early twentieth century; he wrote not only dialect poems but also novels, short stories, essays, and many poems in standard English.

The son of Matilda and Joshua Dunbar, natives of Kentucky, Paul was born on June 27 in Dayton, Ohio, and died there on February 9, 1906. His parents separated in 1874. His mother abandoned made a living as a "colored washerwoman." Among her customers was the Wright family of Dayton. 

Matilda Jane, a remarkable woman, was devoted to her son and had a great influence on him. Born in slavery, she learned poetry by listening to her slave-master read poetry at family gatherings, and she was determined that Paul receive an education and inspired him in the writing of poetry.

Dunbar produced twelve poetry books, four books of short stories, five novels and one drama. Forty of his poems were set to music by famous musicians of his time, including Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and the black composer J. Rosamond Johnson. Fifteen of his short stories appeared in such publications as Lippincott's, The Sunday Evening Post, Independent, Dayton Tattler, Harper's Weekly, Century, Denver Post, Smart Set, Outlook, Bookman, and Current Literature.

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A Dunbar Chronology

1890 (December 13) -- Dunbar and an associate, Preston Finley, published the first issue of Dayton Tattler, a black-oriented weekly newspaper printed by Wright & Wright, Printers, owned by Orville and Wilbur Wright

1891 -- graduated from Dayton, Ohio's Central High School with honors;  in the same class as Wilbur and Orville Wright.

1893 -- recited poetry at the World's Fair, where he met Frederick Douglass, who called him on of America's most promising young writers.

1895 -- went to Toledo and, with the help of attorney Charles A. Thatcher and psychiatrist Henry A. Tobey, obtained work there reading his poetry at libraries and literary gatherings. 

1895 -- Majors and Minors, Dunbar's second collection of verse published by Tobey and Thatcher

1896 -- Dunbar dialect poems  received positive reviews from the eminent novelist William Dean Howells in Harper's Weekly. This recognition by America's greatest critic was the beginning of Paul's national reputation.

1897 -- sponsored by the Savage Club in London, England, to give a series of readings and, after his return to America, obtained employment at the Library of Congress in Washington

1898 (March 8) -- married Miss Alice Ruth Moore, a teacher and writer from New Orleans. 

1902 --   Moore and Dunbar separate. Separation caused Dunbar to suffer emotional depression.

1903 -- developed tuberculosis. Stayed a short period in Colorado; returned to Washington; health continued to decline as he persisted in producing poems; reliance on alcohol to temper his physical and psychological problems exacerbated his illnesses.

1904 -- returned to Dayton to stay with his mother. 

1906 (February 9) -- died in his mother's arms at the age of 33.

Schools, banks, and hospitals all over the country have been named in his honor. In 1938 his family home was dedicated as a state museum by the Ohio Historical Society and is now a national landmark. In 1976 the U.S. Postal Service issued a commemorative stamp in his honor. His tomb at Dayton's Woodland Cemetery is marked by a statue erected in his memory. Most recently, the University Library of Wright State University has been renamed the Paul Laurence Dunbar Library.

http://www.dayton.lib.oh.us/archives/dunbar.htm

update 11 July 2008