Dunbar, Paul Laurence

Dunbar, Paul Laurence (dŭn`bär), 1872–1906, American poet and novelist, b. Dayton, Ohio. The son of former slaves, he won recognition with his Lyrics of Lowly Life (1896)—a collection of poems from his Oak and Ivy (1893) and Majors and Minors (1895). His humorous poems employing African-American folk materials and dialect were especially popular with the public, but Dunbar viewed them as a means of getting his other works published and came to despise them. Dunbar's other works include four novels, the best known of which is The Sport of the Gods (1902); four collections of short stories, notably Folks from Dixie (1898), in which he portrayed the lives of Southern blacks; and numerous song lyrics.

Bibliography

See his Complete Poems (1913); biographies by B. Brawley (1936, repr. 1967) and A. Gayle (1971); study by J. Martin, ed. (1974); E. Alexander, ed., Lyrics of Sunshine and Shadow: The Tragic Courtship and Marriage of Paul Laurence Dunbar and Alice Ruth Moore (2002).

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Dunbar, Paul Laurence

Paul Laurence Dunbar, 1906.

(credit: Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.)

(born June 27, 1872, Dayton, Ohio, U.S.—died Feb. 9, 1906, Dayton) U.S. author. The son of former slaves, Dunbar became the first African American writer to try to live by his writings and one of the first to attain national prominence. He wrote for a largely white readership, using black dialect and depicting the pre-Civil War South in pastoral, idyllic tones. His verse collections include Oak and Ivy (1893), Majors and Minors (1895), and Lyrics of Lowly Life (1896). His poems reached a wide readership, and he gave readings in the U.S. and England. He also published four short-story collections and four novels, including The Sport of the Gods (1902).