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Paul Laurence Dunbar Biography - Poems

Paul Laurence Dunbar was born on June 27, 1872 in Dayton, Ohio. Dunbar's father, a former slave, was a veteran of the American Civil War, serving in the 55th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment and the 5th Massachusetts Colored Cavalry Regiment. His mother was also a former slave and taught Dunbar how to read.

Dunbar's parents taught him the love of learning and history. He was the only black student at Dayton Central High School, but was very active serving as chief of the school paper, president of the literary society, and class poet. He wrote his first poem at the age of 6 and read aloud for the first time at age 9.

While searching for his poetic voice, he encountered the works of John Keats, William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Robert Burns and later John Greenleaf Whittier, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and James Whitcomb Riley. However, Dunbar did not find himself as a writer until after he read the tails from plantation traditions by the likes of Irwin Russell and others.

After graduation in 1891, Dunbar was forced to accept a job as an elevator operator in a Dayton hotel due to racism. During his time off, Dunbar wrote vigorously. He became known as the "elevator boy poet" after being invited by James Newton Matthews to read at the annual Western Association of Writers.

Dunbar's first publication came in a newspaper owned by two of his high school friends, Wilbur and Orville Write, who owned a printing plant. Later, the Wright Brothers started the Dayton Tattler, a newspaper for the black community, which Dunbar edited and published.

In 1892, Dunbar published his first collection of poetry, Oak and Ivy, which attracted much attention; including that of James Whitcomb Riley, the "Hoosier Poet" and Frederick Douglass. Dunbar wrote his poems in both standard English and dialect.

Dunbar's second book, Majors and minors was published in 1895. The book brought him national fame and due to William Dean Howells' praise, Dunbar published his first two books together as Lyrics of a Lowly Life and started on a career of international fame.

The same year, Dunbar became romantically involved with Alice Ruth Moore, a fair-skinned black Creole teacher and writer from New Orleans. Just three years later, the two married in secret over the Alice's friends and families objections.

While married, Dunbar began to suffer from tuberculosis and the alcohol which was prescribed for it. And in 1902, became permanently separated from Alice, but remained friends.

Paul Laurence Dunbar died on February 9, 1906 and was buried in Woodland Cemetery. Although Alice had separated from Dunbar four years earlier and later remarried in 1916, she became known as the "widow of Paul Laurence Dunbar".

Paul Laurence Dunbar Poems