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Paul Lawrence Dunbar Biography

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DUNBAR, Paul Laurence (1872-1906). An American poet of African race, born at Dayton, Ohio, and educated in the public schools of Dayton. He worked as a journalist in New York and on the staff of the Congressional Library. He appeared in public as a reader of his poems, which have been collected under the titles of Oak and Ivy (1893); Majors and Minors (1895); Lyrics of Lowly Life (1896); Poems of Cabin and Field (1899); Lyrics of the Hearth Side (1899); Candle Lightin' Time (1902); Lyrics of Love and Laughter (1903); Li'l Gal (1904); Lyrics of Sunshine and Shadow (1905). His more mature work, when in dialect, deserves the generous commendation given it. He also wrote a volume of short stories, Folks from Dixie (1897); a novel, The Uncalled (1898); The Sport of the Gods (1902). Consult L. K. Wiggins, compiler, Life and Works of Paul Laarence Dunbar (1907); Complete Poetical Works, with W. D. Howells's introduction to "Lyrics of Lowly Life" (new impression, New York, 1913).

The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. VII (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 325.