Paul Laurence Dunbar

Literary Works²:

Oak and Ivy (1893)
Majors and Minors (1895)
Lyrics of Lowly Life (1896)
Lyrics of the Hearthside (1899)
Poems of Cabin and Field (1899)
Lyrics of Sunshine and Shadow (1905)

Born and raised in Dayton, Ohio, by his mother. Dunbar was married briefly between 1898 and 1902 to a woman named Alice Ruth Moore. They separated and he moved back to his mother's home. He died in his mother's home at the age of 33, of tuberculosis and alcoholism.

He was 'the first African-American poet to garner national critical acclaim.'¹ His second book brought him to fame through a column praising it in Harper's Weekly. He was a classmate of the Wright Brothers in a school where he was the only African-American. He was a prolific writer and has been published many times over.