Paul Laurence Dunbar

Synopsis: This collection features Dunbar's (1872-1906) previously unpublished dramatic works, short stories, essays, and poems-approximately 75 works in six genres. The dramatic works include plays, musicals, and musical lyrics and fragments. The essays discuss Dickens and Thackeray, England from the Black perspective, black life and society in Washington, higher education, plagiarism, the literary portrayal of black people, and Booker T. Washington. A chronology is included.-Annotation c. Book News, Inc.

Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872--1906) overcame racism and poverty to become one of the best-known authors in America, and the first African American to earn a living from his poetry, fiction, drama, journalism, and lectures. This original collection includes the short novel The Sport of the Gods, Dunbar's essential essays and short stories, and his finest poems, such as "Sympathy," all which explore crucial social, political, and humanistic issues at the dawn of the twentieth century.From the Trade Paperback edition.

A brief biography of the poet precedes a collection of his works, most in standard English rather than dialect, with such themes as love, hate, death, nature, and religion.

The Uncalled tells the story of Frederick Brent, a man abandoned by his father and orphaned at an young age, who sees himself thrust into religious life by his devout guardian despite his lack of vocation for it. The Uncalled was Paul Laurence Dunbar’s first novel. It was neither a critical nor a commercial success, as it was overshadowed by his more successful novel The Sport of the Gods.

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A narrative poem in Afro-American dialect relates what happens when a big black bear trusts a small weasel.

Twenty-five dialectal poems by a black poet express various observations of his childhood.