Paul Laurence Dunbar

Born June 27, 1872, in Dayton, Ohio; died there Feb. 9, 1906. American Negro author. Born into the family of a former slave; worked as an elevator operator.

After the publication of his first book of poems, Oak and Ivy (1893), Dunbar became a librarian in Washington. He was the author of several collections of stories, the novel The Sport of the Gods (1902), and other works. He was the first Negro writer in the USA to gain wide renown. His most popular works were his poems written in southern dialect: the collections Majors and Minors (1895) and Lyrics of Lowly Life (1896). In poetry full of sincere love for his people Dunbar idealized the life of the plantation Negro. Nevertheless, some of his stories and poems protest against discrimination and terror.