Paul Laurence Dunbar - by Gene Andrew Jarrett

About the Book

"This biography explores the life of Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906), a major nineteenth-century American poet and one of the first African American writers to garner international attention and praise in the wake of emancipation. While Dunbar is perhaps best known for poems such as "Sympathy" (a poem that ends "I know why the caged bird sings!") and "We Wear the Mask," he wrote prolifically in many genres, including a newspaper he produced with his friends Orville and Wilbur Wright in their hometown of Dayton, Ohio. Before his early death he published fourteen books of poetry, four collections of short stories, and four novels, and also collaborated on theatrical productions, including the first musical with a full African American cast to appear on Broadway. In this book, Gene Jarrett traces Dunbar's personal and professional life in the context of the historical currents that shaped the author's development-to tell, in Jarrett's words, "the full story of an African American who privately wrestled with the constraints of America in the Gilded Age, but who also sought to express or mitigate this strife through the written and spoken word." Jarrett sketches the life and times of Paul Laurence Dunbar in three main parts. Against the backdrop of the Civil War, Reconstruction, and the rise of Jim Crow segregation, the first section, "Broken Home," begins with the lives of Joshua and Matilda, Paul's parents, who were born enslaved, and ends with the years leading up to 1893, when Dunbar published his first book, Oak and Ivy, and befriended Frederick Douglass. The second section, "A True Singer," bookends the era when Paul entered his literary prime and became one of the first professional African American writers. The final section, "The Downward Way," details his troubled marriage to Alice Dunbar-Nelson, his illnesses, including tuberculosis and alcoholism, and his death. An epilogue comments on Dunbar's enduring legacy. The book includes more than 40 black-and-white photographs of Dunbar's family, friends, colleagues, and published works"--

Book Synopsis

The definitive biography of a pivotal figure in American literary history

A major poet, Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906) was one of the first African American writers to garner international recognition in the wake of emancipation. In this definitive biography, the first full-scale life of Dunbar in half a century, Gene Andrew Jarrett offers a revelatory account of a writer whose Gilded Age celebrity as the "poet laureate of his race" hid the private struggles of a man who, in the words of his famous poem, felt like a "caged bird" that sings.

Jarrett tells the fascinating story of how Dunbar, born during Reconstruction to formerly enslaved parents, excelled against all odds to become an accomplished and versatile artist. A prolific and successful poet, novelist, essayist, playwright, and Broadway librettist, he was also a friend of such luminaries as Frederick Douglass and Orville and Wilbur Wright. But while audiences across the United States and Europe flocked to enjoy his literary readings, Dunbar privately bemoaned shouldering the burden of race and catering to minstrel stereotypes to earn fame and money. Inspired by his parents' survival of slavery, but also agitated by a turbulent public marriage, beholden to influential benefactors, and helpless against his widely reported bouts of tuberculosis and alcoholism, he came to regard his racial notoriety as a curse as well as a blessing before dying at the age of only thirty-three.

Beautifully written, meticulously researched, and generously illustrated, this biography presents the richest, most detailed, and most nuanced portrait yet of Dunbar and his work, transforming how we understand the astonishing life and times of a central figure in American literary history.

Review Quotes

"Winner of the Truman Capote Award for Literary Criticism"

"Jarrett has contributed significantly to African American literary studies with this meticulous account of the writer's life. . . . Scholars will continue to learn from Jarrett's authoritative biography of Dunbar for decades to come."---Nadia Nurhussein, American Literary History

"

Magnificent. . . . [Paul Laurence Dunbar] should be praised not just for the work that it is, but for the work that it will usher in. [Jarrett] has cleared the path for Dunbar scholarship.

"---Jamie Fenton, American Nineteenth Century History

"[A] definitive biography. . . .Indispensable and judicious."---Douglas A. Jones Jr, Times Literary Supplement

"A raw, unadulterated portrait of the writer's short yet full life. . . . It offers immense detail and newly discovered information."---Vesper North, Los Angeles Review of Books

"Drawing on Dunbar's sizable correspondence with friends, family, and benefactors, Jarrett illustrates his struggle to reconcile his professional success with a sense of himself as a failure--an errant husband, an alcoholic, and, above all, a Black artist who couldn't liberate his community from racial stereotypes."-- "The New Yorker"

"A book that pulls you along like an open bag of potato chips; for the first 100 or so pages, I could barely put it down."---John McWhorter, New York Times

"A detailed, empathetic biography. . . . Jarrett offers astute readings of all of Dunbar's works. . . . Impressive research."-- "Kirkus Reviews starred review"

"A meticulously crafted biography. . . . [A] thorough and eminently readable account of Black genius."---Omari Weekes, Vulture

"A pioneering Black poet battles racism and his inner demons in this incisive biography. . . . Jarrett situates his analysis of Dunbar's ambitious, sometimes prickly intellect innan insightful, vividly written portrait of Black political and literary culture at the turn of the 20th century, and probes his subject's alcoholism, gambling, and violent tendencies. The result is a fascinating exploration of Black creativity wrestling with social constraints and personal failings."-- "Publishers Weekly"

"We are indebted to Jarrett for elevating Dunbar's voice back to the place of prominence it should hold in literary history."-- "The American"

"A Book Riot Best Biography of the Year"

"A New Yorker Best Book of the Year"

"Fascinating and beautifully written. . . . It's an intimate portrait of a complex and complicated literary figure who deserves more recognition."---Keisha N. Blain, Politico

"One of ESSENCE'S 55 New Books We Can't Wait to Read"

"This is one of those classic biographies that I think readers will just love diving into. Rich in detail and nuance, it drops readers into Dunbar's life and times, offering a fascinating look at both the literary and personal life of this great American poet."-- "Book Riot"

"This new biography does a thorough and compelling job in telling the story of a remarkable and partially tragic life."---David Mehegan, Arts Fuse

About the Author

Gene Andrew Jarrett is Dean of the Faculty and William S. Tod Professor of English at Princeton University. He is the author of Representing the Race: A New Political History of African American Literature and Deans and Truants: Race and Realism in African American Literature. He is also the coeditor of The Collected Novels of Paul Laurence Dunbar and The Complete Stories of Paul Laurence Dunbar. Website geneandrewjarrett.com Twitter @GeneJarrett