Paul Laurence Dunbar was born in Dayton, Ohio, to Joshua and Matilda Murphy Dunbar, both former slaves, on 27 June 1872. He was educated in public schools, graduating from Central High School in 1891. Dunbar composed the class song, and several of his poems appeared in local Dayton newspapers. His first book, a collection of poems, Oak and Ivy, was privately printed and appeared just before Christmas, 1892. His second collection, Majors and Minors (1895), caught the attention of William Dean Howells, who published a lengthy laudatory review in the 27 June 1896 Harper's Weekly. On 6 March 1898 Dunbar married Alice Ruth Moore, a writer and teacher who would achieve a measure of fame in her own right. The marriage, however, was plagued with tensions, both artistic and personal, and the couple divorced in 1904, two years before Dunbar's death from tuberculosis.

During his brief career Dunbar produced a considerable body of poetry, four novels, and four...