Paul Laurence Dunbar and American Literary History

FAIN: EH-50448-14

Ohio History Connection (Columbus, OH 43211-2474)
Molly Uline-Olmstead (Project Director: March 2014 to June 2016)
Thomas L. Morgan (Co Project Director: November 2014 to June 2016)

A three-week college and university summer institute for twenty-five participants on the career and influence of African-American writer Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906).

The Creative Learning Factory at the Ohio Historical Society (the Factory) seeks $136,248 in support for a National Endowment of the Humanities Summer Institute for College Faculty entitled Race and Dialect: Paul Laurence Dunbar and American Literary History. Known during his lifetime as the “Poet Laureate of the Negro race,” Dunbar was, at the time of his death, the most famous poet in America. During his short but productive life—Dunbar died at age thirty three in 1906 from tuberculosis—he produced twelve collections of poetry, four novels, four collections of short stories, and numerous songs, dramatic works, and essays in leading American periodicals. The Factory proposes a three-week summer institute in July 2015 to examine Dunbar’s literary legacy, specifically the ways race and dialect influenced his career and his relationships with both the publishing industry and the reading public.