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PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR:
AN INTIMATE GLIMPSE 

PAULINE A. YOUNG

I REMEMBER hearing about Paul Laurence Dunbar from my earliest years—from many of his contemporaries, from the frequent recital of his works in my home town, Wilmington, Delaware—but especially from my family. My mother, my grandmother and my aunt (Alice Dunbar Nelson, his wife), each a widow, were fine women who provided the atmosphere in which my two sisters, my brother and I were nurtured—one of warm, close relationships, a constant flow of visiting literary figures, of New England friends recalling the West Medford, Massachusetts setting of many of his poems and other friends from their original New Orleans home. 

We youngsters looked and listened; it was exciting, though often sorrowful, and I wished so often that I could have heard Dunbar's voice. Very recently Carlton Moss, the Hollywood movie producer, also noted, "How marvelous it would be to have had his voice on record for our pleasure in his interpretation of his work."

the treasure

But, we do have his voice—in his letters! These letters, a priceless heritage from my Aunt Alice, illuminate this man of extraordinary vision, feeling and expression. They all but evoke the resonant baritone voice of which we heard so much and—(my limitless imagination) even his stage mien. In this year of the centenary of his birth I am happy to share a few of these unpublished and beautiful missives.

Dunbar's first letter to his wife-to-be:
Dayton, Ohio
April 17th 1895
Miss Alice Ruth Moore:

Pauline A. Young was born in West Medford, Mass. which Dunbar loved and wrote about. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia University Library School, she has traveled extensively in Europe & the Soviet Union and served in the Peace Corps in Jamaica, '62-'64. 

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---------- Reopened for Editing 2024-02-19 16:26:02