On March 17, 1898, Paul Laurence Dunbar was interrupted while working as a clerk at the Library of Congress in Washington, D. C. John Russell Young, the Library director, asked him to meet with two prominent authors. Paul wrote about the incident to his wife Alice in Brooklyn.
Yesterday, Mr. Young had me called downstairs to meet Thomas Nelson Page and Grace Greenwood, then about a dozen other people wished to meet me, so I held an impromptu reception for about half hour. It is very tiresome playing lion and having people exclaim over your youth and ask for your autograph.
Paul Laurence Dunbar to Alice Moore Dunbar, March 18, 1898. Paul Laurence Dunbar Papers, Ohio History Connection (Microfilm edition, Roll 8).
Thomas Nelson Page was known for his stories of plantation life in the south before the Civil War. Grace Greenwood was the pen name of Sara Jane Clark Lippincott, a writer of poems and children's stories. Paul mentioned that they commented on his youth: Greenwood was 74 years old, Page was 44 and Paul only 25. Because of his fame as an author, Paul was a high-profile employee at the Library.
One of the most conspicuous figures about the Library of Congress is Paul Laurence Dunbar, who has made so creditable reputation as a poet. Mr. Dunbar is employed as one of the assistant librarians and has charge of the division of medicine, mathematics and the natural sciences. He enjoys the duties of his position, and all of his spare time is devoted to studying and writing. Mr. Dunbar has been more or less lionized since he came to Washington, and is extremely amiable in granting the various demands made upon him. On several occasions he has read selections from his own works, and, which is not always true of authors who give extracts from their own writings, he reads with expression and taste.
"Washington Notes. The Negro Poet Dunbar." Harrisburg Telegraph (Harrisburg, Pennsylvania). February 17, 1898. Page 3.