On August 1, 1896, Paul Laurence Dunbar visited Major James Pond in New York. A Civil War hero and Medal of Honor winner, Pond was the manager for celebrities such as Mark Twain, Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington and Winston Churchill. During his visit to Pond's house, Paul was photographed with Brand Whitlock, an author and attorney who later became mayor of Toledo, Ohio.
Paul Laurence Dunbar and Brand Whitlock at the home of Major Pond, August 1, 1896. Image Number AL05261. Paul Laurence Dunbar Papers, Ohio History Connection.
Five weeks earlier, Paul had been propelled to national fame when a review of his book Majors and Minors appeared in Harper's Weekly. An obscure elevator operator from Dayton suddenly needed a celebrity talent manager like Major Pond.
Paul L. Dunbar, poet, will sail from New York February 10 for Great Britain to give readings largely from his own poems under the management of Maj. J. B. Pond. Maj. Pond then hopes to tour this country with Dunbar, feeling sure that the éclat of a European tour will make an American one more successful. Mr. Dunbar is under a three year's contract.
The Leavenworth Herald (Leavenworth, Kansas). February 6, 1897. Page 3.
While he was in New York, Paul gave poetry readings and sold copies of Majors and Minors. Using Pond's stationery, Paul wrote an encouraging letter to his mother Matilda in Dayton.
I am to give a reading Thursday night in the parlors of the big hotel and we expect to clear about fifty dollars. The very wealthy people are very much interested in me and are willing to pay fifty cents admission. I am kept very busy here giving recitals to introduce myself before the one grand recital of Thursday. I recited yesterday for Mrs. Jefferson Davis and she was delighted. The southern people have eaten me up wonderfully. One of them took three books, another two, another wants five.
Paul Laurence Dunbar to Matilda Dunbar, August 25, 1896. Paul Laurence Dunbar Papers, Ohio History Connection (Microfilm edition, Roll 1).
Mrs. Jefferson Davis, or Varina Banks Howell Davis, was the widow of the former president of the Confederate States of America. Newspaper critics wrote favorably about Paul's recital at the Lyceum Theatre, though his attempt at Irish dialect was not well received.
Before an invited audience, at the Lyceum Theatre, Sept. 8, Major J. B. Pond introduced to New York the young Negro poet, Paul Laurence Dunbar, who read selections from his own writings. Both as writer and reader, Mr. Dunbar proved a charming entertainer. He possesses a rich, clear voice, an easy manner, and a magnetic presence. His verses in the dialect of his race are of the highest order of excellence, showing, besides a poet's intuitive appreciation of the humor, the pathos, and the music of a lowly life, a felicitous gift of versifying that marks an equal of James Whitcomb Riley, in that writer's own peculiar vein. A few verses in other than Negro dialect were read, but were overshadowed by the rare grace and beauty of the darky poems.
"A Reading by Paul Dunbar." The New York Dramatic Mirror (New York, New York). September 19, 1896. Page 2.
Paul Laurence Dunbar made his bow to a New York audience yesterday at the Lyceum. His audience yesterday numbered about seventy-five, three-fourths of whom were white. Mr. Dunbar made a very favorable impression, showing quite a versatility of talent. His versification was clear, his fancy graceful and his humor spontaneous. "A Drowsy Day" reflected a good deal of credit upon its author, and was warmly applauded. I was especially pleased with a characteristic Negro dialect poem, "When Mammy Asks de Blessin' and de Co'n Pone's Hot." There is one field, however, upon which Mr. Dunbar must not trespass -- that of Irish dialect. When he attempts to invade it he becomes grotesque rather than humorous. His selection "Circumstances Alter Cases," in which he essays the Celtic brogue, would better be eliminated from his repertory.
"A Colored Poet's Debut." The New York Herald (New York, New York). September 9, 1896. Page 16.
Paul wrote poems in various dialects, such as Black, Midwestern, German and Irish. The reviewer referred to a poem told from the perspective of an Irish mother.
Tim Murphy's gon' walkin' wid Maggie O'Neill,
O chone!
If I was her muther, I'd frown on sich foolin',
O chone!
I'm sure it's unmutherlike, darin' an' wrong
To let a gyrul hear tell the sass an' the song
Of every young felly that happens along,
O chone!
An' Murphy, the things that's be'n sed of his doin',
O chone!
'Tis a cud that no dacent folks wants to be chewin',
O chone!
If he came to my door wid his cane on a twirl,
Fur to thry to make love to you, Biddy, my girl,
Ah, wouldn't I send him away wid a whirl,
O chone!
Excerpt from "Circumstances Alter Cases," by Paul Laurence Dunbar. Published in Lyrics of Sunshine and Shadow (1905).
Paul's first visit to New York was a significant step forward in his literary career. But in a letter to his future wife Alice Ruth Moore in Massachusetts, he said he would not want to live in the city permanently.
Live in New York! Well I think "nit"! There may be a hell, but its proper place is after death! And yet this is not fair because, in a way, I like this city very much.
Paul Laurence Dunbar to Alice Ruth Moore, August 16, 1896. Paul Laurence Dunbar Papers, Ohio History Connection (Microfilm edition, Roll 8).
New York was the setting for both positive and negative events in Paul's life. It's where he saw Alice for the first time, where they became engaged and got married. He nearly died of pneumonia in New York, and was once robbed of his cash and jewelry there. When his marriage came to a sudden end, Paul retreated to New York. He wrote affectionately about the city in both poetry and prose.
There is a town that's New York.
The swiftest that a town may be.
It's always gay
And there's only one Broadway.
So it's the only place for me.
When on its broad Rialto, I
With others of my set go by,
I may not have a cent
But I'm thoroughly content
For on Broadway I'm within the public eye.
Now that's New York, that's New York,
In your best or worst condition,
It's a sporty proposition
And that's New York, that's New York.Excerpt from "New York," undated typescript. Paul Laurence Dunbar Papers, Ohio History Connection (Microfilm edition, Roll 4).
To the provincial coming to New York for the first time, ignorant and unknown, the city presents a notable mingling of the qualities of cheeriness and gloom. If he have any eye at all for the beautiful, he cannot help experiencing a thrill as he crosses the ferry over the river filled with plying craft and catches the first sight of the spires and buildings of New York. Later, the lights in the busy streets will bewilder and entice him. He will feel shy and helpless amid the hurrying crowds. A new emotion will take his heart as the people hasten by him -- a feeling of loneliness, almost of grief, that with all of these souls about him he knows not one and not one of them cares for him. After a while he will find a place and give a sigh of relief as he settles away from the city's sights behind his cozy blinds. It is better here, and the city is cruel and cold and unfeeling. This he will feel, perhaps, for the first half-hour, and then he will be out in it all again. He will be glad to strike elbows with the bustling mob and be happy at their indifference to him, so that he may look at them and study them. After it is all over, after he has passed through the first pangs of strangeness and homesickness, the real fever of love for the place will begin to take hold upon him. The subtle, insidious wine of New York will begin to intoxicate him until the town becomes all in all to him; until the very streets are his chums and certain buildings and corners his best friends. Then he is hopeless, and to live elsewhere would be death. The Bowery will be his romance, Broadway his lyric, and the Park his pastoral, the river and the glory of it all his epic, and he will look down pityingly on all the rest of humanity.
Excerpt from Chapter 7 of The Sport of the Gods, by Paul Laurence Dunbar. Published in 1901.