In His Own Voice

Paul Laurence Dunbar, introduced to the American public by William Dean Howells, was the first native-born African American poet to achieve national and international fame. While there have been many valuable editions of his works over time, gaps have developed when manuscripts were lost or uncollected works became difficult to access. In His Own Voice brings together new and previously uncollected short stories, essays, and poems. Significantly, this volume also establishes Dunbar's reputation as a dramatist who mastered standard English conventions and used dialect in musical comedy for ironic effects. In His Own Voice collects more than a hundred works in six genres. Featured are the previously unpublished play Herrick and Dunbar's subversion of the minstrel tradition into one-acts that have been largely ignored for a century. This generous expension of the canon also includes a short story never before published. Professor Herbert Woodward Martin, renowned for his live portrayal of Dunbar, and Professor Ronald Primeau provide a literary and historical context to this previously untreated material, firmly cementing the reputation of an important American voice.