Introduction to Digital Text Collection
The Digital Text Collection was established to honor Dayton poet and novelist, Paul Laurence Dunbar, upon the occasion of the rededication of the Wright State University Library as the Paul Laurence Dunbar Library on May 2, 1992. This digital collection of a selected group of Dunbar's poetry is intended to encourage the use of and interest in the works of Dunbar. New content and enhancements were made to the site in May of 2005.

About the Collection
Special Collections and Archives has a nearly complete inscribed collection of Dunbar's first editions. This collection was donated to Wright State University in 1975 by William Shepard the grandson of Dr. Henry Archibald Tobey, a benefactor of Dunbar's.

Brief Biography
Paul Laurence Dunbar, born in Dayton, Ohio, on June 27, 1872, was the first African-American poet and novelist to attain international recognition. Dunbar was known for his use of dialect, but was also an accomplished poet and novelist in standard English. At age seventeen he published his own newspaper, the Dayton Tattler, an African-American newspaper printed by his high school classmate and friend, Orville Wright. His first book of poems, Oak and Ivy, was published in 1893. The book contained Dunbar's first dialect poem, "A Banjo Song." Dunbar published numerous books of poetry, novels and music during his career. He died in Dayton on February 9, 1906. Detailed Biography