Paul Dunbar Research Paper

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the age of twenty-one, while Dunbar was still working as an elevator boy at a local hotel, he received the welcomest news that he had ever heard. Dunbar received a personal invitation to recite some of his poetry at the 1893 Worlds Fair. While at the Worlds Fair later that year, Dunbar was introduced to Fredrick Douglass, who not only took Dunbar on as an employee, but as a student to his great legacy.
At that point, Dunbar buckled down and got to work, he was soon publishing one book after another, each one better than before. Dunbar got the attention that he needed to become a major literary figure, including the attention of W.D. Howells, who published a review of Dunbar’s work, he said that, “Yet it appeared to me then, and it appears to me now, that there is a precious difference of temperament between races”(Howells ix). The obvious tension of being a black writer in a white society was dissipating because of such positive views by white critics. Dunbar became what he ...

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a competitor that was hard to top in the literary world. However, all of this hard work did take its toll on Dunbar’s health. He worked at his poetry and writing constantly and was somewhat of a perfectionist. This is proven in the statement, “His own bad health and the overwork occasioned by his attempt to keep up with the tremendous demand for his work, took its toll on Dunbar’s body”(Stern 585/586). Despite his depleting health at a young age, Dunbar continued his quest for perfection. He now worked harder than ever at his profession, and became ruled by the reviews of his poetry.
“Dunbar became embittered by the talk of acceptance for his finer works”(Mullane 349). Dunbar ...

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