Paul Laurence Dunbar's 'Majors and Minors' Wins National Acclaim

Dunbar's second collection 'Majors and Minors' caught the attention of novelist William Dean Howells, then the most influential literary critic in America, who gave it a glowing front-page review in Harper's Weekly. This endorsement launched Dunbar to national fame and led to a contract with Dodd, Mead & Company. He became the first Black American poet to achieve a sustained national readership.