Paul Laurence Dunbar Publishes 'Lyrics of Lowly Life,' Achieves National Fame

Paul Laurence Dunbar, the son of formerly enslaved parents from Dayton, Ohio, published 'Lyrics of Lowly Life' in 1896 with an introduction by William Dean Howells, the leading American literary critic of the era. Dunbar became the first Black poet to achieve national commercial success. His poems in Black dialect were widely celebrated, though he privately chafed at being typecast and preferred his formal English verse.