UID:
almahu_9949546440702882
Format:
1 online resource (560 p.) :
,
44 b/w illus.
ISBN:
9780691235158
,
9783110993899
Content:
On the 150th anniversary of his birth, a definitive new biography of a pivotal figure in American literary historyA major poet, Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906) was one of the first African American writers to garner international recognition in the wake of emancipation. In this definitive biography, the first full-scale life of Dunbar in half a century, Gene Andrew Jarrett offers a revelatory account of a writer whose Gilded Age celebrity as the "poet laureate of his race" hid the private struggles of a man who, in the words of his famous poem, felt like a "caged bird" that sings.Jarrett tells the fascinating story of how Dunbar, born during Reconstruction to formerly enslaved parents, excelled against all odds to become an accomplished and versatile artist. A prolific and successful poet, novelist, essayist, playwright, and Broadway librettist, he was also a friend of such luminaries as Frederick Douglass and Orville and Wilbur Wright. But while audiences across the United States and Europe flocked to enjoy his literary readings, Dunbar privately bemoaned shouldering the burden of race and catering to minstrel stereotypes to earn fame and money. Inspired by his parents' survival of slavery, but also agitated by a turbulent public marriage, beholden to influential benefactors, and helpless against his widely reported bouts of tuberculosis and alcoholism, he came to regard his racial notoriety as a curse as well as a blessing before dying at the age of only thirty-three.Beautifully written, meticulously researched, and generously illustrated, this biography presents the richest, most detailed, and most nuanced portrait yet of Dunbar and his work, transforming how we understand the astonishing life and times of a central figure in American literary history.
Note:
Frontmatter --
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CONTENTS --
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List of Illustrations --
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Introduction --
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PART ONE: BROKEN HOME , BEGINNINGS TO 1893 --
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Chapter 1. Broken Country --
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Chapter 2. Broken Home --
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Chapter 3. Public Schooling --
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Chapter 4. The Tattler --
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Chapter 5. A Superior Gift --
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Chapter 6. Career Choices --
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Chapter 7. The White City --
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PART TWO: A TRUE SINGER, 1893 TO 1898 --
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Chapter 8. Chafing at Life --
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Chapter 9. The Bond of a Fellow-Craft --
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Chapter 10. Heroine of His Stories --
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Chapter 11. A True Singer --
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Chapter 12. England as Seen by a Black Man --
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Chapter 13. East Coast Strivings --
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Chapter 14. The Way Is Dark --
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Chapter 15. The Wizard of Tuskegee --
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PART THREE: THE DOWNWARD WAY, 1898 TO 1906 --
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Chapter 16. The Wedding of Plebeians --
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Chapter 17. Our New Madness --
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Chapter 18. Still a Sick Man --
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Chapter 19. A Sac of Bitter Sarcasm --
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Chapter 20. Old Habits Die Hard --
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Chapter 21. The Downward Way --
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Chapter 22. Waiting in Loafing-Holt --
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Epilogue --
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Acknowledgments --
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Notes --
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Index
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Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.
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In English.
In:
EBOOK PACKAGE COMPLETE 2022 English, De Gruyter, 9783110993899
In:
EBOOK PACKAGE COMPLETE 2022, De Gruyter, 9783110994810
In:
EBOOK PACKAGE Literary, Cultural, Area Studies 2022 English, De Gruyter, 9783110993752
In:
EBOOK PACKAGE Literary, Cultural, Area Studies 2022, De Gruyter, 9783110993738
In:
Princeton University Press Complete eBook-Package 2022, De Gruyter, 9783110749731
Additional Edition:
ISBN 9780691150529
Language:
English
Subjects:
American Studies
Keywords:
Biografie
DOI:
10.1515/9780691235158
URL:
https://doi.org/10.1515/9780691235158?locatt=mode:legacy
URL:
https://www.degruyter.com/isbn/9780691235158
