Poet. He is recognized as one of the first nationally influential African-American poets. Although he was successfully published in standard English, he was acclaimed for his Southern Black-dialectic verse in collections such as "Majors and Minors" in 1895 and "Lyrics of Lowly Life" in 1896. Born the son of slaves from Kentucky, his father Joshua Dunbar served, as an escaped slave from Canada, in the Union Army during the American Civil War, but his father abandoned his family in 1874. His mother Matilda Murphy supported him and his younger sister and two older half-siblings as a washerwoman. One of his mother's clients was the Wright family, of aeronautical fame. As the only African-American in his class, he attended high school with Orville Wright. He was on the school's debate team, edited the school newspaper, and served as the president of the Literary Society at Dayton High School. His mother encouraged his education. At age 16, he published two poems in the local newspaper. His father died during this time and it is not clear what active role he played in Dunbar's life. With the help of the Wright brothers, in 1890, Dunbar wrote and edited "The Tattler," Dayton's first weekly newspaper for the African-American audience, which failed within six weeks in December of 1890. Financially, he was unable to attend college, settling for employment as an elevator operator in the Callahan Building in downtown Dayton, but continued to write. After a successful printed review from his reading at the convention of the Western Association of Writers, he self-published his first collection, "Oak and Ivy" in 1893, selling the book himself for a dollar. After moving to Chicago, he met Frederick Douglass, who found him a job as a clerk, and arranged for him to read a selection of his poems at the Chicago World's Fair in 1893. By 1895, he was publishing poems in various nationwide periodicals including the "New York Times" and published his second collection, "Majors and Minor." The noted novelist and critic, William Dean Howells, gave him a favorable review for the poems written in his Southern Black-dialectic verse in "Harper's Weekly." After publishing another collection "Lyrics of Lowly Life" in 1896, he toured England for six-months in 1897. On March 8, 1898 in New York City, he married Alice Moore, who would become a well-known author and social reformer. After receiving a clerkship at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., he published four collections of poems in four years. With declining health, he was diagnosed with tuberculosis in 1899 and ordered to take a prescribed about of alcohol daily. He left his position at the library as the dusty books caused him more respiratory distress. The couple moved to Colorado for his health, staying for a short time. Over the next five years, he would produce three more novels and three short story collections. After the separation from his wife in 1902, he became depressed, increasing his prescribed alcohol use to the point of abuse, and had a serious bout with pneumonia to complicate his tuberculosis. The published collections after this ordeal would become his most recognized: "Lyrics of Love and Laughter" and "Lyrics of Sunshine and Shadow," both in 1903 and "Howdy, Howdy, Howdy" in 1905. As his health declined, he returned to his mother's house where he died at age 33. Besides poetry, he wrote at least four novels including his first unsuccessful novel, "The Uncalled" in 1898 and later, "The Sport of the Gods" 1902. After his death, his widow continued to promote his writings and used his surname in her career. A public high school in Lexington, Kentucky and Dayton, Ohio have been named in his honor. An annual memorial graveside service is held on his death date.