Having heard poems read by the family she worked for when she was a slave, Matilda loved poetry and encouraged her children to read. Though the Dunbar family had little material wealth, Matilda, always a great support to Dunbar as his literary stature grew, taught her children a love of songs and storytelling. One of the families she worked for was the family of Orville and Wilbur Wright, with whom her son attended Dayton's Central High School. The family was poor, and after Joshua left, Matilda supported her children by working in Dayton as a washerwoman. Matilda also had two children from a previous marriage. Matilda and Joshua had two children before separating in 1874.

His mother was a former slave and his father had escaped from slavery and served in the 55th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment and the 5th Massachusetts Colored Cavalry Regiment during the Civil War. He was praised both by the prominent literary critics of his time and his literary contemporaries.ĭunbar was born on June 27, 1872, to Matilda and Joshua Dunbar, both natives of Kentucky. His work often addressed the difficulties encountered by members of his race and the efforts of African-Americans to achieve equality in America. Born in Dayton, Ohio, in 1872, Dunbar penned a large body of dialect poems, standard English poems, essays, novels and short stories before he died at the age of 33. Paul Laurence Dunbar was the first African-American poet to garner national critical acclaim.

Mary hutchinson william wordsworth