Editing Paul Laurence Dunbar (section)

===Later work===
[[File:Paul Laurence Dunbar.jpg|right|thumb|1897 sketch by Norman B. Wood]]
Dunbar was prolific during his relatively short career: he published a dozen books of poetry, four books of short stories, four novels, lyrics for a musical, and a play.

His first collection of short stories, ''Folks From Dixie'' (1898), a sometimes "harsh examination of racial prejudice", had favorable reviews.<ref name="poetry"/>

This was not the case for his first novel, ''The Uncalled'' (1898), which critics described as "dull and unconvincing".<ref name="poetry"/> Dunbar explored the spiritual struggles of a white minister Frederick Brent, who had been abandoned as a child by his alcoholic father and raised by a virtuous white spinster, Hester Prime. (Both the minister and woman's names recalled [[Nathaniel Hawthorne]]'s ''[[The Scarlet Letter]],'' which featured a central character named Hester Prynne.)<ref name="poetry"/> With this novel, Dunbar has been noted as one of the first African Americans to cross the "[[color line (civil rights issue)|color line]]" by writing a work solely about white society.<ref>{{cite book|last=Wilson|first=Matthew|title=Whiteness in the Novels of Charles Chesnutt|year=2004|publisher=University of Mississippi|location=Jackson}}</ref>{{page needed|date=January 2014}} Critics at the time complained about his handling of the material, not his subject. The novel was not a commercial success.

Dunbar's next two novels also explored lives and issues in white culture, and some contemporary critics found these lacking as well.<ref name="poetry"/> However, literary critic [[Rebecca Ruth Gould]] argues that one of these, ''[[The Sport of the Gods]]'', culminates as an object lesson in the power of shame – a key component of the scapegoat mentality – to limit the law’s capacity to deliver justice.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Gould |first1=Rebecca Ruth |title=Justice Deferred: Legal Duplicity and the Scapegoat Mentality in Paul Laurence Dunbar's Jim Crow America |journal=Law & Literature |date=2 September 2019 |volume=31 |issue=3 |pages=357–379 |doi=10.1080/1535685X.2018.1550874 |s2cid=149619725 }}</ref>

In collaboration with the composer [[Will Marion Cook]], and [[Jesse A. Shipp]], who wrote the libretto, Dunbar wrote the lyrics for ''[[In Dahomey]],'' the first musical written and performed entirely by African Americans. It was produced on [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]] in 1903; the musical comedy successfully toured England and the United States over a period of four years and was one of the more successful theatrical productions of its time.<ref>Riis, Thomas L., ''Just Before Jazz: Black Musical Theater in New York, 1890–1915'' (Smithsonian Institution Press: London, 1989), p. 91.</ref>

Dunbar's essays and poems were published widely in the leading journals of the day, including ''[[Harper's Weekly]]'', the ''[[Saturday Evening Post]]'', the ''[[Denver Post]]'', ''Current Literature'' and others. During his life, commentators often noted that Dunbar appeared to be purely black African, at a time when many leading members of the African-American community were notably of [[mixed race]], often with considerable European ancestry.

In 1897 Dunbar traveled to England for a literary tour; he recited his works on the London circuit. He met the young black composer [[Samuel Coleridge-Taylor]], who set some of Dunbar's poems to music. Coleridge-Taylor was influenced by Dunbar to use African and American Negro songs and tunes in future compositions. Also living in London at the time, African-American playwright [[Henry Francis Downing]] arranged a joint recital for Dunbar and Coleridge-Taylor, under the patronage of [[John Hay]], a former aide to President [[Abraham Lincoln]], and at that time the American ambassador to Great Britain.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Roberts|first=Brian|title=A London Legacy of Ira Aldridge: Henry Francis Downing and the Paratheatrical Poetics of Plot and Cast(e)|journal=Modern Drama|year=2012|volume=55|issue=3|pages=396|doi=10.3138/md.55.3.386|s2cid=162466396 }}</ref> Downing also lodged Dunbar in London while the poet worked on his first novel, ''The Uncalled'' (1898).<ref>{{cite book|last=Roberts|first=Brian|title=Artistic Ambassadors: Literary and International Representation of the New Negro Era|year=2013|publisher=University of Virginia Press|location=Charlottesville|isbn=978-0813933689|pages=83}}</ref>

Dunbar was active in the area of civil rights and the uplifting of African Americans. He was a participant in the March 5, 1897, meeting to celebrate the memory of abolitionist [[Frederick Douglass]]. The attendees worked to found the [[American Negro Academy]] under [[Alexander Crummell]].<ref>Seraile, William. ''Bruce Grit: The Black Nationalist Writings of John Edward Bruce''. University of Tennessee Press, 2003. p. 110–111</ref>