07/21/2021
You wouldn't believe the gems we've unearthed at ! 🤯
Like this excellent condition of 's first book - a collection of poems, named 1893📖
Follow as we'll be sharing other amazing finds as we transform our building into its next great purpose.
History on Oak and Ivy:
"He wrote poetry and short stories in his spare time and received a fortuitous break in 1892, when a former teacher invited him to speak at the convention of the Western Association of Writers in Dayton. Poet James Newton Matthews applauded Dunbar’s reading at that meeting in an article published in newspapers throughout the Midwest. Attention generated through Matthews’ article encouraged Dunbar to publish his first poetry collection, Oak and Ivy, in 1893. Dunbar continued to write at the 1893 World’s in Chicago, where he received the praise of civil rights leader Frederick Douglass. A review of Dunbar’s dialect poems for Harper’s Weekly by prominent literary critic William Dean Howells in 1896 brought Dunbar national acclaim and sales, and he began touring the United States and Great Britain to deliver public readings." - nps.gov
