In His Own Voice: The Dramatic and Other Uncollected Works of Paul Laurence Dunbar ed. by Herbert Woodward Martin, Ronald Primeau (review)

BOOK REVIEWS dents of history will enjoy reading it,but because it will challenge most of them to look at familiar territory with fresh eyes. Extracting Appalachia ignites the imagination to emulate what Buckley has done for Consol and apply it to the company or community with which one is more personally familiar. We should all be thankful that the urge to work with a photograph collection discovered by chance stayed with Buckley,because Extracting Appalacbia will serve as an important reminder of what the visual can add to historical analysis, interpretation,and contextualization. Rebecca Bailey State University of West Georgia Herbert Woodward Martin and Ronald Primeau, eds. In His Own Voice: Tbe Dramatic and Other UncollectedWorks of Paul Laurence Dunbar.Forward by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Athens: Ohio University Press, 2002. 315 pp. ISBN () 821414224 paper), $ 22.95. uring the past twenty-five years numerous volumes have been published on the writings and legacy of Paul Laurence Dunbar, the first African American poet to achieve both national and worldwide acclaim. In 1971, for example, Addison Gayle's Oak and Ivy and Dudley Randall's Tbe Black poet cast Dunbar as a forerunner to the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s and the Black Arts movement of the 1960s. A decade later both Tony Gentry, in Paul Laurence Dunbar, and Henry Louis Gates,Jr, in Tbe African American poets and writers,such as Maya Angelou, Nikki Giovanni,Etheridge Knight,Toni Morrison,and Alice Walker,have noted that they were greatly influenced by the works of Dunbar, and the volume under review here is a testimony to that influence. With In His Own Voice: Tbe Dramatic and Other Uncollected Works of Paul Laurence Dunbar , editors Herbert Woodward Martin and Ronald Primeau enable us to experience the more complex, subtle,and witty side of Dunbar as a " dramatist" through their inclusion of numerous previously inaccessible literary works ( xxiv).More specifically, the editors proclaim that this volume rests on the notion that Dunbar, if nothing else, was a great shortstory writer and essayist" ( xxiv). This volume is divided both chronologically and thematically into four distinctive sections. In Part One the editors place Dunbar' s writings in the context of his life. Here we see how Dunbar' s abilities to produce plays and songs such as " Herrick, The Gambler's Wife," " Dream Lovers," and " ln Dahomey" underscored his exceptional command of the literary concepts of " irony and nuance" ( 3). In Part Two the editors showcase fi fteen previously 1. : unknown essays of Dunbar like Dickens and Thackeray," " England as Seen by a Black Man," The Tuskegee Meeting," and The Leader of His Race, " which T criticize the " doublestandards " of the United States' criminal justice system, the emerging class divisions within the African American fj community with the rise of Booker 1 T. Washington, and numerous other issues that shaped the lives 1 of Black Americans during the late 19" I and early 20'h centuries. Here Martin and Primeau conclude that these works " provide even more Signifying Monkey, echoed similar characteristics evidence of Dunbar's lifelong commitment to the about Dunbar.Even many of today' s contemporary politics, religion, art, and customs of the African 84 OHIO VALLEY HISTORY American community over a hundred years ago" 165). Parts Three and Four contain numerous previously uncollected, but published essays, articles, short stories,and poems. According to Martin and Primeau,these works powerfully illustrate Dunbar's own distinctive artistic vision" ( 215). Martin and Primeau's In His Own Voice is an exceptional collection that succinctly captures the passion, potency, and impact of the works of Paul Laurence Dunbar. The editors use both previously known and newly discovered literary pieces to highlight various dimensions of Dunbar that most people have failed to recognize. Without question, Martin and Primeau should be commended for such a meticulously researched and carefully crafted volume. Nevertheless, there are some shortcomings . One weakness is that the different sections of the volume are unevenly organized in length. In addition, the movement from a chronological to thematic approach is confusing at points. Despite these minor shortcomings, however, this volume deepens our understanding of Dunbar as the greatest African American poet prior to the Harlem Renaissance Era...