ABOUT THIS BOOK

The son of former slaves, Paul Laurence Dunbar was one of the most prominent figures in American literature at the turn of the twentieth century. Thirty-three years old at the time of his death in 1906, he had published four novels, four collections of short stories, and fourteen books of poetry, as well as numerous songs, plays, and essays in newspapers and magazines around the world. In the century following his death, Dunbar slipped into relative obscurity, remembered mainly for his dialect poetry or as a footnote to other more canonical figures of the period. The Complete Stories of Paul Laurence Dunbar showcases his gifts as a writer of short fiction and provides key insights into the tensions and themes of Dunbar’s literary achievement. The 104 stories written by Dunbar between 1890 and 1905 reveal Dunbar’s attempts to maintain his artistic integrity while struggling with America’s racist stereotypes. Making them available for the first time in one convenient, comprehensive, and definitive volume, The Complete Stories of Paul Laurence Dunbar illustrates the complexity of his literary life and legacy.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Thomas Lewis Morgan is an assistant professor of English at the University of Dayton. His research and teaching interests focus on critical race theory in late-nineteenth-century American and African American literature, specifically as it applies to the politics of narrative form.

Gene Andrew Jarrett is an associate professor of English and African American Studies at Boston University. He is the author of Deans and Truants: Race and Realism in African American Literature and editor or coeditor of The New Negro: Readings on Race, Representation, and African American Culture, 1892–1938; African American Literature beyond Race: An Alternative Reader, and The Complete Stories of Paul Laurence Dunbar.

REVIEWS

“Dunbar’s short stories offered keen insight into American race relations as well as the problems African Americans faced in the nineteeth and early twentieth centuries.... He was more proactive and subtle about inserting his own political views than many critics, then and since, have given him credit for.”—The Complete Stories of Paul Laurence Dunbar

“One hundred years after the death of Dunbar, he is most remembered for his poem ‘We Wear the Mask,’ evoking the balance required of blacks to survive and prosper in nineteenth-century America. This collection of 103 of Dunbar’s short stories written between 1890 and 1905, including well known pieces and many that have gone out of print, allows readers to see how the first African American writer to enjoy huge success evolved as a writer. This is a valuable collection for readers interested in Dunbar and his place in African American and American literature.“—Booklist, starred review

“Dunbar’s nuanced strategies are on ample display in this first comprehensive collection of his fiction...The stories in the volume are complicated, entertaining, offensive, and moving.”—Rain Taxi

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contents
Foreword by Shelley Fisher Fishkin	000
Acknowledgments	000
Introduction	000
Editors' Note	000
I: Collected Stories
Folks from Dixie (1898)
Anner 'Lizer's Stumblin' Block	1
The Ordeal at Mt. Hope	000
The Colonel's Awakening	000
The Trial Sermons on Bull-Skin	000
Jimsella	000
Mt. Pisgah's Christmas 'Possum	000
A Family Feud	000
Aunt Mandy's Investment	000
The Intervention of Peter	000
Nelse Hatton's Vengeance	000
At Shaft 11	000
The Deliberation of Mr. Dunkin	000
The Strength of Gideon and Other Stories (1900)
The Strength of Gideon	000
Mammy Peggy's Pride	000
Viney's Free Papers	000
The Fruitful Sleeping of the Rev. Elisha Edwards	000
The Ingrate	000
The Case of "Ca'line"	000
The Finish of Patsy Barnes	000
One Man's Fortunes	000
Jim's Probation	000
Uncle Simon's Sundays Out	000
Mr. Cornelius Johnson, Office-Seeker	000
An Old-Time Christmas	000
A Mess of Pottage	000
The Trustfulness of Polly	000
The Tragedy at Three Forks	000
The Finding of Zach	000
Johnsonham, Junior	000
The Faith Cure Man	000
A Council of State	000
Silas Jackson	000
In Old Plantation Days (1903)
Aunt Tempe's Triumph	000
Aunt Tempe's Revenge	000
The Walls of Jericho	000
How Brother Parker Fell from Grace	000
The Trousers	000
The Last Fiddling of Mordaunt's Jim	000
A Supper by Proxy	000
The Trouble About Sophiny	000
Mr. Groby's Slippery Gift	000
Ash-Cake Hannah and Her Ben	000
Dizzy-Headed Dick	000
The Conjuring Contest	000
Dandy Jim's Conjure Scare	000
The Memory of Martha	000
Who Stand for the Gods	000
A Lady Slipper	000
A Blessed Deceit	000
The Brief Cure of Aunt Fanny	000
The Stanton Coachman	000
The Easter Wedding	000
The Finding of Martha	000
The Defection of Maria Ann Gibbs	000
A Judgment of Paris	000
Silent Sam'el	000
The Way of a Woman	000
The Heart of Happy Hollow (1904)
Foreword	000
The Scapegoat	000
One Christmas at Shiloh	000
The Mission of Mr. Scatters	000
A Matter of Doctrine	000
Old Abe's Conversion	000
The Race Question	000
A Defender of the Faith	000
Cahoots	000
The Promoter	000
The Wisdom of Silence	000
The Triumph of Ol' Mis' Pease	000
The Lynching of Jube Benson	000
Schwalliger's Philanthropy	000
The Interference of Patsy Ann	000
The Home-coming of 'Rastus Smith	000
The Boy and the Bayonet	000
II: Uncollected Stories
Dialect Stories (New York Journal and Advertiser, 1897)
Buss Jinkins Up Nawth: A Human Nature Sketch of Real Darkey Life in New York	000
Yellowjack's Game of Craps: A Character Sketch of Real Darky Life in New York	000
How George Johnson "Won Out": A Character Sketch of Real Darky Life in New York	000
The Hoodooing of Mr. Bill Simms: A Darky Dialect Story	000
"Ohio Pastorals" (Lippincott's, 1901)
The Mortification of the Flesh	000
The Independence of Silas Bollender	000
The White Counterpane	000
The Minority Committee	000
The Visiting of Mother Danbury	000
Individual Stories (1890/1905)
His Bride of the Tomb	000
His Failure in Arithmetic	000
His Little Lark	000
From Impulse	000
The Tenderfoot	000
Little Billy	000
The End of the Chapter	000
Lafe Halloway's Two Fights	000
The Emancipation of Evalina Jones	000
The Lion Tamer	000
Nathan Makes His Proposal	000
In a Circle	000
Jethro's Garden	000
The Vindication of Jared Hargot	000
The Way of Love	000
The Churching of Grandma Pleasant	000
The Case of Cadwallader	000
Jimmy Weedon's Contretempts	000
Ole Conju'in Joe	000
A Prophesy of Fate	000
Sister Jackson's Superstitions	000
Sources
Alphabetical List of Stories	000
Chronological List of Stories	000
Works Cited	000
Index of Titles	000