The Sport of the Gods and Other Essential

Paul Laurence Dunbar (18721906) overcame racism and poverty to become one of the best-known authors in America, and the first African American to earn a living from his poetry, fiction, drama, journalism, and lectures. This original collection includes the short novel The Sport of the Gods, Dunbar's essential essays and short stories, and his finest poems, such as "Sympathy," all which explore crucial social, political, and humanistic issues at the dawn of the twentieth century.

Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872—1906) overcame racism and poverty to become one of the best-known authors in America, and the first African American to earn a living from his poetry, fiction, drama, journalism, and lectures. This original collection includes the short novel The Sport of the Gods, Dunbar’s essential essays and short stories, and his finest poems, such as “Sympathy,” all which explore crucial social, political, and humanistic issues at the dawn of the twentieth century.

Shelley Fisher Fishkin is a professor of English and the director of American studies at Stanford University. An award-winning author, she is past president of the American Studies Association.

David Bradley is an associate professor of creative writing at the University of Oregon, and the author of South Street and The Chaneysville Incident, for which he received the 1982 PEN/ Faulkner Award.

General introduction
The sport of the gods and other essential writings
Poetry
Lager beer	p. 23
Welcome address : to the Western Association of Writers	p. 25
Columbian ode	p. 26
Justice	p. 28
Ode to Ethiopia	p. 29
The ol' tunes	p. 31
An ante-bellum sermon	p. 33
Ere sleep comes down to soothe the weary eyes	p. 36
The poet and his song	p. 38
When Malindy sings	p. 39
If I could but forget	p. 42
Not they who soar	p. 43
The colored soldiers	p. 44
Ships that pass in the night	p. 47
We wear the mask	p. 48
Why fades a dream?	p. 49
Accountability	p. 50
The dilettante : a modern type	p. 51
A Negro love song	p. 52
The party	p. 53
The spellin'-bee	p. 56
Discovered	p. 59
The deserted plantation	p. 60
Hymn	p. 62
A death song	p. 63
The poet and the baby	p. 64
Sonnet : on an old book with uncut leaves	p. 65
For the man who fails	p. 66
The garret	p. 67
Little brown baby	p. 68
Sympathy	p. 69
At candle-lightin' time	p. 70
When dey 'listed colored soldiers	p. 71
A plea	p. 73
Soliloquy of a turkey	p. 74
To a captious critic	p. 75
In the morning	p. 76
The poet	p. 78
The fisher child's lullaby	p. 79
The plantation child's lullaby	p. 80
The farm child's lullaby	p. 82
The haunted oak	p. 83
To the south : on its new slavery	p. 86
Short fiction
The ingrate	p. 107
Mr. Cornelius Johnson, office-seeker	p. 115
Nelse Hatton's vengeance	p. 125
The ordeal at Mt. Hope	p. 134
At Shaft 11	p. 152
On man's fortunes	p. 165
The emancipation of Evalina Jones	p. 181
The tragedy at Three Forks	p. 188
The lion tamer	p. 196
A blessed deceit	p. 202
The mission of Mr. Scatters	p. 209
The lynching of Jube Benson	p. 222
Nonfiction
Salutatory	p. 245
Of Negro journals	p. 247
England as seen by a black man	p. 252
Our new madness	p. 257
The race question discussed	p. 260
The Negroes of the tenderloin	p. 264
The hapless southern Negro	p. 268
Negro music	p. 271
Negro life in Washington	p. 274
Is higher education for the Negro hopeless?	p. 279
Negro society in Washington	p. 282
The Negro as an individual	p. 290
The Fourth of July and race outrages	p. 293
Novel : The sport of the gods
The sport of the gods	p. 319
Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved.

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The Sport of the Gods and Other Essential Writings

Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials