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Mine Eyes Have Seen
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1875-1935BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATIONAlice Ruth Moore was born on July 19, 1875 in New Orleans. Dunbar-Nelson graduated from a 2-year teacher training program at Straight College, now Dillard University. She later studied at Cornell University, Columbia University , and the University of Pennsylvania where she specialized in psychology and English educational testing. Throughout her life she taught in public schools. On March 6, 1898 she married the celebrated poet Paul Laurence Dunbar after a courtship by correspondence, and moved to Washington, DC. They seperated in 1902. The second of three marriages, she secretly married a fellow teacher, Henry Author Callis in 1910, but divorced a year later. Her final marriage, one which lasted until her death, was to Robert J. Nelson, a journalist, in 1916. Dunbar-Nelson, who was very light complexioned, often passed for white, and was sometimes frustrated in her relations with darker-skinned African Americans because of it. A complex woman who was a poet, journalist, playwright, and unpublished novelist, Alice engaged in intimate relationships with both men and women. The sonnet above was almost certainly written for one of her female lovers, Fay Jackson Robinson, a newspaperwoman and socialite whom Alice met during a trip California. During her life, Alice was a columnist for the Pittsburgh Courier and the Washington Eagle. From 1921 to 1931, Dunbar-Nelson kept a diary which chronicles her life and contains portraits of such friends and associates as Langston Hughes, James Weldon Johnson, Georgia Douglas Johnson, W.E.B. DuBois, and Mary McLeod Bethune. Alice Dunbar-Nelson died on September 18, 1935 of heart failure. PLAYS
CRITICAL/BIOGRAPHICAL RESOURCESFor full citations of the books listed, follow the links to Resources Page Books marked with book covers or a
Black Poets of the United States Early Black American Playwrights Notable American Women 1660-1950 Oxford Companion to African American Literature Oxford Companion to Women's Writings in the United States
SELECTED ARTICLES ABOUT THE AUTHOR"Shaping Contradictions: Alice Dunbar-Nelson and the Black Creole Experience." Gloria T. Hull. New Orleans Review. 15(1):34-37. "works by and about Alice Ruth (Moore) Dunbar-Nelson; A Bibliography." Ora Williams. CLA Journal. 19:322-326. LINKS TO INFORMATIONRESEARCHThe University of Delaware Morris Library Special Collections (Alice Dunbar-Nelson Papers) (text is from finding aid) "The Alice Dunbar-Nelson Papers consist of the literary, professional, and personal papers of Alice Dunbar-Nelson. The papers include an extensive collection of her incoming correspondence. Of particular note is her correspondence (1895-1904) with Paul Laurence Dunbar, which also includes her letters to Dunbar. The Alice Dunbar-Nelson Papers also include a comprehensive collection of manuscripts of her writing, including novels, stories, poetry, drama, and essays. Dunbar-Nelson maintained a daily diary for most of her adult life and the extent portions of her diaries are present in her papers. The Alice Dunbar-Nelson papers also include significant collections of family papers, scrapbooks, newspaper clippings, ephemera, and memorabilia." |
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