Paul Laurence Dunbar Paul Laurence Dunbar was an African-American poet and an author. He was prolific at writing short stories, novels, librettos, plays, songs essays and poetry. His work was popular with black and white readers of his day, and are celebrated today by scholars and schoolchildren alike. He is accredited as being the first African-American to gain national eminence as a poet. Born in Dayton. Ohio on June 27, 1872, Dunbar was raised primarily by his mother, Matilda. She worked as a washwoman. Matilda Dunbar devoted her life to raising her son and exposing him to literary works. She learned poetry herself by listening to her slave-master read poetry to his fam