The Uncalled

by Paul Laurence Dunbar

Dunbar's first novel, published in 1901, evokes The Scarlet Letter, even featuring a character suggestively named Hester Prime. When a minister alienates his congregation by refusing to condemn an unwed mother, his hopes for the future dissolve ... as secrets from his past come to light.

Genres: Fiction, American

132 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 2, 1898

About the author

Paul Laurence Dunbar (June 27, 1872 – February 9, 1906) was a seminal American poet of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Dunbar gained national recognition for his 1896 Lyrics of a Lowly Life, one poem in the collection Ode to Ethiopia. In 2002, scholar Molefi Kete Asante listed Paul Laurence Dunbar on his list of 100 Greatest African Americans.

Dunbar was born in Dayton, Ohio to parents who had escaped from slavery; his father was a veteran of the American Civil War, having served in the 55th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment and the 5th Massachusetts Colored Cavalry Regiment. His parents instilled in him a love of learning and history. He was a student at an all-white high school, Dayton Central High School, and he participated actively as a student. During high school, he was both the editor of the school newspaper and class president, as well as the president of the school literary society. Dunbar had also started the first African-American newsletter in Dayton.

He wrote his first poem at age 6 and gave his first public recital at age 9. Dunbar's first published work came in a newspaper put out by his high school friends Wilbur and Orville Wright, who owned a printing plant. The Wright Brothers later invested in the Dayton Tattler, a newspaper aimed at the black community, edited and published by Dunbar.

His first collection of poetry, Oak and Ivy, was published in 1892 and attracted the attention of James Whitcomb Riley, the popular "Hoosier Poet". Both Riley and Dunbar wrote poems in both standard English and dialect. His second book, Majors and Minors (1895) brought him national fame and the patronage of William Dean Howells, the novelist and critic and editor of Harper's Weekly. After Howells' praise, his first two books were combined as Lyrics of Lowly Life and Dunbar started on a career of international literary fame. He moved to Washington, D.C., in the LeDroit Park neighborhood. While in Washington, he attended Howard University.

He kept a lifelong friendship with the Wrights, and was also associated with Frederick Douglass and Booker T. Washington. Brand Whitlock was also described as a close friend.[2] He was honored with a ceremonial sword by President Theodore Roosevelt.

He wrote a dozen books of poetry, four books of short stories, five novels, and a play. He also wrote lyrics for In Dahomey - the first musical written and performed entirely by African-Americans to appear on Broadway in 1903; the musical comedy successfully toured England and America over a period of four years - one of the more successful theatrical productions of its time.[3] His essays and poems were published widely in the leading journals of the day. His work appeared in Harper's Weekly, the Saturday Evening Post, the Denver Post, Current Literature and a number of other publications. During his life, considerable emphasis was laid on the fact that Dunbar was of pure black descent, with no white ancestors ever.

Dunbar's work is known for its colorful language and use of dialect, and a conversational tone, with a brilliant rhetorical structure.

Dunbar traveled to England in 1897 to recite his works on the London literary circuit. He met the brilliant young black composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor who some of his poems to music and who was influenced by Dunbar to use African and American Negro songs and tunes in future compositions.

After returning from England, Dunbar married Alice Ruth Moore in 1898. A graduate of Straight University (now Dillard University) in New Orleans, her most famous works include a short story entitled "Violets". She and her husband also wrote books of poetry as companion pieces. An account of their love, life and marriage was depicted in a play by Kathleen McGhee-Anderson titled Oak and Ivy.

Dunbar took a job at the Library of Congress in Washington. In 1900, he was diagnosed with tuberculosis and moved to Colorado with his wife on the advice of his doctors. Dunbar died at age 33.

Reviews

[Humphrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Honestly, this is probably better executed than Sport of the Gods. It's a relatively straightforward and tame story about the growth of a young man and his struggle with faith. What keeps things interesting, rather, is Dunbar's prose: he can really turn a phrase and often exells at sketching complexity of feeling.

[Justin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short and sweet. There's a lot of similarities between this and Sport of the Gods, even though the characters in this novel seem to be mostly in not all white. It's the same basic premise of a conservative matriarch figure and a son figure who gets corrupted when he moves to the city. I think partially because there's less thought given to racism, there is more attention to gender, which, unfortunately, Dunbar is not the best with (this was a man who, sadly, beat his wife). But this novel has a much more hopeful ending than Sport of the Gods, which I think is part of a larger pre-commentary on Dunbar's later novel. If Sport of the Gods says there is a Will (racism) too powerful to be overcome, this novel says it's good to be white because even if your parents mess you up--which is really the only thing even vaguely comparable to the disadvantages most African Americans even with supportive parents are born into--you can still start your life over and eventually everything will work out. I'm not sure if Dunbar was thinking of that when he wrote this novel, but it's hard to read these two novels together and not come away with that conclusion. So in that sense Sport of the Gods retroactively makes this novel better, because otherwise it's a simple but forgettable coming of age story.

[Jim Jones · Rating 2 out of 5]

Critics state that Dunbar’s first novel is an attempt to portray whites in a small town in Ohio at the turn of the last century. Not knowing this, I read his novel as the story of a black family, and there is little to let you know this is not the case. The dialect can be read as black, the poverty, the gossip of a small community, and the religious zeal can also read as African American or white. I think this is a conscious decision on Dunbar’s part, to blur the lines between the races to show how universal his story is. Unfortunately, the story does not really ever come alive, the dilemma seems artificial (the Brent boy is unable to stand up to his adoptive parent when she wants him to be a preacher), and the resolution rather cliché.