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Identifier

MSS114_B01F04_008A

Creation Date

3-10-1895

Keywords

Paul Laurence Dunbar, primary sources, Black history, Black poets, prominent Ohioans

Description

Full text of letter:

(Page 1)

Sunday afternoon

Dear Paul

This is a farce take the mask off Paul and be your own true self you are not on the stage Why try to make me believe you care for me you had not been gone two days before you forgot I ever excisted [sic] when you received my letter,

(Page 2)

Paul what am I to say to you how am I to write I will not perjure myself by writing false sentiment.

You accuse me of being an Iceberg I in turn appeal to your manhood dont shatter my faith in men surely there are some good noble men:

(Have I made a mistake

(Page 3)

Stop and think before you see me again or write if you knew how I despise myself for my weakness last Sunday (allas) I am only a woman no one to care for me not even a Mother and afraid to care for anyone You do not know what it is to hunger for someone to love

(Page 4)

someone to trust someone to whom you may lay bear your innermost thoughts without fear of being ridiculed, You may think I am sentimental well that may be for the woman of today,

I have no sympathy with women suffrage or a womans independence

(Page 5)

If they had a little more sentimen more womanly, content with being more like our great-grandmothers our men would be different today;

Paul let me trust you to tell me the truth speak as plainly as I have written that I may respect you if nothing more.

(Page 6)

Your poem is very good your mother gave me the clipping to read you ought to be proud of them I am proud at least to have met you be careful of your Private Character I should have like to have had you home tonight for I promised to go down to see your mother she is so lonly [sic] Come Home soon

With Love

Maud Clark

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Primary Item Type

Personal Correspondence

Rights

This item is part of the Paul Laurence Dunbar House collection at Ohio History Connection, Columbus, Ohio. The collection contains items from 219 N. Summit St., Dayton, Ohio (later 219 N. Paul Laurence Dunbar St.), the home Dunbar purchased for his mother, Matilda J. Dunbar, in 1904. Paul Laurence Dunbar lived there until his death in 1906; Matilda lived there until her death in 1934. It is now the Paul Laurence Dunbar House Historic Site, part of the National Park Service.

Keywords

Paul Laurence Dunbar, primary sources, Black history, Black poets, prominent Ohioans

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