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Identifier
MSS114_B02F02_002A
Creation Date
2-9-1899
Keywords
Paul Laurence Dunbar, primary sources, Black history, Black poets, prominent Ohioans
Description
Full text of letter:
(Page 1)
Feb 9. 99
Mill Field,
Street,
Somersetshire.
Dear Mr. Dunbar
I have often intended writing to you. Firstly to thank you for a kind note received a long time ago + more lately to say how glad I was that Roger was able to see you when on his long travels. Also I had in my heart to say how anxious I was to hear of your health being restored. It was a real pleasure to hear of you + your wife from Roger + I regretted that (illegible; maybe Iolne) was not able to
(Page 2)
share his enjoyment in this + other ways. We remember your short visit here always with pleasure. The wide intervening seas do not lessen any interests or friendships formed. As I write the wind is howling + the grey skies + fitful storm seem to deepen the feeling that one has, more perhaps as one grows old. That one must not allow wide separation of time or space to lessen anything that friendships or human interest
(Page 3)
has laid up for us.
There is much at present to draw together in sorrowful sympathy all thoughtful + just minds in the United States + in England. We grieve that so much encouragement has been given in the English Press to American “Expansion” schemes. Every thing seems very dark + one cannot but look for heavy retribution. But it is perhaps more likely to come in the form of moral deterioration than in that of outward disaster.
I am sorry to think that your post as librarian has not suited you + that your health is still not satis-
(Page 4)
factory but it is pleasant to think that your literary work has been fairly successful. Still I always feel that it is not the best thing to defend on that alone.
Roger has no doubt written + told you anything that there is to tell. The Miss Impeys are as usual + well I think. The old people are getting older, the young ones growing up + as our youngest child is 18 last month, we feel we must seem old to others. This in some respects we do not feel so ourselves. With Kindest messages to your wife believe me very kindly yours
Helen P. B. 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
