Preview
Identifier
MSS114_B02F02_007
Creation Date
5-6-1899
Keywords
Paul Laurence Dunbar, primary sources, Black history, Black poets, prominent Ohioans
Description
(Page 1)
May 6. 1899
Mill Field,
Street,
Somersetshire.
My dear Paul
I was so grieved to see in the papers that you were very ill with pneumonia. + can only hope that newspaper accounts are, in accordance with all tradition, exaggerating!
My mother asks me to say also how extremely sorry she was to see it + to send her very kind love to you + to Mrs. Dunbar.
I have been far too long
(Page 2)
in answering your last letter. I cannot lay my hand on it just now I’m sorry to say so you must forgive me if I leave anything uncommented upon. I was reading the other day a very good letter from a little Miss Simpson. To the Impeys a very pleasant girl who lives in Washington, possibly you might know her. She visited the Impeys a few years back. We have been living new horrible doings lately it seems to me.
(Page 3)
Georgia, Samoa, the Philippines, our spirit trade in West Africa.
One is tempted to think the Ethical spirit is dead amongst the mass. The cry for more education is well enough, but it might be more of a very different sort surely.
Then when one lifts one's eyes how lovely & dancing with sweet fresh life this spring time is, cuckoo + nightingale in full song, buttercups & daisies in the rich new grass. The elms clouding with tender green. It is beautiful to be alive & in it all.
(Page 4)
How I wish we could have you here, my poor lad, instead of being sick in bed over there. I think the change & rest would surely help.
The Impeys are away on a round of visits to relatives.
We are hoping to have Booker T. Washington over in this country this year & that he will stay with us. Try & get well & come too.
You must not think of trying to write, but perhaps Mrs. Dunbar will be so kind as to send me a note or a post card how you are.
Give my love please to her to your mother. I feel how awfully anxious they will be.
(Page 1 has content in the left-side margin that is a continuation from Page 4)
& take for yourself my most affectionate prayers for your speedy getting better.
Ever your friend
Rosa 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
