Give Us Each Day
The Diary of Alice Dunbar Nelson
Gloria T. Hull
A significant life, scrappily skimmed. Alice Dunbar-Nelson (I 875-1935) was the widow of black poet Paul Lawrence Dunbar (d. 1906), and a writer and activist in her own fight. Her Diary, however, is both fragmentary and cursory. It begins late in 192 l, when Dunbar-Nelson was living in Wilmington (Del.) and co-editing the Wilmington Advocate with journalist husband Robert (”Bobbo”) Nelson; then it breaks off without explanation, to resume in 1926 and continue through 193 I. Within these segments, too much is bare summary: e.g., ”Slept. Ate. Went to movies.” This is a loss, for Dunbar-Nelson’s activities ranged wide. She was present at a historic meeting with Harding at which prominent blacks presented a 50-thousand-signature petition requesting clemency for black soldiers arrested after a racial incident. (”He would look into the matter as soon as possible. We understood, of course, that other things might have to take precedence. . .”) She occasionally hobnobbed with luminaries of the Harlem Renaissance, whose names are listed in passing (”Reached Fifth Avenue restaurant 8:50. . . Scared to go in. . . Welcomed effusively by Jim [James Weldon Johnson], Countee Cullen, Carl Van Vechten”). Struggling for years to piece together a living from writing, teaching, and speaking, she is delighted when in 1928 her work for the American Friends Inter-Racial Peace Committee becomes a paid position, allowing her to leave her job at the Girls Industrial School: ”And so–adieu to the Barn and the Morons.” By 1929 ill health limits Dunbar-Nelson’s political activism; her thoughts take a sensual turn as she becomes sexually involved with two women, one a newspaperwoman (her ”little blue dream of loveliness”), the other an artist. Throughout, Dunbar-Nelson seems largely content to record events, saving her reflections and finer writing for the poems, articles, and essays that appeared in a range of publications. Given the interest of the source, a disappointment. ~ Kirkus Reviews
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Details
| ISBN | 9780393303117 |
| Genre | Autobiography/Biography; Black Interest |
| Publication Date | 19-May-86 |
| Publisher | W W Norton & Co Inc |
| Format | Paperback |
| No. of Pages | 480 |
| Language | English |
| Rating | Average |
| Subject | African American Authors/ Diaries; Authors, American; Authors, American/ 20th Century/ Diaries; Fiction / General; SOCIAL SCIENCE / General |
| BookID | 4874 |
