Majors and Minors: Poems

1895. DUNBAR, Paul Laurence. Majors and Minors: Poems. Original cloth. [Toledo, OH: Hadley & Hadley Printers and Binders, 1895]. BAL 4917. Blockson 101. Inscribed on the verso of front free endpaper: "Compliments of H. A. Tobey, Jan. 22d 1896." Tobey was Superintendent of the Toledo State Hospital, and an early supporter of Dunbar's work, who first approached the poet via a letter of 6 July 1895: "Some five or six months ago an acquaintance of mine in Dayton sent me your little book of poems [Oak and Ivy], which pleased me greatly. I am not a literary character, but believe I possess ordinary human instincts and emotions, and from my point of view I must compliment you enough to say that I believe you possess real poetical instinct. In these modern times, when it seems the chief aim and object of man is to obtain the `Almighty Dollar,' poets and poetry are below par and by the common mass of mankind their real intrinsic value is not appreciated ... I am so thoroughly Democratic in my sentiments that race or condition with me `cuts but little figure,' in my estimation of men. Therefore I am anxious to assist or help you in any way I can. Enclosed herewith I send you a check for Five Dollars, ($5.00,) and would like to have you send me the number of volumes of your poems that this amount will buy." That support and the friendship it engendered led to the publication of Majors and Minors. Soon after encountering Dunbar's work, Tobey invited him to read at the Toledo State Hospital and started to promote his career. When Dunbar told Tobey and his friend, the lawyer Charles A. Thatcher, that he wished to publish a second book on his own, as he had Oak & Ivy, they offered to underwrite him. The three contracted Hadley & Hadley in Toledo to print the book. (The firm mainly printed posters and catalogues; this may have been their first literary job). They struggled to get copies printed before Christmas 1895 and the book appeared a few months later. "Dunbar spent a good deal of time in Toledo in the spring of 1896. During his stay, Henry Tobey's enthusiasm for Dunbar's verse proved infectious. The day Tobey received his first finished copy of Majors and Minors, he happened to be staying overnight in a downtown hotel after being called into the city on business and met a friend interested in poetry and together they sat up reading t.