More than half of the pieces in this collection—41 of them—are poems. But for length and impressiveness the dramas rule the book. Here are three musicals, two short plays, and the unpublished play Herrick, based on the life of English poet Robert Herrick, written in the style of an 18th Century comedy of manners. Also notable is a previously unpublished short story, "Ole Conju'in' Joe". The 76 (or, by another count, 75) pieces are grouped as drama, essays, short stories and poetry (including songs and fragments) each section headed by a substantial introductory essay. The book includes a Dunbar chronology.

—compiled from Internet sources

Contents:

Foreword by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

PART ONE: DRAMATIC PIECES

Herrick

The Gambler's Wife

The Island of Tanawana

Musicals

Uncle Eph's Christmas

Jes Lak White Fo'ks

Dream Lovers

Musical Lyrics and Fragments

From In Dahomey

Evah Dahkey Is a King

Good Evenin'

On Emancipation Day

Returned: Empty and So Silent Now the Old Cabin Stands

From Clorindy, or the Origin of the Cakewalk

The Hottest Coon in Dixie

Who Dat Say Chicken in dis Crowd

PART TWO: ESSAYS

Dickens and Thackeray

December 13, 1890

Of Negro Journals

England as Seen by a Black Man

Our New Madness

Negro Music

The Tuskegee Meeting

Negro Life in Washington

Higher Education

Negro Society in Washington

Dunbar Did Not Plagiarize

The Leader of His Race

Negro in Literature

Booker T. Washington

Sunshine at Jackson Park

PART THREE: SHORT STORIES

Ole Conju'in Joe

His Bride of the Tomb

The Tenderfoot

Little Billy

Jimmy Weedon's Contretempts

The Emancipation of Evalina Jones

A Prophesy of Fate

PART FOUR: POEMS

Sold-A C. H. S. Episode

Happy! Happy! Happy!

Oh, No

Lullaby (I)

A Rondeau

The Farm House by the River

Rondeau for a Lawyer

To Leila Ruth

We Crown Her Queen

The Song of the Gatherer

To a Golden Girl

The Lonely Hunter

Dreams Only Dreams

The Dreamer

Remembered

Keeping in Touch

Triolets

The Valse

After the Struggle

Noddin' by de Fire

Darkie's Rainy Day

Ode

John Hay

Kindness

A Toast to Dayton

(For The Palladium)

New York

Kitty

A Girl

Rocking in the Old Canoe

Tim

The Making Up

Our Hopes and Home

The Drowsy God

Incantation/Invocation

A Letter

A Lament

To Miss Mamie Emerson

A Brown Hair

Lullaby (II)

I Been Kissin' Yo' Picture

Bibliography

Index of Titles

Index to the First Lines of Poems