Majors and Minors (1895) is the second collection of Paul Laurence Dunbar. Divided into poems in standard English ('Majors') and in dialect ('Minors'), it includes We Wear the Mask and brought Dunbar national fame after a review by William Dean Howells.
The book
Dunbar published Majors and Minors in Toledo, Ohio, with the help of friends, in 1895, while still working in Dayton. The 'Majors' are poems in literary English; the 'Minors', in the dialect of Black Southerners and of Midwestern farmers.
We Wear the Mask, among the Majors, describes the smile that African Americans must show while hiding their pain.
Howells's review
In June 1896 the influential novelist and critic William Dean Howells reviewed the book on the front page of Harper's Weekly, praising Dunbar as a true poet.
The review made Dunbar famous overnight and led to Lyrics of Lowly Life (1896), drawn from his first two books.
A double reputation
Readers praised mostly the dialect poems, which Dunbar felt did not represent his best work.
Today the poems in standard English, especially We Wear the Mask and Sympathy, are the most read and anthologised.
Anecdotes
A review on his birthday
Howells's review appeared in Harper's Weekly on 27 June 1896, Dunbar's twenty-fourth birthday.
Majors and Minors
The title plays on music: major and minor keys, but also major and minor poems.
Frequently asked questions
What is We Wear the Mask?
A poem in Majors and Minors about the hidden suffering of African Americans behind a smiling mask.
Who made the book famous?
William Dean Howells, in a review in Harper's Weekly in 1896.
What do 'Majors' and 'Minors' mean in the book?
Poems in standard English and poems in dialect.