The Sport of the Gods (1902) is a novel by African American author Paul Laurence Dunbar. Published while Dunbar was at the height of his career as one of the nation’s leading black writers, The Sport of the Gods examines the lives of poor African Americans who, despite being freed from slavery, struggle to establish themselves in the cities of the North.
Berry Hamilton, a black man freed from slavery following the American Civil War, has moved north with his wife and two children. In an unfamiliar city, he manages to find a job as a butler for the wealthy white Oakley family, and enjoys a short commute from a small cottage to his daily work at the Oakley residence. One day, during a dinner held on the eve of Francis Oakley’s departure, the family discovers that money has disappeared from the household safe. Accused of the crime, Maurice is found guilty and imprisoned for a decade of hard labor, leaving his wife Fannie and their boy and girl to fend for themselves. Evicted from their cottage, Fannie moves to New York, where Joe, her son, finds work and begins to frequent a local club. There, he enters a turbulent relationship with Hattie Sterling, an entertainer, which soon threatens to shake the family’s newfound stability.
This edition of Paul Laurence Dunbar’s The Sport of the Gods is a classic of African American literature reimagined for modern readers.
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Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906) was an African American poet, novelist, and playwright. Born in Dayton, Ohio, Dunbar was the son of parents who were emancipated from slavery in Kentucky during the American Civil War. He began writing stories and poems as a young boy, eventually publishing some in a local newspaper at the age of sixteen. In 1890, Dunbar worked as a writer and editor for The Tattler, Dayton’s first weekly newspaper for African Americans, which was a joint project undertaken with the help of Dunbar’s friends Wilbur and Orville Wright. The following year, after completing school, he struggled to make ends meet with a job as an elevator operator and envisioned for himself a career as a professional writer. In 1893, he published Oak and Ivy, a debut collection of poetry blending traditional verse and poems written in dialect. In 1896, a positive review of his collection Majors and Minors from noted critic William Dean Howells established Dunbar’s reputation as a rising star in American literature. Over the next decade, Dunbar wrote ten more books of poetry, four collections of short stories, four novels, a musical, and a play. In his brief career, Dunbar became a respected advocate for civil rights, participating in meetings and helping to found the American Negro Academy. His lyrics for In Dahomey (1903) formed the centerpiece to the first musical written and performed by African Americans on Broadway, and many of his essays and poems appeared in the nation’s leading publications, including Harper’s Weekly and the Saturday Evening Post. Diagnosed with tuberculosis in 1900, however, Dunbar’s health steadily declined in his final years, leading to his death at the age of thirty-three while at the height of his career.
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