On October 5, 1894, Richard Lew Dawson, while staying at a hotel in Sandusky, Ohio, wrote to Paul Laurence Dunbar in Dayton describing how an acquaintance used one of Dawson's poems without permission, leading to threats of violence.
Miss May has evidently misrepresented the matter to you, and I am sorry to see you apparently defend her, for she has acted in a dishonorable way and cannot be defended. She gave my poem without even notifying me as was my due and asking my consent. She had no right on earth to use my poem, simply because I trusted it in her hands, and as I wrote her "she had no claim to it any more than a man would have to the baggage I gave him to carry to the station." I told her the plain facts of her conduct. Then her father replied, proposing that he and his son should whip me when I was next in Dayton. Of course I was delighted at this prospect and told him that when I was next in Dayton, he could see my name announced and know where to find me. I told him also that I was not afraid of man, woman or devil, much less the barking of curs.
Richard Lew Dawson to Paul Laurence Dunbar, October 5, 1894. Paul Laurence Dunbar Papers, Ohio History Connection (Microfilm edition, Roll 1).
Dawson was one of a handful of Indiana authors who organized a poetry conference in 1886 that developed into the Western Association of Writers.
Mr. Richard Lew Dawson proposes in the Indianapolis Herald that a convention of poets be held in this city. He says:
The objects of such a meeting are, first, to have a poem read by each member of the convention, upon all of which a judge or committee shall take action and award a prize; second, that the entire product of this unique gathering shall be offered to some publisher as a representative volume of western poetry. Incidental to this meeting, a general discussion of the subject of poetry may be had. What say you, brothers and sisters in poesy?
The Express (Terre Haute, Indiana). January 24, 1886. Page 4.
When the W. A. W. held its annual conference in Dayton in 1892, both Dawson and Paul recited their poetry at the event. The following year, Paul mentioned Dawson in a letter to another of the founding members of the W. A. W.
Richard Lew Dawson is staying here in Dayton and I have become quite well acquainted with him. To my mind he is a "bright, peculiar star," but I like him and his clever work. Recited on the same program with him at one of the churches here not long since.
Paul Laurence Dunbar to James Newton Matthews, December 23, 1893. Paul Laurence Dunbar Papers, Ohio History Connection (Microfilm edition, Roll 1).
In 1895, Paul served as temporary editor of a newspaper in Indianapolis, where Dawson used to live. Dawson wrote to Paul from a hotel in Elmira, New York, and suggested he visit some of his relatives and see certain sites in the city.
Twenty-two years ago I was a reporter, and my experiences were many during that brief career. It is a pernicious work for any man who has cultivated literary style. Your work on a weekly paper is not so bad for you. Who'd 'a thought you'd be locating yourself in my town! Git out! Go see my "Old Covered Bridge" over the river west. It is a historic landmark.
Richard Lew Dawson to Paul Laurence Dunbar, June 11, 1895. Paul Laurence Dunbar Papers, Ohio History Connection (Microfilm edition, Roll 1).
Dawson referred to his poem about an Indiana covered bridge that had been published a few years earlier.
O the old covered bridge! How the years whirl around
As I see it once more, and my life is unwound,
With its burdens and sorrows laid by, and I seem
To be standing again in the sweet happy dream
Of my childhood, and watching with innocent glee
The birds and the waters that talked there with me,
While the trees were live giants and I but a midge,
As I lolled on the banks by the old covered bridge.
Excerpt from "The Old Covered Bridge," by Richard Lew Dawson. The Century Magazine (New York, New York). August 1892. Page 640.