On October 13, 1895, Paul Laurence Dunbar in Dayton wrote a letter to Alice Ruth Moore in New Orleans declaring his love for her. They had been writing to each other for about six months, but had yet to meet in person.
I am sitting here with your picture before me and my heart is throbbing faster than my pen goes. I love you and have loved you since the first time that I saw your picture and read your story. I know it seems foolish and you will laugh perhaps, or perhaps grow angry; but I can explain in one sentence. You were the sudden realization of an ideal! Isn’t there some hope for me? I wish you could read my heart. I love you. I love you. You bring out all the best that is in me. You are an inspiration to me. I am better and purer for having touched hands with you over all these miles. I am going to pray that God will give you to me. I know that this letter is bold, untimely and perhaps presumptuous. But please don’t let it offend you. If I cannot win your love I do not want to lose your friendship. I cannot say with the poet: "What prate is this of friendship? Kings discrowned go forth not citizens but outlawed men."
Paul Laurence Dunbar to Alice Ruth Moore, October 13, 1895. Paul Laurence Dunbar Papers, Ohio History Connection (Microfilm edition, Roll 8).
In his letter, Paul quoted from a sonnet by a contemporary English poet named Wilfrid Scawen Blunt. The poem criticizes friendship as a substitute for love, but Paul made it clear to Alice that if she didn't love him then he still wanted her to be his friend.
What is this prate of friendship? Kings discrowned
Go forth, not citizens but outlawed men.
If love has ceased to give a loyal sound,
Let there at least be silence. Once again
I go, proscribed, exiled, dominionless
Out of your coasts, yet scorning to complain.
I grudge not your allegiance nor my bliss,
I yield the pleasure as I keep the pain.
Excerpt from "To One Who Would Remain Friends," by Wilfrid Scawen Blunt. Published in The Love Sonnets of Proteus (1881).
Paul told Alice that she was "the sudden realization of an ideal." Two years later, he wrote an autobiographical novel, The Uncalled, in which a woman named Alice is idealized. The novel's protagonist, Fred Brent, describes Alice to his friend Eliphalet Hodges.
"Alice is a very nice and sensible girl. I like her very much. She helps me to get out of myself and to be happy. I have never known before what a good thing it was to be happy, perhaps because I have tried so hard to be so. Alice understands me and brings out the best that is in me. I have always thought that it was good for a young man to have a girlfriend."
The old man paused with tears in his eyes. "I been a-prayin' fur you," he said.
"So has Alice," replied the young man, "though I don't see why she needs to pray. She's a prayer in herself. She has made me better by letting me love her."
Excerpt from Chapter 17 of The Uncalled, by Paul Laurence Dunbar. Published in 1898.
Alice responded to Paul's declaration of love, but her letter is apparently lost. Paul's reply hints that she wrote to him kindly, but did not return his affection.
Your last letter to me has not done very much toward allaying my enthusiasm for you. I must confess that your letter was not just such a one as I expected. For after coming to my senses and realizing what I had done, I stood aghast at my own foolhardiness and wondered what you could or would say in reply. I did not expect to be dealt with in half so gentle, considerate or tactful a manner. It is one thing to realize that one has been a fool and another and quite different thing to be made to feel this truth by someone else. You did not make me feel so. It was good of you. But I did not deserve the kindness. In future I shall try to write as if you knew nothing of my feeling for you, and should ever a glance of my real heart break out again, I can only trust that you will forgive me as you have in this instance, and treat me to another letter as sensible and kindly as the one which I now treasure. God bless you, my friend, helper and inspiration!
Paul Laurence Dunbar to Alice Ruth Moore, October 28, 1895. Paul Laurence Dunbar Papers, Ohio History Connection (Microfilm edition, Roll 8).