On December 9, 1895, the Hadley and Hadley printing company in Toledo, Ohio, wrote to Paul Laurence Dunbar in Dayton about production details for his second volume of poetry, Majors and Minors.
The first poem in the book makes 10 pages. Will you please send us copy for title page. Shall we put your name under your picture? We will print the picture on enamel paper so it will show up in better shape. Will send you more proof tomorrow. Kindly get back all proof soon as possible. What was your idea for matter for the cover?
Hadley and Hadley to Paul Laurence Dunbar, December 9, 1895. Paul Laurence Dunbar Papers, Ohio History Connection (Microfilm edition, Roll 1).
Hadley and Hadley was not a literary publishing house; it was a printing company that typically produced catalogs and posters. Paul's book was being printed with the financial support of friends in Toledo. As the letter indicates, the first ten pages were comprised of a single poem, the longest that Paul ever published. "Ione" tells the sad story of a love triangle between a woman and two brothers.
Beneath a brow too fair for frowning,
Like moon-lit deeps that glass the skies
Till all the hosts above seem drowning,
Looked forth her steadfast hazel eyes,
With gaze serene and purely wise.
And over all, her tresses rare,
Which, when, with his desire grown weak,
The Night bent down to kiss her cheek,
Entrapped and held him captive there.
This was Ione; a spirit finer
Ne'er burned to ash its house of clay;
A soul instinct with fire diviner
Ne'er fled athwart the face of day,
And tempted Time with earthly stay.
Her loveliness was not alone
Of face and form and tresses' hue;
For aye a pure, high soul shone through
Her every act: this was Ione.Excerpt from "Ione" by Paul Laurence Dunbar. Published in Majors and Minors (1895).
Paul may have intended the book to be titled Ione rather than Majors and Minors, according to a letter he wrote to his future wife Alice Ruth Moore. He told Alice that she inspired him as he wrote "Ione."
I am working very hard, day after day to get out a new and larger collection of my verses. The initial poem for which I want to name the volume is not yet finished. It is a lyric narrative and is to be somewhat long. You seem somehow to be woven into the fabric of it, but that is true of all my work now.
Paul Laurence Dunbar to Alice Ruth Moore, October 28, 1895. Paul Laurence Dunbar Papers, Ohio History Connection (Microfilm edition, Roll 8).
A month later, the title of the book had been determined and announced to the public.
Mr. Paul Dunbar will have his new book, "Majors and Minors," out before Christmas.
"The Hartsell Reception." The Cleveland Gazette (Cleveland, Ohio). November 23, 1895. Page 2.
Although it was self-published, Majors and Minors helped Paul achieve widespread fame. A copy was given to William Dean Howells, the leading literary critic in America. The quality of Paul's poetry, and his portrait at the front of the book, prompted Howells to write a favorable review in Harper's Weekly and Paul became famous overnight.
It was the volume of "Majors and Minors" that attracted Mr. Howells' attention and called forth that much talked of criticism of his.
Paul Laurence Dunbar to D. J. Meese, December 6, 1898. Paul Laurence Dunbar Papers, Ohio History Connection (Microfilm edition, Roll 1).
There has come to me from the hand of a friend, very unofficially, a little book of verse, dateless, placeless, without a publisher, which has greatly interested me. Such foundlings of the press always appeal to one by their forlornness; but commonly the appeal is to one's pity only, which is moved all the more if the author of the book has innocently printed his portrait with his verse. In this present case I felt a heightened pathos in the appeal from the fact that the face which confronted me when I opened the volume was the face of a young negro. I am sorry that I cannot give the publisher as well as the author of this significant little book; but I may say that it is printed by Hadley & Hadley, Toledo, Ohio.
"Life and Letters," by William Dean Howells. Harper's Weekly (New York, New York). June 27, 1896. Page 630.