This book is riveting and provided fascinating new information about Paul Laurence Dunbar and Alice Moore Dunbar. At the same time, it scratches the surface in too many places, relying on feminist cliches instead of substantive analysis. This is clearly a dissertation that was published with out the skilled editing that allows the author to reach new conclusions. Too many times, I feel that a window had been opened for me to get a glimpse into lives, then swung shut before insights had been fully explored.

Paul Laurence Dunbar was a magnificent poet who is not known as well as he should be today. Alice Moore is a fascinating woman who deserves to be remembered in her own right. Together they would have seemed to be the perfect couple, living charmed lives. Sadly, their relationship was far from perfect. This book enables us to understand the forces that made these two talented people what they were, that drew them together, and that pulled them apart. Too often, African-American history deals only with slavery in the past and urban poverty in the present. This book shows the "ebony elite" that is too little known, in both its proudest and most difficult aspects. It is a fascinating story of individuals and of the culture that impacted their lives in many unfortunate ways. A compelling story, well-written.