Yet another little-known woman finally given her due and brought back into the public eye, through this excellent and thoroughly researched biography. Alice Dunbar-Nelson was born in New Orleans in 1875 and suffered all the disadvantages of being a woman and Black in that racist and misogynistic era. With impressive determination she went on to forge for herself a remarkable life as an activist, writer and friend and lover of many men and women, always refusing to submit to the dictates of a repressive society, and always living on her own terms, even when matters seemed to conspire against her. It’s a well-written and accessible biography, if a little overly detailed and dense at times, but overall a worthy tribute to this fascinating woman.

This is a beautifully written and thorough biography of an extraordinary woman, who deserves to be celebrated and remembered. Green’s writing centres Alice and her (sometimes harrowing) experiences, whilst examining the tools that have lead to her being overlooked by history for the past century. This is a much-needed and timely addition to suffragette, and activist history in the US! I couldn’t believe this was the first biography of Alice and that she isn’t better known,

I very much appreciate being gifted this copy of Love, Activism & the Respectable Life of Alice Dunbar-Nelson by Tara T. Green, and the opportunity to read & review it. Thanks to the publisher.

I will always consider reading biographies of women, but this particular book caught my eye because of its Black feminist standpoint. The project of remembering a woman who was an amazing suffragist, activist and educator is obviously a worthy one, and it was written very well. I really recommend this book.

TW: rape, sexual, emotional and physical abuse, sexism, racism.

I know Netgalley insists on giving star ratings, but I find this extremely hard when it comes to a nonfiction book, especially on a subject I'm not familiar with, from sources I've not seen. For me, as long as it seems logically and ethically sound, and I'm learning something... Look, it's a biography, I can't even say I like Alice, because that isn't the point.

This book takes us through the complex life of a Black woman born in the years immediately following the end of the US Civil War, from a Black mother and an unknown father. Her life is defined by her racial identity as a Black - but light-skinned - woman, her status as an educator and activist, her financial struggles, and a need to be considered middle class. Some of the respectability politics involved means that she is classist in a lot of ways, when seen through modern eyes: there's this recurring idea in Alice's writing and in her circles that poorer Black people need to be "improved" so Black people as a whole may benefit from respect (from Whites), there's a lot of work that is expected of Black people - especially Black women - when the whites aren't held to the same standards. It's maddening. But it's history, I can't be mad at the author for describing that (critically).

A central part of Dunbar Nelson's life was her relationship with her first husband, well-known Black poet and a total abusive dick. Green doesn't shy from analysing this relationship, and its effects on Alice. Notably, he convinces her to marry him by first raping her and then essentially arguing that marriage is the only respectable thing to do. She then spends her whole life, even after his death, known as Dunbar's wife. Which had its advantages when it comes to getting public speaking jobs, but also, you know, being defined through the men in your life... through your abuser's own achievements... This was a big learning for me too, because I knew of Paul Laurence Dunbar, and I'd never heard of his wife - let alone the whole rape, the emotional abuse, and the beatings he gave her. It's not the kind of thing that should be glossed over about any artist in my opinion.

But the work also focuses on her art and activism, especially to "lift other black people as she climbed", through racial activism, education, anti-lynching campaigns, editorials for Black newspapers, poems and plays. Her efforts to appear respectable and to encourage respectability from her peers is definitely anchored in the racial politics of the time, but Green manages to show the complexity of this need to be respectable - and how Alice managed to tow the line, including in her extramarital relationships, her affairs with women and exploration of her sexuality, her maintaining a job and not necessarily carrying all "wifely" duties, etc etc.

Green's work is based on documents kept by Alice's niece, journals and letters exchanged between Alice, her husbands, and various well-known Black activists and writers of the time such as W.E.B. Du Bois; and Alice's scrapbooks, newspaper cuttings, and her own published and unpublished writings. Tremendous archival work seems to have gone in the writing of this book, and makes me want to read more of Alice Dunbar Nelson's work.

Tara T. Green's Love, Activism, and the Respectable Life of Alice Dunbar-Nelson is a great, well-written biography of a fascinating woman. Everyone should know about Alice Dunbar-Nelson, yet so few do. The writing leans a bit more academic than what I would recommend for most of my creative writing students. However, I will be using this book as an example of telling stories that matter to us: even if we think we might be the only person interested in an idea or person or subject, we should still pursue it. I look forward to seeing what stories Alice Dunbar-Nelson inspires in today's students.

Such an important book the first proper biography of a truly fascinating woman. The author has done an excellent job of not only bringing Alice to life but also making this an engaging read. Wonderful.

With thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is a rich, full, and apparently unprecedented treatment of Alice Dunbar-Nelson’s life and work. It is a literary biography—examining her writings alongside biographical details and providing textual analysis of her work and to a degree, applying the same method to explicating her life. The book is thoroughly researched, delving deeply into Dunbar-Nelson’s published writings and personal letters and diaries. While written for an academic audience, is highly accessible to the lay reader.

Tara Green crisply and effectively covers Dunbar-Nelson’s achievements in her own education (the daughter of a woman formerly enslaved, Dunbar-Nelson became at 18 one of only ~30 black women in the country with a baccalaureate degree); her accomplishments as an educator, author, publisher, public intellectual, and activist—all efforts tightly connected to promoting African American political engagement and artistic achievement, advancing the race, and combatting racism; her complicated personal path—from her relationship with the abusive, alcoholic, philandering, and controlling Paul Laurence Dunbar and the way it was intertwined with her own success, through other suitors and husbands, to relationships with women to her interracial identity; and her leadership in African-American women’s clubs, the suffrage movement, anti-lynching work, war (and peace) efforts, and collaborations with other prominent African American artists, activists, and political figures.

The book has two minor, but repetitive stylistic distractions: 1) a lot of awkward “I argue” assertions, which seem unnecessary academic affectation; and 2) the overarching frame of Dunbar-Nelson’s ebbing and flowing conformity to “respectability,” which also seems artificial and often forced, though I fully understand the necessity of “respectability” at a time when the lives and choices of women, most especially African American women, were highly constrained and the costs of transgressing restrictive norms potentially devastating. But neither of these off notes diminishes the book’s achievements—which include making the reader want to explore more fully Dunbar-Nelson’s extensive body of work and learn more about other accomplished but lesser known women in Dunbar-Nelson’s orbit to whom Green introduces us.

I knew next to nothing about Alice Dunbar-Wilson before reading this book. Not only was the book very readable and engaging but it was so thorough. Coming out the other side I feel not only that I know more about this remarkable woman’s life and influence but I know about the circumstances through which she came into being. Green does an excellent job of providing context to the biography, especially in her background information about respectability politics and the way it manifested in black communities. The topic is treated with nuance and understanding without being flippant or hand-wavy. She presents a critical response to the political movements and attitudes presented allowing her analysis to provide a real insight into what makes Dunbar-Wilson significant, remarkable and a product of her time.
I also really liked the way Green provided literary context for Dunbar-Wilson’s work both in relevant points in her biography but also chronologically which enables the reader to get an impression of how she developed her themes and interests throughout her life. When dealing with the sensitive and traumatic elements of her life, Green isn’t gratuitous or sensationalist but still makes clear the huge impact it had on Dunbar-Wilson and her life, always centring Dunbar-Wilson rather than the perpetrators,
This was an excellent biography and I really enjoyed reading it.

I knew nothing about Alice Dunbar-Nelson until I picked up this book. Green's writing was accessible, interesting, and illuminating. Her research and approach to Alice's life was careful and thorough and I really enjoyed learning so much more about this trailblazing woman. While most of this book kept my attention, I think my favorite part was focusing on the post-reconstruction era because it is an often-overlooked period of U.S. history, particularly for Black women. Thank you so much to Bloomsbury Academic for providing me with an e-arc of this book.

Tara T. Green, Love, Activism, and the Respectable Life of Alice Dunbar-Nelson, Bloomsbury Academic, 2022.

Thank you NetGalley and Bloomsbury Academic for this uncorrected proof in exchange for an honest review.

Tara T. Green has written a strong biography of a fascinating activist, political and literary figure whose story begins in the period after slavery, following, but also questioning, the social mores that impacted her ability to act in that environment. This is a dense narrative, lending itself to reading in small doses, sometimes re-reading, and digesting the material before moving forward. At least, this is how I have come to grips with the material which covers a range of ideas and activities with themes that become clear only after some endeavour. This is an academic book, written at a level that Alice Dunbar-Nelson deserves. She, and her biographer, also deserve the effort that the reader needs to make. I was pleased to have done so.

Tara Green’s preface, outlining the search for material, and the nature of the material is excellent. This is an easy read, not only reflecting the importance of the research in this instance but highlighting the way in which biographers might find material, and deal with the shortcomings of what they find. For teachers of history this is a useful tool. As historians move away from the well-known characters and events that contribute to mainstream written history, towards a broader and a more representative history, new ways of research, adapting information, allowing for speculation with a firm base, and at times speculation that can be questioned, tools such as those adopted and explained by Green are an essential part of writing history. Such histories are an important way of bringing women such as Alice Dunbar-Nelson into the mainstream.

The analysis of Alice Dunbar-Nelson’s writing as well as the biographical account makes this book doubly valuable. The feminist ideology and descriptions and analysis of the impact of white exploitation apparent in her fiction point to Dunbar-Nelson’s major political and social concerns. This is a book that continually illuminates, with the role of respectability amongst the women she writes about; her own whiteness and the restrained acceptance of her as a black woman; her sexuality and its impact on her activism and personal life reflecting the complexity that permeates the biography and her writing. This literary output also becomes familiar so that readers coming new to Dunbar-Nelson are given an insight into her writing as well as her life through both the biography and the fiction.

The weaving together of Alice Dunbar-Nelson’s life story with the detailed consideration of her fiction is particularly ingenious. This method of bringing a figure and her writing to life without one overtaking the importance of the other perhaps adds to the complexity of the work. The need to grapple with a range of ideas, events, relationships that have both real and fictional status initially requires, as I note above, reading in small doses. However, this is also a book that is worth returning to, perhaps at times following the biographical thread more avidly, and at others concentrating on the literary critiques.
I must admit that I have taken a while to read Love, Activism, and the Respectable Life of Alice Dunbar-Nelson, putting it aside on one occasion. However, I have not regretted returning to Tara T. Green’s immensely thorough work. That thoroughness includes an excellent index and a remarkably extensive bibliography.

This book was a lot denser and more academic than I was expecting. If you weren't predicting that style, and don't usually read it, then you may find it a bit surprising but I enjoyed it. For me, it was a slow read but a very interesting look at the life of a woman I hadn't known a tremendous amount about going in. I'm really glad I read this book, and feel very inspired to check out more of Alice's writing.

This book was given to me in exchange for an honest review. This book was given to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. It is an excellent exploration of the life of a remarkable woman. In addition, it is a fantastic look at issues of respectability, especially how the concept relates to Black women in America who lived in a particular time in history. It looks at how Dunbar-Nelson navigated the seas of; respectability, sexuality, deviance, and conformity. It explores her; work, relationships, and the role that these play in her life and identity. It emphasises the role of women within the life of Dunbar-Nelson, outlining how she was supported and fed by her relationships with other women. I was really glad that this was my first read of 2022. I highly recommend it.

NetGalley. ARC Educator 550974

Thank you for sharing Mrs. Nelson's story. I was not aware of her nor her contribution to equality causes. Her story will enlighten and compel you to stand on the empathetic side of equality and justice. We'll done!

This book was highly academic, which might be off-putting to those who might not enjoy that style. That being said, I really liked this title! It's an overall well-done bibliography of a fascinating and deserving woman.

This book was more dense and academic than i had expected--as a non-academic, i will read scholarly books sometimes when i can sort of skim them for content. I expected this to be more of a biography (as someone who likes reading about queerness, race, and theories of political change, that would have been right in my wheelhouse!), but it felt like a cross between that and literary criticism. I had hoped this would be a book i could recommend as supplemental reading for high school students who were working on specific projects, but it seemed inaccessible for even advanced k-12 students. In my inexpert opinion, it read like a lightly edited dissertation. I have a friend who teaches comparative lit class to college students/grad students focusing on race and queerness, and i am going to recommend this book to them in case it would be a good fit for their students' needs. It wasn't a bad book, it just was very, very much not like a biography.

It seems strange this is the first, full-length biography of a woman as accomplished, fascinating and relevant as Alice Dunbar-Nelson. Alice’s fiction and poetry’s widely available, her stories appear in compilations of work by Harlem Renaissance women. She was a respected teacher, celebrated journalist, and an activist who spent a lifetime fighting for the rights of Black communities; a woman who loved other women as much, if not more, than the men she married yet she’s been consistently overshadowed by first husband, the poet, Paul Dunbar. Paul Dunbar’s famous for chronicling Black American life in the post-slavery era. Now a canonical figure, he was equally prominent in his own time even though, like Alice, he was only a generation away from slavery. Alice was also the child of a former slave, Patsy Moore, a single mother, who raised her two daughters by working as a washerwoman, ensuring they had the education she’d been denied. When Alice married Paul, they became known as one of the first Black power couples, who referred to themselves as “Mr and Mrs Browning” after the famous poets although, as Tara T. Green underlines theirs was far from a fairy-tale marriage.

Not much is known about Alice’s childhood, as Saidiya Hartman’s demonstrated, information’s scarce when it comes to Black working-class people in the post-slavery years, even more so for women and girls. Alice’s absent father’s a bit of a mystery but the fact she was able, but refused, to pass as white suggests he may have been white too. Alice trained as a teacher and met Paul through her published writing, her first collection Violets and Other Tales appeared in 1895, when she was barely twenty. Alice was someone who fought against the tide but was equally a product of her age, born into a world where Black women were loaded down with white-centred stereotypes labelling them as loose and generally immoral. She believed in the concept of “uplifting the race” partly through her commitment to the politics of respectability. A stance which required she led by example, challenging white prejudice by entering, and succeeding in, areas white society valued, and avoiding public behaviour that could be seen as inappropriate or give fuel to prejudice.

Tara T. Green’s thorough, admirably-researched biography stresses respectability as central to Alice’s decisions but also demonstrates the exceptionally high price she paid for that. One decision that would haunt Alice, and perhaps contribute to her relatively early death, was marrying Dunbar after he raped her so brutally, she never fully recovered. It’s hard as a contemporary reader to fully understand why Alice became Dunbar's wife but, as Green argues, Alice would have considered herself as somehow spoiled if she hadn’t. Alice seems to have warred with respectability from then on, she endured years of abuse before finally leaving Paul, her second marriage was also fraught, and her third not exactly perfect. It’s only in private, and in the company of other women, that Alice seems to have allowed herself to be truly free from constraints.

Green’s reconstruction of Alice’s experiences is meticulously detailed. She examines her literary legacy and fiction; immersion in the Black suffrage movement; tireless campaigning against the KKK and for anti-lynching laws; later renown as a passionate journalist and public speaker. Alice’s story also highlights the development of the post-slavery, Black middle-classes, the culture, political work and disagreements – Alice engaged in furious debates around the purpose of Black literature, was it to enlighten white people or to enrich Black culture? And the gradual shift for many, including Alice, towards more militant, anti-racist attitudes and an emphasis on Black identity and pride. My only quarrel with this is that the density of Green’s material can sometimes be a little overwhelming, making it difficult to extract key points, this can also make Green’s portrayal of Alice a little dry and lifeless at times. But it’s still a really interesting, important piece and an excellent overview of an impressive woman.

Rating: 3/3.5

Thanks to Netgalley UK and publisher Bloomsbury Academic for an arc

Biographies are my jam and this one was completely fascinating, a look into the life of a woman about whom I knew virtually nothing prior to reading this ARC. So much conflict existed in Alice's life, yet there was also a lot I could relate to. Such a deftly written biography!

Really fascinating book, I might even reread! In depth research on a figure in American activism and suffrage that more should know about. I will be recommending this book to others.

Incredibly important, well researched and an important figure in history that should be talked about more. Well written and an informative read.