I am doing a playthrough without advancing past level 1
(this is for adding additional challenge to the game)
I am at the point where I can advance to level 36 if I want to
but technically I am still level 1 and do not get the message to
start the quest. The game wiki states that Dawnstar NPC's can
mention the quest to the player and initiate the quest, but
after talking to all the town NPC's I can find several times this
does not happen.
Is there a Dawnstar NPC who can in initiate the quest for me?

i think some quests will not start unil you reach a certain level. did you get the museum pamphlet off the courier to go to dawnstar?

You have to be at least Level 20 in order to start that quest and you don't need the courier's letter to start that quest. Once you hit level 20 you can head to Dawnstar and when you get close enough to the house the quest will start.

The level requirement is level 20 so I won't be getting a courier message.
The game wiki I read states that there is another way to start the quest but
I don't know if that's true or not.