∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
292/18-41} Poe praises this small book of 37 p. out of proportion to its quality for the most obvious of reasons. Sarah Josepha Buell Hale (1788-1879), author and editor, was a formidable power in the realm of opulent annuals and ladies' magazines, especially when she became Godey's literary coworker. Of her 36 published volumes and smaller works, “Mary's Lamb” (1830) is chiefly remembered. Even in the 12/37 SLM he handled her Traits of American Life with rare delicacy and his letter of 10/30/36 (Letters, 105-106) is a model of tact in answering one of her objections, offering a contribution to her in the future, and suggesting his acquaintance with her son at West Point (see other letters in Ostrom's Index). On 10/26/45 Poe addressed a letter to her, apologizing for not responding to her sending him this volume for rev. and also a poem for the BJ called “The American Pioneer” of 36 lines, printed in the 11/15 issue (2.284). In earlier letters he advised her about minor aspects of her publications, upon her request, as he does in this, about a publisher. Neither in this poem about the “warrior, in panoply arrayed ... ”who “drives Despair before him, while Ruin stalks behind,” nor in “Alice Ray,” do the “pitiable conceits” seem to trouble Poe. Marvelous that after reading her for over a dozen years, he was “prepared for nothing so good.” Yet Poe does manage to find a minor merit in the rhyme scheme, without commenting on the cliche-ridden rhymes employed.
294/11-33} This, the first vol. in the new “Foreign Library” series, has ix-xv + 254 p. while the second vol., about to be issued, q.v. on p. 303 (b), has x + 256. The advertisement, that Poe mentions in para. 2, printed on BJ 2.266, includes the Walpole quotation also on the title page that ends Poe's first para. Poe supplements this “scant” rev. with a long one quoted from the Evening Post in the 11/15 BJ (see 310 below). Poe's [page 223:] ideas are taken from the Preface to vol. 1, which speaks of his unstable character, but not of his “madness” (see the Enc. Brit., 1940 cd., 5.99, for the “splendidly gifted and barbarically untameable” genius of 1500-71).
294/34-54} The notice of the masterpiece (1827; rev. ed. 1842) of Manzoni (1785-1873), universally known and praised, is especially significant as being Poe's sole ref. to a work that may have influenced “Masque of the Red Death” through its graphic plague scenes. The long rev. included by Harrison (8.12-19) is not by Poe but by Beverly Tucker. In para. 1 Poe seems to object to the didactic aim of Manzoni in this historical novel — to advocate resignation to the apparent evils of life and reliance on sincerely held religion. The last para. on the use of English (or “American” as Poe humorously termed it) is often controverted by Poe himself with his “niaiseries” and “bizarreries” and “lorgnon” and “fierté” (295/13) et al.
294/55-66 + 295/1-8} Anne McVicar Grant (1755-1838), of Scotland, lived as a girl near Albany, where her father, a British captain, was stationed. This record of her early life, published anonymously in 1808, was popular; Poe reviewed a reprint in the 6/36 SLM (H 9.70-71). Grant Thorburn (1773-1863), writer of the Preface, was a migrant from Scotland who became a successful merchant and author in New York.
295/9-23} This is the fifth of the “Medici Series of Italian Prose,” being advanced by the translator C. Charles Edwards, q.v. in 205 (a) nn., (and my Index) and by the publisher Paine and Burgess (see advertisement on 2.280). Poe's previous refs. to Vittorio Alfieri (1749-1803), the outstanding romantic poet and tragedian of Tuscany, are purely peripheral (H 8.138, 9.204). Passion and boldness are poor points of comparison with Cellini. Lester acknowledges that he has merely “edited” an anonymous translation of the Memoirs pub. in 2 vols. (London, 1810). Poe's cliche terms — “vivid” and “intensely interesting” — seem to reflect a most rapid skimming.
295/24-33} This vol., of 7-9 + 13-311 p., is a collection of short stories by “Christopher North” whom Poe detested (q.v. under John Wilson, in the Index).
295/34-41} The text is preceded by prefatory material of 36 p. Poe's ready acceptance of the evils of tobacco assumes more rationality than America has since demonstrated concerning the [page 224:] addiction. Poe's smoking habits have not been thoroughly investigated or depicted; the reminiscences of Gabriel Harrison, then a tobacconist, are revealing (see Hervey Allen, Israfel, 1934 ed. 499-501).
295/57-61} Poe did not return to this textbook, by Marcius Wilson (1813-1905).
296/9-15} Wm. Gilmore Simms had been in New York during October, as Poe certainly knew. The first article (pp. 24954) is about the danger of cannon accidents and how to avoid them; the second concerns the Partisan leader of South Carolina, Francis Marion, who greatly hampered the Tories and the British troops (265-76). Poe was now “courting” Thomas Holley Chivers, Georgian planter, whose book he had favorably reviewed (187-89 [facsimile text]), perhaps because he had hopes for financial support which Chivers often pledged but never paid. Certainly this “Elegy” is more rational and composed than Chivers' usual extravanganzas. Each of its eight quatrains starts with “Thou art gone to the grave!” — an initial repetend, pleasing to the author of “The Raven” and also of “The Conqueror Worm” (cf. Chivers' stanza 4: “Yes, the earth-worms are creeping / Where beauty since laid on thy cold breast her head!”). In the 12/6 BJ (2,338) Poe would print Chivers' sonnet to E. B. Barrett to whom Poe had dedicated his recently published Raven and Other Poems.
296/16-23} The engravings in Graham's are of “Leonora” by Sir Thomas Lawrence, Bodmer's “Indians Hunting the Bison” and Hinshelwood's drawing, from T. Addison Richards, of “Medical College of Georgia” — variety enough. Poe's contribution is “The System ... ”, Chivers' is “The Cottage Girl” (p. 226). Poe adroitly demolishes the merit of Longfellow's didactic poem with his phrase “rhetorically considered.”
296/24-29} Darley had painted the “Indian Captive” (engraved by Cushman) and J. Burnet painted a second plate, of “The Dancing Dolls.” Poe's contribution was the rev. of Mathews' “Big Abel ... ”(218-19), q.v. in 257 nn.
296/30-35} This is John Gadsby Chapman (1808-89), prominent Virginian and New York painter, who had illustrated Poe's “The Elk” (for his relations with Poe and refs. in the BJ, see Pollin, SAR 1983, 245-73, especially ad finem). The other plate is called “The Black Mask.” The proposals for improvements had been included in the October issue at the end: [page 225:] “Looking Ahead.”
296/36-47} T. Doney's plate, “Moses Commanding the Water Out of the Rock,” is extremely dark; the other is “The White Mouse” by T. Kelley. The “strong list” includes two alleged rivals for Poe's favorable attention: “Lady Jane — a song” by Frances S. Osgood (196) and “The Maiden's Leap,” Elizabeth Fries Lummis Ellet's fiction (205-208). For the tangled affair, climaxing in 1846, see S. Morse PLB, 208-220, 240-43, who notes Poe's printing, in the 12/13 BJ, veiled Della-Cruscan-style tributes to himself from both the ladies: “Coquette's Song” (Ellet's on 2.349) and Osgood's “A Shipwreck” (352).
296/51-58} This small item seems to augur drama criticism from Poe for the duration of the journal, but the internal evidence of style and content argues against the realization. A few commentators have toyed with ascribing a column or two to Poe, according to his pledge in the last sentence. It is worth a small space to explain my omissions from the canon of this material, save for that on 354 [facsimile text]. In the 11/8 BJ on 2.276-77 is a rev. of Murdoch's performances not at all in Poe's style. It concludes with a curtain call speech that he gave on a benefit night, introduced by two sentences which may have been inserted by Poe as editor: “At the end of the performances he was summoned before the curtain and delivered the following speech, which was rapturously welcomed, and which we place on record for future reference. We have many reflections springing from this success of Mr. Murdoch's, and the new light it casts upon our present Drama, to lay before our readers hereafter.” Even for these sentences the phrasing is too awkward to lay them at Poe's door. On 11/15 the BJ published another accolade to Murdoch, including long notices from two Philadelphia journals. Neither the style nor the blandness of the refs. to such persons as Epes Sargent and Wm. Burton, his former proprietor and co-editor of the Gentleman's Magazine, seems of Poe origin, although Hull thinks that “one sentence points to Poe” — concerning Mowatt's Fashion, whereas it leads to the opposite view, in my opinion. TOM, in some private notes on the text, also ascribed it, probably on the grounds of the unfulfilled pledge of the first article (on 296). The 11/22 BJ (2.208-209) has a rev. of music and dramatic events, largely devoting its space to another benefit curtain call speech by Murdoch, but the style is not that of Poe. The 11/29 BJ (325) has a brief survey of events in various American cities and in London. On 12/13 a column of drama news was probably written by Poe (p,. 356), with one [page 226:] mention of Murdoch. Likewise, the 12/27 issue (354 [facsimile text]) savors of Poe, but the last col. on “The Drama” in the 1/3 BJ is a mere listing of events which Poe could obviously not then have witnessed, in a cliche-ridden style, probably that of Murdoch himself (2.406).
297/1-40} Poe initialed this article in the Whitman copy, enabling Harrison to list it on H 16.375, but it was not reprinted by Harrison or any other editor of Poe. Poe had twice preannounced his critique of this sculpture: on 9/13 (p. 247 [facsimile text]) when he mentioned its unsurpassable qualities and purchase by an American visitor to Belgium; and on 10/11 (p. 282) when he mentioned “those who decry it” — obviously for its nudity, mentioned again at the start of this article.
The circumstances of its showing do not yield to investigation, thanks to the poor indexing of art events at that time. Jean-Baptiste de Cuyper (1807-52), member of a family of artists, was a pupil of Ivan der Neer and Matthew van Bree of Antwerp. His most famous work is a marble statue of King Leopold I at Antwerp. There is little information available on the “Bathing Girl” which seems to have disappeared. An article in the Bijdragen tot de Gesehiedenis (Contributions to History) of Antwerp, 10/15/1924, 16.307-24, on him, says that he showed in New York “a Venus at the water's edge.” This seems to refer to a marble composition that he spoke of in two letters of 7 and 8/1843, which he describes as “a young girl seated at the edge of the water and amusing herself with a tortoise” (p. 317). Clearly, the beauty of the figure derives from that of Venus herself, although the “girlish innocence” that Poe insists on noting is a new interpretation of the goddess. It is interesting that on 247 Poe mentioned attributes of the figure omitted from this article: “intellectuality, gentleness, and modesty” not to be “excelled” and these correspond to adjectives that he applied to “The Ivory Christ” (p, 282): “dignified, meek, ... eminently intellectual.” Understandably the last is dropped from the detailed description of the “Venus.” The idea of “truth” occurs in both: for the Christ, “the absolute truth of the entire design” and for this, that of “the attitude.” For both, Poe tries to analyze the anatomical fidelity of the representation. Amusingly, Poe objects to the discordance of the “girl's” tempting a vegetarian reptile with live bait. One suspects that Poe was much more apt and certainly knowing in commenting on the graphic, two-dimensional arts than the field of sculpture.
297/41-59} This begins Poe's public accounts of the [page 227:] unfortunate “hoax” that he played on the literary and journalistic “establishment” of Boston, initially cordial and financially supportive despite the “Longfellow War” that he had foolishly waged early in 1845. The best account of this “reading” of a so-called “original” poem (in reality, “Al Aaraaf” renamed the Messenger Star” of Tycho Brahe,” but 298/66n) is given by TOM (Poems, 559) and Sidney Moss in PLB, 190-207, including choice excerpts from the press of Boston and the rest of the nation, proving the notoriety and discredit that it was bringing to Poe just when he took over control of his magazine (see also Quinn, Poe, 485-89, treating Poe's unwise savagery and levity too mildly). Briefly, Lowell, early in 1844, offered to arrange for Poe's appearance before the prestigious Boston Lyceum for a reading of poetry, necessarily original. The stipend (probably $50, q.v., in TOM, Poems, 559) and the distinction of opening the series (together with Cushing) were enough to cause Poe to accept (for 10/16/45) but he had no new, long poem and no time, as a busy editor, to write one. After the long speech of the statesman Caleb Cushing, recently returned from a commission to China, Poe read his obscure early poem and concluded with “The Raven.” Later in the evening, Poe privately confessed his “hoax” to four men, including the Shakespeare critic and lecturer Henry Norman Hudson who had been treated rather off-handedly in the BJ (by Briggs) after his New York lecture. The editor of the Boston Transcript, Cornelia Wells Walter, friend of Longfellow and Hudson, first published a blunt statement about Poe's failure in the lecture (10/17) and then about the hoax (10/18). Soon the publication of Poe's poems in ROP would emblazon the deception about “Al Aaraaf” as an unpublished juvenile poem everywhere in the nation. The subsequent charges and countercharges by Poe, Cornelia Walter, Hudson, and others can be followed, in part, through Poe's BJ columns below (and in Moss's fine survey).
For Poe's friendly relations with Mordecai Noah, see 151/111 n.
298/6} A friend and admirer of Longfellow, Cornelia Walter was so termed by Poe at the end of the 4th “episode” of the Longfellow War (66/37 [facsimile text]), where Poe assumes that Longfellow had advised her “to pierce me to death with the needles of innumerable epigrams.”
298/8} The expression “stand and deliver” was then the standard imperative of a footpad, meaning “Halt and hand over your valuables.” Below (1.28) Poe puns on its meaning “to turn over goods as ordered, at the door.” [page 228:]
298/13} Caleb Cushing's speech lasted 2 1/2 hours, and Poe's 15 minutes, as he says. The former is often described as 3 hours. In any event, Poe could scarcely expect an eager and receptive audience, but he is gracious in this part of his account.
298/15-16} Poe was distinctive, even unique at that time, in decrying moralistic poetry. His reasoned antipathy is stated in the 4/42 rev. of Longfellow's Ballads (H 11.58-85); for his stand see Robert Jacobs, Poe: Journalist and Critic (1969), 298-301. S. Moss (196) quotes the full Boston Daily Courier 10/18 editorial on the Lyceum talk as an exception to the “baiting” of the rest of the press: The prefatory “prose, showing that there existed no such thing as didactic poetry ... The poem containing the essence of trite poetry ... (with) a graceful delivery.”
298/17} The word “indefinitiveness” was coined by Poe for its special use in his esthetic, especially for poetry and music. See the ten instances in PCW, 29, 90.
298/61} The 1845 version of “Al Aaraaf” consists of Part I, 155 lines, and Part II, 264, or a total of 419. Poe is probably correct that “Miss Walter” invented the title (but it must have been after his oral hints). Her editorial states: “We believe ... it was a prose introductory to a poem on the ‘Star discovered by Tycho Brahe,’ considered figuratively as the ‘Messenger of the Deity,’ out of which idea ... Poe had constructed a sentimental and imaginative poem.” Soon the other papers must have been terming it “The Messenger Star,” as did “Miss Walter” herself.
299/1-8} According with this “confession” by Poe is a curious bibliographical fact presented by TOM in the preface to the Facsimile Text Society ed. of Al Aaraaf (Columbia UP, 1933), TOM ed., with no allusion to the BJ passage. The edition bore the date 1829 (making Poe 20 at the time), but one copy, included in the 1924 sale of the “Wakeman Collection,” had “on the title page the date 1820, usually described as a misprint. But that copy belonged to Elizabeth Herring, a cousin of Poe's, and was used by Poe in preparing copy for his 1845 volume The Raven and Other Poems. ... The suggestion that the date may have been altered, either idly or hoaxingly, by the poet himself, seems to me quite credible” [3-4]. The altered date falls within Poe's tenth year, as stated here.
299/10-14} In addition to Moss's transcription of the [page 229:] Transcript and Courier reviews, see the Poe Log for the Traveller and TOM (Poems, 559 n 12) for the much later reminiscence (perhaps by T. W. Higginson in the Boston Museum).
299/19-22} Poe's loquacity, due probably to the wine, gave Miss Walter's friend Hudson (see 211/52 n) the information that he anonymously put to use in the 10/18 Transcript's subsidiary column of abuse of Poe. His avowal of this in a letter to Duyckinck of 11/24 was soon conveyed to Poe, motivating his shift in feelings and his scurrilous BJ article of 12/13 (see p. 339 [facsimile text]; see Moss, 195-96, n. 8).
299/23-24} “The soft impeachment” is from Sheridan's The Rivals, 5.3. The Latin is from Vergil's Aeneid, 1.11, and also from Terence, Andria, 1.1.99, quoted by Horace, Epistolae, 1.19.41: “And hence this anger?” (used also in “Marie Rogêt,” TOM 767).
299/25-35} There seems little doubt that the editor had seen the “Outis” letter and the replies, which included a pun on “Poe, the Poet” (see 60/1-2 above). No trace of this paper is given in W. Gregory's American Newspapers.
The word “lick” has many colloquial meanings, several of which are here possible, such as “a spring” (ironically referring to the great falls) or as “a slap or a quick stroke”; or “a burst of speed.” Similarly, the word “fits” means not only “violent attacks” or “moods” or “spells or periods” but also “adjustments.” Poe puns on two meanings of “fits” in Br., M 160. Here he also puns on the temperance “resolution” advocated for his drinking problem, which he “took” in 1849 from the Richmond Sons of Temperance.
299/36-44} By 1844 Poe had become disillusioned in his hopes that Dickens would help him to have his work published in London; he assumed to be Dickens' the allusion to Poe as an imitator of Tennyson, in a rev. of Griswold's Poetry and Poets of America in the Foreign Quarterly Review. He first affirmed this in letters of 3/30/44 and 5/8/44 addressed to Lowell, who correctly ascribed it to John Forster (see Lowell's letter of 6/27/44 in H 17.180-82). This article shows Poe's persistence in error, especially since Sir John Bell was a military and diplomatic-corps person, without literary or journalistic tendencies. Poe had previously published a denunciation of this journal's abuse of American authors in his rev. of C. F. Hoffman's Poems in the 12/10/44 Evening Mirror (1/2). [page 230:]
299/45-55} The Travels of Marco Polo greatly amended and enlarged ... by Baldelli Boni, had copious notes by Hugh Murray (N.Y.: Harper and Bros, 1845). The Memoirs of Father Ripa was a recent Wiley and Putnam vol.
299/56-64 & 300/1-5} The Critic of London, 9/6/45, 2.378-379 carried the rev. (5 brief paras.) plus a long excerpt from “Mesmeric Revelation”; in the issue of 9/20, pp. 420-22, it printed a long excerpt from “The Maelström,” to show the “thrilling” description which gives the reader a “frightful and giddy interest.” The Mirror of New York reprinted the first of these (daily: 11/25; weekly: 12/6). Poe is stretching several points in his “sufficiently complimentary,” for the rev. speaks of the disappointment in finding the “poet of considerable power” issuing tales so strange, so merely ingenious (especially to the police), so replete with horrors and cruelties, so passé. “Mesmeric Revelation” is cited as of “masterly treatment.” It is curious that the Critic writer has sniffed out the trail of Zadig by Voltaire as one of the general sources for Poe's use of circumstantial clues in his detective fiction (see TOM, Tales, 521-22).
300/6-19} It may be suspected that the motto of the anonymous essay (2.241-43, by “Schrev.” — Schrevelius?) consisting of three Greek words might have been “jumbled up” through Poe's poor Greek, not his “hurry.”
The “exquisite poem” with the incorrectly spelled title here but not on 2.240 where it is printed out reads as follows (lines 14): “Not of earth's common mould was she, / On whose young soul Futurity — / The veil from those dark features raises — / With sad and solemn aspect gazed!” Poe favored Gibson, printing “Stanzas” (p. 206, 10/11), “The Unattainable” (p. 223, 10/18), and “To Helen” (pp. 258-59, 11/1).
Despite the correction of this oversight (on p. 243) John H. Ingram preferred to consider “Ide” a pseudonym for Poe (see TOM, Poems, 509, items 70-73). Poe scrupulously wrote Ide's name in the Whitman copy (see Index for other Ide entries). There likewise Poe inscribes W. G. Simms next to the “Sonnet” on p. 235, which leads off the number.
300/20-22} Mrs. Hale's N.Y. publisher in the 30s and 40s was Edward Dunigan of 137 Fulton Street and the Harpers (see 73 [facsimile text]).
300/23-28} The Book of Christmas by Thomas Kibble Hervey, contributor to annuals, numbered ii + 220 p. Frederick de la [page 231:] Motte Fouqué's two romances (the second being Aslauga's Knight) came out in December (see the issue of 12/6 for announcement), too late for a rev. prepared for the BJ. Poe's article was used as M 181 in the 12/46 Graham's (q.v. in Br.). The poems of Mrs. Southey are probably Solitary Hours (159 p.) together with The Birthday and Other Poems (179 p.), which bears the proleptic date of 1846.
300/29-32} Robert Hasell Newell (1778-1852) wished to correct the errors in zoology made by English poets (London: Longmans, 1845). We note Poe's insistence upon putting the dieresis over the first of the two syllables rather than the second — the common custom (cf. Br., xxxviii-xi).
300/33-41} Poe was conciliating Wm. Gilmore Simms (180670) in every way possible, knowing his ready pen and wide influence in the South.
300/45-47} This “romance” of Edward Maturin (1812-81) came out in two vols.: ii + 270 and 287 p. (N.Y.: Paine and Burgess, 1845).
300/48-51} For the rev. of her Western Clearings see 316-17.
300/61 [[60]]} “The Autumnal Leaf” by G.H. Mildeberger appeared in the 11/15 BJ on 2.285-86.
301/1-22} The vol. has viii + 237p., devoted largely to Hiram Powers (1805-73), America's first internationally celebrated sculptor (see 308-309 [facsimile text]). The sections are respectively pp. 1-18, 19-24, 25-147, 148-153, 155-237. Campbell (1806-81) was a jurist, historian and congressman. Note Poe's use of the “fine portrait” on 308 [facsimile text].
301/24-40} The vol. had viii + 143 p. No copy of this book has been available to me to verify the error mentioned at the end. Presumably Casserly's Chrestomathic Institutions (one of several?) taught foreign tongues through a selection of passages with notes — a kind of reader.
301/41-50} This vol., of 222 p., from the third London ed., was titled Lectures on the English Comic Writers. The pagination is this: 2-13, 32-54, 55-79, 80-105, “On the Periodical Essayists,” 106-123, 124-156, 157-177, 178-222. [page 232:]
301/51-57} This vol., of vii-xvi + 175 p., has numerous footnotes and a section at the start of “Criticisms” consisting of comments on the book by Scott, Irving, Goethe, and Mrs. Barbauld.
301/58-64} This vol., of 288 p., was published in 1826 as Sabbath recreations.
302/7-17} This vol. of 235 p. is one of numerous texts reshaped by Wm. Ruschenberger (1807-95) once pervading the schools of America and now almost nonexistent; one copy in “Rare Books” at Harvard was unavailable for examination. See 73 (a) for another title.
302/18-22} Mrs. Thomas C. Hofland (Barbara Wreaks Hoole) (1770-1844) has 62 titles in the British Museum Catalogue. Poe was correct about reprints: 1809, 1814, 1830, 1834, 1839. Her Young Crusoe may have influenced Pym (see Imaginary Voyages, p. 6).
302/23-30} Mary Botham Howitt (1799-1888) (who often collaborated with William, q.v.) wrote children's books and did translations, of great popularity. This has 71 double-column pages, the first sentence being used almost verbatim for this notice.
302/31-35} For the English humorist see 245/17.
302/36-47} See 92, 150, 191 for earlier comments. Poe's desire to see reading more widespread transcended his love of fine editions, as here.
302/48-57} Adolphe Thiers (1797-1877) was a noteworthy figure in historical writing, whose books would induce this kind of “fresh off the boat” piracy. For the interesting sportsman, son of the literary dean of Manchester and well known as “Frank Forester,” see 102 [facsimile text].
303/3-9} Robert A. West was well known to Poe for his being coeditor, with John Inman, of the Columbian Lady's Magazine from 1845 to 1848, while it published works of Poe. See 105/19-22 for his own poem and song reviewed by Poe.
303/10-14} This numbers x + 256 p. See 294 (a) for the notice of No. 1 and 310 for a further token of Poe's respect. [page 233:]
303/15-68} For Poe's admiration of Freeman Hunt and his magazine see 207/52-62 and other items in the Index as well as Texas Studies in Literature and Language, 1974, 16.305-13. The articles seriatim are on pp. 403-412, 412-417, 417-426, 426-434, 434-449, 450-459, and 459-468. The article by Willis appeared in the Evening Mirror of 11/13/44 while Poe worked there.
304/1-22} Unquestionably Poe speaks of Hunt, the successful and sole proprietor of the magazine, in terms wishfully parallel to himself on the BJ, far from the goal of success of course.
304/23-30} The articles in this issue of the Aristidean of Thomas Dunn English are as follows, seriatim: 254-59; 260-66; “Petrus” — 267-72; “The Cobbler” — 273-76; 296-303; 304-14; and 287 92. This time Poe's promise of further comments was fulfilled in the 11/29 issue, 322/23.
304/31-44} The articles are paginated thus: 437-51, 498-503, “Adventures ... ”by Charles Winterfield — 504-18, 532-36. The 9stanza poem “Elfland” is on 457-58 and the 20 stanzas of “True Death” on 494-97. Poe was most partial to Wallace's banal poems, q.v. in the items of the Index, and see 307-49, which discussed the poem “True Death” defensively. The “Critical Notices” are on 543-46.
304/45-52} The chief conductor was Lewis Gaylord Clark, relentlessly hostile to Poe since the SLM attacks on Theodore Fay. See 307A.
304/53-63} Poe had reviewed this at length on 116 (a), but enthusiastically and without this reservation. It is impossible to discover from the scant art records of the day which exhibition is here intended.
For Lester on Powers, see 287, 301, 308-309.
305/22-52} For the popular, highly overrated poet and moral philosopher Tupper, see 214-15 n. His Proverbial Philosophy, “truisms” in “rhythmical language,” first came out in 1838, the novel in 1844. Poe's rev. above is favorable. Herman Hooker's ed. of the Philosophy (1843) is from the 5th London ed. with a 3rd American ed. following in 1846, all proof of the value of the rights. For Poe's very definite views on the issue of international copyright see Index under “copyright”; also, Br., M 139C. For Willis' misconception see 214 n. above. [page 234:]
The quotation from Poe's favorite, Essay on Criticism is slightly inaccurate (Part 2, 11.220-221): “But let a lord” and “How the wit brightens! How the style refines!”
306/1-40} The Oxford man was George Smith Green, a watchmaker of the town, who published a “paraphrased Paradise Lost” (1756), a curiosity recorded by Poe in the Br., SP 20. This is proof enough of Poe's authorship of the whole, apart from the main theme, his previous rev. of Tupper's work, and the lively style. Only his mildness concerning the generally objurgated Carlyle (line 35) is uncharacteristic.
307/1-49} For Wallace, see 168-69 (f) above and M 290. For a link of Dow, Wallace and Poe see Letters, 8/27/42. See also the Poe Log of 1/29/45, for an amusing anecdote anent “The Raven.” See 251 [facsimile text] for a long excerpt from “The Statuary” (1.34). Concerning the word “Tennysonism,” see Poe's coinage of the term in the 8/1843 rev. of Channing's Poems (H 11.181), according to OED. Poe himself had been so accused, and significant is his own footnote to the Preface to the section, “Poems Written in Youth,” in the ROP just now being issued; it has a sly ref. to plagiarism and Tennyson (see Quinn, Poe, 482).
307/55} Poe here misspells the name of Richard Monckton Milnes, friend at Cambridge of Tennyson, promoter of the Copyright Act, and active in various reform movements.
307/62} Like the BJ, Simms' Southern and Western Monthly Magazine and Review of Charleston, having become a one man affair, had grown “irksome, and ... compensative neither in money or other reward” (11/45, 2.344). Hence it was to be merged with the SLM in 1846, under the title The Southern and Western Literary Messenger and Review, Benjamin Blake Minor, editor.
307/63-70} This is a mere puff for the one-para. advertisement by H. Johnson on p. 280, col. 1, of the BJ, but apparently written by Poe. In one of his tales he uses “recherche” with this meaning of “sought after” (TOM 175/3, 180/26).
307A/1} This article has obviously caused some uncertainty in the sifting processes anterior to the layout of the pages of vol. 1 and the final preparation of the notes of vol. 2. It was first included for its internal evidence: adverse criticism of the [page 235:] Knickerbocker and its chief editor, general respect for Coleridge, John Neal, and Simms, the stenographic style as used in certain tales, the personal ref. to lecturing soon after the Lyceum affair, a generally clever development, et al. (see below). On the other hand, some things were uncharacteristic, particularly the flattery of Hudson, so very different from Poe's abusive comments on 339 [facsimile text], 12/13. But Poe's great shift in attitude there was explained later by a letter of 11/23 from Hudson to Duyckinck (see 339 n), This removed my last reason for doubting this article, which had to be inserted on two pages labeled 307A and 307B, to preserve the folio odd-even pagination. This required subjecting the readers to a worse than Knickerbocker tininess of print, for which my apologies are here due. Poe shows adroitness in using long quotations from a book that must have caused him some distress, despite his loyalty to Mathews and especially to his friend Duyckinck as well as the Young America movement.
In the 11/8 BJ (304 [facsimile text]) Poe had curtly referred to the November Knickerbocker attack on Mathews' book as “beneath notice and beneath contempt.” Duyckinck had dispersed his support of Mathews and denunciation of L. G. Clark (under the pseudonym of “S.T.” — Samuel Taylor [Coleridge]?) to “the city press” which promptly published it. The 12/45 Knickerbocker response of Clark was likewise sent to the press, for publication (see the Weekly Mirror of 12/13, pp. 148-49), the entire sequence being given by Sidney Moss in the American Book Collector, 1967, 18.8-18, specifically, 10).
307A/2-11} On 169/21-24 Poe had censured the abominably small type of the Knickerbocker Magazine's “Editor's Table.” Usually he reprobated the journal for Clark's comments or orientation (see 304), but sometimes seemed to be making conciliatory remarks, as did Clark in the 10/45, 26.378, when agreeing with Poe's scorn for Wm. Jones on “humor in America.” Likewise, Poe had liked an article “Who are our National Poets?” (q.v., p. 281 [facsimile text]).
307A/11-13} Poe's pun on “table” involves a once common expression involving the tomb of Sir John Beauchamp (d. 1358) in Old St. Paul's, known erroneously as that of Duke Humphrey of Gloucester. “To dine with Duke Humphrey” was to starve among the debtors and beggars frequenting his “Walk” in the Cathedral (En. Brit., 12.848, n. 1).
307A/19} More than once Poe advanced his narrative [page 236:] through the semi-dramatic device of a “Memorandum” (or “Mem”) read aloud to the reader, as in “Blackwood Article” (Tales, 337/1, 2), “Business Man” (487/6 and 13) and “Balloon Hoax” (1080/10). Equally important is the stenographic, inner-speech-revealed method throughout the para., as in the “Day-Book” section of “The Business Man” (p. 487), which is the tale with one of the “Mems.”
307A/29-34} For Poe's long, tangled “relationship” with Coleridge, still the best treatment is in Floyd Stovall's Edgar Poe (1969), pp. 126-74. See also the Br. items, MM 109 (on Coleridge as a boring preacher or talker), 133, 213, SM 19, and Poe's coinage of “sermonoid” (see PCW).
307A/35-41} For Poe's cordial relations with John Neal, who always defended him, even after his death, see the Index entries, MM 197, 216, and Benjamin Lease on the two authors in PS, 7.38 41. The 2-vol. Revolutionary romance Seventy-Six (1823) is often considered his best work.
307A/41-51} There is no need to underscore the growing closeness of Poe and Wm. Gilmore Simms in their present views and support of each other (see Index items). There is an implied intimacy here that might easily follow a personal meeting of the two the preceding month in New York. A brief but nasty remark against Simms is in the 10/45 Knickerbocker, 26.378.
307A/51-62} Certainly Poe should have been “tired ... with lectures of all sorts” after his own in Boston of 10/16. It was there that he had drunk with Hudson and admitted the hoax. Poe publicly confessed to never having heard Hudson before, q.v. in 339 (b). Poe's angel ref. is to John 5:4 — “For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever the first ... stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had.”
307A/70-93} These two excerpts are taken from Big Abel, pp. 53, 64-65.
307B/37} This excerpt comes from Big Abel, pp. 40-41.
307B/72} It may have significance that above and here, the reader of all the objectionable material and the examples as well is “John,” while in “X-ing a Paragrab” it is John Smith, the aggrieved victim of Mr. Bullet-head, who insulted him and [page 237:] deformed the text read aloud (Tales, 1368-1375).
307B/73-81} This para. is a composite of passages from two pages of the Knickerbocker of 11/45 (the top of 452 and also of 453). The “thimble” ref., quoted from Clark's text, was cleverly used by Poe in 307A/35 for a contrast of Clark and Coleridge.
301B/82-83} Poe refers here to Dogberry's foolish wish: “O that he were here to write me down an ass!” (Much Ado, 4.2.80). The omitted word is one of Poe's favorite terms of disdain.
308/1-13} For data on contents see 301 (a), and 333 (a) for vol. 2. Poe is here giving a phrenological description of Powers, whose “fine portrait” embellishes the vol. (304/21). The great success of the Greek slave (a woman) was owed, in large part, to the popularity of the cause of the Greeks versus their Turkish rulers. It is instructive to compare Poe's remarks here and elsewhere on “La Sortie du Bain” (q.v. in the Index) with the review in the London Athenaeum, reprinted by Briggs in “British Criticisms on American Art” in the 6/28 BJ, 1.403, which lauds Hiram Powers whose “genius [in Florence] fed on the Greek inspiration, and outlived ... the chastening apprehension of the prudes at home.”
308/28-38} For more details tied to Robert Kerr's monument-proposal see M 15 c and the 2/8 BJ, 1.92-93 (an article by Briggs). See also Poe's “Mellonta Tauta” (TOM 1303-04 and “Mummy” (Tales 1200 n 34) for Poe's objection to the Washington Monument and the enormous, tasteless Bowling Green Fountain (see also my study in Studies in Short Fiction, 1971, 8.627-31).
309/18} Poe's view of Jackson, whose policies were unfortunate in 1837-38 for his journalistic hopes in New York, can be traced through the Index entries in TOM, Tales, and H. Allen's Israfel.
309/40} Thomas Crawford (1813-57), having studied in Rome, won fame with his “Orpheus” (in the Boston Athenaeum). He imitated classical forms, presumably a basis for Poe's remark.
310/10-47} This is presumably Poe's although the evidence is not direct. George Barrell Cheever (1807-90) was a Congregational clergyman and reformer, whose book was announced on 282; another of his is to be reviewed on 359. Reasons for assigning it to Poe follow: Poe would justifiably be [page 238:] indignant at the crudity of the humor described, especially with reference to books — that deserve serious treatment — and the term “Penny-a-liners” is not uncommon in Poe's work. The long string of Church worthies' names is typical of Poe — overshooting the mark to display his knowledge. Richard Corbet was mentioned by him as a poet (H 9.91, 98-100, BJ 114, as well as Bishop of Oxford and Norwich here — a not very likely choice for this instance. Finally Poe often cites the white Parian marble statue, mentioned by Lucian (see FS 21, “Man of the Crown,” TOM 510 at n 7, et al. loci). The dramatic form of the imaginary episode of the “dirty fellow” is also in Poe's style.
311/1-20} This para. is obviously editorial and explains a new policy for cheaply and entertainingly filling up space. The kind of lurid “news” items mentioned were common in the press and, perused by Poe, to judge from the thematic motive of “Berenice” (TOM 207) and the start of “Angel of the Odd” (1101). An almost full page devoted to four of these “Items” — clearly copied verbatim — gave his readers “a new work by Ariosto,” “News of Tycho Brahe,” a fabulous gold and diamond “strike” in Brazil, and two anecdotes about books. The brief continuing life of the BJ enabled Poe to insert only two more sets of this sort: the issues of 11/29 (326) and of 12/6 (341).
311/22} This item at the very end of the 11/15 number is preceded by a box which reads as follows: To the Public. — Edgar A. Poe, Esq. having purchased my interest in “The Broadway Journal,” is now sole proprietor of the same. All persons indebted to the paper will please make settlement with him.
John Bisco.
New York, October 24, 1845.
For the general significance, please see my Intro.
311/39-53} Poe modestly omits mentioning that The Missionary Manual includes his poem “The Lake” on pp. 324-35, once again reprinted. The “hustle” was occasioned by a move from 135 Nassau Street to 304 Broadway, corner of Duane (at the head of 11/29 issue).
312/1-3} Poe's statement is rather disingenuous since “The Spectacles,” occupying pp. 299-307 of the current issue, had been published first in the Dollar Newspaper of 3/27/44. He had then copied over the entire tale to be sent to Elizabeth Barrett's friend, Richard Hengist Horne, author of Orion which Poe had [page 239:] reviewed (see letter of 3/15/44 to Cornelius Mathews and Ostrom's note; also, my study of “The Spectacles” in American Literature, 1965, 37.185-190. More recently, in SAR 1977 J. J. Moldenhauer has supplied details; see TOM 883-86). Almost the whole issue, then, was devoted to a tale which TOM and Woodberry thought a “weak piece of humor” and which was derived closely from the plot and ambiance of a tale in the 7/1836 London Belle Assemblée (see my study, given above). Four columns also were spent on the Lyceum affair.
312/11} This long article by Wm. Gilmore Simms appeared in the 11/10/45 issue of the Charleston Southern Patriot (vol. 54, no. 8201, p. 2/2). Obviously it was sent immediately by Simms to Poe personally.
312/53-65} This section was used by Poe himself for his parody of Evangeline, dating probably from 1849, first printed (by TOM) in Poems, 395-95. See also my study of the hexameters in Mi Q, 1984, 37.475-82. TOM correctly points out the dependence upon this passage of Simms' article in key ideas and wording: “Do tell when shall we make common sense men out of the pundits ... who lost in a fog-bank / Strut about all along shore there somewhere close by the Down East / Frog Pond munching of pea nuts and pumkins and buried in big-wigs. ... ” As for Longfellow's “comeliness” — see Poe's clothing metaphors attacking the well-dressed Professor on 38/46-56.
313/15-27} This was from the Boston Courier of 10/18, a sentence from which was quoted in the Sunday Times 10/26 issue that was excerpted by Poe in his 11/1 “Editorial” (see 297, art. b). It is likely that Poe had collected all the critical comments in the press and sent the whole Courier column to Simms for his present write-up — a strong suggestion that he had arranged for this Southern Patriot column. In short, Poe was promoting a nationwide journalistic campaign or “war.”
313/70} Invariably Poe meant the North American Review by this sarcastic colloquial term for New England, which suggests a crude or homespun approach.
314/1-14} Poe apparently had met Joseph M. Field (1810-56), actor, playwright and journalist who edited the St. Louis Reveille (a paper of 1844-1850), for in a very “newsy” letter of 6/15/46, mentioning his warm friendship, Poe speaks of their meeting (Ostrom 318-20). The whole context makes it clear that Field [page 240:] had been solicited for favorable comments on Poe's conduct of the Lyceum affair. Poe later was to insult Thomas Dunn English with the wording “Done Brown.” Curiously, Poe is half punning on the similar sound in “dona ferentes,” completing the Aeneid line (2.49), “I fear the Greeks even when they bear gifts.” The article cited here by Poe is from the 11/9 issue of the Reveille (see Moss, PLB, 202 and the Poe Log).
314/26-31} Poe uses “had” as meaning tricked or hoaxed here. His god “Momus” is in charge of carping criticism or ridicule. The rhyme in “blustered and flustered” is typical of the “comic rhymes” that TOM listed from 24 of his prose passage in Poems, 485-90; from these it is omitted, perhaps because it has a traditional tone.
314/69} It is clever of Poe to give a sales talk here for his new volume ROP, just published on 11/19, but he is not entirely accurate, for this edition is properly the third of “Al Aaraaf,” which first appeared in 1829, next revised in 1831, and now substantially in the text of 1829 again. The Boston paper, The Star, could not have “copied our third edition of the poem” before the new book came out. For the publishing history see TOM, Poems, 97-99, and observe, in the collations, that Poe read “The Messenger star” for “The wandering star” (line 15) according to a special set of manuscript changes. This influenced Miss Walter and other editors in designating the poem read at the Boston Odeon for the Lyceum series.
315/1-44} Numerous commentators have deplored the intemperance, ill-will, and petulance of the whole editorial and, especially, this portion, which reeks of insobriety in the writer. We note the changing and deliberately confused names (the two proper adjectives for “Teetotaler”) as he had done in the first “Autography” for the “Joseph ——— , Miller who elicited the letters (TOM 259-64). Also obvious is Poe's disapproval of bluestockings, especially common among the Transcendentalists of The Dial, the literary circle, and even the newspaper staffs.
315/45} Poe's “thanks to W. W.” are to Walter Whitman for his article “Art-Singing and Heart-Singing,” indicated directly below. This may be Whitman's only BJ contribution, or it may be the second, for in the 5/31/45 BJ (1.347) is a harbor description, “Delightful Sights,” which I have ascribed to him (see WW Review, 1969, 15.180-87), with the approval of the eds. of the supplementary vols. of the critical ed. of his works. This [page 241:] small editorial note and the footnote below represents the only direct tie of the living Poe to Whitman (see the study for the full links).
315/47-53} Whitman's thesis in this six-para. article concerns the songs of Europe, full of art and aristocratic artificiality, by contrast with the wholesome, homespun naturalness of the American folksongs sung by such groups as the Hutchinsons and the Cheneys, who have been touring the country and concertising. Poe's agreement savors of his review of G. P. Morris' National Melodies of America (H 10.41-45), repeated in M 202 (q.v. for the notes).
316/1-36} The book, of viii + 238 p., was by Mrs. Carolina M. Kirkland nee Stansbury (1801-64), actually a Michigan frontier resident 1831-43. She used the pseudonym of “Mrs. Mary Clavers” for A New Home — Who‘ll Follow? or Glimpses of Western Life (1839; 1840). Poe incorporated most of this rev. into the “Literati” sketch of C. M. Kirkland (H 15.84-88). Changes from this text are mainly verbal and positional, but not substantive. It is clear that the depiction of the frontier keenly touched an interest of Poe. See also my Intro. to “Julius Rodman” (Imaginary Voyages, p. 508; also, E. S. Fussell, Frontier, “Poe,” pp. 132-74). The Macbeth tag (1.7.19) occurs also in Poems, 293, and “Imp of Perverse” (TOM, 1223 at n 3).
316/66} Forest Life in two vols. came out in 1842. The pages, given after a rubric are these: “Fever,” 1-14; “Huddle,” 1526; “Changes,” 94-117; “Love,” 35-56; “Bee-Tree,” 66-86; “Ambuscades,” 118-43; “Half-Lengths,” 168-93. Several of these sketches had been published in the Gift of 1842 and Gift of 1844, where Poe had read them. The collection contains fourteen sketches in all.
317/1-41} The sketches cited are “Progress,” 153-67; “Embroidered Fact,” 194-204; and “Bitter Fruits,” 205-38. The OCAL observes that only her first book, A New Home, was humorous, the others being “self-conscious and sentimental.”
317/42-68} This vol., viii + 512 p,, has Prefaces by translator and author, F. von Raumer (1781-1873), q.v. also for 238, 255, and 311 (facsimile text). The letters “G. H.” for the publisher are transposed inaccurately. The passage, from p. 111, is correct save for line 54: “wholesome, and not with.” [page 242:]
318/1-68} Lines 16-39 contain quotations from p. 307, which also praises the copyright of 28 years. The para. with the “Down-East Review” (sic for North American) exudes a bit of the animus displayed in refs. to the Lyceum affair (see 297-99 above). The para. on the lyric and R. W. Griswold is from p. 314, with Poe's italics added. As often, the size, as well as the influence and frequent reprintings and revisions of the anthology, infuriates Poe.
319/1-25} The first ten lines are as contemptuous toward Griswold as any others by Poe; yet Poe still expected support for the needy BJ from Griswold.
The quotation of Paulding's poem is on 319; it was first published in the 8/36 SLM (2.538). Bishop Doane's poem (on p. 316) was “What is that, Mother?” Mr. William Kirkland (1800-46), husband of Caroline (see above) learned French and German through living in Europe. Poe mentions the aid for this translation in the “Literati” sketch (H 15.23). For further praise and data concerning Mrs. Ellet see 296/45-47 n. and the Index. It is to be assumed that when Poe gave the journal to Mrs. Whitman in 1848, with his markings, he “X‘d” this passage in his disaffection with Mrs. Ellet.
319/26-45} Dendy (1794-1871) was a surgeon who published medical and also speculative works such as Zone (1841) and others later. This work, of 7-442 p., has no preface to state its purpose clearly. Poe implies that it is the “useful” rather than the merely “pleasing,” but surely Sir David Brewster's Letters on Natural Magic (1832) combines these two eminently. Brewster's scientific and editorial achievements and contributions can scarcely be listed. Poe owed a debt to this work for much of “Maelzel's Chess-Man” (and for the “sail-illusion” in “MS. in a Bottle,” q.v. in PS, 1982, 15.40); see PD, 13 for 12 passages anent Brewster.
319/46-61} This numbers 291 p. with a one-page publisher's advertisement which furnishes Poe with ideas for the beginning of para. 2. There is no hint of who did the “best” British translation. Does Poe imply in the second sentence that he knows of a Preface in the French ed.? It is not easy to reconcile Poe's last two sentences, especially since Poe had thoroughly studied and absorbed Hugo's major novel (q.v. in Discoveries in Poe, 1-37).
320/5-38} The book has 281 p. “Fanny Forester” (more [page 243:] correctly) was the pseudonym of Emily Chubbuck (1817-54), who married the prominent Baptist missionary-scholar Adoniram Judson in 1846. She was prolific in verse and prose, especially favored for the pages of the Mirror from 1844-46; hence, Poe's ref. to the “kindly” notices of Willis. See the BJ Index for frequent refs. to her pieces. We must note that the “Mrs.” on line 38 is purely honorific at this date. This item is deplorably wanting in any evidence of proof-reading. I have left most (but not all) the typographical errors, being content to list them here: 14: taunt/tint; 19-20: produced plan / delete; 25: boddice / bodice; 28: and / repeated; 31: father / farther; 36: more / upside-down letter.
320/39-43} This vol. of xi-xiv, 15-126 p., bears the half title “Morris's Melodies,” perhaps reminiscent of its popular prototypes, Moore's Irish Melodies and Byron's Hebrew Melodies, similarly printed usually without music. Poe respected immensely the lyrist (and Mirror-editor) George Pope Morris (1802-64), as 79/45-50 and his rev. of an earlier book show (see Br., M 202 nn.). The “songs” (that is the paroles) were both popular and far more lucrative than magazine poetry.
320/44-67} Poe's agitated life now and his heedlessness anent the BJ perhaps are evinced in the errors uncorrected here too (Mouths / Months and Prorpietor / Proprietor). It is difficult to avoid concluding that he needed far less room than this to express his contempt for the “sales pitch” of the publisher. With the disappearance from all libraries of this contemptible work, as Poe presents it, we cannot even verify whose typographical error is that in 321/3; “moughn n't.”
321/6-12} This is an American pirated ed. of Poems in Two Volumes (London, 1842), each vol. having 231 p. The lapse of years, so rare at the time, shows our slow appreciation of the poet who was “the greatest. ... ”In M 44 of 12/1833, Poe expressed the same conviction about Tennyson, and in numerous refs. to the poet (see PD, 90) he never deviated from this adulatory worship, although it could scarcely be considered “heretical” by this time.
321/13-17} For Milnes, Baron Houghton (1809-85), see 307 [facsimile text]. The vol. of 275 p. was dedicated to the Conversazione Society of Cambridge.
321/18-23} For long extracts by Poe from this address on “Young America” and the need for promoting American genius [page 244:] and literature, see 171-73 [facsimile text]; also, 324/41-47. Has Poe forgotten his already printed extracts? The pamphlet consisted of 34 p. plus letters exchanged by the Eucleian Club committee and Mathews.
321/24-37} This narrative by John Charles Fremont (181390) was reprinted from the official version in iii-iv + 186 double column pages. The Preface emphasizes its accuracy and then traces the history of exploration in the West of the USA. Poe's “Julius Rodman” of 1840 shows his intense interest in this field. Poe invariably praises Robinson Crusoe for its verisimilitude (see my full study in Topic: 30, 1976, 30.3-22).
321/38-42} The illustrations, by Chapman, are discussed in 296/30-35 n.
321/43-46} For more on Sargent and this series, see 281/3131 note.
321/54-64} The plates are these: First, drawn by T. Allom, engraved by A. L. Dick; second, painted by Overback, engraved by H. S. Sadd. The separate articles follow: “Remembrance,” p. 241; fiction by F. Forrester, 242-50; essay by Child, 251-53; “Lake Michigan,” 254 (the beginning: “Calmly each crested wave / Sank to its crystal grave / On the blue waters”); fiction by Brougham, 255-59; poetry by Benjamin, 268; essay by Kirkland, 273-79, poetry by C. S., 250.
322/3-63} See this issue as discussed briefly in 322 (a). For Ide's many contributions to the BJ see the Index. This starts with the fourth stanza and comes from pp. 314-15. The italics are added by Poe. “The Hope of the Broken-Hearted” is an 18stanza poem (pp. 292-95) by “Captain” Thomas Mayne Reid (181883), a colorful friend of Poe's in Philadelphia, originally from Ireland, who was novelist, journalist, and adventurer in various fields. He left reminiscences of the Poes, whom he cherished (see the DAB; see H. Allen, Israfel, 354, 391, 452). His poem starts thus: “God of heaven! has she perished? / All on earth I ever cherished — / Can a hope not yet be nourished? / Say not, every hope is fled.” English's poem, on p. 259, “The Parting,” shows his aptness in rhyming which enabled him to shine in humorous verse, as in “The American Poets,” 289-92, and in the many contributions later in the magazine The John Donkey of 1848. The letter and poem, “The Mammoth Squash,” by “Poe” (that is, English) are on p. 290. For the poem see H 7.236. The [page 245:] letter reads as follows: “New York City, Sept. 28th, 1845. My dear Sir: (para.) For old acquaintance sake, I comply with your request; but your attempt will be a failure. Reasoning a priori, I could demonstrate that it cannot succeed. But I will not waste my logic on an obstinate man. Your obedient servant, Edgar A. Poe.”
323/6-42} The Rev. John Pierpont, Unitarian minister of Boston (1785-1866), author of Airs of Palestine (1816, 1840) and other popular works, was highly praised by Poe (see H 15.191 193, 15.239). It is a curious coincidence that Poe wrote a short article on “The Swiss Bell-Ringers,” known as the Campanologians, for the 10/10/44 Mirror (TOM, 1118-1120). They had appeared at the Tabernacle on 10/7 (also the 11th and 16th), so that Poe indirectly or directly, through advice and perhaps direct intervention, may have contributed to this good-natured squib by T. D. English. A significant lead to this conclusion is the strong animus Poe felt against both Wm. W. Lord and Coxe's Saul (see BJ Index), and also his reprinting it here in its entirety. For another sample of English's humorous verse see 271 [facsimile text].
323/43-54} Poe did not quite fulfill his intention about the reviews the next week, for the annuals had to wait until 12/20 (pp. 344-45), but the books, mentioned below, did appear on 12/6, while he contented himself with excerpting from Simms' editorial farewell on p. 326. The “Illustrated” was the New York Illustrated Magazine, lasting from 9/45 to 3/47 and continuing the Rover.
324/1-3} Poe's serenity was temporary, for he soon learned that Miss Walter and her cohorts were not “dried up” — witness her 12/1 editorial on “Al Aaraaf” as it appeared in the ROP, q.v. in 325 (d). Moreover, the organ of the Brook-Farm group, the Harbinger would join the fray on 12/6 with abuse of the book. Poe devoted much space to the attack and his counterattack (see 336-38 [facsimile text]); see Moss, PLB, 204-206, for coverage of this stage of the quarrel).
324/4-55} See 171-73 and 321 (c) for this address by Mathews. The open and declared reprinting of British magazine articles had long been a method for constructing a popular type of journal in America, called museums, repositories, etc. Poe's indignation is entirely warranted. But he too was to become disaffected with Mathews as the spokesman for the broad Young [page 246:] America movement, aiming to promote native genius and letters. The Mirror's animus is not that of Morris and Willis, however, but rather of the rising star (or asterisk), Hiram Fuller, who would show himself to be Poe's implacable enemy in 1846. The “saying” of Dr. Johnson is probably this from Boswell's Life: “I have found you an argument; but I am not obliged to find you an understanding.” This, in turn, is much like that of Goldsmith's dialogue in the Vicar of Wakefield, ch. 7: “You want me to furnish you with argument and intellects too” (both given by Burton Stevenson, p. 98). For Poe's defense of Mathews' manner in Big Abel see 307 A, B.
324/56-62} Here Poe is alluding to a set of mawkish “Lines. To Her Who Can Understand them,” being a setting for the “Air — To Ladies' eyes a round — boy.” This composition by Fitz-Greene Halleck starts: “The song that o‘er me hovered / In summer's hour — in summer's hour / To day with joy has covered / My winter bower — my winter bower.” It creeps its way, through regular repetitions for six stanzas, each of twelve lines, along two columns on p. 319, BJ of 11/29. Poe's printing the tedious trifle, despite artless “refrain,” perhaps springs from Halleck's having lent (i.e., given) him $100 for refinancing the BJ (Quinn, Poe, 491-92).
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Notes:
None.
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[S:0 - BRP4J, 1986] - Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore - Editions - The Collected Writings of Edgar Allan Poe (B. R. Pollin) (November 1845)