Text: John R. Thompson, “[Review of The Works of the Late Edgar Allan Poe],” Southern Literary Messenger (Richmond, VA), vol. 16, no. 2, February 1850, p. 128

[page 128, column 1, continued:]

THE WORKS OF THE LATE EDGAR ALLAN POE: with Notices of his Lite and Genius. By N. P. Willis, J. R. Lowell, and R. W. Griswold. In two volumes. New York : J. S. Redfield, Clinton Hall, 1850.

We have been sadly disappointed in the labours of the [column 2:] literary triumvirate who undertook the publication of these volumes. The promised biography from the pen of Mr. James Russell Lowell turns out to be nothing more than a short notice published in Graham's Magazine for February 1845 — a performance full of a silly pedantry and made up of the merest commonplaces of criticism. Mr. Griswold has done literally nothing in the way of biographical contribution, although we suspect that he did all the drudgery of the work, correcting proof-sheets and bringing his really good taste to bear upon the arrangement of the materials. It was with Mr. Griswold purely a labour of charity, and we could wish that he had taken the whole affair into his own hands. Mr. Willis's portion of the “Life” comprises five pages, being an editorial from the Home Journal with a note or two of Poe and the letter of Mr. Griswold in the Tribune, interwoven. We repeat that we are greatly disappointed, but we have the consolation to know that, as Dr. Johnson's ghosts says, “parturient mountains have ere now produced muscipular abortions.” These volumes are handsomely printed and contain all the works of Poe that will live. For sale by J. W. Randolph & Co.