∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
[page 1, column 5, continued:]
PART OF A TALK WITH EDWIN BOOTH.
“Did anybody ever tell you you looked like Edgar A. Poe?” I asked.
“No,” replied Booth, “but the other day in passing up Broadway I was attracted by a portrait in a window which I took for mine, but which was Mr. Poe's. I am a great admirer of him. By the way, do you know that he was a grandson of Benedict Arnold?”
“No.”
“Well, he was, or at least he claimed to be. In a conversation between Poe and Tom Placide, an old actor, Poe asserted that his mother, whose maiden name was Arnold, was the illegitimate daughter of Benedict.”
“But Poe was greatly given to romancing about himself,” I explained.
“But would a man romance in that way about himself?”
“Most men would not, but Mr. Poe would.” — Utica Observer.
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
Notes:
This brief article was widely reprinted, beginning as early as June 27, 1893. A copy of the original issue of the Utica Observer has not been located. Poe was not actually a grandson of Benedict Arnold, but he apparently did make the claim to his fellow students while he was at West Point, perhaps as a personal joke. Thomas Placide (1808-1877) was an actor and theater manager. He committed suicide after years of suffering from oral cancer. His father, Alexander Placide (1750-1812), had been the manager for the acting troupe in which Poe's parents both toured up and down the East coast. There is no clearly documented meeting or communication between Poe and Thomas Placide, although it is certainly possible, especially during Poe's New York years. Placide was active on the stage in New York during the same period, and performed at Niblo's Garden with Anna Cora Mowatt, whom Poe admired and reviewed in his Broadway Journal. Thomas and his brother Henry Placide had previously acted with William E. Burton, for whom Poe worked when in Philadelphia.
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
[S:0 - TSRVA, 1893] - Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore - A Poe Bookshelf - Part of a Talk with Edwin Booth (Anonymous, 1893)