Text: Anonymous, “Edgar A. Poe,” Daily Kennebec Journal (Augusta, ME), vol. VIII, no. 226, September 24, 1877, p. 4, col. 1

[page 4, column 1:]

EDGAR A. POE.

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The severity, in his just published life of Edgar Allan Poe, with which Mr. William F. Gill attacks the veracity of the late R. W. Griswold, Poe's early biographer. has provoked such general animadvertion in literary circles that one may possibly employ it to point a moral to controversal [[controversial]] writers. Upon careful analysis, there is, for instance, no very material disagreement between Griswold and his critics as to the mysterious Providence episode. They concede that Poe was intoxicated on the evening of his visit to Mrs. Whitman, but deny that his behavior was rude or improper. It is not denied, either, that the engagement was broken off in consequence of that mishap. It is denied, by implication at lest [[least]], that Poe expressed an intention of severing the engagement with Mrs. Whitman to a New York lady before setting out for Providence. There is evidence, however, that he disclaimed any personal interest in the projected marriage, in the presence of literary acquintances [[acquaintances]] here, even at the moment of receiving congratulations upon the sudden betterment of his prospects, and that his passionate letters to Mrs. Whitman were either wanting in sincerity, or he was weak enough to pretend an indifference that he did not feel. Again, many of Poe's most reprehensible transactions have never been paraded in print, and information respecting them is in the hands of persons admiring his brilliant intellect too highly to assist in undermining his reputation, even for the sake of justice. What, for example, shall be our opinion of a man who menaces a lady who has been weak enough to write some sentimental letters to him, with a reference of the letters to her husband, unless to a levy of a loan required by his necessities The late Mrs. Ellet, one of the kindest and most considerate of women, always mantained [[maintained]] that Poe neglected his wife sadly during her later years, and that his sentimental liaisons were one cause of her early death. The truth is, there are bowlders of fact still verifiable as to Poe's unprincipled conduct on various occasions that render the vindications of Messrs. Gill, Ingram and Didier subjects for sly laughter in well-informed literary circles. And some day, in a fit of disgust at such punny [[puny]] Boswellism, some clever litterateur will collect and print them, brushing away the theories of these rhapsodizing biographers at if they were cobwebs.