∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
POE AND THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA.
When the University of Virginia announced a four days’ celebration of the Centennial of the birth of Edgar A. Poe, I was astonished to see Professor Barrett Wendell, of Harvard University, named as the principal speaker upon the occasion. I expressed my astonishment in the following communication to the Baltimore American:
TO THE EDITOR: It is right, proper, and just that the University of Virginia should celebrate the centennial of the birth of Edgar Allan Poe, her most distinguished alumnus. Few American universities can boast of such a son and in honoring him it does a greater honor to herself. But why this long-delayed recognition of Poe's genius — why wait until
Through many a year his fame has grown.
Like midnight, vast; like sunlight, sweet,
Till now his genius fills a throne
And nations marvel at his feet.
During his life of sorrow, suffering, and song his alma mater said no word of encouragement [page 278:] — it offered him no chair, no reward, no fellowship, when
Unmerciful disaster
Followed fast and followed faster till his songs one burden bore —
Till the dirges of his hope that melancholy burden bore
Of “never — nevermore.”
When the University of Virginia offers her tardy tribute to Poe 100 years after his birth, why does she select a New Englander to be the principal speaker upon the occasion — Prof. Barrett Wendell, of Harvard University? Is the South so destitute of literary men that its leading university could not find a Southern man to honor the memory of its greatest poet?
Astonished as I am that the University of Virginia should select Professor Wendell to do honor to Poe, my wonder grows that he should accept the invitation, in view of his deliberately expressed opinion of the poet in his “Literary History of America,” where he denounces” Poe as “a man, in his life, of doubtful repute,” adding that “his life was ugly, sinful, sordid,” and that “there are a thousand errors in his personal life.” I am not surprised that he should express such an opinion of Poe's life when he displays such ignorance of what he is talking about. Here are a few specimens: “In 1826 he was for a year at the University [page 279:] of Virginia, where his career was brought to an end by a gambling scrape.”
So Professor Wendell accepts, with childish credulity the oft-disproved story of Rufus W. Griswold. Again: “The story goes that he — Poe — was passing through Baltimore either on his way to see his betrothed, or on his way from a visit to her.” Such ignorance is truly refreshing. Here is another: “Some petty politicians . . . picked him up . . . and made him vote all over town. Having thus exhausted his political usefulness, they left him in the gutter, from whence he found his way to a hospital, where he certainly died.”
It is certainly true that Poe died in a hospital, and that is one grain of truth in Professor Wendell's last statement. Let us hope that he has read some of the dozen lives of Poe that have been written since Griswold's mendacious biography and that he knows more about Poe's life than he did when he wrote his “Literary History of America,” otherwise his audience at the University” of Virginia celebration on January 19 will not only be astonished, but, I fear, disappointed and disgusted.
EUGENE L. DIDIER.
1722 North Calvert Street. [page 280:]
This letter fell like an unexpected bombshell among the faculty of the University of Virginia, in the midst of their pretentious attempt to “honor” Poe upon his centenary. One of the professors, Who is said to have secured his professorship through the generosity of his sister-in-law, who denoted $60,000 for the foundation of the chair which he occupies, was so incensed at the severe truths in my article that, he wrote me a letter so furious, so frantic, and so foolish that his more sensible wife persuaded him not to send it.
Does this provincial professor suppose that I, a man of the world, I who have traveled in many lands, and met some of the greatest men of Europe and America — would care for his petulant and childish anger?
The University of Virginia showed no interest in Poe until the Semi-Centennial of his death, October 7, 1899, when, “with many a flirt and flutter,” a bust of the poet was unveiled in an alcove of the Rotunda Library. Hamilton W. Mabie was chosen to deliver the address upon the occasion. I have nothing to say about the propriety of selecting a Northern man to eulogize a Southern poet. I do not propose to question the ability of the South to furnish a speaker for such an occasion, but I do not hesitate to say, and I wish to say it most [page 281:] emphatically, that the selection of Mr. Mabie, or any other Northern man, was a direct and distinct insult — a slap in the face of every man of letters in the South; an open slur upon hundreds of men who were quite as capable of eulogizing their poet as Mr. Mabie, or any other Northern man. If the committee having the matter in charge intended to proclaim the literary poverty of the South, it is an admission which I, for one, will never make. Mr. Mabie was the wrong man for the place, but he did show a certain appreciation of Poe, when he announced that he was entitled to the first place in American letters by virtue of possessing a most exact literary conscience and producing works of the clearest and finest art.
The connection of Poe with the University of Virginia is the most interesting fact in its history, yet, it completely ignored him until half a century after his death, when it joined in the chorus of the world's applause. This late recognition of America's greatest genius does not reflect much credit upon his Alma Mater. The “meed of justice” was so “long delayed,” that the University of Virginia deserves the disgraceful reproach of treating her most illustrious son with the cold and heartless indifference of a stepmother, instead of [page 282:] cherishing him with the tender and loving care of a fond and devoted parent.
When the University of Virginia sought to make amends for its belated recognition of Poe, the Committee having charge of the Centennial celebration, stultified itself most ignominiously by inviting Professor Barrett Wendell to deliver the principal address. The Committee was either grossly ignorant of American literature, or insultingly defiant of Southern feeling when it selected such a man for such an occasion — a man who had shown himself disgracefully ignorant of Poe's life, and outrageously prejudiced against him.
The selection of this Harvard professor to deliver the principal address at the Poe Centennial is most extraordinary in view of the fact that Dr. Charles William Kent is the Literary Editor of a “Library of Southern Literature,” which claims to be “a scholarly venture,” “Southern in tone,” whose “purpose is the frank and patriotic desire to lay more deeply the foundations of our greatness, by establishing that not New England alone, but the South as well, has enjoyed the gift of utterance.” Yet, in the face of this declaration, a New England professor was invited to take the leading part in “honoring” Edgar A. Poe. It was a piece of amazing folly unsurpassed [page 283:] in the annals of literature, since letters were first invented, or since the Father of Poetry sang his immortal songs through the cities of Greece. However, we should not be so astonished at this foolish action of the Committee of the University of Virginia, when we remember that the President of that institution awarded the prize of one hundred dollars offered by the United Daughters of the Confederacy for the best essay on “Robert E. Lee,” to Miss Christine Boysen, of Minnesota, who spoke of what Lee did as “treason,” that he “chose the wrong side,” etc. Dr. Alderman, either did not read the essay before awarding the prize, or he agreed with the writer of the essay who pronounced General Lee a “traitor.” In either case, he is unfit to be the President of the leading University of the South.
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
Notes:
None.
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
[S:0 - ELDPC, 1909] - Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore - Bookshelf - The Poe Cult and Other Poe Papers (Eugene L. Didier) (Poe and the University of Virginia)