Text: Killis Campbell, “Bibliographical Notes on Poe,” The Nation (New York, NY), vol. 89, whole no. 2321, December 23, 1909, pp. 623-624

[page 623:]

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES ON POE — 1.

One of the most valuable contributions made by Prof. James A. Harrison to our knowledge of Poe is his bibliography of Poe's writings in the sixteenth volume of his “Virginia Edition” of Poe. Here he attempted to catalogue everything that Poe ever published, regardless of its length or its importance. The task attempted was no easy one. For, contrary to the popular notion, Poe was one of the most prolific of our writers, Professor Harrison's list including nearly five hundred items, and his edition of Poe's works extending to no less than sixteen volumes. Moreover, Poe published many of his articles anonymously, and some things in the most out-of-the-way places. Hence it is not to be wondered at if this list lacks somewhat on the side of completeness. Among articles omitted that had appeared in other editions of Poe are the instalment of “Marginalia,” published in Graham's Magazine in March, 1848, and an editorial on Christopher North originally published in the Broadway Journal of October 4, 1845, but included by Griswold and others in the “Marginalia.” There are also some items that have been pointed out since the “Virginia Poe” appeared, notably several articles assigned to Poe by B. B. Minor, in his book on the Southern Literary Messenger, and some variant versions of the poems and tales to which Prof. George E. Woodberry first called attention in his recent revised life of Poe. But besides these, there are a number of articles written by Poe that have not, so far as I can learn, been given to him by any one. These, it should be said in justice to others who have gleaned in this field, are both slight in volume and, except for three or four of them, of but little worth as literature, most of them being either editorials or book-reviews; but they are fairly numerous. There are also some eight or ten variant versions of the poems and tales that have been overlooked.

In enumerating these additions to the bibliography of Poe, I shall present first the additions that are to be made to the body of Poe's essays, reserving for a later instalment of this article a discussion of the variant versions of the poems and tales. The additions to the canon of Poe's essays are to be found in the following periodicals: Burton's Gentleman's Magazine, Graham's Magazine, the Weekly Mirror, the Broadway Journal, and the Democratic Review.

The articles in Burton's Magazine are these:

1.) Twelve brief reviews in the issue of September, 1839, of which the longest are the notices of Mary Howitt's “Birds and Flowers,” “The Bride of Fort Edward,” and Schoolcraft's “Algic Researches.” Professor Harrison gives only four of the eighteen critical notices in this number to Poe, whereas Poe says in a letter to P. P. Cooke (“Virginia Poe,” XVII, 53) that he wrote all except the first three. According to this, one of the articles given to Poe in Professor Harrison's list — Glenn's “Reply to the Critics” — should really be assigned to another writer.

2.) A compilation entitled “Gyrmnastics and Gymnasia” in the issue of October, 1839 This Poe acknowledges in a letter to Snodgrass of October 7, 1839.

Other articles in Burton's that were probably [column 2:] written by Poe are: 1) “The Game of Cricket,” November, 1839; 2) A compilation entitled “Gymnastics and Gymnasia” in the issue of October, 1839. This Poe acknowledges in a letter to Snodgrass of October 7, 1839. 3) brief reviews, April, 1840; and 4) a notice of Brook's “The Utility of Classical Studies,” May, 1840. In a well-known letter to Burton written June 1, 1840. Poe specifies the number of pages that he had contributed to the Gentleman's Magazine and it is necessary to give each of these items to him in order to make out the total which he claims (though even that fails for April, 1840); besides, several of the articles betray internal evidence of Poe's authorship.

Hitherto unnoted articles contributed by Poe to Graham's Magazine are the following:

3.) The review of G. P. R. James's “The Ancient Régime,” October, 1841. Shown to be Poe's by a reference back to the review of James's “Corse de Leon” in Graham's for June of that year.

4.) Brief notices (besides those mentioned in Professor Harrison's list) in Graham's for March, 1842 — among them a further notice of the work of G. P. R. James in which Poe repeats the old charge of imitativeness, and a notice of Mrs. Sigourney, in which he complains of a lack of unity in her poems.

5.) Three brief notices in Graham's for May, 1842: Hoffmann's “The Vigil of Faith,” Griswold's “The Poets and Poetry of America,” and Simms's “Beauchampe.” Circumstantial evidence supports the ascription in each case, and the notice of Griswold's book refers forward to Poe's acknowledged review of that work in the issue of the following month.

Two other brief articles in Graham's that are almost surely Poe's are the notices of Cooper's “Deerslayer” in the issue of October, 1841, and of Park's “Pantology” in the issue of March, 1842.

The unaccredited articles in the New York Mirror are both more numerous and more significant. Ever since the appearance of N. P. Willis's article in defence of Poe in 1849, it has been known that Poe wrote for the Mirror in 1844-45. Despite this fact, no list of his contributions has ever been printed; Willis's statement that Poe's connection with the paper was merely that of a “mechanical paragraphist” perhaps discouraged any inquiry into the matter. Most of Poe's articles, it seems, appeared first in the columns of the Evening Mirror, a daily, whence they were copied into the Weekly Mirror. I have been unable to see a file of the Evening Mirror, hence I record here only those articles so far as I can identify them — that appeared (or reappeared) in the Weekly Mirror. Two such articles, the comment on Mrs. Browning, in the issue of December 7, 1844, and the critique entitled “Longfellow's Waif — A Few More Words For and Against It,” in the issue of January 25, 1845 — have already been specifically ascribed to Poe by Professor Woodberry. Others are as follows:

(6.) “The Alphadelphia Tocsin,” a brief note, in the issue of January 18, 1845. This reappeared as the third item in the “Marginalia,” published in the Democratic Review for July, 1846.

(7.) “Does the Drama of the Day Deserve Support?” January 18, 1845. Also embodied in the “Marginalia” of July, 1846.

(8.) “Lowell's Conversations,” January he presented to Mrs. Whitman, and which 18, 1845. The last two paragraphs of this [column 3:] review are the same as the first two paragraphs of the “Marginalia” item printed in the “Virginia Poe,” XVI, 89-70.

(9) “Nature and Art,” January 25, 1845. A reply to a criticism in the New York Tribune of the preceding article on “Lowell's Conversations.”

(10.) “Longfellow's Waif” January 25, 1845. The seventh paragraph of this article reappears in the “Marginalia” printed in the “Virginia Poe,” XVI, 73.

(11) “Post-Notes by the Critic,” January 25, 1845. This is a counter-reply to a reply of “H.” of Boston in Poe's strictures on Lowell.

(12.) “Increase of Poetical Heresy,” February 8, 1845. An essay of about a thousand words on “the heresy of the didactic” — perhaps the “prefatory remarks” of Poe's lecture at Boston on October 16, 1845 (see Woodberry's “Life of Poe,” II, 150). In substance very much the same as Poe's essay on “The Poetic Principle,” but more(4.) Brief notices (besides those men. compact and quite different from it in phrasing, except for the last paragraph, which reappears in part, in very much the same words, in the eleventh paragraph of “The Poetic Principle” (“Virginia Poe,” XIV, 271-2). This is one of the most substantial and spirited of Poe's essays, and should by all means be included in his published works.

(13.) “Magazine Literature,” February 15, 1845. Republished in part in the “Marginalia,” “Virginia Edition,” XVI, 82.

(14.) “Imitation-Plagiarism,” February 22, 1845. I can find no verbal correspondence between this article and any fully accredited composition of Poe's, but the Poe's views on plagiarism, as expressed in views expressed in it fall in very well with the “Longfellow War”; and the ascription also derives strong support from circumstantial evidence. The article is vigorously written, and is quite worthy of a place among Poe's collected works.

15.) “Plagiarism,” February 22, 1845. This has to do with the alleged plagiarism by James Aldrich, from Hood's poems. It reappeared, except for the last paragraph, in Poe's first letter in reply to “Outis” (“Virginia Edition,” [[XI]] 44-46).

Besides these articles, there are in the Weekly Mirror the following editorials and criticisms which are probably to be assigned to Poe:

1) “The Pay for Periodical Writing,” October 19 1844; 2) “Hoffmann's Poems,” December 14, 1844; 3) “A Slander which Needs Immediate Contradiction” (a refutation of a charge of plagiarism that had been brought against Mrs. Ellet), January 25, 1845; 4) “Poems. By Christopher Pease (sic) Cranch,” January 25, 1845; 5) “Pay of American Authors,” February 1, 1845; 6) “Literary” (being notes on current magazines and forthcoming publications), February 15, 1845; and 7) “Graham's for March,” February 22. 1845.

Poe's articles in the Broadway Journal, which he edited for almost a year, are to be numbered by the hundred. Here he republished nearly half of his poems, and more than forty of his tales, in most cases affixing his signature. But he also brought out here a vast amount of editorial and critical matter that had not been printed before; and the bulk of this he published anonymously. In a set of the Journal which has happily been preserved (being, I believe, [page 624:] now in the possession of F. R. Halsey of New York city), Poe designated as his own a number of his unsigned articles by inserting after them the initials “P.” or “E. A. P.” (see the “Virginia Poe,” XII, viii, and XVI, 372). It is but reasonable to suppose that in thus reclaiming his waifs he overlooked some; and it may very well be that he was unwilling to acknowledge some of the rest. But, be that as it may, it is obvious that he did not designate as his own everything that actually belongs to him. The following additions are to be made to the list that Professor Harrison gives:

16.) “Miscellanea,” in the issue of May 31, 1845. Extremely flimsy, but obviously Poe's.

17.) A brief note on a Wiley and Putnam edition of Hood's works, August 2, 1845. Acknowledged in the fuller notice of the same book in the issue of August 9, 1845.

18.) “Editorial Miscellany,” August 16, 1845. This contains, among other things, Poe's denial of the charge that he was utterly blind to the merits of Longfellow's productions.

19.) “Editorial Miscellany,” August 23, 1845. Contains an allusion, obviously by Poe, to his trip to Boston in the summer of 1845.

20.) “Editorial Miscellany,” August 30, 1845. One item deals with the Boston Notion's blunder in copying from Bentley's Miscellany, with a laudatory notice, “The Fall of the House of Usher,” in ignorance of the fact that it was Poe's, after having publicly held the story up to ridicule on its original appearance in America, under Poe's name. Another item has to do with a poem which was printed in the New York Tribune of August 27, 1845, above the signature “E. A. P.,” but which Poe disclaims having written.

21.) “Editorial Miscellany,” September 13, 1845. A brief note concerning the botching of “Lenore” in a contemporary news.

22.) “Editorial Miscellany,” September 20, 1845. In one item, the author alludes to “Mesmeric Revelation,” as his own; in another, he displays his characteristic fondness for exposing literary theft by charging Whittier with a plagiarism from Bulwer.

23.) A review of Mathews's “Big Abel and the Little Manhattan,” September 27, 1845. The same review, considerably enlarged, appeared in Godey's Lady's Book for November, 1845 (“Virginia Poe,” XIII, 73 f.).

24.) “Editorial Miscellany,” September 27, 1845. Shown to be Poe's by a reference back to the “Editorial Miscellany” of the immediately preceding issue.

25.) “Editorial Miscellany,” October 11, 1845. Contains a sharp rejoinder to a criticism in the Mirror of Poe's article on Christopher North in the Broadway Journal for October 4. This article is well worth reprinting.

26.) “Editorial Miscellany,” December 6, 1845. Authenticated by a reference, clearly by Poe, to the Boston fiasco, in which he had figured in October.

27.) “Critical Notices” and “Editorial Miscellany,” December 27, 1845. The former is stamped as Poe's by the sneering reference to Boston as “Frogpondium”; the latter contains a comment on a letter concerning “The Case of M. Valdemar.”

It is likely that Poe also wrote the following [column 2:] articles published in the Broadway Journal:

1) The note on the Southern Literary Messenger, March 22, 1845: 2) “The Magazines,” April 5, 1845; 3) brief reviews and “The Magazines,” April 12 1845; 4) the reviews of “Night: A Poem” and Leigh Hunt's “Imagination and Fancy,” April 19, 1845; 5) “Halleck's Alnwick Castle,” May 3, 1845; 6) book reviews and the article on the “Broadway Theatre,” May 10, own everything that actually belongs to 1845; 7) the notice of Anthon's “A Pilgrimage to Treves,” June 21, 1845; 8) the notice of Hazlitt's “The Age of Elizabeth,” July 19, 1845; 9) “Editorial Miscellany,” August 2, 1845; 10) the notice When Broughton Brandenburg brought to Poe's. of J. T. Headley, August 9, 1845; 11) “Critical Notices” and “Editorial Miscellany,” November 8, 1845; 12) “Critical Notices,” November 15, 1845. And it is not improbable that Poe also wrote most of the articles on “The Drama,” and many of those on “The Fine Arts,” during the second half of the year.

Poe's articles in the Democratic Review that are not included in Professor Harrison's list are but two in number, and one of these was apparently known to Ingram either in the form in which it appeared there or in some other form. These two articles are:

(28) A brief instalment of the “Marginalia” printed in the Democratic Review for July, 1846; and

(29) A notice of Poe's poet friend, Mrs. Lewis, entitled “The Literati of New York. S. Anna Lewis,” in the issue of August, 1848.

The first of these is a signed article; the other is credited to Poe in the table of contents at the beginning of the volume. The “Marginalia” article deals with six topics: 1) an error in a French translation of Lady Morgan's “Letters on Italy”; (2) the alleged decline of the drama (previously printed in the Weekly Mirror of January 18, 1845); (3) the “Alphadelphia Tocsin” (also in the Weekly Mirror of January 18, 1845); (4) Simms's “Areytos”; 5) Goethe's “Sorrows of Werther”; and 6) Cranch's poems. Of these, the first, third, fifth, and sixth were published by Ingram among his “Addenda” to the “Marginalia” (see his edition of Poe, Edinburgh, 1875, III, 471, 477-8). The article on Mrs. Lewis — which was apparently meant as a final number of the “Literati” reappeared in considerably amplified form in the Southern Literary Messenger for September, 1848.

KILLIS CAMPBELL.

University of Texas.