Text: Lee Hawkins, “Honors Memory of Great Poet,” Times Dispatch (Richmond, VA), January 17, 1909 (special Sunday section), p. 4

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CHARLOTTESVILLE. VA., January 16. — The year 1909 is an annus mirabilis in the matter of centenaries — Poe, Mendelssohn, Darwin, Chopin, Fitzgerald, Tennyson, Holmes and Gladstone — to speak only of the very greatest who were born in 1809. Of the eigh [[eight]] named, four were distinguished as men of letters, and Gladstone might be reasonably made a fifth in the literary group.

America has two — New England one in Oliver Wendell Holmes and the South the other in Edgar Allan Poe. Holmes was the product of New England, perhaps even only of Boston. With flashes of genius that went around the world, Poe unquestionably was independent of local limitations, and has been accepted as a world author. Upon his one-hundredth birthday tributes are coming from all over the world, and the warmest of them from across the seas, from distances which have annihilated any influence of sectional prepossession, if any exists anywhere; and when the exclusion of the poet from that toy elysium, the American Hall of Fame, is recalled, something of the kind is feared. Tennyson, Swinburne, Sainte-Beuve. Victor Hugo and other immortals long ago proclaimed him a prince among men of genius, and in the recent weeks Zanwill, Hewlett, Dowden and Walter A. Raleigh abroad and at home too many to be named in this place, have approved of their decision.

No literary man among those whose centenary will be observed, unless it be Tennyson, attracts a profounder interest than the author of “The Raven,” and of those remarkable detective stories which were the forerunners of everything of distinction done in that line since the days of Dupin

Its Greatest Alumnus.

Among the American observances of his one-hundredth birthday, perhaps the most notable is that in progress at the University of Virginia, where Poe spent one year of his life as a student. This institution has never let pass an opportunity to honor its greatest alumnus. Ten years ago the fiftieth anniversary of his death was commemorated with a program the distinction of which attracted widespread attention. At that time the Zolnay bust, a highly idealized but forceful expression of Poe's spiritual life, was unveiled, and to this day divides with Galt's status of Jefferson the attention and interest of those who visit the library in the rotunda of the University of Virginia.

The centenary program, as was to be expected, is of profound interest. It gives opportunity for the expression of American and European appreciation of the original genius of Edgar Poe. Next Tuesday will witness the rendering of the larger part of this program — addresses in English, German and French, epistolary and poetical tributes from Americans and Europeans, and other features which will pleasantly accompany those named.

Member of Society.

This evening the Jefferson Literary Society held a Poe meeting. The poet, as a seventeen-year-old student, was a member of this society, which, the year before his matriculation — that is, in the first session of the university — was organized in one of the dormitories on the lawn. He appeared in the program of one of its meetings, reading an essay on a pseudo-scientific subject, and also acted as temporary secretary on at least one occasion. The minutes of the society attested this fact, and were in existence until the great fire which destroyed the rotunda in 1895. These facts one speaker, Mr. W. W. Powell, of Belmont, Va., rehearsed with much pride at the meeting this evening. Mr. Harry Hudley Thurlow, of Buffalo, N. Y., sketched Poe's life. Mr. Alvin Bryant Hutzler, of Richmond Va., told the story of Poe's life at the university, and Mr. D. C. Strachan, of Brooklyn, N. Y., gave incidents of student life in 1826. Mr. S. M. Cleveland, of Charlottesville, ventured upon an attempt to indicate poems which Poe had written at the university. “How the Faculty Fared in 1826,” was the theme discussed by Mr. A. Gray Gilmer, of Pulaski, Va., who did not fail to take advantage of the opportunity it afforded for humorous treatment.

Pathos of Poe's Life.

Mr. DeRoy Ransom Fonville, of Surlington, N. C., a member of the Washington Society, by invitation, addressed the Jefferson Society on the pathos in the lives of our Southern poets, a theme which, of course, had its natural and unforced climax in the pathetic life story of Edgar A. Poe. Mr. Hutzler pointed out that Poe matriculated ten years to the day after the bill establishing the Central College, which was the germ of the University of Virginia, was passed by the Legislature. This building, first used as the university library, is now the home of the Colonnade Club, with a non-resident alumni membership of over 200.

A delightful feature of the program was the singing of two of Poe's lyrics by Mr. George Francis Zimmer, of Birdseye, Ind., accompanied by Miss Nell Irvine, of Charlottesville.

The president of the Jefferson Literary Society, who was in the chair this evening, was Mr. Paul Miccu, of [column 2:] the Theological Seminary of Virginia.

The Raven Society, the name of which suggests its origin, will have its share in the general celebration on Monday Evening, when the feature of largest interest will be an address, with reminiscences by Dr. Herbert M. Nash, of Norfolk, Va, who had a three-weeks’ acquaintance with Poe.

Other features will be recitations of Poe's poems, vocal renditions of Poe's songs, and an organ rendition of “The Raven.” The organist will be Mr. S. H. Freeman, of St. John's Church, Washington, D. C.

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Proud of Virginia.

Poe was proud of being a Virginian, and was very fond of the Mother of States. In 1841 he wrote to a friend in Baltimore: “I am a Virginian — at least, I call myself one — for I have resided all my life, until with the last few years, at Richmond.”

Virginia is likewise proud of Poe. His memory has been vindicated by the fine old university, where he was a student, and the would-be assassins of his character have been silenced forever. There were all too many of these vultures, the chief of whom was the unspeakable Griswold, the ghoulish slanderer, destined, like the temple-burner of ancient Ephesus, to live forever in lasting infamy, his dishonored name dragged after that of the brilliant genius, to emulate the work of whom is the despair of great minds and the confusion of little ones — C. G. Stansbury.

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Mother Married at Norfolk.

The stupendous sadness of Poe's life, brightened only by fitful gleams of happiness in his boyhood, was doubtless accentuated by prenatural influences. In 1802 the lady, who afterward became his mother, an attractive and accomplished actress, was married to C. D. Hopkins, an actor in her company, and the pair played in Norfolk that year.