Text: Virginia Lee Cox, “Study of Poe is Exhaustive,” Richmond Times-Dispatch (Richmond, VA), vol. 76, no. 311, November 7, 1926, p. 52, cols. 1-2

[page 51, column 1:]

EDGAR ALLAN POE — THE MAN In two volumes. By Mary E. Phillips. The John C. Winston Co. $10.

Undoubtedly the most monumental work yet published on that misunderstood, much maligned genius of American letters, Edgar Allan Poe, is this latest work in two volumes, by Miss Phillips. Twelve years of intensive research were devoted to preparing and writing this book, which is quite an exhaustive study of Poe, the man, beginning with the earliest trace of his ancestry in “the classic country of North Italy's wandering Po,” his early childhood, and ending with his death, its aftermath among contemporary critics, and a summary which gives his place today in the world of letters.

Corrects Impressions.

It is difficult to fix the value of this last Poe book. Had the facts in Poe's life not been so grossly misstated, had his character not been so blackly painted, had his writings not been greatly bickered over, from the time of Griswold's scandalously untrue article the present, would immediately after, Poe's death until the present. Miss Phillips would never have had the excuse to write this type of book. Though facts of Poe's life, as those of any genius, are intensely interesting to the posterity which recognizes the brilliance of his contribution to literature, it would never have been necessary to make out such a “case” for him he and his genius not been had, so unfairly judged.

Interesting Book.

Miss Phillips, however, has written an interesting book, and written well and authoritatively. She makes no statement about Poe without verifying it the statements of people who knew him, of Poe scholars, and with excerpts from all the known and some unknown Poe documents. Poe scholars all over the United States, in England, in Scotland and other, places have come generously to her assistance in preparing this true record and estimate of Poe, the man. She has used their information liberally, and, besides, she has delved into unknown documents and discovered unknown facts about of Poe's life which, make the claims of her publishers, that 65 per cent of the material used is new, seem not at all far fetched.

Mrs. Phillips writes sympathetically of Poe. Her summing up of his character is given in her introduction:

Needs no Defense.

“Poe, the Man, normal, needs no defense! From stated facts of viewpoints, he — under years of nervous pressure, aggravated by early faulty training in the Allan family, later fractional rations, overwork, cares, en worry, social or remedial indulgence beyond human power to control, and which, oftimes, unconscious to himself, seemed periodically to change his nature — should have no accusers. The so-called ‘morbidness,’ or mental depression, of Edgar Allan Poe was caused by neither sexual infirmity, liquor, nor opium. It possibly came from the burden of isolation, the most hopeless of all causes. Was this isolation imposed on oPe [[Poe]] the Man by the hypersensitive temperament of genius?”

She treats with justice the claims of other Poe authors, and she weighs the pro and con of most statements.

Some Mistakes.

However, she does make some absurd statements, the most glaring of these, perhaps, being, “This new research phase of Poe's University career seems to throw a flashlight of understanding upon affairs; that, unknown to Poe, all his card table losses were not the results of fair play; a a a and, as a fact, Mr. Allan's shrewd Scotch judgment suspected as much when he refused to settle these losses.” Miss Phillips could not possibly have any [column 2:] information to support this claim, which is a misguided attempt to whitewash Poe's gambling at the university.

The volumes are superbly, illustrated, with very rare prints, of practically every person and place which ever touched Poe's life. Among these are pictures of the Allan home at Fourteenth and Tobacco Alley, and a picture of Mrs. Yarrington's boarding house, where Poe lived when he returned to Richmond.

”Errors.”

It seems strange that in book of should this type have one been of the in illustrations up-side : put down. books are also replete with “Poe maps” of Richmond, Boston, Baltimore and showing the lay -out of streets and the location of buildings when Poe lived in these cities.

The two volumes are especially interesting to Richmonders, because of the foreword by James H. Whitty, who has, been referred to by The New York Times as “the greatest living authority on Poe.” Mr. Whitty also given Miss Phillips invaluable assistance throughout book, and Miss Phillips, 1 in her introduction, acknowledged her indebtedness to a. number of Richmond people, in addition to Mr. Whitty, among them: Mrs. Mary Newton Stanard, William G. Stanard, Edward V.Valentine, Otis M. Alfriend, Samuel P. Cowardin, Jr., and Heustis P. Cook.

In her addenda Miss Phillips refers, none too favorably, to the Poe “Letters,” edited by Mrs. Mary Newton Stanard, and to the discovery by Dr. T. O. Mabbott, of the North American or Weekly Journal of Politics, Science and Literature, Vol. I, May to September, 1827, which contains poems, a short story and other matters over the signature of W. H. P., Edgar Allan Poe's brother — some of these poems were Poe's own.