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Apocryphal, Doubtful and Rejected Miscellanea

Please note that this list is far from complete. As it is impractical to attempt a complete list of all items falsely attributed to Poe, any item omitted from the Accepted category should be considered as not by Poe, barring pursuasive evidence to the contrary. As the arguments for items on this page are refined, some may move from Doubtful to Rejected or the other way around. It is unlikely, however, that any of the items listed here will be moved to the Accepted category.

Apocryphal and Doubtful Items:

• Title: "An Opinion on Dreams" (Burton's Gentleman's Magazine, August 1839)

Status: Doubtful
Argument: Poe was first suggested as the author of this item by J. H. Whitty in his edition of Poe's Complete Poems, 1911 (p. lxiii). J. A. Harrison did not include the item in his 1902 collection of Poe's Complete Works. T. O. Mabbott ascribed it to Horace Binney Wallace in an article in Notes and Queries, 198, December 1953, p. 543. George V. Hatvary, reprints the text of the essay in question and argues again for attribution to Poe in "Poe's Possible Authorship of 'An Opinion on Dreams'," Poe Studies, XIV, No. 2, December 1981, pp. 21-22.

• Title: "Verbal Criticisms," (SLM. May 1836)

Status: Apocryphal
Argument: Attributed by Alterton. Campbell says possibly by Poe but he has reservations. (Campbell, The Mind of Poe, p. 217-218.)

• Title: "Character of Coriolanus," (SLM. Nov. 1836)

Status: Doubtful
Argument: Attributed by Alterton as "unmistakeably Poe's." Campbell is less certain. (Campbell, The Mind of Poe, p. 218.)

Rejected:

Items from the Southern Literary Messenger

• Title: "[Anecdote on Gibbon and Fox]," (SLM, 1836.)

Status: Rejected
Argument: First attributed to Poe by David K. Jackson in The Contribors and Contributions to the Southern Literary Messenger, 1936 and generally accepted until very recently. Terence Whalen's 1993 article reprints a March 1836 letter from Edward D. Ingraham to Beverly Tucker in which Tucker is clearly identified as the author of this item. (Terence Whalen, "Correcting the Poe Canon: Beverly Tucker's Anecdote on Gibbon and Fox," Nineteenth-Century Literature, XXXXIIX, No. 1, June 1993, pp. 89-92.)(Not in Harrisson.)

• Title: "[Letter signed X. Y.]," (SLM. Jan. 1835)

Status: Rejected
Argument: Attributed by Alterton. Campbell dismisses as unlikely (Campbell, The Mind of Poe, p. 215.)

• Title: "Translation of an Ode by Horace," (SLM. Jan. 1836)

Status: Rejected
Argument: Campbell thinks by Lucian Minor. (Campbell, The Mind of Poe, p. 219-220.)

• Title: "Chief Justice Marshall," (SLM. Feb. 1836)

Status: Rejected
Argument: Attributed by Alterton. Campbell thinks by Beverly Tucker (Campbell, The Mind of Poe, p. 216.)

• Title: "The Philosophy of Antiquity," (SLM. Nov. 1836, Jan. 1837, Feb. 1837)

Status: Rejected
Argument: Attributed by Alterton. Campbell sees no reason to ascribe to Poe. (Campbell, The Mind of Poe, p. 218-219.)

• Title: "Helen Defended," (SLM. Sept. 1836)

Status: Rejected
Argument: Campbell specifically notes this item as not by Poe in his article "Poe and the Southern Literary Messenger in 1837," The Nation. July 1, 1909, pp. 9-10.

• Title: "[Brief Comment on ] Eclipse of the Sun in 1838," (SLM. Nov. 1837)

Status: Rejected
Argument: Attributed by Campbell in his article "Poe and the Southern Literary Messenger in 1837," The Nation. July 1, 1909, pp. 9-10. Campbell later decided all of the reviews he listed were by someone else. (Campbell, The Mind of Poe, p. 219.)

• Title: "Notes to Our Readers," (SLM. Feb. 1837)

Status: Rejected
Argument: Attributed by Campbell in his article "Poe and the Southern Literary Messenger in 1837," The Nation. July 1, 1909, pp. 9-10. Campbell later decided all of the reviews he listed were by someone else. (Campbell, The Mind of Poe, p. 219.)

• Title: "To Our Readers," (SLM. April 1837)

Status: Rejected
Argument: Attributed by Campbell in his article "Poe and the Southern Literary Messenger in 1837," The Nation. July 1, 1909, pp. 9-10. Campbell later decided all of the reviews he listed were by someone else. (Campbell, The Mind of Poe, p. 219.)

• Title: "New Views of the Solar System," (SLM. July and Dec. 1838)

Status: Rejected
Argument: Attributed by Alterton. Campbell dismisses as no reason to ascribe. (Campbell, The Mind of Poe, p. 219-220.)

• Title: "New Views of the Tides," (SLM. Dec. 1838)

Status: Rejected
Argument: Attributed by Alterton. Campbell dismisses as no reason to ascribe. (Campbell, The Mind of Poe, p. 219-220.)

Items from Burton's Gentleman's Magazine

• Title: "Half an Hour in the Academy of Fine Arts at Philadelphia," (BGM. Aug. 1839)

Status: Rejected
Argument: Attributed by Alterton. Campbell doubts that it is by Poe. (Campbell, The Mind of Poe, p. 220.)

Items from Blackwood's Magazine

• Title: "The Copyright Question," (Blackwood's Magazine. January 1842)

Status: Rejected
Argument: Attributed by M. E. Phillips (Phillips, Poe The Man, p. 288). Campbell dismisses. (Campbell, The Mind of Poe, pp. 222-223.) Diana Quarles states that the article was written by Archibald Allison, reprinted in an edition of his Miscellaneous Essays. (Diana Quarles, "Poe ant International Copyright," The Southern Literary Messenger, Jan. 1941, p. 4.)

• Title: "Copyright," (Blackwood's Magazine. May 1842)

Status: Rejected
Argument: Attributed by M. E. Phillips. Campbell dismisses. (Campbell, The Mind of Poe, pp. 222-223.)

• Title: "Maga in America," (Blackwood's Magazine. Oct. 1847)

Status: Rejected
Argument: Attributed by M. E. Phillips. Campbell dismisses. (Campbell, The Mind of Poe, pp. 222-223.)

• Title: "Emerson," (Blackwood's Magazine. Dec. 1847)

Status: Rejected
Argument: Attributed by M. E. Phillips. Campbell dismisses. (Campbell, The Mind of Poe, pp. 222-223.)

Items from Other Sources

• Title: English Notes [by Quickens] (Boston, 1842)

Status: Rejected
Argument: Attributed to Poe by M. E. Phillips (Poe the Man, pp. 718-722) and Mr. Joseph Jackson (who reprinted it). Campbell dismisses it as doggerel (Campbell, The Mind of Poe, pp. 225-226).