Rejected — “The Capitol at Washington”

In his edition of Poe's Tales & Sketches (1978), Thomas Ollive Mabbott attributes this article to Poe, saying, in a footnote, “The Capitol at Washington is minutely described in a plate article, unsigned, in Burton's, November 1839, which I now (December 12, 1958) assign to Poe on the strength of the letter to Burton, June 1, 1840, and this passage in “Some Words with a Mummy” (3:1200n34).” The passage to which Mabbott refers is in the tale noted, in the paragraph beginning, “ ‘Look,’ he cried with enthusiam, ‘at the Bowling-Green Fountain in New York! or if this be too vast a contemplation, regard for a moment the Capitol at Washington, D. C.!” and ending “He explained that the portico alone was adorned with no less than four and twenty columns, five feet in diameter, and ten feet apart” (3:1192). The letter does not specifically mention this item, but in accounting for the amount of work for which Poe is claiming credit, he mentions “compilation of various articles, such as Plate articles,” for which the present item would apply.

In an e-mail sent to the Poe Society on May 28, 2014, Ton Fafianie reported having identified the text as directly lifted from The Washington Guide, by William Elliot, Washington City: Franck Taylor, 1837. The material adapted for the magazine comes from pp. 55-102. A few sentences about the capitol's library may be the only original contribution by the person who prepared the material for the magazine, probably Poe.