Text: G. E. Woodberry, “Memoir,” The Works of Edgar Allan Poe — Vol. I: Memoir & Tales I (1894), 1:3-87

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EDGAR ALLAN POE was the grandson of David Poe, a patriot of the Revolution, who established the family name in Maryland, and distinguished it by life-long service to his country. His eldest son, who bore his name, disappointed him by adopting the profession of an actor, and married a fellow-member of the Virginia players, — Mrs. Hopkins, whose husband, a comedian of the same company, had recently died. Her maiden name was Elizabeth Arnold. Her mother, Mrs. Arnold, was an English actress who had emigrated to America and made her first appearance here at Boston, Feb. 12, 1796; but she remarried, and, after a brief interval, passed into an obscurity which concealed her fate. The daughter, whose education had been in the theatre, remained with the players; and she was now, at the time of her second marriage, in 1805, accomplished and attractive in her art. David Poe was not less than twenty-five years old, and she was, perhaps, somewhat younger. In the fall of 1806, they joined the company of the Federal Street Theatre, in Boston, where she had sung her first song in public with her mother ten years before, and for the three following years they made their home in that city. There, on Jan. 19, 1809, was born their second child, Edgar, [page 4:] the subject of this memoir; an elder son, William, and a younger daughter, Rosalie, were the other offspring of this marriage. The career of the parents was brief and, perhaps, unhappy. They were, at least, poor, and were sometimes in want. The father, though with a natural inclination for the stage, had no success as an actor, and the burden consequently fell upon the mother. She became the leading actress at the Federal Street Theatre; and, as she was commended for her industry and good sense, as well as for her ability, and seems to have sustained with credit her tragic parts and to have been especially attractive in higher impersonations, it may be concluded that she made the most of her native talents and her opportunities. She was also praised for her moral qualities and domestic virtues. But success did not companion merit in her case; and in the summer after Edgar's birth the family left the city, with grateful memories on her part, as is shown by the lines of her writing in which she bade her son “love Boston, the place of his birth, and where his mother found her best and most sympathetic friends.” It is not known when her husband died. Mrs. Poe joined her old friends of the Southern circuit, and after the birth of her third child, Rosalie, she fell into a decline. Early in the winter, in 1811, at Richmond, the family became objects of charity; the actors played twice for their benefit, addressing their card of advertisement “To the Humane;” and, on December 8, the mother died, leaving the three young children destitute. William was sent to his father's kindred in Baltimore; Rosalie was received into the family of Mrs. MacKenzie, and Edgar into that of Mrs. Allan, both of Richmond.

The change of life and prospect thus secured for [page 5:] Edgar was so great that it might seem worthy of some good fairy. The child of the poor players, before whom, notwithstanding his mother's devotion, there could have been for his youthful years only the necessary circumstances of a continual struggle with poverty in the midst of a wandering life, was given a place privileged with fortune, education, and social breeding, where he should grow to manhood. Mrs. Allan, who was a woman of twenty-five years, showed him, while she lived, true affection; and his precocity and beauty as a child won upon the unwilling heart of her husband so that he soon took pride in the boy to whom he had given his name. Mr. John Allan was by birth a Scotchman, and by trade a tobacco merchant, and had already acquired wealth and social position in Richmond. He was, it would appear, of a somewhat hard nature, even cold, perhaps, in affection; but he was not unjust or sparing, in his treatment of the adopted child. Edgar was brought up as a son of the house. He was early sent to a private school, kept by an old-fashioned dame. When six years old, he could read, draw, and dance; he had a talent for declamation, and is remembered standing between the doors of some Richmond drawing-room and reciting from the “Lay of the Last Minstrel” to a large company, in a sweet voice and with clear enunciation. It is related also that Mr. Allan taught the boy to stand up in a chair at dessert, and pledge the health of the company, which he did with roguish grace. He wore dark curls, and had brilliant eyes; and those who remembered him in Richmond or at the White Sulphur Springs, where the family passed the summers, spoke of the pretty figure he made, with his pony and dogs and his vivacious ways. [page 6:]

In the summer of 1815, Mr. Allan took his family abroad for a long stay; and he placed Edgar at the Manor House School, at Stoke Newington, near London, under Dr. Bransby; but the homelessness of such a life was relieved by weekly Sunday visits which the child made to the Allans, who lived at no great distance, and by the vacations, which he spent with them in travelling, thus seeing, according to his own statement, nearly all parts of the United Kingdom. These five years of English school-days have left little record of themselves, though in later life he sketched the outward aspects of the house and grounds, and drew a portrait of the head-master. He was inducted into the manly sports, as a matter of course, and began to be athletic; he learned to speak French and construe easy Latin, and obtained a knowledge of history and literature said to have been beyond his years; and he showed the scholarly spirit which is noticeable in every account of his youth. Dr. Bransby appears to have remembered most clearly the extravagant amount of his pocket-money. “I liked the boy,” he said; “poor fellow, his parents spoiled him.” English school-life, in early years, always seems a kind of orphanage; but such as it was, the boy had, perhaps, less to complain of than others. In August, 1820, the Allans returned to Richmond, where they resided during Poe's later schooldays in North Fifth Street till their removal in 1825 to the estate on the corner of Fifth and Main streets. Here Poe could have lived but a few months, and the place first mentioned must be regarded as his Richmond home.

He was immediately put to school again with Master Joseph H. Clarke, an Irishman from Trinity College, Dublin. He continued his French and classical [page 7:] studies, and acquired proficiency in capping Latin verses and composing English rhymes. He had already shown his poetic instinct, and the master recalled a manuscript volume of verses, addressed to the little girls of Richmond, which Mr. Allan submitted to his judgment with a view to publication; but it is not unlikely that the description of the contents is inaccurate. The lad was a leader of the school in debates, verse-contests, and athletic games, and made an impression upon his mates both by his character and attainments. At the age of fifteen, he began his military career as lieutenant of the Richmond Junior Volunteers, — as appears from communications, signed with his name and rank, from that youthful body of soldiers to the Governor and Council, which still exist in the Executive Archives of Virginia. It was just before this incident that Master Clarke gave way to Master William Burk, and was addressed, on his leave-taking, by the young poet in an English ode.

A younger member of the school, Mr. Andrew Johnston, describes the traits of Poe, in these school days, more distinctly: —

Colonel John Preston, also a younger schoolfellow, adds that, notwithstanding, Poe was not the masterspirit or favorite among the boys, partly because he was “self-willed, capricious, inclined to be imperious, and, though of generous impulses, not steadily kind or even amiable,” and partly because his mates remembered that he was born of the players and dependent on Mr. Allan's bounty. In these reminiscences, his ardent temperament, which in anger was furious, and the habitual reserve of his nature, together with his ambitious talent and its intellectual and poetic bent, are most prominent. He stood somewhat aloof from all, fond of admiration, but jealous of his place; if he loved any, it was Sully, a nephew of the artist, and also with a touch of the sensibilities of genius. No one seemed to be intimate with him. Impetuous, self-willed, defiant, proud of his powers, and fond of their successful display, he does not appear to have been unamiable or morose, though he was resentful and probably lonely.

A single romantic episode of the time, which, however, should not be allowed to cast too heavy a shadow upon his home, where he received probably more affectionate [page 9:] care than he was aware of, is related by Mrs. Whitman, to whom he told it: —

This is the earliest of the Lenore legends. The lady, Mrs. Jane Stith Stanard, died April 28, 1824, at the age of thirty-one years. It was, perhaps, in this experience of death, when the boy was fifteen years of age, that the spirit of brooding over the grave first fell upon him. The peculiar melancholy of Poe, in presence of the death of woman, cannot be traced [page 10:] further to an original motive; and it is reasonable to believe that something, embalmed in this romantic memory, occurred in his heart and life, and vitally awakened his imagination.

This event belongs in the last year of his school life. He studied another year under excellent tutors, and on Feb. 14, 1826, he matriculated at the University of Virginia, entering the schools of ancient and modern languages. He remained until December 15, when the session closed; and he obtained distinction in his final examinations in Latin and French. He had also attended classes in Greek, Spanish, and Italian, and his scholarship was well spoken of by his teachers. In his relations with the University authorities he had a clear record. His private life was that of a student with a careless reputation. He joined with others in the amusements natural to the time. He was more inclined to gambling than drinking, but exhibited in both diversions a peculiar recklessness, indicative of an excitable temperament rather than of pleasure in his cups or the cards. “Poe's passion for strong drink,” says one of his fellow-students, “was as marked and as peculiar as that for cards. It was not the taste of the beverage that influenced him; without a sip or smack of the mouth he would seize a full glass, without sugar or water, and send it home at a single gulp. This frequently used him up; but, if not, he rarely returned to the charge.” He is said to have lost caste with the more aristocratic of his mates by his card-playing. One student remembered hearing him express regret for his extravagance and waste of money during the session, just as he was about to leave for Richmond. He was known to all, however, for other tastes. He [page 11:] had decorated his room, No. 13 West Range, with large charcoal sketches copied from an illustrated edition of Byron, and here he would relate to his companions some tale, or declaim some poem, of his invention. He remained solitary and reserved, and found pleasure in tramping amid the wild scenes of the neighboring countr5% His spirit had declared itself, both in character and talent; and when Mr. Allan came down to inquire into affairs, toward the close of the session, he found the youth of seventeen with a mind and resolution of his own, and with qualities so blended in him that his right guardianship might have taxed a far wiser hand and a more delicate and tender touch. Mr. Allan flatly refused to honor the youth's gambling debts, amounting to twenty-five hundred dollars; and, on his return to Richmond, placed him in the counting-room, doubtless meaning that he should follow a commercial career. It was, perhaps, only an added irritation to find that the young lady. Miss Sarah Elmira Royster, who was the first mistress of his affections, and had been the object of his sketches, letters, and verse, was married to another.

Poe resolved on flight and an adventurous course. Whatever his original plan may have been, he is next found in Boston, where he enlisted as a private in the army of the United States, May 26, 1827, under the name of Edgar A. Perry. He was eighteen, but he gave his age as twenty-two; he stated that he was by occupation a clerk; and the record adds that he had gray eyes, brown hair, and a fair complexion, and was five feet eight inches in height. He was assigned to Battery H, of the First Artillery, then on duty in the harbor at Fort Independence, and [page 12:] there he spent the summer. He had also made a venture in literature, and published towards August his first work, “Tamerlane and other Poems, by a Bostonian,” — a small thin pamphlet, issued from the press by Calvin F. S. Thomas, a poor youth of nineteen, who had just set up a job printing-office, and who seems to have begun and ended his career as a publisher with this then insignificant but now famous little book. The edition was obscure, and was noticed only b)’advertisements of its receipt in two leading magazines. There were nine short poems, besides “Tamerlane,” in the pamphlet, but they were too crude to make any impression. The author probably conducted the affair under an assumed name, as the printer seems never to have identified him as the poet of later years. In the fall, Poe was transferred with the Battery to Fort Moultrie, Charleston, S. C, and a year afterwards to Fortress Monroe, Va. He was company clerk and assistant in the commissariat department, and on Jan. I, 1829, was promoted for merit to be Sergeant-Major. Official reports show that he discharged his duties satisfactorily, and won the regard of his superiors, who, when the occasion arose, interested themselves to aid him in regaining his proper position in life.

At what time and in what way he made his situation known to the Allans has not been told; but, at the beginning of the year 1829, Mrs. Allan was lying on her death-bed, and she is said to have asked to see him. Leave of absence was granted him, but he did not arrive in Richmond until after her death, which occurred on February 28. He succeeded in effecting a reconciliation with Mr. Allan, to the extent of the latter's engaging to provide a substitute for him in the army, and to place him, if possible, in West Point. [page 13:] On April 15, Poe was thus discharged, on the recommendation of his colonel, and with letters from his officers in which his good character and conduct are vouched for, and his freedom from habits of intoxication is specially mentioned. Mr, Allan wasted little time in following up the plan agreed upon, and secured additional letters from the Speaker of the House, the Representative of the Congressional district, and Major John Campbell, while he himself, under date of May 6, also addressed the Secretary of War, asking for the appointment of Poe as a cadet at West Point. One passage of this letter shows plainly how different was Mr. Allan's attitude from that of a man who had received a son back into his home and meant to make him heir, as Poe evidently hoped he would do; it is, moreover, characteriztic of the man. “Frankly, Sir,” he says, “do I declare that he is no relation to me whatever; that I have many [in] whom I have taken an active interest to promote theirs; with no other feeling than that, every man is my care, if he be in distress. For myself I ask nothing, but I do request your kindness to aid this youth in the promotion of his future prospects.” All these letters Poe presented to the Secretary in person, at Washington.

In thus preparing for a military career, Poe had not forgotten his literary hopes. He now began that course of appeal to distinguished men to recognize and advise him, which he continued through life. On the day when Mr. Allan was penning the words which classed Poe as an object of his common charity, William Wirt was also writing a letter in which he advised the young poet to seek some less old-fashioned critic than himself to comment on the poem that had been sent for his perusal. This poem was probably [page 14:] “Al Aaraaf,” the manuscript of which Poe also showed to William Gwynn, a Baltimore editor, who said it was “indicative of a tendency to anything but the business of matter-of-fact life.” Poe had stopped at Baltimore, and resided there for some months, making the acquaintance of his blood relations and awaiting his appointment. He apparently had some undefined business relations with Mr. Gwynn, in whose office his relative, Neilson Poe, was employed. In September, John Neal's paper, the “Yankee,” published at Boston, contained a reply to “E. A. P. of Baltimore,” which shows that Poe had also sought that editor's poetical advice; and in December the same paper published a letter from Poe in which he takes what had been said to him with good grace, and appeals youthfully but sincerely for recognition as a brother-poet. He states that he is about to publish a volume, and at the close of the year it was issued at Baltimore. This was “Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane, and Minor Poems,” and bore the author's name. It contained a revised form of “Tamerlane,” and also of some of the short pieces of his earlier book, and what new poems he had composed in the last two years. He sent it to his friends, and went at the same time to Richmond. Mr. Allan was preparing to marry a second wife, and the effort to provide for Poe by a cadetship was renewed. He was now twenty-one, and therefore ineligible; but Senator Ellis of Mississippi, a younger brother of Mr. Allan's partner, recommended him on the representations, he said, of others, and the letter was acted upon at once. On March 31, Mr. Allan, as guardian, gave his consent to the arrangement, and Poe bound himself to serve the United States for five years. He returned to Baltimore, where [page 15:] he cultivated literature by making the acquaintance of a new editor, N. C. Brooks, and getting a poem accepted for an annual; and on July 1, 1830, he entered the Military Academy at West Point, settling at No. 28 South Barracks. He entered his age as nineteen years and five months, but he seemed so old that the cadets reported that he had obtained “an appointment for his son, and the boy having died the father had substituted himself in his place.”

The impressions he made on his classmates were various. One, who roomed with him, remembered his restless spirit and the harshness of his literary criticism; others knew him best by the satirical squibs he made upon the officers of the Academy; but, though his consumption of brandy and his share in the slight escapades of the barracks are mentioned, he incurred no grave censure until the very end. His life at the University and in the army had taken him out of the school-boy world; and while it would have been convenient to seem younger, he was really older than his years, and was becoming mature in mind through his literary genius. The description of him at this time, by another classmate, General Magruder, is the most complete and truthful: —

Poe soon made up his mind to leave the service. Mr. Allan had been married, Oct. 5, 1830, to Miss Paterson, a lady of thirty; and the dis-adopted son realized the difference that this made in his prospects, if indeed he really continued to expect anything in that quarter. At all events, his desire for a military career, if it was ever genuine, had died out; probably it had been only a ground of compromise with Mr. Allan, and now he was tired of barrack-life again, and ready to risk his chances once more. Poe took his measures accordingly. Pending an adjourned court-martial which would meet on Jan. 28, 1831, he neglected all duties for the two weeks preceding, and was cited to appear on that day to answer charges specifying his remissness and also direct disobedience, on two occasions, to the orders of the officer of the day. He pleaded guilty, except to the charge of absence from parade, roll-call, and guard duty, which was one easily determined from the record; and he was adjudged guilty and sentenced to dismissal, the execution being deferred until March 6, in order that his pay might meet his debts to the Academy; and, on March 7, the sentence having been duly approved by the Secretary of War, he left the Academy, having twelve cents to his credit. He had already arranged to publish, with the subscriptions of the cadets, a new edition of his poems, and he may have occupied himself with this business for a short time in New York. The book, entitled simply “Poems,” with the author's name and [page 17:] dated 1831, duly appeared in that city, with a dedication to the cadets and a list of contents disappointing to those who had anticipated seeing a collection of his local squibs. It was made up of revised versions of old, together with some new poems. This was the last incident connected with his military life, and he now again struck out for himself.

He settled at Baltimore, and sought employment of Mr. Gwynn, the editor, and, later, as a school-teacher, but without success. Whether the annuity which he had received from Mr. Allan was now continued is uncertain; but the birth of a son, who would inherit the Allan name, and with it the fortune to which Poe had looked forward as his own, must have made his position serious in his own eyes. He lived in a solitary way with his father's widowed sister, Mrs. Clemm, and her only surviving child, Virginia; and such reminiscences as remain of the years that elapsed till Mr. Allan's death show that his circumstances were those of poverty and his associates few. Among the latter was one who has given an account of a flirtation with herself and an offer of marriage, which ended in the lover's throwing at her feet a cowhide with which he had chastised her uncle, who opposed the match and had written him a disagreeable letter. She relates that for the period of a year, during which she saw him constantly, he was sober except on one occasion, and it was his conduct on that occasion which terminated the courtship. His life, with these diversions, was one of waiting for better times.

The first turn in Poe's fortunes took place on Oct. 12, 1833, when the “Saturday Visiter” — a weekly literary paper of the city — announced that a prize of one hundred dollars, which had been offered for the [page 18:] best tale sent in to it, had been awarded to him. The judges in this contest were Dr. James H. Miller, J. H. B. Latrobe, and John P. Kennedy, and the successful tale was the “MS. Found in a Bottle.” It was not written for the occasion, but was one of several, entitled “Tales of the Folio Club,” bound in a small quarto volume, and written in the beautiful chirography of all Poe's manuscripts, but with especial care. A second prize, for the best poem, would also have been awarded to him, for the “Coliseum,” had he not gained the first. This incident secured him the attention of these gentlemen; and of them, Kennedy in particular took interest in the writer and served him with such kindness that Poe declared he was “indebted to him for life itself.” Meanwhile, the editor of the paper, L. A. Wilmer, became Poe's companion in walks and conversation, and saw few signs of bad habits in him; but this acquaintance was soon broken off by Wilmer's departure from the city, and no permanent improvement seems to have been made in Poe's circumstances.

The expression of deep gratitude to Kennedy, quoted above, probably refers to events just subsequent to the death of Mr. Allan, which occurred March 27, 1834. Poe was aware of his illness, and went to Richmond to seek a last interview, and perhaps to make a last appeal. He was not recognized by Mrs. Allan; and, on being told that her husband was forbidden to see any one, he pushed by her and went directly to Mr. Allan's chamber. On his entrance, Mr, Allan raised the cane which he used to walk with, and, threatening to strike him if he came within reach, ordered him out. Poe obeyed the command. Upon what grounds Mr. Allan's conduct rested for justification, [page 19:] other than such as have been stated, remains undivulged. Poe must have learned without surprise that nothing was left him by will. Six months later, he wrote to Kennedy with regard to the “Tales of the Folio Club,” which he had sent to Carey and Lea of Philadelphia, and the tone indicates that this was the first time that he had directly mentioned his poverty:

In consequence of Kennedy's kind offices, the Philadelphia publishers arranged to print one of the tales in an annual, edited by Miss Leslie, and sent fifteen dollars to be given to Poe. A few months later in March, 1835, he reached the lowest point of his fortunes, and, humiliated by being obliged to decline an invitation from Kennedy to dine with him, because of his “personal appearance,” he asked for a loan of twenty dollars, with which to make himself presentable. On this, Kennedy took up his cause still more warmly, gave him what he needed, and treated him as a personal friend, while at the same time he advised him to seek employment of T. W. White, who had just established the “Southern Literary Messenger,” and himself cordially recommended him. From this time his affairs began to mend.

Poe soon made himself useful to Mr. White, and showed great and intelligent interest in the new magazine. He sent reviews and tales, and also advice. In May, he had a severe attack of illness, and was somewhat incapacitated, but recovered, and worked to such good purpose that Mr. White invited him to come to Richmond and assist him in the office. He accepted the offer with expressions of gratitude for the opportunity of employment, however humble and little it might be; and in the summer he returned to the city, which had so long been his home, to reside.

While still at Baltimore, Poe had become deeply attached to Mrs. Clemm, who had taken motherly care of him, and to her daughter, Virginia, who was even now hardly more than a child. The three wished to remain together and continue to make one home; [page 21:] and it was arranged that Mrs. Clemm and Virginia should follow him to Richmond, with the understanding that he should marry Virginia. She was only thirteen years old, and he was twenty-six; and, on the engagement being made known to their relatives, Neilson Poe, who stood in the same degree of cousin-hood to both parties, offered to take Virginia into his home and care for her until she should be eighteen, when, if she wished, she should be free to marry her cousin Edgar. He violently remonstrated, and returning to Baltimore, took out a marriage license, September 22, and is said to have been then married to her at Old Christ Church by the Rev. John Johns, and to have returned at once to Richmond. This is alleged on the authority of Mrs. Clemm; and though in the absence of any entry in the church records, which were badly kept, and of the return of the officiating clergyman to the civil authorities, there is room for doubt, it is improbable that Mrs. Clemm was mistaken in her recollection. Some collateral circumstances must, however, be taken into the account.

By this time, whatever may have been the cause, Poe had contracted a habit of intoxication, which rendered him incapable during its indulgence, and left him, on his return to soberness, a wretched penitent. It was this which principally threatened his prosperity, after joining with Mr. White in the management of the magazine, — a business for which he had great aptitude, and to which he was through life devoted. Whether Mr. White was warned by Kennedy, who probably knew the facts, or was left to his own experience, within a few weeks after Poe came to Richmond he learned all there was to know in respect to this defect in his assistant. The first outbreak was, perhaps, [page 22:] induced by anxiety in regard to the promised marriage; and it may have been only this latter trouble which occasioned the extraordinary appeal to Kennedy, which, in view of Poe's brightened circumstances, seems so inexplicable, and has always had a significant place in his memoir. This letter was dated Sept. 11, 1835, and is as follows: —

A postscript to this letter gives some messages from Mr. White, in the ordinary style, and contains the information that he is willing to print the “Tales of the Folio Club” for Poe, if the Philadelphia firm, Carey and Lea, will permit the use of their name as publishers. Mr. Kennedy replied on September 19, as follows:

He added some suggestions for literary work, charged himself with the correspondence in respect to the “Tales,” and ended with a request that Poe would write to him frequently. [page 24:]

Three days later, as has been seen, Poe was in Baltimore, and took out the marriage license. He did not, however, return at once to Richmond, as, one week later, Mr. White addressed him the following letter from that city under date of September 29:

Such are the circumstances which surrounded the first marriage of Poe to his young cousin, if it in fact then took place. In a few weeks Mrs. Clemm and Virginia arrived in Richmond, and the little family was again united. It was proposed that Mrs. Clemm should keep a boarding-house, and Poe endeavored with some success to borrow from their relatives to make up the necessary capital. He was married to his cousin publicly on May 16, 1836, at the house where they all lived, by the Rev. Amasa Converse, a Presbyterian minister. The oath taken by Poe's surety, Thomas Cleland, was that “Virginia E. Clemm is of the full age of twenty-one years.” Her mother was present, and gave her consent freely. The bride was, in fact, just under fourteen. It was now proposed that Mrs. Clemm should rent a house from Mr. White, and board his family as well as her own, but the scheme was abandoned. These plans, however, had occasioned considerable expense, and in June Poe applied to Mr. Kennedy for a loan of one hundred dollars to meet a note, which he said was his only debt.

Poe's worldly situation was now satisfactory to himself, and his letters were bright with the hopes inspired by his success. As early as January 22 of this year, he had written to Kennedy with much gratitude as follows: —

To this Kennedy replied with his usual kindly cordiality: —

Poe had every reason to regard his future with confident eyes. He had made a striking editorial success. His tales won him repute as an imaginative and bizarre writer; and his criticisms, vigorous, pointed, and downright, woke the echo, north and south, wherever books and magazines made their way in the reading of the land. He became popular as a story- writer and hated as a critic, and was at least known in all quarters. The magazine rapidly increased its circulation; and friends, such as Beverly Tucker of Virginia, and James K. Paulding of New York, were ready with praise and also with wise counsel for the young newcomer, who was so free with his lance. His reputation as a fearless critic overshadowed his merit as a story-writer and poet, and yet, except upon occasions, he was not so savage as he was thought. Sometimes his contempt was shown by the very lightness of his stroke. He was, too, in these first days, just, according to his canons, if at times insolently just. There can be no doubt that he meant what he said, and had neither fear nor favor, though naturally desirous to make the most of the authors of the South in their competition with their countrymen of the more fortunate parallels to the northward. He was exposed to some retaliation in interested New York journals, and the Harpers declined, as Carey and Lea had done, to publish his tales, which Paulding had sent to them on his behalf; but such incidents were not reverses, hardly even delays, in themselves: he might well wait and feel secure, since he had made the country listen, had carried his magazine on a flood-tide, and was full of new inventions; and then, all at once, he failed.

In the first number of the “Messenger “for 1837, it was announced that Poe's connection with the magazine [page 28:] would cease with that issue. The explanation was truly given by Kennedy, his best friend, — “he was irregular, eccentric, and querulous, and soon gave up his place.” The words are transparent. The extant correspondence shows that Mr. White felt justified in his course, and followed it with as much kindness as the circumstances permitted. Poe, who had begun the “Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym,” left it unfinished, and went to New York, where he is said to have been invited to contribute to the “New York Review,” for which he did write one article with some assistance from Dr. Charles Anthon, of Columbia College. He arrived in the city at some time before June, 1837, and settled at 113I Carmine Street. Of his life in the city little is known beyond the fact that Mrs. Clemm kept boarders, one of whom, William Gowans, has borne testimony to Poe's soberness and courtesy during eight months of association with him. In midsummer of 1838, the “Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym “was published by the Harpers, and achieved the honors of piracy in England. Immediately on its issue, Poe removed to Philadelphia, where he continued to reside for nearly six years.

He was now a hackwriter for the booksellers, magazines, and annuals; but the ambition to own a magazine was his dominant motive from this time to the end of his life. He contributed one of his most famous tales, “Ligeia,” and, later, one of his best poems, the “Haunted Palace,” to the “American Museum “of Baltimore. He also wrote for the “Baltimore Book,” an annual, the “Pittsburgh Examiner,” a short-lived publication, and the “United States Military Magazine,” a subscription publication. His first comparatively important work was the “Conchologist's [page 29:] First Book,” issued in 1839, which drew upon him the charge of plagiarism. The fact appears to be that Poe was selected to father a cheaper form of Wyatt's “Conchology,” which the Harpers, who were Wyatt's publishers, had declined to have made, sufficiently altered to escape a suit under the copyright laws, and which Wyatt himself offered for sale after his lectures. The “Introduction “is a paraphrase of Brown's “Text-Book “on the same subject, unless both Brown and Poe were indebted to one textual source, a most unnecessary hypothesis; and the remainder is openly from Wyatt and Cuvier. The affair appears, therefore, to have been in the main a case of collusion between Wyatt and Poe to outwit the Harpers. It was possibly this incident, and not anything connected directly with the publication of “Arthur Gordon Pym,” to which the Harpers referred at a later time, when they declined to publish Poe's collected tales on the ground of some difficulty they had experienced with the author. Poe was also accredited with a share in a similar book, a translation and digest of Le Monnier's “Natural History,” published under Wyatt's name; in noticing it, he said he spoke “from personal knowledge and the closest inspection and collation,” but further than that his part in it is unknown. In 1839, also, he established relations with the newspaper press of Philadelphia, in which he printed some light tales. In these ways he made himself acquainted in the city, and seems to have soon become a familiar figure to its writers and editors.

In the spring of 1839, he made some offer to William E. Burton, the comedian, who was also editor and owner of the “Gentleman's Magazine,” [page 30:] now in its second year. On May 10, Burton replied: —

This arrangement was accepted, and in July Poe's name appeared as associate editor of that periodical. During the remainder of the year, the work done by him exclusively for Burton, except numerous reviews of light weight, was but little, but a considerable amount of his other writings was reprinted. Of the original compositions, the only piece that need be mentioned was the “Fall of the House of Usher; “”William Wilson” had appeared in the “Gift” for 1840, and all of his stories, now twenty-five in number, were included in “Tales of the Arabesque and Grotesque,” issued in two volumes by Lea and Blanchard at the close of the year, under date of 1840, and widely and favorably noticed. In the first half of the next year, his criticism in the magazine showed greater strength, and he contributed to it anonymously “Julius Rodman.”

Some difficulty arose between the editors, of a nature that must be gathered from the following letter of Burton: —

In June, 1840, the engagement with Burton came to a sudden end. The immediate occasion is assigned by Mr, Rosenbach, a companion of Poe. He says that Burton, having an engagement to play in New York, left the magazine in the associate editor's hands, and on returning found that nothing had been done, and he continues: —

But there is no reason to believe that Poe ever cared very much to serve Burton faithfully. His mind was filled with the project of a magazine of his own, and the present engagement was a mere stopgap. He wrote to Philip Pendleton Cooke, nearly nine months before, on Sept. 21, 1839, “As soon as Fate allows, I will have a magazine of my own, and will endeavor to kick up a dust.” The idea was never absent from his mind, and as he knew that Burton was seeking a purchaser, he may have felt fewer scruples. He always spoke of Burton with contempt. On the other hand. Burton referred publicly, in print, to “the infirmities” of his colleague, which had caused him “much annoyance.” The testimony of Mr. Alexander, the printer, in a letter to T. C. Clarke, Oct. 20, 1850, is explicit, but it avoids the point, while not concealing the situation: —

Poe gave his own account of the matter in a letter to Dr. Snodgrass, of Baltimore, April i, 1841: —

During the four years which, at the date of this letter, had elapsed since Poe left Richmond, he made an effort to refrain from intoxication, and he wrote to several friends that he had succeeded. James E. Heath, referring to some suspicions that Poe entertained of his old employer, Mr. White, had written from Richmond, Sept. 12, 1839, congratulating him on this change, and giving him encouragement of a kind he never really lacked in his literary work: —

At the time of this letter, however, and eighteen months before the declaration to Dr. Snodgrass, Poe had begun to fall back into old ways. Unfortunately, as Mr. Alexander says, his faults were too well known. The testimony to them is abundant; and it is plain that there was no time, after the first year of his residence in Philadelphia, when he had not the reputation among those who profess to have been his boon companions, of frequenting drinking-places and becoming intoxicated in all companies. The habit may have been strengthened by his continued disappointments, and it became marked as years went on; but the evidence to its existence and character from the time of his association with Burton is continuous. Poe afterwards assigned his failure to the year 1842, and it may not have seemed to himself that he was in any danger until that time. The illness of his wife, he said, drove him to despair. [page 37:]

He first gave this explanation in a letter to George W. Eveleth, Jan. 4, 1848, who had asked him to hint at “the terrible event,” to which he had already publicly referred in a New York paper, as the cause of his excesses. Mr. Eveleth published the passage in a Portland paper soon after Poe's death: —

The particular cause of the extraordinary effect of these excesses was the fact that Poe was also addicted to the use of opium. At this time, however, 1840, the whole trouble was in its early stages.

On leaving Burton, Poe at once gave his attention to his own project, the “Penn Magazine,” which was announced to appear on Jan. 1, 1841, and prospectuses were sent to his friends, and advertisements [page 38:] solicited. Meanwhile, he began his articles upon “Cryptography,” which were a sensation of the hour, in Alexander's “Weekly Messenger; “and when, in October, Burton sold out to George R. Graham, who now founded “Graham's Magazine,” Poe maintained terms with the new proprietor, and being obliged, for several reasons, to postpone his own project, he took the editorship of the new periodical, as was publicly announced, Feb. 20, 1841. His first success in this position was the tale of the “Murders in the Rue Morgue,” which appeared in the number for April, 1841, the first of his editing. He had been led to this new ratiocinative vein, perhaps, by his studies in cryptography, which he had kept up; and he continued to work it, becoming thereby the father of the modern detective novel. He contributed criticism and verse, new and old, to the magazine, and helped to make it the successful venture that it rapidly became. It rose to a circulation of forty thousand, but its conduct was never satisfactory to Poe.

He had by no means abandoned his own plan. the “‘Penn,’ I hope, is only ‘scotched, not killed,’” he wrote to Dr. Snodgrass in April, and added that it “would unquestionably be resumed hereafter.” He was hopeful of persuading Graham to join him in the enterprise. In the early summer, he wrote to Longfellow, Cooper, Kennedy, and others, inviting their co-operation. He continually disapproved Graham's methods, and this discontent with his situation was a constant element in his correspondence. He had made a new and faithful friend in Frederick May Thomas, a forgotten author who held a position under the Government, at Washington; and through him he now endeavored to obtain an appointment in the [page 39:] Custom House at Philadelphia, by means of Robert Tyler, the son of the President. Thomas gave him all the assistance in his power, and his old friend Kennedy was also interested in the plan, but nothing was accomplished. His connection with “Graham's” ceased on April 1, 1842, and he was succeeded within a month by Rufus W. Griswold. There was no breach between him and his employer. “I shall continue,” he wrote to Thomas, May 25, “to contribute occasionally. My reason for resigning was disgust with the namby-pamby character of the magazine, — a character which it was impossible to eradicate. I allude to the contemptible pictures, fashion-plates, music, and love-tales. The salary, moreover, did not pay me for the labor which I was forced to bestow. With Graham, who is really very gentlemanly, although an exceedingly weak man, I had no misunderstanding.” To another correspondent, Daniel Bryan, he wrote, July 6, “I have no quarrel with either Mr. Graham or Mr. Griswold, although I hold neither in especial respect. I have much aversion to communicate with them in any way.” The only account given by Graham is that Poe, coming back to the office after an unusual absence, found Griswold in his chair, and at once left, and showed no disposition to return. The latter portion of the letter to Mr. Bryan, referred to above, contains a sufficiently clear explanation of the situation: —

In accordance with the views here described, it was publicly announced in the New York “Mirror,” on July 30, 1842, that Poe would revive the projected “Penn;” and he wrote to various correspondents that he hoped to issue the first number the following January.

During the remainder of the year, he contributed to “Graham's” and Snowden's “Lady's Companion,” sent a story to the “Boston Miscellany,” from which Lowell recovered it for his own “Pioneer,” and sought more vigorously the place in the Custom House only to his own vexation and disappointment. His experience, which he related to Thomas, is characteriztic:

Early in 1843 he had secured a partner, Thomas C. Clarke, owner of the “Saturday Museum,” who undertook to join with him in the venture of the new magazine, which, however, was to be known as the “Stylus.” The terms of the agreement are given in a letter of Poe to Thomas, Feb. 25, 1843: —

With this letter Poe also sent an advance copy of the “Saturday Museum,” for March 4, which contained the prospectus, and also a life of Poe by H. W. Hirst, one of his Philadelphia acquaintances, which professed to be based on information derived from Mr. White, of the old “Messenger,” and Thomas, but in fact furnished by Poe. It was a tissue of misstatement and untruth, and concluded with a reprint of nearly all his poems, except the juvenile pieces, and a publication of extracts from private letters in which he had received the praise of literary men, and in some instances the passages were garbled. In furtherance both of the magazine and of Poe's application for office under the Government, he went early in March to Washington; and the visit became a spree, in consequence of which he lost whatever chance he may have had for an appointment, and feared lest his partner, who was [page 45:] hastily informed of his illness, should take some alarm. On his return, he found Clarke undisturbed, and he wrote to Richmond offering to buy the list of the old “Messenger,” if it was for sale. By June, however, the “Stylus “was abandoned, with Poe's usual complaints of “the imbecility or rather idiocy of my partner.” Clarke stated that he had no quarrel with Poe, and that, the money advanced by him having been expended, Poe left with him a story as security for the amount.

In the summer Poe published the “Gold-Bug,” in the “Dollar Newspaper,” winning thereby a prize of one hundred dollars. He also contributed to newspapers and annuals as well as to “Graham's.” In the fall one number of an edition of his “Tales,” in parts, was issued. On November 25, he lectured in Philadelphia on the “Poets and Poetry of America; “but he is said to have made an earlier appearance on the platform, in Baltimore, during the summer. In this lecture he openly attacked Griswold, in that kind of criticism which he so well understood, and which he had anonymously practised on the same person earlier in the year in the columns of the “Saturday Museum.” He was already on record in the “Boston Miscellany “in a favorable notice of the collection made by Griswold, which he had offered to write, and had been paid for by him. Griswold had just retired from “Graham's,” and it is possible that Poe's connection with that magazine became closer, inasmuch as many of the reviews of the winter of 1843 are from his hand. In March, 1844, he published a very laudatory notice of Home's “Orion,” and by this means secured a European connection. During the visit of Dickens to this country [page 46:] in 1842, Poe had made his acquaintance, having arrested his attention by an earlier review in which he foretold the plot of “Barnaby Rudge,” and had charged him with the office of securing a publisher for his tales in London; but Dickens was unsuccessful in the efforts he made to that end. Home now became a similar intermediary; but he, too, was unable to get what Poe sent him — the “Spectacles” — into any magazine in England. The correspondence, however, continued in a friendly spirit, and was a means of introduction to Mrs. Browning, then Miss Barrett and a friend of Home.

Poe's literary reputation was now fairly established, notwithstanding his failure to maintain himself by his pen, or to place himself in a secure editorial position. His poetic genius only was not recognized; but he had not published a volume of poems since he came to maturity, and the collection appended ta Hirst's life of him could naturally have little effect. As a critic, he had more than held his own, and easily outranked any other writer of reviews, in the opinion both of his fellow-authors and of the public. His favor was courted and his judgment valued, though he was known to err both in severity and commendation when personal feeling entered into his writing, as it often did. As a writer of stories, he could cite the words of many of the leading men of his craft in his favor. Tucker, Kennedy, Paulding, Heath, Irving, Willis, Lowell, Hawthorne, Longfellow, and a host of minor writers in the press, make up the list of well-wishers and appreciative readers; and although his collection of tales, made in 1839, had not succeeded, it had been well noticed at the time, and now the vogue of the “Gold-Bug,” the “Murders in the [page 47:] Rue Morgue,” and other later stories had spread his name and given him true popularity. As an editor, the ease with which he obtained positions and made new engagements, and the success of the two magazines he had been most closely connected with, — the “Messenger” and “Graham's,” — spoke for his ability; and the conduct of such enterprises he looked on as his special vocation and ambition. He cultivated his reputation, too, by seeking public notice in every part of the country, through his numerous correspondents, and by serving them in return for their good offices. He had made a practice of sending his best work to literary men of eminence, from the beginning, and he was always ready to take pains to make himself known favorably, and to use all methods of affecting public opinion and curiosity. He had succeeded by his genius, and been helped by his own management of his reputation; he met on all sides with the kindest reception, and never had to complain of a lack of appreciation; and several of the elder writers had added to this recognition, which he deserved, their friendship and counsel in private life, seeking to strengthen him in his efforts to retrieve the past and secure the future. It was not on the literary side that he failed in Philadelphia, nor was it from lack of good-will among authors or lukewarmness among friends; material and moral support, as well as literary recognition, had been given to him freely; but notwithstanding he was soon to find it necessary to leave the city.

The external events of Poe's troubled career in Philadelphia, from 1838 to 1844, are covered by what has been related. In person, he is described uniformly as quiet and gentlemanly in manner when he was [page 48:] sober. Mr. Alexander speaks of the “uniform gentleness of disposition and kindness of heart,” which distinguished him; Clarke characterizes him as “a genial, generous friend, invariably kind and gentlemanly to all; “Graham, also, bears testimony to this phase of his nature. F. O. C. Darley, the artist, who was engaged to illustrate the “Stylus “in 1843, draws a more definite picture: —

On the other hand, during this period, Poe had publicly exposed himself to those reports to which his old acquaintance, Wilmer, referred, when he wrote to Mr. Tomlin, in words which Poe violently resented: “Poor fellow, he is not a teetotaler by any means, and I fear he is going headlong to destruction, moral, physical, and intellectual.” His appearance and actions, when he was not sober, gave occasion for that different impression of his personality, which it has been hard to reconcile with the recollections of his more considerate associates. In 1841, while he was still with Burton, Mr. Rosenbach says that Poe then spent much leisure time with Hirst, Scott, and himself in a certain drinking-place, [page 49:] and at evening in the lobbies of the theatres, from which they adjourned to restaurants. In 1843, Mr. Rosenbach returned to Philadelphia after an absence, and noticed “signs of continued dissipation,” and in 1844 the state of affairs had grown worse. It is not unnatural that this phase of Poe's reputation should have been more notorious and lasting than that which those who were most humane in their judgment have recalled. Poe's use of opium, it is to be remembered, aggravated the case, and the spells of illness, to which he was subject, were severe; but, throughout, however he may have been known publicly to those who were only friends by chance, he had, at least, a home in which he was fondly and patiently cared for; and of this home some glimpses remain.

Mrs. Clemm, a vigorous woman of fifty, was the head of the family, and took care of its affairs. The house, No. 234 North Seventh Street, above Spring Garden, was a cottage surrounded by vines and ornamented in winter with flowers. Mayne Reid speaks of it as “a lean-to, of three rooms (there may have been a garret with a closet) of painted-plank construction, supported against the gable of the more pretentious dwelling.” It is not certain that his abode was unchanged, but it was always the same sort of humble home, which, when not boarding, he usually occupied. In 1842, Virginia, who had remained a delicate and child-like wife, ruptured a blood-vessel, as has been already incidentally stated, and from that time her health was always the cause of great anxiety, aggravated by the poverty and misfortunes of their life. The reminiscences of her given by A. B. Harris are most vivid: —

Griswold describes the home from his own observation: —

Mayne Reid completes the picture with a characterization of Mrs. Clemm: —

It was evidently a house of poverty, and in it Poe was cared for with complete devotion. His material circumstances, which brightened from time to time, continually gave way to periods of want, small borrowings, and even destitution; more than once the family had been relieved by the charity of friends; and now there was less and less hope of change, — it was plain that Poe had come to the end in this city. He had run himself out.

The decision to remove to New York was taken in the spring of 1844. Poe went on, with his wife, and sent back a letter to Mrs. Clemm on April 7, which discloses with painful distinctness the customary straits of the household: — [page 52:]

Poe first signalized his presence in the city by publishing the “Balloon Hoax “in the “Sun” on April 13. He applied to Dr. Anthon, who had previously befriended him, to use his influence with the Harpers to induce them to publish his collected tales, which he had revised and prepared for the press, and at the same time he gave new expression to his great ambition to found a magazine of his own; he said that he regarded the pubHcation of his tales as incidental to this other ultimate purpose and a means of assisting its realization. The nature of his ambition and its grounds, which was always a common subject in his correspondence, is here best expressed, and the passage serves in lieu of all his prospectuses, of which the number was many.

Dr. Anthon used his good offices, but without effect, owing to some “complaints” which the Harpers had against Poe in their previous experience of him.

Meanwhile, Lowell having undertaken to write Poe's biography for “Graham's,” the correspondence which grew out of this continued the friendly relations which had begun with the issue of the short-lived “Pioneer.” Poe now proposed to Lowell a cooperative author's association to float his projected magazine, but the scheme was too wild for consideration. In another letter, July 2, 1844, he described his temperament:

Poe was now poor, but well, and had recovered resolution enough to maintain him, in his new surroundings, against his principal weakness. “Thank God! “he wrote to Thomas, on Sept. 8, 1844, “Richard (whom you know) is himself again. Tell Dow so; but he won’t believe it. I am working at a variety of things (all of which you shall behold in the end) — and with an ardor of which I did not believe myself capable.” Among the new plans were a “Critical History of American Literature,” and, doubtless, his studies in mesmerism and materialistic metaphysics, which were the ground of some later tales, as well as of “Eureka.”

In the fall Mrs. Clemm made an application on his behalf to N. P. Willis, then editor of the “Mirror,” and he was given a place as assistant in the office. Early in October, his hand can be easily traced in the critical department. He contributed also to “Godey's,” the “Democratic Review,” and his old magazine, the “Southern Literary Messenger; “and he appears to have at least begun some newspaper correspondence. On Jan. 29, 1845, the “Mirror” published, by anticipation, from the February “American [page 61:] Review,” and with a commendatory notice by Willis, the “Raven.” The poem is said to have been offered in Philadelphia a year before, and to have been then rejected by Graham, Godey, and McMichael, in conclave, who could only send fifteen dollars in charity to the starving poet, instead of publishing these famous verses. The poem was at once reprinted far and wide, and made Poe the literary hero of the hour. The same month Lowell's sketch of him appeared in “Graham's.” It would seem that Poe again had a clear prospect of success; and, as his tales now became known in Paris and London, and the recognition of foreigners was added to the praise which from the first he had received in his own land, contemporary fame was secure. In the course of the year a selection of his tales, edited by Duyckinck, was published by Wiley and Putnam, and soon after his collected poems by the same firm; and the notices of these books were as favorable as an author could desire.

He had, however, still to lead his own life from day to day. He lectured in New York, on February 28, upon American Poetry, very acceptably, for he had elocutionary skill and an interesting personality to enlist the curiosity and sympathy of his audience. Willis sketches him, on this occasion, .characteriztically:

He was now contributing to the “Broadway Journal,” — a weekly just launched by Charles F. Briggs, to whom he was introduced by a letter from Lowell; [page 62:] and in March, 1845, he became a co-editor with a third of the profits for his salary. He had left the “Mirror,” and what was known as the “Longfellow War” — an attack on Longfellow for alleged plagiarism — was carried over from its columns to those of the new “Journal,” which he utilized also to reprint a considerable portion of his tales and poems. His name was now in all the magazines, probably because they took the opportunity of his sudden notoriety to empty their pigeon-holes of what articles by him they had on hand, and, besides, were willing to take what more he could provide from his own.

Briggs had been favorably impressed by Poe, and wrote to Lowell warning him not to believe too implicitly what was reported of Poe by enemies, of whom there were possibly many, besides Griswold, who was named. Briggs, however, changed his views. At the end of the half-year, there was trouble between him and his publisher, Mr. Bisco, of whom he meant to buy the “Journal,” and at the same time leave Poe out. “I shall haul down Poe's name,” he wrote; “he has latterly got into his old habits, and I fear will injure himself irretrievably.” Briggs failed in this negotiation. “Poe,” he says, “got into a drunken spree and conceived an idea that I had not treated him well, for which he had no other grounds than my having loaned him money, and persuaded Bisco to carry on the ‘Journal’ himself.” It appears that after a period of sobriety, lasting from the time of his coming to New York to the publication of the “Raven “and his leaving the “Mirror,” Poe had, in fact, again fallen into his former ways; and his actions when intoxicated were of such a character that they could not escape notoriety. He now spoke of Briggs in the contemptuous [page 63:] way which he was accustomed to use toward those with whom, after a period of friendliness, he had broken; and Briggs, on his part, drew his colleague's character in unsparing lines. Poe's conversation is clearly reflected in the following, addressed to Lowell:

Poe's failure, however, was, as before, a progressive one. He had been very industrious in the preceding [page 64:] winter, and he kept up his labors, apparently, well into the summer. But with all this, he made no money. If Briggs found himself a creditor without hope of repayment, it was what all of Poe's associates had experienced. A letter to Thomas shows the continued poverty of the family, and illustrates incidentally the minor point. It is dated May 4, 1845: —

The “Broadway Journal “remained in Poe's hands as sole editor, until October. He then bought the paper of Bisco for a note of fifty dollars, indorsed by Horace Greeley, which, on becoming due, was paid by ,the indorser. He also endeavored to raise loans of the same amount from Griswold, with whom he was reconciled, his cousin, George Poe, and his old friend Kennedy, and must have exhausted all his resources for borrowing in the effort to retain control and keep the “Journal” in existence. Meanwhile, in October, he went to Boston and read a poem before the Lyceum, following Caleb Gushing, who made an address. It was his youthful production, “Al Aaraaf.” The incident occasioned much unfavorable comment, and Poe declared in his “Journal” that he did not think it necessary to give an original poem for the price paid, and had meant to play a trick on “an audience of transcendentalists;” and he added, “Over a bottle of champagne that night, we confessed to Messrs. Gushing, Whipple, Hudson, Field, and a few other natives who swear not altogether by the frog-pond — we confessed, we say, the soft impeachment of the hoax.” The fact was that he had nothing else to read. In New York he continued to fill the columns of the “Journal” [page 66:] with his old productions; and, the end of the year approaching and the financial resources being altogether exhausted, the paper died, the last number being published Jan. 3, 1846; but Poe's valedictory was contained in the previous issue. Poe's literary work for the next year consisted of a few papers in “Graham's,” and of critical contributions to “Godey's,” which began in November, 1845, and finally took the shape of the “Literati,” under which title they continued from May to November, 1846.

These critical articles upon his contemporaries in the same city did him no service, and were ill-advised. They were weak on both sides, both in friendship and in enmity. The censorious spirit had grown upon him, and his reluctance to admit excellences in any but the mediocre, with a few exceptions, was marked. The papers showed an unamiable character, and fell in only too readily with his depreciation of Longfellow and others, to make for him a reputation for ill-nature. In fact, personal feeling entered into his critical writing, in the later time, to a degree that makes it a part of the autobiography of the man. The inexpediency of these articles, however, was pointed out to him, and other advice given, by Simms, in a letter, July 30, 1846, which again illustrates the attitude of the literary men of his country toward him: —

A new phase of Poe's biography emerges in the period of which the other incidents have now been detailed, — his relations with the literary women of the New York coterie. He attended, occasionally with his wife, the receptions of Dr. Dewey, James Lawson, and Mrs. Botta, then Miss Lynch, and was a noticeable, though usually silent figure. He formed intimate [page 70:] relations, in particular, with Mrs. Osgood, — a poetess of the time, to whom he had requested an introduction from Willis, making a desire to hear her judgment of the “Raven” an excuse. He had already warmly praised her verses in his writings and lectures. She described the first interview herself: —

They exchanged verses, Poe having recourse to some earlier lines addressed to a much younger favorite of ten years before; and Mrs. Osgood soon became intimate at 85 Amity Street, where the Poes then lived. She gives the picture of this home: —

This friendship continued, she says, with “many little poetical episodes in which the impassioned romance of his temperament impelled him to indulge,” but much to the pleasure of Mrs. Poe, who thought Mrs. Osgood's influence over him good, and he did promise her not to use stimulants. At Virginia's request, a correspondence between Poe and Mrs. Osgood sprang up; and, unfortunately, one letter having been seen by Mrs. Ellet, also a poetess, it was decided that all ought to be demanded back by Mrs. Osgood. She sent [page 72:] a delegation headed by Margaret Fuller to recover them, and they were at once surrendered by Poe, who used some language in regard to Mrs. Ellet which involved him in gossip and scandal and trouble. The incident was one of the most unpleasant, and is more fully unfolded in unpublished letters of the women concerned. Mrs. Osgood did not see him after this episode. She complained bitterly to Griswold of the affair, and said that after her first introduction she had gone “to Albany and Providence to avoid him; “and she continues, “he followed me to each of those places and wrote to me, imploring me to love him, many a letter which I did not reply to, until his wife added her entreaties to his, and said that I might save him from infamy and her from death by showing an affectionate interest in him.” Such is her account of the course of this friendship, which has been told more in detail by her brother-in-law; but, notwithstanding, she wrote on her death-bed defending Poe's memory:

The next unfortunate episode of this time arose from the publication of the “Literati “in “Godey's.” The paper devoted to Thomas Dunn English was savage in the extreme; and the victim replied by publishing in the “Mirror” of June 23, 1846, which had passed out of the hands of Willis, an attack of equal virulence on Poe, but it touched his life, not his books. Poe was [page 73:] furious, and responded in a “Reply “which Godey declined for the magazine, but got published in the Philadelphia “Spirit of the Times,” July lo, thereby bringing on himself a bad-tempered letter from the author. Poe brought a suit for libel, and won it, being adjudged damages in the sum of two hundred and twenty-five dollars, with costs to the defendant, Feb. 17, 1847. No witnesses appeared to justify the charges.

Before this affair was brought to its conclusion, the bitterest period of Poe's life had begun. In the spring of 1846, he had moved out to Fordham, a little village in the environs of the city, and rented there a small cottage. The house was pleasantly situated, with cherry-trees about it, but was of the humblest description, and contained in all but three small rooms and a kind of closet. It was furnished with only the necessary articles, and a few keepsakes, among them presentation copies of the works of Mrs. Browning, to whom Poe had dedicated his poems, and from whom he had received the kindest acknowledgments. Here, early in 1846, he fell ill, and from this time his health was fairly broken. His habits were the cause of this overthrow of an originally strong constitution. His wife, too, who was even now but twenty-five years old, was plainly doomed to an early death. As the year grew old, affairs became worse, and finally in the winter it came to destitution. Mrs. Gove, hearing of this, visited the family, and found the dying wife with only sheets and a coverlet on the bed, and wrapped in her husband's coat. She applied to Mrs. Maria Louise Shew, who immediately relieved the necessities of the family, and raised a subscription of sixty dollars. Poe roused his faculties, and accomplished some little work, and the magazines again printed his name. [page 74:]

In December, a public appeal was made in the

Willis also made an appeal in his own paper, the “Home Journal,” and he added to it his impression of both Poe's good and evil genius: —

Willis sent this in a note to Poe, Dec. 21, 1846: —

Poe in reply wrote an open letter to Willis, December 30: —

Poe acknowledged later in a letter to Mrs. Locke, who sent him the verses referred to, that in composing this letter, “a natural pride impelled him to shrink from public charity even at the cost of truth in denying those necessities which were but too real.” They were real, but they were relieved. The worst was to come. On January 29, he wrote to Mrs. Shew, imploring her to come and see his wife for the last time. On the next day, Virginia died.

Poe continued to be ill; and money was again raised by subscription in New York to provide for him. Mrs. Shew saw him frequently, and for somewhat more than a year charged herself with his welfare, attending to the health of both his mind and body. In March, he addressed some lines to her in the “Home Journal,” and in December, “Ulalume” was published in the “American Review.” In the intervening months, Poe appears to have done no literary work except “Eureka.” He lived in great retirement, at the Fordham Cottage, with Mrs. Clemm, and spent much time in solitary rambling and brooding; but at the end of the year he returned to the world. The “Stylus,” which he had never abandoned, was again put in train by means of a new prospectus; and, with a view to obtaining funds to start the magazine, he lectured in the rooms of the Society Library, Feb. 3, 1847, upon the “Cosmogony of the Universe.” Willis assisted him by an advertisement, and he had an audience of about sixty persons, to whom he spoke for two hours and a half. The lecture consisted of an abstract of “Eureka,” and was noticed by the press with favor. He at once published the book, through Putnam, who remembered the excitement of Poe in offering it, his intense earnestness in declaring [page 79:] its importance, and his prophecy that an edition of fifty thousand copies would only be a beginning. In this earlier part of the year, he seems to have composed “The Bells.” In June, Mrs. Shew decided to break off her acquaintance with him, finding that it was impracticable to maintain it on familiar terms; and in a characteriztic letter he accepted the fact, while expressing gratitude and devotion to her.

In her place, three other women now entered into his life. Mrs. Sarah Helen Whitman, a poetess of Providence, forty-five years of age and a widow, had for some time been, like Mrs. Osgood, an object of his admiration, but he had never met her. Some lines, addressed to him and originally written by her for a valentine party in New York, had been published in March in the “Home Journal,” and to these he replied by the lines “To Helen” published in November in the “Union Magazine.” He had sent a copy of them, without his name, to her as early as June; and, on receiving no acknowledgment, he wrote a letter to a mutual acquaintance, a lady then in Providence, to obtain some information about her, and the correspondent gave the letter to Mrs. Whitman, who still made no sign. She was well aware that her praise was a marked topic of Poe's conversation in quarters where she would be likely to hear of this admiration. In July he lectured in Lowell, Massachusetts, and there met the second of the three women who were now influential in his life, a married lady, known in his poems and biography as “Annie.” On returning to New York, he went to Richmond, in pursuit of his plan to obtain subscribers for the “Stylus,” and raise money by lecturing. There he met the third woman, Mrs. Shelton, who, under her maiden name, Sarah [page 80:] Elmira Royster, had been the object of his first youthful attentions, as has been related, and was now a widow. He was on the point of proposing marriage to her when he received from Mrs. Whitman two stanzas of a poem, “A Night in August,” unsigned, and sent, she says, in “playful acknowledgment “of his own anonymous verses. He returned to New York, and then went to Providence, bearing a letter of introduction, and presented himself to Mrs. Whitman, passed two evenings with her, and asked her to marry him. She was deterred from accepting the offer by what she had heard of his character; and a correspondence now sprang up between them, consisting on his part of contrition for excesses which he could not deny, and of appeals to her in his hopelessness, while he also warned her against placing confidence in all that his enemies said of him. Late in October he again called on her, as he was passing through Providence on his way to Lowell, and urged his suit. He spent some days with his new friend, “Annie,” at Westford, near Lowell, making rapid progress in his devotion to her, and, on receiving an indecisive reply from Mrs. Whitman, wrote, engaging to call upon the latter on November 4. Poe's account of subsequent events, as told in a letter to “Annie “November 16, is that he had no memory of what took place after leaving Lowell until he reached Providence; that he was in a state of despair and tormented by the “Demon “all the night, and that the next morning he procured two ounces of laudanum, went back to Boston, wrote a letter to her telling where to find him and imploring her to come and see him on his death-bed, as she had promised, took half the laudanum, lost his reason before he could post the letter, and was “saved “by a friend, who, as Poe appeared [page 81:] sane after rejecting the laudanum, allowed him to return to Providence. He had left Lowell on November 2, and he appeared in Providence at Mrs. Whitman's on the morning of November 7, but she refused to see him on account of his having broken his engagement to call three days before, in consequence of his intoxication in Boston; but, after a while, she consented to receive him in the afternoon. He spent that and the following day in pleading, in answer to which she showed him one or more letters which she had received in regard to him, and he went away abruptly saying that they would meet, if at all, as strangers. He spent the night in intoxication, and returned in a delirious condition the next day, was received by her mother, who spent two hours with him while his “appeals rang through the house,” and finally by herself, whom he “hailed as an angel sent to save him from perdition,” and at last, growing more composed, was given in charge of Dr. Oakie and Mr. Pabodie, who cared for him until he recovered. She now consented to a conditional engagement; and, after giving her a pledge of abstinence, he departed for New York, and reached home November 14, in a state, says Mrs. Clemm, “hardly recognizable.” Two days later, he wrote the letter to “Annie,” describing his experience after leaving her house, and proposed to take a cottage for himself and Mrs. Clemm near her, at Westford, and meanwhile begged her to come on to Fordham and visit him. He had not, however, forgotten the “Stylus,” and also wrote to a brother of the first Mrs. Allan in Richmond, asking a loan of two hundred dollars to assist him in this old project.

On December 20, Poe left Fordham to lecture in Providence. On the way to the station he called on [page 82:] Mrs. Hewitt, another of the New York coterie of poetesses. She related the incident in a letter to Mrs. Whitman, Oct. 2, 1850: —

He lectured in Providence the same evening, and remained in the city, urging his suit. He was drinking at the bar of the hotel during his stay, and on the second day called on Mrs, Whitman in a state of partial intoxication, for which the next day he apologized. This was on Saturday. The ceremony was appointed for Monday. On the morning of that day, he again drank at the bar, and Mrs. Whitman, being informed of it, broke off the engagement. He called, with no sign of intoxication, and was received by her in silence. She put some papers, intrusted to her by him, into his hands, drenched her handkerchief with ether, and threw herself on a sofa, hoping for unconsciousness. He knelt beside her, begging but “one word.” “What can I say?” “Say that you love me, Helen.” “I love you.” These were her last words to him, and he went away. Such is her own account’. He wrote to “Annie,” Jan. 11, 1849, that a great burden was taken off his heart, and that he had fully made up his mind to break the engagement; two weeks later he enclosed his last letter to [page 83:] Mrs. Whitman in one to “Annie,” and bade her read, and then seal it with wax, and post it from Boston.

He had, in the midst of these affairs, resumed his connection with the magazines; and “Godey's,” the “Messenger,” the “American Review,” “Sartain's,” and the “Flag of our Union,” a Boston paper, received his contributions. He was again seriously ill in the spring of the year, and wrote despairing letters to “Annie,” in whose sympathy he found most consolation. He visited her again in May, and on returning to New York, determined to go South, to lecture and obtain support for the “Stylus,” concerning which he was now negotiating with Mr. Patterson of St. Louis. He was aware of the state of his health, and requested Griswold, with whom he had maintained friendly relations for some years, and whose capacity for the work in hand he knew, to collect his works, and he charged Willis with the duty of writing his biography. He also asked Mrs. Lewis, another poetess of New York, with whom he had a relation of the sort already sufficiently illustrated, to write his life. He had interested himself of late warmly in obtaining notice of her poems, and wrote to Griswold, June 28, that if the latter would introduce what he had himself written of her in the new edition of the “Female Poets of America,” he would reciprocate the favor “when, where, and as you please.” It is but just to add that Mrs. Lewis, at whose house he spent the next day, was not aware of these intentions. On June 30, he bade good-by to Mrs. Clemm, who went with him to the steamboat. He stopped at Philadelphia, where he had an attack of delirium, and on his recovery went to Richmond, where he spent the summer. He was well received by his friends, lectured [page 84:] with great success, and was generally in good spirits. Twice he suffered his usual severe illness, and was warned by the attendant physician, Dr. Carter, that a third indulgence would probably prove fatal; and he received the remonstrance with tears and contrition, and renewed resolution.

The narrative of these last days has already been condensed by the present writer in a passage that may, perhaps, best be reprinted: —

He spent much of his time with Mrs. Shelton, and finally asked her to marry him, and was, it must be believed from the correspondence, accepted. She was older than he, a plain woman, and wealthy. Poe got the wedding ring, and after his death she wore mourning for him. At the last moment, he still wavered when he thought of “Annie,” who was evidently the nearest to him of all, except Mrs. Clemm, — but that was impossible. He was in doubt whether to have Mrs. Clemm come on to Richmond, or to go himself and bring her. He decided on the latter course, and on Sunday, as is conjectured, September 30, [page 87:] or else on the following day, he left his friends in Richmond, and went on the boat sober and cheerful. After reaching Baltimore, it is said that he took the train to Philadelphia, but was brought back, being in the wrong car, from Havre de Grace in a state of stupor. It is also said that he dined with some old military friends, became intoxicated, and was captured by politicians, who kept him stupefied, and made him vote at several booths on Wednesday, election day. All that is known is that, being then partially intoxicated, he called upon his friend, Dr. Brooks, on an afternoon, and, not finding him, went away; and that on Wednesday, October 3, about noon, he was recognized at a rum shop used as a voting-place, — Ryan's Fourth Ward Polls, — and on his saying that he was acquainted with Dr. Snodgrass, word was sent to that gentleman, who had him taken to the Washington Hospital. He was admitted at five o’clock, and word was sent to his relatives, who attended to his needs. He remained, except for a brief interval, in delirium; and on Sunday, Oct. 7, 1849, at about five o’clock in the morning, he died. The funeral was taken charge of by his relatives, and took place the next day. Five persons, including the officiating minister, followed his body to the grave.

G. E. W.