Text: Charles J. Peterson, “[Review of Edgar Poe and His Critics],” Peterson’s Magazine (Philadelphia, PA), vol. 37, no. 4, April 1860, p. 332

[page 332:]

Edgar A. Poe and His Critics. By Sarah Helen Whitman. 1 vol., 12 mo. New York: Rudd & Carleton. — A generous defence of Poe against the aspersions of the late Rufus W. Griswold. We knew Poe well, having edited “Graham’s Magazine,” in conjunction with him, during the palmy days of that once popular periodical, and we can testify to the substantial accuracy of Mrs. Whitman’s estimate of the poet’s character. She is mistaken, however, if she will allow us to say so, in her opinion as to the manner in which Poe composed. We had opportunities, which perhaps few other persons, out of his family, possessed, of studying his method: and of all men we have known, he was the least synthetical, and the most analytical: what he wrote, was always elaborately forged, chiseled, and polished, never poured forth, molten, to take form instantaneously. He wrote, as Hazlitt used to say Frenchmen painted: beginning at one corner and working painfully through. No correct judgement of Poe’s genius can be had if this is ignored.