Text: Anonymous, “[Comment on Ingram's Life of Poe],” Vanity Fair (London, UK), vol. XXXVII, April 16, 1887, p. 260, col. 2

[page 260, column 2, continued:]

The Life and Letters of Edgar Allan Poe. By J. H. Ingram. Allen.

NO man was ever more shamefully wronged in life and after death than the wretched subject of this fine book. Hardly any Englishman ever thinks of Poe save as a drunken blackguard who gave half his life to verse, and the other half to acquiring delirium tremens. We have studied Mr. Ingram's book quite impartially, and we are now convinced that no lawyer would deny that the poor poet's reputation is entirely cleared. We looked at the various questions entirely from a legal point of view, for we have never been able to conjure up any human interest regarding Poe, and by treating the whole argument as an abstract one we came to a complete agreement with Mr. Ingram. The hapless, wild singer has been cruelly slandered by a literary person who commanded the market, and who played off his spite on the reputation of a dead man. Poe seems to have been a strong laborious man, righteous in all his dealings, and much liked by those who really knew him; but, unhappily, he could not abide literary humbug, and his knack of saying venomous things about incompetent men brought him many enemies. Certainly, the enemies had their revenge for a time, but we are glad to see an abominable collection of slanders finally snuffed out by a just and clever writer.