Text: A. G. Newcomer, “Mr. Sartain and Poe,” The Dial (Chicago, IL), December 16, 1899, p. 482, col. 1

[page 482, column 1, continued:]

MR. SARTAIN AND POE.

(To the Editor of THE DIAL.)

I have no desire to take part in the controversy over Poe, but I feel that a word of comment upon your review (Nov. 16) of Mr. Sartain's “Recollections of a Very Old Man “ is needed. The reviewer seems to be under the impression that the book contains new testimony in regard to the last hours of Poe which contradicts statements made by Professor Woodberry. There is nothing new in the matter quoted at length by your reviewer. Mr. Sartain has only reproduced, for the most part word for word (though he refrains from the use of quotation marks), what Dr. Moran published in his Defense of Poe in 1885. The statements in this Defense are at variance with Professor Woodberry's statements, but they are also at variance with a letter written by Dr. Moran himself in 1849. Professor Woodberry was aware of Dr. Moran's later version, but naturally regarded the evidence of the letter of 1849, which he reprints, as the more trustworthy. See Woodberry's “ Life of Poe,” American Men of Letters, p. 343; Dr. J. J. Moran's “Defense of Edgar Allan Poe,” ashington, 1885.

A. G. NEWCOMER.

Stanford University, Col., Dec. 6, 1899.

[Surely the repeated use of Dr. Moran's name by Mr. Sartain shows the fact to be as Professor Newcomer states it. Mr. Sartain's use of Dr. Moran's material was cited, not as new matter, but as matter which seemed quite true to so intimate a friend of Poe's as Mr. Sartain shows himself to have been. Certainly Mr. Sartain's acceptance of it lends it an authority it lacked before — EDB. THE DIAL.]