Text: Alice M. Tyler, “Poe at the University of Virginia,” Book News Monthly (Philadelphia, PA), vol. 25, no. 12, August 1907, pp. 793-797

[page 793:]

JAMES BARRON HOPE, of Virginia, must have had Edgar Allan Poe in his mind when he wrote the above lines, for never has there been an American man of letters to whom they might more justly apply.

The fact that Poe matriculated at the University of Virginia on Saint Valentine's Day, February 14, 1826, and that his name, in his own handwriting, stands one hundred and thirty-sixth in line on the matriculation book, was for years almost unrecognized and uncommented upon.

But the records are eagerly scanned by interested and curious eyes, to note that — in addition to his name — his date of birth, his. guardian, his place of residence, and the schools he intended to take up, are given thus: “January 19, 1800; John Allan; Richmond, Va.; Schools of Ancient and Modern Languages.”

As Poe was born in January of 18009, it will be seen that he was just a little more than seventeen years old at the date of his matriculation. Behind him lay the tragedies of his early childhood and orphanhood; the death of his father, David Poe, during the spring of 1811, in Norfolk, Virginia; and the vain struggle [column 2:] made by his mother, who came from Norfolk to Richmond after David Poe's death to accept a position in Green's company, at the Richmond theater, but who, finding life too difficult, laid down its burden on December 8, 1811, following her husband to the grave in a few short months. Then came the placing of the three helpless children thus left alone in the world — William Henry, the eldest, with his grand-parents in Baltimore; Edgar, nearly three years old, with Mr. and Mrs. John Allan, of Richmond; and Rosalie, the baby girl, with Mrs. Jane Mackenzie, of the same city.

On December 26, 1811, Edgar was baptized by the Rev. John Buchanan, of Richmond, the rector of the Allan family. Mrs. Allan soon came to feel for the engaging, precocious son of her adoption an affection that was maternal, and that proved one of the tenderest and truest sources of happiness in the poet's short and troubled life. In 1815, Edgar went with his foster-parents to England, and was put to school at Stoke-Newington. After his return to Richmond, in 1820, he continued his studies in a classical institution conducted by Joseph H. Clarke, of Trinity College, Dublin, and subsequently by William Burke.

In March of 1825 Mr. Allan inherited a large fortune through the death of his uncle, Mr. Galt. He at once purchased a handsome, commodious residence, near the corner of Fifth and Main streets, in Richmond, where Poe, having left school, began his preparations to enter the State University. Mrs. Allan's loving care superintended the fitting up of his chamber in the new mansion and the placing of his books. She did all she could to promote h's happiness; but between John Allan and Poe temperamental differences, and utter lack of sympathy, had already laid the foundation of an estrangement destined in later years to become lasting. The thrifty, prudent Scotchman could make no allowance for the sensitiveness, the irritability and the waywardness of budding genius. Had there been at this [page 794:] period the strong, controlling and guiding influence of a man who was at the same time a confidant and friend, the chances are that Poe's after life and destiny might have been different. As it was, he was often driven away from the Allan home circle for enjoyment essential to his nature and denied him there. During his Richmond school life, however, through one of his mates, he made the acquaintance of Mrs. Jane Stith Craig Stannard, to whom he became devotedly attached. She was a rarely accomplished woman, with a beautiful personality. Her death, prior to Poe's leaving Richmond for the State University, overwhelmed him with grief and a sense of irreparable loss, and the change to new scenes, surroundings and occupations was most beneficent in its influence.

Poe entered the University a few days after the beginning of its second session. Professor Robley Dunglison was chairman of the University faculty, and other members of that body were George Long, professor of ancient languages; George [column 2:] Blaettermann, of modern languages; Thomas H. Key, of mathematics; Charles Bonnycastle, of natural philosophy; George Tucker, of moral philosophy; and John P. Emmet, of natural history, The board of visitors included Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Chapman Johnson, James Breckenridge, Robert B. Taylor, John H. Cocke and Joseph C. Cabell. The establishing of the University had been the dream of Jefferson's life, he having written years before its organization to Dr. Priestley concerning it: “We wish to establish in the upper country of Virginia, and more centrally for the State, an university on a plan so broad and liberal as to be worth patronizing with the public support, and to be a temptation to the youth of other States to come and drink of the cup of knowledge, and fraternize with us.” On Jefferson's tombstone is united, with his authorship of the Declaration of American Independence, and of the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom, his last title, “Father of the University of Virginia.” [page 795:]

Jefferson was rector February 14, 1826, when Poe made his notable entry in the matriculation book. Mr. Thomas Goode Tucker, of Richmond, a warm personal friend of Poe the University student, describes him at this time as being “rather short of stature, thick and somewhat compactly set, quite an expert in athletic and gymnastic arts, and very mercurial in temperament.” Mr. Tucker is authority also for the statement that Poe first roomed on University Lawn with Miles George, of Richmond. A difficulty occurring between the two, Poe removed to West Range, where he occupied No. 13, in what was then known as Rowdy Row. The walls of this room were adorned by Poe with charcoal sketches; and Thomas Bolling, a college mate, relates that he once found Poe engaged in decorating his dormitory ceiling with a copy from a plate found in an English edition of Byron's poems. Poe's class-room hours, according to a lecture schedule made out in Thomas Jefferson's handwriting, occupied him from 7.30 to 9.30 A. M. each day of the week. The announcement for 1826 states that “In the school of Antient Languages are to be taught the higher grade of the Greek and Latin languages, the Hebrew, rhetoric, belles-lettres, antient history and antient geography. In the school of Modern Languages are [column 2:] to be taught French, Spanish, Italian, German and the English language in its Anglo-Saxon form; also modern history, and modern geography.”

The outline — to borrow a modern phrase — was a strenuous one, but Poe was said to have been an excellent French and Latin scholar, being always able to respond to his professors on a moment's preparation. Mr. William Wertenbaker, the first librarian of the University, states that Poe remained in good standing till the end of his session, December 15, 1826. The two attended together classes in Latin, Greek, Spanish and Italian. After he was free from the lecture room he read Lingard and Hume with his friend, Mr. Tucker; and, passing from history to poetry, gave many hours to a study of the English poets. The library of the University, according to the librarian, was drawn upon by Poe for such books as Rolin's Ancient History, Robertson's America, Marshall's Washington, and works by Voltaire and Dufief.

The Jefferson debating society, organized at the University in the year 1826, absorbed much of Poe's time and interest; but as the year advanced into early spring, matured into the bloom and beauty of summer, and flamed with the glowing colors of autumn — in one of the most picturesque sections of the State, the [page 796:] famous Virginia Piedmont region, where the State institution is located — Poe's love of nature and solitude led him to take long walks, oftener than otherwise, in the direction of Ragged Mountain, near Charlottesville, the University town, where he accumulated material for one of his best short stories, and impressions that colored much of his prose and poetry Indeed, it is evident from the testimony of friends and classmates, and from the subsequent trend of Poe's literary career, that during the year 1826 many of his minor poems were written and revised; and the art of short-story writing, that afterward made him famous, had its beginning [column 2:] in the weird imaginings born of his meditations in the wild glens and rugged footpaths of the mountains he traversed as an explorer.

July 4, 1826, was memorable in the history of the University as the date of the death of Jefferson. Dr. Dunglison, chairman of the University faculty, was Jefferson's physician, and, as the faculty and students attended his burial services, it is reasonable to conclude that Poe was among the number of those present on that occasion.

The time after that seemed to pass quietly and rapidly, until December 4, when the final examinations began in [page 797:] the Elliptical Room of the University Rotunda, under the supervision of James Madison — succeeding Jefferson as Rector — James Monroe, Joseph Cabell and General John H. Cocke. The examinations ended December 14, and the faculty met the next day.

Then it was ascertained that Poe had obtained a distinction both in Latin and French, at that time the highest honor within a student's reach. In Italian, on one occasion, he had been highly complimented before his class. In spite of much misrepresentation, the University records, perfectly preserved, attest that at no time did Poe fall under the censure of the faculty, his connection with the University being severed by the termination of the session. He spent his last night before leaving for home in Richmond in the company of his friend, Mr. Wertenbaker, who sat before a great fire in Poe's room and watched the piling on of things no longer to be needed. that helped to swell the blaze. Poe's humor was retrospective and moody. He spoke with regret of the fact that he had gambled during his University year, and that his gambling debts had to be paid.

Mr. Tucker says that with Poe cardplaying and drinking were carried on impulsively, and never failed to rouse his nature to the highest pitch of excitement. Add to this the fact that, when Poe was but a small child, he had been taught to stand on a chair and pledge a dinner company in Richmond, or at the Old White Sulphur Springs, and the yielding during student life to the seductions of drink and cards will bé better understood.

But Mr. Allan's anger, when he ascertained the amount that his foster-son had lost in gambling, showed that Poe's moody fit beside the midnight fire, before the chapter closed on the incidents of his University life, had a real foreboding of what his errors might bring about. In vain were Mrs. Allan's intercessions. Poe was put at work in Mr. Allan's countinghouse, and the inevitable end of such uncongenial surroundings is thus described by one of Poe's ablest biographers: “Ill fitted as he was for his lifework, undisciplined, the object of a capricious charity that might at any time [column 2:] be withdrawn — as actually happened — the eccentric young lad of genius developed into the sensitive, sarcastic man, with no weapon but his tongue and pen.”

At his Alma Mater memory and tradition still keep warm the name of the most renowned alumnus. A handsome bronze bust, the work of George Julian Zolnay, and the gift of the Poe Memorial Association, presented by the Association on the fiftieth anniversary of the poet's death, October 7, 1899, is proudly shown to library visitors. It has been eloquently said of this bust: “It is the real Poe. Not at the age of thirty-five, not in the act of composing ‘The Raven’ — all this is pure Philistinism. It is Poe — poor, struggling, suffering, misunderstood, longing, but unable to reveal himself; Poe ‘whose heart-strings were a lute,’ often sadly out of tune, quivering sharply and discordantly under a rude or careless touch.”

A tablet to mark No. 13 West Range, Poe's dormitory, was presented to the University during the past year by Misses Bangs and Whiton, principals of the National Cathedral School for Girls, Washington, D. C.

It is not a lengthy task to write the bald outline of routine, in so far as classes are concerned, for a space of one year. But it becomes important, when the testimony of University records is brought out, to right what is wrong, and to free the name of one of the most gifted of American poets from undeserved blame and injustice. In so far as the records speak, Poe was blameless. But the truth is that while at the University he, in common with many of his associates, played cards and lost money. There is no evidence to prove that he was a habitual drinker, or that he permitted any form of diversion to interfere with his class attendance, which was very regular.

The year 1826 can never be mentioned hereafter, in association with University of Virginia history, without awakening a thrill of responsive pride in the hearts of Virginians, because that year is linked with Poe; and, in spite of the many follies and weaknesses that beset his after career, they feel that as an alumnus he is worthy of all admiration and honor.