Text: Michael Allen, “Index,” Poe and the British Magazine Tradition, 1969, pp. 205-247

[page 205:]

NOTES

A number of abbreviations have been used for works referred to throughout:

Apart from these, the title, publication place, and date of a work referred to will be found in the first citation of that work in each chapter. Edward George Earle Lytton Bulwer [page 206:] Lytton, First Baron Lytton, as he later became, appears throughout notes and text as E. L. Bulwer.

 

PRELIMINARY: THE WRITER AND HIS AUDIENCE

1. We would all now tend to accept De Quincey's view that few writers would have a motive for writing without hopes of “a larger sympathy than that of [their] own personal circle.” Works (ed. Masson), X, p. 232. See Malcolm Cowley's argument in The Literary Situation (New York, 1954, p. 139) to support his assertion that “in social terms the writer is a person with readers.”

2. Contemporary Literary Scholarship, a Critical Review (ed. Lewis Leary), New York, 1958, pp. 403-61.

3. Ibid. p. 427.

4. Tr. E. W. Dickes, London, 1944.

5. Chicago, 1957.

6. New York, 1960.

7. London, 1932.

8. S.E. Hyman, The Armed Vision, New York, 1952, pp. 328-29.

9. R.D. Altick, The English Common Reader, Chicago, 1957, p. 6.

10. This comment may seem to do less than justice to a fine book. But I don’t believe I can be alone in feeling that Altick could, at times, have tried more positively than he did to structure the immense amount of material which he had collected.

11. Love and Death in the American Novel, New York, 1960, pp. xii-xiii.

12. Ibid. p. xiv.

13. Q. D. Leavis, Fiction and the Reading Public, London, 1932, pp. 77-94, 99-102, 102-6, 219-21.

14. Contemporary Literary Scholarship, a Critical Review, ed. cit. p. 416.

15. Op. cit. p. 177. [page 207:]

16. Ibid., p. 174n.

17. Sir S. E. Brydges, The Autobiography, Times, Opinions and Contemporaries of Sir Egerton Brydges, London, 1834, II, p. 208.

18. London, 1957, pp. 175-76.

19. William Charvat, Literary Publishing in America, 1790-1850, Philadelphia, 1959, pp. 63-64.

20. Leo Lowenthal, Literature, Popular Culture, and Society, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1961, pp. 33-34.

21. R. D. Altick, op. cit. p. 85.

22. Leo Lowenthal, op. cit. p. 34.

23. Israfel ... , New York, 1926, pp. 432-33.

24. Mallarmé and Valéry in particular. For some of the other important European admirers, see Haldeen Braddy, Glorious Incense, the Fulfilment of Edgar Allan Poe, Washington, 1953.

25. As Yvor Winters (In Defense of Reason, New York, 1947, p. 234) and T.S. Eliot (“From Poe to Valéry,” Hudson Review, I1, 1949, p. 336) have suggested.

26. C. H. Page sees Poe's general appeal to the French as due to the fact that “the essence of his work is logic. ... “ In particular, he suggests that the “French of the Parnassian epoch especially, found in him a kindred spirit because of his devotion to art for art's sake. The lesser, or lower, Parnassians and the Decadents loved him for his perversity and his grotesque horrors. The Symbolists found in him their ideal, because his work so often seems to have much greater significance than it really possesses.” “Poe in France,” The Nation, LXXXVIII, p. 32 (Jan. 14, 1909). See also P.F. Quinn, The French Face of Edgar Poe, Carbondale, Illinois, 1957, pp. 28-65.

27. See L. and F.E. Hyslop, Baudelaire on Poe, State College, Pa, 1952, pp. 39, 40, 48-49, 123, 131-32.

28. See also J. W. Krutch, Edgar Allan Poe, a Study in Genius (New York, 1926), which takes the same kind of position as Allen's book. [page 208:]

29. Apart from the biographies by Harrison, Woodberry, and Quinn, the crucial documents in the building up of this image were F. L. Pattee's chapter on Poe in The Development of the American Short Story, New York, 1923, pp. 115-44; Napier Wilt's article, “Poe's Attitude towards his Tales: A New Document” (Modern Philology, XXV, 1927-28, pp. 101-105); Killis Campbell's The Mind of Poe and Other Studies, Cambridge, Mass., 1933; and Floyd Stovall's “Poe's Debt to Coleridge” (Texas Studies in English, X, 1930, pp. 70-127). The image permeates most of the extensive Poe scholarship of the ‘twenties and ‘thirties, and a great deal of the scholarship of the ‘forties and ‘fifties, too.

30. Edgar Allan Poe, a Critical Biography, New York, 1941.

31. The Liberal Imagination, New York, 1950, pp. 3-21.

32. Magazines in the United States: their Social and Economic Influence, second edition, New York, 1956, p. 40.

33. Ibid. p. 54.

34. Classic Americans, New York, 1931, pp. 267-82.

35. In Graham's and Godey's, which attained a natural circulation from small beginnings, says Canby, “The Saturday Evening Post and especially The Ladies’ Home Journal were already present in the imagination ... ” ibid. p. 267).

36. F.L. Pattee, The Development of the American Short Story, New York, 1923, p. 140.

37. T. S. Eliot once more claims that Poe has no American roots in his “From Poe to Valéry” (Hudson Review, II, 1949, p. 329). William White sees Poe as the mass-journalist in his article (Journalism Quarterly, XXXVIII, 1961) on “Edgar Allan Poe, Magazine Journalist.” See further Ch. X notes 1-3 below.

38. Contemporary Literary Scholarship, a Critical Review, ed. cit. p. 411.

39. Ed. cit. p. 454. [page 209:]

 

I. INTRODUCTION: POE'S READING OF THE BRITISH MAGAZINES

1. K. L. Daughrity, “Notes, Poe and Blackwood's,” American Literature, II (1930-31), p. 289.

2. W. H. Gravely (PMLA, LXVI, 1951, No. 2, pp. 149-61) traces some of Poe's debts to Wilson the chief Blackwood's writer, stressing particularly the influence of ‘”Noctes Ambrosianae” on “The Raven”; in this he duplicates to some extent work by Diana Pittman (Southern Literary Messenger, IV, 1942, pp. 143-68). D. L. Clarke (Modern Language Notes, XLIV, 1929, pp. 349-36) discusses the well-known relationship between “The Pit and the Pendulum” and “The Iron Shroud.” Lucille King (Texas Studies in English, X, 1930, pp. 128-34), relates Poe's “Premature Burial” to “The Buried Alive” in Blackwood's (X, 1821, pp. 262-64), although it could equally well be related to ‘”“The Dead Alive” in Fraser's (IX, 1834, pp. 411-24). W. T. Bandy (“New Light on a Source of Poe's ‘A Descent into the Maelstrom,’” American Literature, XXIV [1952-53], pp. 534-37) relates “A Descent into the Maelstrom” and the 1836 ‘”’Autography” hoax to articles in Fraser's, X, pp. 267-81 (“The Maelstrom, A Fragment”); Fraser's, VIII (1833), pp- 624-36 (“The Miller Correspondence”). K. L. Daughrity (American Literature, II, 1930, pp. 289-92) relates Poe's “Maelzel's Chess Player” and “Von Kempelen's Discovery” to an article on an automaton chess player in Blackwood's for February 1819 (IV, 1818-19, pp. 579-81), which was Poe's earliest clear indebtedness to the magazine.

3. See J. H. Whitty, Complete Poems of Edgar Allan Poe, New York, 1917, pp. 188, 200.

4. Broadway Journal, I (1845), p. 349.

5. Works, XVI, p. 13.

6. De Quincey, Works (ed. Masson), X, p. 162.

7. On this point, see K. L. Daughrity, art. cit. American Literature, [page 210:] II (1930), p. 289; E. L. Griggs, “Five Sources of Edgar Allan Poe's ‘Pinakidia,’” American Literature, I (1929-30), pp. 196-97.

 

II. THE BLACKWOOD'S PATTERN AND POE'S JOURNALISM

1. See, for instance, Amy Cruse, The Englishman and his Books in the Early Nineteenth Century, London, 1930, pp. 186-87; W. J. Graham, English Literary Periodicals, New York, 1930, p. 279.

2. Works (ed. Masson), V, p. 293. It is true that Hazlitt gives the honours to The Monthly Magazine (“The Periodical Press,” Edinburgh Review, XXVIII, 1823, p. 370), but a comparison of the Monthly with Blackwood's suggests that he was prejudiced against the journal which had insulted him so often as a member of the “Cockney” group.

3. See Josephine Bauer, The London Magazine 1820-29, Copenhagen, 1953, pp. 57-58, 62, 158, 164, 331.

4. See Malcolm Elwin, Victorian Wallflowers, London, 1934, pp. 107-9, 111-13.

5. R. D. Altick, The English Common Reader, Chicago, 1957, pp. 84-85, 379.

6. “General Preface to the Collected Edition of the Waverley Novels,” 1829. Waverley, Edinburgh, 1849, I, p. xx.

7. Edinburgh Review, XX (1812), p. 280.

8. Edinburgh, 13,000 (1814), 12,000 (1818); Quarterly, 12,000-14,000 (1817-18). (Altick, op. cit. p. 392.)

9. R.D. Mayo, “Gothic Romance in the Magazines,” PMLA, LXV (1950), pp. 767, 772.

10. H. A. Innis, Political Economy in the Modern State, Toronto, 1946, p. 38.

11. Later circulation figures: Edinburgh, 11,000 (1824-26); Quarterly, 9,000-10,000 (1830's) (Altick, op. cit. p. 392).

12. See Cruse, op. cit. pp. 186-91; W. J. Graham, op. cit. pp. 274-80.

13. The circulation was over 5000 in January 1827 (Oliphant, [page 211:] Annals of a Publishing House, New York, 1897-98, II, p. 70); over 6000 in September 1827 (ibid. p. 79); almost 6500 in June 1828 (ibid. p. 84); over 7000 in April 1829 (ibid. p. 88); and over 8000 in March 1831 (ibid. p. 102).

14. R.G. Cox points this out (“The Great Reviews,” Scrutiny [[,]] VI, 1937, p. 2).

15. A. L. Strout, “Concerning the ‘Noctes Ambrosianae,’” Modern Language Notes, LI (1936), p. 497.

16. Accounts of sea serpents, ghosts and witches, Scottish legends or German philosophy would draw the socially honorific world of learning much closer to the modes of the popular fiction of the time than did the broad common sense of the Reviews.

17. See for instance, “An Hour's Téte-à-téte with the Public,” Blackwood's, VIII (1820), pp. 78-105; “L'Envoy,” The Recreations of Christopher North (The Works of Professor Wilson, ed. J. F. Ferrier, Edinburgh and London, 1855-58, X, pp. 360-81).

18. See Jeffrey's letter to Dickens of Jan. 31st, 1847, H.T.C. Cockburn, Life of Lord Jeffrey, Edinburgh, 1852, II, pp. 606-7.

19. “Mr. Hawthorne, we are afraid, is one of those writers who aim at an intellectual audience, and address themselves mainly to such. We are greatly of opinion that this is a mistake and a delusion, and that nothing good comes of it. The novelist's true audience is the common people of ordinary comprehension and everyday sympathies, whatever their rank may be. “Modern Novelists Great and Small,” Blackwood's, LXXVII, 1855, p. 565.

20. See Altick, op. cit. p. 393. In 1831, Blackwood's circulation was over 8000, Fraser's, 8700.

21. 1100 according to Blackwood's (“An Hour's Téte-à-téte with the Public,” VIII, 1820, p. 81). Blackwood's may, of course, be minimising the circulation of its rival, despite the fact that it says with apparent fairness that the London “does not circulate so well as [it] deserves” (ibid. p. 83).

22. See Josephine Bauer, op.cit. pp. 84-91. [page 212:]

23. Ibid. p. 71n.

24. London Magazine, V (1822), p. 469.

25. Lamb to J. A. Hessey, April 15th, 1822, Letters of Charles Lamb (ed. E. V. Lucas), New Haven, 1935, II, p. 323.

26. Quoted by Bauer, op. cit. p. 85, from Olive Taylor, “John Taylor, author and publisher,” London Mercury, XII (July 1925), p. 263.

27. See Bauer, op. cit. pp. 66-74.

28. See Bauer, op. cit. pp. 57, 158.

29. H. A. Eaton, Thomas De Quincey, A Biography, New York 1936, pp. 262-63.

30. London Magazine, IV (1821), pp. 293-312.

31. Ibid. pp. 353-79.

32. London Magazine, ns. I (1825), PP. 355-64, 411-17, 625-26. Contributions under the name of “The Late Charles Edwards” appeared in Blackwood's throughout 1824, 1825, and 1826.

33. “The Doomed Man,” VIII (1823), pp. 306-17; “The Suicide,” n.s. V (1826), pp. 302-17.

34. “Mornings in Albemarle Street,” n.s. I (1825), pp. 618-26; “A Thespian Supper,” n.s. II (1825), pp. 340-50.

35. Blackwood's, XI (1822), p. 486; London Magazine, ns. V (1826), p. 94 (“The Art of Advertizing Made Easy”).

36. See London Magazine, ns. 1 (1825), p. 253; Frasers, I (1830), pp. 319-20.

37. “The Editor's Farewell,” New Monthly, 1833 (part 2), p. 386.

38. Bulwer, a Panorama, London, 1931, p. 288.

39. Op. cit. p. 110.

40. S. C. Hall, his editorial assistant, gives these figures, and blames them on Bulwer's advanced opinions (Retrospect of a Long Life, London, 1883, I, p. 317.)

41. Fraser's, IV (1831-32), p. 522.

42. “A Few Words from the Proprietor,” New Monthly, 1833 (part III), p. 1.

43. Colburn retired to Windsor, and the magazine was published [page 213:] for him by his unfriendly and uninterested former partner (Sadleir, op. cit. pp. 289-90).

44. “Address to the Public,” New Monthly, XXXII (1831), p. 394.

45. “The Editor's Farewell,” New Monthly, 1833 (part II), p. 38s.

46. George Gilfillan in an article in Tait's Magazine (XII, 1846, p. 412), quoted by E. R. B. Lytton, Life, Letters and Literary Remains of Edward Bulwer, Lord Lytton, London, 1883, II, p. 292.

47. See C.L.F. Gohdes, American Literature in Nineteenth Century England, New York, 1944, pp. 48-49.

48. Blackwood's, XI (1822), p. 686. Blackwood's was perverting, without any acknowledgement, its quotation from Halleck's Fanny (New York, 1819, p. 35), the last line of which reads in the original “And also, Colonel Pell's.”

49. “I subscribed the other day for the Westminster — the North British — the London Quarterly — the Edinburgh Review — and Blackwood's Monthly Magazine — all for 10 dollars” (Letters of Eliab Parker Mackintire of Boston, ed. P. D. Jordan, New York, 1936, p. 72.). “I fancy it was well for me at this period to have got at the four great English Reviews ... which I read regularly, as well as Blackwood's Magazine” (W. D. Howells, My Literary Passions, New York, 1895, p. 121.). Both quoted Gohdes, op. cit. p. 49.

50. “A voyage of fifteen or sixteen days brings it to New York, and twenty-four hours see it printed, pressed, dried, stitched, covered, and ready for delivery, while here the delay and tantalization is horrific,” complains a Paris correspondent’ of “Christopher North” (Blackwood's, X, 1821, p. 729). The Broadway Journal (II, 1845, p. 122) reviews Blackwood's for August 1845, which “has been republished by Messrs. Leonard Scott and Co. in their usual prompt and accurate manner.”

51. New York, 1854, I, p. xiv. [page 214:]

52. F.L. Mott, A History of American Magazines 1741-1850 New York and London, 1930, p. 393.

53. Democratic Review, XVI (1845), pp. 455-56.

54. See Mott, op. cit. pp. 356-62, 397-98, 504-5, on the extent of such piracy.

55. Blackwood's X (1821), pp. 373-75; X (1821), pp. 262-64; XIV (1823), pp. 507-11; XVI (1824), pp. 158-61; XIX (1826), pp. 284-86; XIX (1826), pp. 511-29; XXI (1827), pp. 409-16; XXV (1829), pp. 734-40; XXVIII (1830), pp. 364-71; XLII (1837), pp. 487-92.

56. Letters, I, pp. 57-58.

57. The Mind of Poe and Other Studies, Cambridge, Mass., 1933, pp. 162-63.

58. Poe to Kennedy, Feb. 11th, 1836, Letters, I, p. 84.

59. See the correspondence outlined pp. 124-125 below.

60. “Tales and Anecdotes of the Scottish Life,” Blackwood's, I (1817), pp. 143-47. “The Elder's Death Bed,” VI (1819), pp. 682-87. “The Penitent Son,” VII (1820), pp. 171-75. “The Forgers,” IX (1821), pp. 572-77. “The Smuggler,” X (1821), pp. 630-41. “The Poacher,” XIX (1826), pp. 5-17. “The Smugglers,” XIX (1826), pp. 5290-48. “The Minster's Beat,” XXII (1827), pp. 329-40. Expiation,” XXVIII (1830), pp. 628-43.

61. “Fragment from a Literary Romance,” Blackwood's, I (1817), pp. 382-87. “Some account of the life and writings of Ensign Odoherty,” II (1818), pp.. 562-67, 685-89; III (1818), pp. 50-55; IV (1818-19), pp. 320-28. “Shakrak and the Magician,” III (1818), pp. 258-65. “The Enchanter Faustus and Queen Elizabeth,” XII (1822), pp. 230-34. “First Love,” XX (1826), pp. 155-59. “The Man with the Nose,” XX (1826), pp. 150-63. “Peter Starofsky, A Tale of Armenia,” XXV (1829), pp. 433f. “The Barber of Gottingen,” XX (1826), pp. 604-10. “Autobiography of Timothy Tickler,” XII (1822), pp. 395-409, 606-623, XIII (1823), pp. 189-98.

62. Op. cit. p. 163. [page 215:]

63. Godey's, XXX (1845), pp. 61f.

64. Letters, I, p. 58.

65. Ibid.

66. Iowa City, 1925, pp. 7-45.

67. Blackwood's, XVI (1824), p. 55; XIV (1823), p. 641.

68. Blackwood's, XXI (1827), p. 214.

69. Poe to Fitz-greene Halleck, June 24th, 1841. Letters, I, p. 168. See the versions of this passage in letters to Irving, June 21st, 1841 (ibid. p. 162), Kennedy, June 21st, 1841 (ibid. p. 164), and Longfellow, June 22nd, 1841 (ibid. p. 166).

70. Works, VIII, p. 89, X, p. 189; XI, p. 101; X, p. 188, XI, p. 5; X, p. 189; X, p. 224.

71. Blackwood's, XXI (1827), p. 110, XXII (1827), p. 105.

72. “Kant in his Miscellaneous Essays,” Blackwood's, XXVIII (1830), p. 244.

73. October (?), 1844, Letters, I, p. 270.

74. “The Great Reviews,” Scrutiny, VI (1937), p. 3. 75.

75. Letters, II, p. 329.

76. Works, XIV, p. 73.

 

III. PERSONALITIES AND CRITICAL CONTROVERSY

1. A.H. Quinn, Edgar Allan Poe, A Critical Biography, New York, 1941, p. 244.

2. Edmund Wilson, The Shock of Recognition, New York, 1943, p. 82.

3. S.P. Moss, Poe's Literary Battles, Durham, N. Carolina, 1963, pp. 4, 246-47, p. v.

4. Works, XVII, p. 241.

5. Charles Pollitt, De Quincey's Editorship of the Westmorland Gazette, Kendal and London, 1890, pp. 10, 17.

6. Poe to Eveleth, Jan. 4th, 1848, Letters, II, p. 355.

7. New Monthly, XXXII (1831), p. 577.

8. Southern Literary Messenger, II (1835-36), p. 517.

9. Blackwood's, II (1817-18), p. 611. The phrase became one [page 216:] of the magazine's catchwords. See A.L. Strout, “Hunt, Hazlitt and ‘Maga,’” E.L.H., IV (1937), pp. 154-59.

10. Blackwood's, II (1817-18), pp. 39, 41, 201.

11. Table Talk, Complete Works (ed. P.P. Howe), London, 1930-34, VIII, p. 99.

12. Blackwood's, 11 (1817-18), pp. 6-7, 12.

13. Blackwood's, II (1817-18), p. 18; III (1818), p. 456.

14. “Z” defends his anonymity by asking why he should “voluntarily offer himself to the filthy abuse of a crew of Jacobins and incendiaries” (Blackwood's, III [1818], p. 198).

15. London Magazine, II (1820), p. 513.

16. Victorian Wallflowers, London, 1934, pp. 109-10.

17. Fraser's, I (1830), pp. 318-20.

18. Malcolm Elwin, Victorian Wallflowers, p. 110.

19. Michael Sadleir, Bulwer, a Panorama, London, 1931, p. 228.

20. Fraser's, I (1830), p. 323.

21. Elwin, op. cit. p. 110.

22. In a letter to his wife of July 1st, 1831, q. E. R. B. Lytton, Life, Letters and Literary Remains of Edward Bulwer, Lord Lytton, London, 1883, II, p. 291.

23. Paul Clifford, London, 1830, p. xix.

24. “Monthly Commentary,” New Monthly, XXXII (1831), p. 577.

25. Fraser's, I (1830), p. 751; III (1831), pp. 713-19; IV (1831-32), pp. 524, 526, 528.

26. “On Preserving the Anonymous in Periodicals,” New Monthly, XXXV (1832), p. 388.

27. “The Quarterly Review,” New Monthly, XXXIV (1832), pp. 105-11. “The Wilful Misstatements of the Quarterly Review,” ibid. pp. 385-91. “Letter to the Editor of the Quarterly Review,” New Monthly, 1833 (part I), pp. 82-87.

28. See Michael Sadleir, op. cit. p. 202.

29. Philadelphia Spirit of the Times, July 10th, 1846, reprinted Works, XVII, pp. 239-53.

30. Evidence for Poe's hand in each of these articles is cited in A. H. Quinn, op. cit. pp. 354-55; H.E. Spivey, “Poe and [page 217:] Lewis Gaylord Clarke,” PMLA, LIV (1939), pp. 1124-32; S. P. Moss, op. cit. pp. 177-78; and seems. fairly conclusive.

31. New World, VI, March 11th, 1843, pp. 302-3.

32. The Philadelphia Saturday Museum, Jan. 28th, 1843, reprinted Works, XI, pp. 220-43.

33. The Aristidean, I (April 1845), pp. 130-42.

34. Reprinted Works, XII, pp. 41-106.

35. Thomas Dunn English was thus called Thomas Dunn Brown in the revised “Literati” essay.

36. See the attacks on Briggs and English; particularly the “Reply” to English.

37. “Thomas Dunn Brown,” Works, XV, pp. 267-68; Letter to the Editor of the Quarterly Review, New Monthly, 1833 (part I), pp. 82-8.

38. New Monthly, 1833 (part I), p. 87.

39. Works, XV, p. 267.

40. New Monthly, 1833 (part I), p. 83.

41. Works, XV, p. 267.

42. In a letter to Blackwood quoted by Elsie Swann, Christopher North, Edinburgh and London, 1934, p. 98.

43. Blackwood's, III (1818), pp. 196-201.

44. Q. Mary E. Philips, Edgar Allan Poe the Man, Chicago, Philadelphia, etc., 1926, I, p. 519.

45. Letters, p. 77.

46. “The Age, a Poem in Eight Books,” Blackwood's, XXVIII (1830), pp. 114-24.

47. Works, VIII, p. 258.

48. Works, VIII, pp. 143-45.

49. Works, VIII, p. 62.

50. Works, XIII, p. 1.

51. Poe to F. W. Thomas, Feb. 14th, 1849, Letters, II, p. 427.

52. “Noctes Ambrosianae No. 29,” Blackwood's, XX (1826), p. 777

53. E. L. Bulwer, Miscellaneous Prose Works, London, 1868, I, p. 97.

54. Poe to P. P. Cooke Aug. 9th, 1846, Letters, II, p. 330. [page 218:]

55. Jan. 4th, 1848, Letters, II, p. 355.

56. Works, XV, p. 264.

57. W. J. Cash, The Mind of the South, New York, 1941, pp. 70, 71-72.

58. “At sight of him, the impression produced upon me was of a refined, high-bred, and chivalrous gentleman. I use this word ‘chivalrous’ as exactly descriptive of something in his whole personnel, distinct from either polish or high-breeding, and which, though instantly apparent, was yet an effect too subtle to be described.” Susan A. T. Weiss, “The Last Days of Edgar A. Poe,” Scribner's Monthly, XV (March 1878), p. 708.

59. See S. P. Moss, op. cit. pp. 56, 246n.

60. His various correspondents and well-wishers like F. W. Thomas, P.P. Cooke, G.W. Eveleth, E.H.N. Patterson, T.W. Chivers, and his Southern acquaintances.

“Certainly,” says J. W. Ostrom, “Poe's ‘old College and West Point acquaintances’ were not as legion as he implies; but he did have numerous persons in mind who had signified their approval of his magazine plans and who had promised their aid.” (Letters, II, p. 441n.)

61. Reprinted Works, XIII, p. 28.

62. Love and Death in the American Novel, New York, 1960, pp. 408-14.

 

IV. LITERARY PERSONALITY

1. “On the Difference between Authors and the Impression conveyed of them by their works,” New Monthly, XXXV (1832), p. 401.

2. Michael Sadleir, Bulwer, a Panorama, London, 1931, pp. 31, 175-78.

3. Ethel C. Mayne, Byron, new edition, New York, 1924, p. 168.

4. Sadleir, op. cit. p. 55.

5. Ibid. pp. 50-51.

6. “Memoir of Laman Blanchard,” by E.L. Bulwer in S.L. [page 219:] Blanchard, Sketches from Life, second edition, London, 1849, I, p. xiv.

7. England and the English, New York, 1833, II, p. 63.

8. E. Swann, Christopher North, Edinburgh and London, 1934, p. 25.

9. See De Quincey's articles on Wilson, published in the Edinburgh Literary Gazette, 1829 (Works, ed. Masson, V, pp. 281-82); Hogg's Instructor, 1850 (ibid. p. 290).

10. See Killis Campbell, “Poe's Indebtedness to Byron,” The Nation, LXXXVIII (1909), pp. 248-49, (March 11th, 1909).

11. A story in the Southern Literary Messenger (“The Doom,” I, 1834-35, p. 235) had referred to Poe's swim from Mayo's bridge to Warwick, and Poe commented: “The writer seems to compare my swim with that of Lord Byron whereas there can be no comparison between them. Any swimmer ‘in the falls’ in my days, would have swum the Hellespont, and thought nothing of the matter.” (Poe to T.W. White, April 30th, 1835, Letters, I, p. 57.)

12. Letters, I, p. 256, II, p. 328.

13. J. R. Thompson reported (in a letter to Patterson of Nov. 9th, 1849, Works, XVII, p. 404) that Poe spoke of himself in these words, and similar sentiments recur throughout his letters (see, for example, those to Marie Louise Shew and Annie L. Richmond, Letters, II, pp. 372, 401).

14. London Magazine, IV (1821), p. 294.

15. According to Poe, many readers made this mistake. (Poe to White, April 30th, 1835, Letters, I, p. 58.)

16. London Magazine, IV (1821), pp. 293-94.

17. Tait's Magazine, I (1834), p. 518.

18. Works, VIII, pp. 284-85.

19. Lamb to J. A. Hessey, April 15th, 1822, Letters of Charles Lamb (ed. E. V. Lucas), New Haven, 1935, II, p. 323.

20. London Magazine, I (1820), p. 666.

21. Blackwood's, XVIII (1825), p. 383; XX (1826), p. 786; XVIII (1825), p. 388.

22. Blackwood's, XXXVI (1834), p. 589. [page 220:]

23. Blackwood's, XII (1822), p. 48.

24. Quoted Margaret Lane, The Brontë Story, London, 1953, p. 63.

25. Works, VIII, p. 258.

26. “On Preserving the Anonymous in Periodicals,” New Monthly, XXXV (1832), pp. 385-89; “Address to the Public,” New Monthly, XXXII (1831), p. 394.

27. New Monthly, XXX (1831), pp. 437-50.

28. See G. E. Woodberry, The Life of Edgar Allan Poe, Boston, 1909, I, pp. 124-25, 130-31; F. L. Pattee, The Development of the American Short Story, New York, 1923, pp. 128 29.

29. Works, X, p. 213.

30. “Penn Magazine Prospectus,” quoted by A. H. Quinn, Edgar Allan Poe, A Critical Biography, New York, 1941, p. 306.

31. October (?) 1844, Letters, I, p. 270.

32. August 9th, 1846, Letters, II, p. 328.

33. Works, XI, p. 206.

34. See, for instance, the reviews of Godey's and Graham's in the Broadway Journal which recommend only Poe's “New Arabian Nights’ Tale” in the former and Lowell's article on him in the latter (Broadway Journal, I, 1845, pp. 60-61).

35. Works, XIII, p. 31; XII, pp. 55, 59, 98-101.

36. New Monthly, XXXI (1831), p. 449.

37. Blackwood's, XX (1826), pp. 54-57.

38. See De Quincey's disclaimer, London Magazine, IV (1821), pp. 584-85.

39. “Fi-Ho-Ti, or The Pleasures of Reputation, a Chinese Tale,” New Monthly, 1833 (part II), pp. 417-22.

40. “The Choice of Phylias,” E. L. Bulwer, The Student, A Series of Papers, New York, 1836, pp. 137, 142.

41. “Ferdinand Fitzroy, or, Too Handsome for Anything,” Miscellaneous Prose Works, London, 1868, II, pp. 236-42.

42. L. and F. E. Hyslop, Baudelaire on Poe, State College, Pennsylvania, 1952, p. 118. [page 221:]

43. London Magazine, III (1821), p. 51.

44. The source of “William Wilson” was Irving's account of “An Unwritten Drama of Lord Byron” in the Gift for 1836 (A. H. Quinn, op. cit. p. 286). Poe's school days in England and his European travels were standard elements in his magazine biographies.

45. “I would fain have [men] believe that I have been, in some measure, the slave of circumstances beyond human control. I would wish them to seek out for me, in the details I am about to give, some little oasis of fatality amid a wilderness of error” (Works, III, p. 300). “ . .. The destiny which afterwards so fully overshadowed me ... ” (ibid. p. 301). Of course, the similar sentiments which Poe expressed in conversations and in his letters (see n. 13 p. 218 above) are themselves Byronic.

46. A. H. Quinn, op. cit. pp. 286, 374.

47. See Poe's letter to F. W. Thomas, Feb. 25th, 1843, Letters, I, p. 224.

48. Poe gives his birth year as 1813 also in letters to J. M. Field (June 15th, 1846, Letters, II, p. 319), and to Griswold (May? 1849, Letters, II, p. 445). In the latter letter he accuses Griswold of a mistake in “Poets and Poetry of America” where, of course, he was following Poe's earlier memo.

49. V. Buranelli, Edgar Allan Poe, New York, 1961, p. 22, quoting Works, III, pp. 278-79.

50. June 15th, 1846, Letters, II, p. 319.

51. Broadway Journal, I, p. 61. He also complained to F. W. Thomas of the portrait that accompanied Hirst's article (Letters, I, p. 223).

52. A. H. Quinn, op. cit. p. 469.

53. Works, XVII, p. 242.

54. Works, VI, pp. 219-20.

55. Letters, II, p. 328.

56. Works, XVI, p. 228.

57. “The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” Works, IV, p. 150. [page 222:]

58. Works, XIV, pp. 176, 187; XV, p. 136.

59. Works, XI, p. 229.

 

V. LEARNING AND JOURNALISM

1. Hervey Allen, Israfel, New York, 1926, pp. 429n., 431.

2. “Our Anecdotage,” New Monthly, XXXIV (1832), pp. 541-44.

3. See the Introduction to “Pinakidia” (Southern Literary Messenger, August, 1836, Works, XIV, p. 38), and the Introduction to “Marginalia” (Democratic Review, November 1844, Works, XVI, pp. 1-4).

4. Works, XIV, p. 40. “The materials on these papers ... ,” said the New Monthly contributor, “pretend to communicate original additions, or illustrations, to whatever we already possess on the subjects they touch on. ... ” New Monthly, XXXIV (1832), p. 541.

5. November and December 1844, April 1846, July 1846 (Works, XVI, pp. 1-28, 28-66, 91-104; Democratic Review, XIX [1846], pp. 30-32).

6. April, May, June, July, and September 1849 (Works, XVI, pp. 135-48, 148-60, 160-68, 168-75, 175-78).

7. Works, XVI, pp. 63-66.

8. See Professor Anthon's letter to Poe of June 1, 1837, Works, XVII, pp. 42-43.

9. March 1846; November and December 1846; January, February, and March 1848 (Works, XVI, pp. 84-91, 104-15, 115-23, 123-30, 130-35; Graham's, XXXII, 1848, pp. 178-79).

10. August and September 1845 (Works [[,]] XVI, pp. 66-73, 74-84). See also “Fifty Suggestions” which appeared in Graham's in May and June 1845, and “A Chapter of Suggestions” printed in The Opal, for 1845 (Works, XVI, pp. 170-85, 186-92).

11. W. C. Brownell, American Prose Masters, New York, 1909, p. 249. [page 223:]

12. Blackwood's, XVII (1825), pp. 370-71; XVIII (1825), p. 380; XX (1826), p. 772; XXI (1827), pp. 106 *-107 *; pp. 112-* 105; XXVI (1829), pp. 862-63.

13. New Monthly, XXXII (1831), pp. 445-54.

14. “Asmodeus at Large, No. ix,” New Monthly, 1833 (part I), p. 61.

15. New Monthly, XXXIV (1832), pp. 423-32; XXXV (1832), pp. 104-14, 409.

16. New Monthly, 1833, (part I), pp. 61, 155-68.

17. E. L. Bulwer, The Student, a Series of Papers, New York, 1836, I, p. 85n.

18. Letters, I, p. 58.

19. Blackwood's, XVIII (1825), p. 383.

20. Works, XVI, pp. 126-27.

21. De Quincey, “Conversation,” Works (ed. Masson), X, p. 282.

22. Mrs. Mary Gove Nichols, Reminiscences of Edgar Allan Poe, New York, 1931, p. 8.

23. “On Writing for the Magazines,” Democratic Review, XVI (1845), p. 456.

24. Works, XIV, p. 73.

25. Fraser's said that in 1817, “to the largest part of the reading public, including perhaps the worthiest portion of it ... the novel, like the pole-cat, was known only by name and a reputation for bad odour” (Fraser's, XXXVI, 1847, p. 345). See Kathleen Tillotson, Novels of the Eighteen Forties, Oxford, 1954, p. 15.

26. William Charvat, Literary Publishing in America, Philadelphia, 1959, p. 77.

27. “Henry Fielding,” in Lives of the Novelists, Everyman edition, London, 1910, pp. 65.

28. “General Preface to the Collected Edition of the Waverley Novels,” 1829, Waverley, Edinburgh, 1849. I, p. xx.

29. “Before 1850, the romantic novel was accepted precisely to the extent that it attached itself to history. ... “ William Charvat, op. cit. p. 74. [page 224:]

30. Tales of a Traveller, London, 1824, I, pp. viii, ix.

31. Edinburgh Review, XXIV (1815), p. 320.

32. Michael Sadleir, Bulwer, A Panorama, London, 1931, pp. 24, 307.

33. “Gothic Romance in the Magazines,” PMLA, LXV (1950) pp. 787-89.

34. See, for instance, “Memoir of Rob Roy Macgregor” (Blackwood's, II, 1817-18, pp. 74-80); “Anecdotes of the Fife Gypsies” (Blackwood's, II, 1817-18, pp. 282-85, 523-27); “Remarkable Instance of Second Sight” (Blackwood's, III, 1818, pp. 18-21).

35. Blackwood's, XVII (1825), p. 352.

36. “Preface to the Fifth Edition,” Passages from the Diary of a Late Physician, New York, 1883, p. v.

37. London Magazine, IV (1821), p. 293.

38. See De Quincey's appendix to the edition of 1822 (reprinted in the London Magazine for December 1822, VI, pp. 512-17).

39. Blackwood's, XIII (1823), p. 684.

40. a “Le Revenant,” Blackwood's, XXI (1827), pp. 409-16.

41. As editor of the Westmorland Gazette he gave the Assize News precedence over all his other material, carefully selecting “the peculiarly mysterious and revolting cases” (Charles Pollitt, De Quincey's Editorship of the Westmorland Gazette, Kendal and London, 1890, p. 12).

42. Blackwood's, XXI (1827), pp. 199-213; XLV (1839), pp. 661-68.

43. See Kathleen Tillotson, op. cit. pp. 15-16.

44. See F. L. Pattee, The Development of the American Short Story, New York, 1923, p. 42.

45. E.g. “The Premature Burial,” “The Imp of the Perverse,” “The Island of the Fay,” etc.

46. Southern Literary Messenger, II (1835-36), p. 727.

47. Works, XIV, p. 73.

48. “To convey ‘the true’ ... we must be in that peculiar mood which, as nearly as possible, is the exact converse of the poetical. [page 225:] He must be blind indeed who cannot perceive the radical and chasmal difference between the truthful and the poetical modes of inculcation. ... We cannot make up our minds to admit (as some have admitted) the inessentiality of rhythm. On the contrary, the universality of its use in the earliest poetical efforts of mankind would be sufficient to assure us not merely of its congeniality with the Muse, or of its adaption to her purposes, but of its elementary and indispensible importance.” (Works, XI, pp. 70, 74.)

49. Letters, I, p. 200.

50. Ian Walker in an unpublished thesis (Nottingham, England, 1962, pp. 10f.) argues that Poe's use of critical terms is often erratic, and that while he often equates “soul” with “finer emotions,” he here uses it more in the way of Locke and other eighteenth-century writers to mean “mind.”

51. Works, XI, p. 111.

52. Works, XVI, pp. 10-11.

53. Works, XI, pp. 53, 64.

54. Democratic Review, XVI (1845), pp. 455-56.

55. Blackwood's, X (1821), pp. 246-52.

56. Blackwood's, XXVII (1830), p. 676.

57. René Wellek, “De Quincey's Status in the History of Ideas,” Philological Quarterly, XXIII, 1944, pp. 251, 271.

58. London Magazine, IV (1821), p. 356.

59. London Magazine, IX (1824), p. 5.

60. Letters, I, p. 279.

61. Works, VI, p. 202.

62. Tait's Magazine, XII (1846), pp. 566-69; Eureka, Works, XVI, pp. 187-91.

63. Tait's Magazine, XIII (1846), pp. 577-48; Eureka, Works, XVI, pp. 313-15.

64. Tait's Magazine, XIII (1846), p. 575.

65. Works, XVI, pp. 196, 216.

66. Works, XVI, p. 261.

67. Feb. 29th, 1848, Letters, II, p. 362.

68. Works, XVI, p. 183. [page 226:]

69. In his own Collected Edition of his works, 1854, Vol. III, reprinted Works (ed. Masson), I, pp. 7-8n.

70. London Magazine, VII (1823), pp. 86, 87.

71. Blackwood's, XLVIII (1840), p. 16.

72. Blackwood's, XX (1826), p. 106.

73. Works, XIII, p. 194.

74. “Notes upon English Verse,” reprinted in facsimile in The Pioneer: A Literary Magazine edited by James Russell Lowell (January-March 1843), with an introduction by Sculley Bradley, New York, 1947, p. 102.

75. Works, XI, pp. 133-34; XIV, pp. 272-73.

76. Works, XI, p. 2.

77. Works, XI, pp. 65-66.

78. Works, VIII, pp. 280-93.

79. Works, XVI, pp. 9, 10.

80. Works, XIII, pp. 45-46; XVI, pp. 291-92.

81. In an article in the Philadelphia Saturday Evening Post for May 1st, 1841.

82. Works, XI, p. 53.

83. Letters, I, pp. 279-80.

84. He told Griswold that neither of the critical articles he was sending really suited him (ibid.).

85. Letters, II, p. 329.

86. Works, XII, pp. 104-5.

87. Works, X, p. 41.

88. Works, XVI, pp. 84-85.

89. Ibid. p. 111.

90. In the anonymously printed review of Griswold's “Poets and Poetry of America” (Works, XI, p. 229).

91. Reprinted in facsimile in The Pioneer: A Literary Magazine edited by James Russell Lowell (January-March 1843), ed. cit. pp. 102-12.

92. Works, XIV, pp. 209, 210, 217-18.

93. Quarterly Review of Literature, II (1946), pp. 333-40.

94. Op. cit. p. 212. [page 227:]

 

VI. JOURNALISM AS ART

1. Poe to Fitz-greene Halleck, June 24th, 1841. Letters, I, p. 168.

2. “L’Envoy,” The Recreations of Christopher North, The Works of Professor Wilson (ed. J. F. Ferrier), Edinburgh and London, 1855-58, X, p. 371.

3. E. L. Bulwer, England and the English, New York, 1833, II, pp. 43-44.

4. Letters, I, p. 58.

5. Southern Literary Messenger, II (1835-36), p. 457.

6. First published, Southern Literary Messenger, II (1835-36), revised for the Broadway Journal and reprinted in Works, XIV, pp. 73-74.

7. London Magazine, III (1821), p. 124.

8. E. L. Bulwer, op. cit. II, p. 46.

9. Works (ed. Masson), V, pp. 294-96.

10. Margaret Oliphant, Annals of a Publishing House, New York, 1897-98, I, p. 420.

11. Works, XIV, p. 74.

12. Works, XIV, p. 74.

13. Works, XIV, p. 180.

14. Letters, I, p. 77.

15. Letters, II, p. 355.

16. July 16th, 1846, Letters, II, p. 324.

17. Works, X, pp. 213-14.

18. Letters, I, p. 279.

19. Works, XI, p. 109.

20. Miscellaneous Prose Works, London, 1868, III, p. 106.

21. “Sketches of Life and Manners,” Tait's Magazine, VII (1840), p. 635. See H. A. Eaton, Thomas De Quincey, New York, 1936, pp. 348-50.

22. Wilson to De Quincey, June 1829, Mrs. Mary Gordon, “Christopher North,” New York, 1863, p. 325.

23. “The Snow Storm,” Blackwood's, VII (1820), pp. 37-44: “Sketch of a Tradition related by a Monk in Switzerland,” [page 228:] Blackwood's, I (1817) pp. 270-73; “The Fatal Repast, Blackwood's, IX Letter (1821), concerning pp. 407-14.

24. “Prospective Letter concerning Poetry,” Blackwood's, X (1821), p. 125.

25. Review of Wilson's Lights and Shadows of Scottish Life, Blackwood's, XI (1822), p. 670.

26. Works, XV, p. 104.

27. Works, XIII, p. 192; XV, p. 287.

28. Works, XI, p. 107.

29. Works, VIII, p. 231.

30. Works, X, p. 37.

31. Works, X, p. 65.

32. Works, XI, p. 247.

33. Works, XVI, p. 48.

34. Works, XIII, p. 149.

35. Works, XIV, pp. 73-74.

36. In 1818 ten guineas a sheet (of 32 columns), after 1822 twenty guineas, according to A. S. Collins (The Profession of Letters, London, 1928, pp. 211-12). See also H. A. Eaton, op. cit. p. 258; Blackwood's, XX1 (1827), p. 900. This was clearly considered to be very good pay.

37. See H. T. C. Cockburn, Life of Lord Jeffrey, Edinburgh 1852, I, p. 134.

38. Blackwood to S. Warren, April 26th, 1834, Margaret Oliphant, op. cit. II, p. 36.

39. Warren quoted back Blackwood's words to him in an earlier letter in his letter to Blackwood, December 8th, 1830. Oliphant, op. cit. II, p. 31.

40. Blackwood was very annoyed when he discovered that “The Headsman,” a German tale which he printed (Blackwood's, XXVII, 1830, pp. 190-216) in a translation by F. Hanlom, had already been translated and printed in a British magazine. See Oliphant, op. cit. pp. 416-19.

41. Blackwood to S. Warren, April 26th, 1834: “I hope, too, you will keep in mind the necessity of compression. I am obliged to [page 229:] urge this on all my friends.” Oliphant, op. cit. II, p. 36.

42. G.R. Gleig to Blackwood (undated): “I return it [a tale], having for the last time still further shortened it. ... ? Oliphant, op. cit. I, p. 485.

43. Poe to Fitz-greene Halleck, June 24th, 1841, Letters, I, p. 168.

44. Works, II, p. 281.

45. Blackwood was very annoyed by De Quincey's criticisms of his magazine in letters of Jan. 6th and 8th, 1821. Oliphant, op. cit I, pp. 426-27; H. A. Eaton, op. cit. pp. 266-68.

46. Lockhart to Williams (undated), Oliphant, op. cit. I, p. 191.

47. Elsie Swann, Christopher North, Edinburgh and London, 1934, pp. 107-8. Blackwood to Laidlow, Oct. 20th, 1817, A.L. Strout, “James Hogg's ‘Chaldee Manuscript,” “ PMLA, LXV (1950), p. 700. Oliphant, op. cit. I, pp. 150-51.

48. Oliphant, op. cit. I, p. 419.

49. Oliphant, op. cit. II, p. 65.

50. G. R. Gleig to Blackwood (undated). “I am tired of the sight of “The Smuggler,” and feel more than half disposed to put it in the fire.” Oliphant, op. cit. I, p. 485. Thompson to Blackwood (undated). “The tale I am about for you is nearly finished — if ever I am rich, I’ll never write a line for any human creature again!” A. L. Strout, “Some Miscellaneous Letters concerning Blackwood's Magazine,” Notes and Queries, n.s., CXCIX (1954), pp. 216-17.

 

VII. POE'S INCONSISTENCIES

1. Letters, I, p. 58.

2. Works, XI, p. 100.

3. Southern Literary Messenger, II (1835-36), p. 727.

4. Works, XIV, pp. 73-74

5. J. E. Cooke, Poe as a Literary Critic (ed. N. B. Fagin), Baltimore, 1946, p. 10.

6. H. S. Canby, Classic Americans, New York, 1931, pp. 278-79.

7. Works, XIII, pp. 33-37. [page 230:]

8. Works, XII, pp. 7-8.

9. Works, X, pp. 30-31.

10. See A. H. Quinn, Edgar Allan Poe, A Critical Biography, New York, 1941, pp. 693-94.

11. N. B. Fagin, The Histrionic Mr. Poe, Baltimore, 1949, p. ix.

12. Peter Quennell (ed.), Byron, A Self Portrait, London, 1950, (foreword), pp. xiii, xiv.

13. “Generalisations upon temperaments that are not essentially like his own [are] platitudes or falsities. He knows only himself.” H. S. Canby, op. cit., p. 283.

14. Ibid. p. 301.

15. “Von Jung,” later “Mystification,” Works, IV, pp. 281-82. “Von Jung” is usually assumed to have been one of the “Tales of the Folio Club” mentioned in the Southern Literary Messenger for August 1835. See A. H. Quinn, op. cit. p. 746.

16. E. H. Davidson, Poe, A Critical Study, Cambridge, Mass., 1957, pp. 144-45.

17. A. H. Quinn, op. cit. p. 329.

18. Works, IV, p. 236.

19. “Fifty Suggestions,” 1845, Works, XIV, p. 177.

20. In a letter to Moore of Dec. 8th, 1813, he spoke of the ‘”propensity” of the public “for The Giaour and such ‘horrid mysteries.” “ Peter Quennell, ed. cit. I, p. 203. In another ‘to Lady Melbourne of Jan. 16th, 1814, he said of his own popularity (with The Corsair in mind) that he could serve one or two people on the proceeds ‘without embarrassing anything but my brains. ... “‘ (ibid. p. 266).

21. “I would to heaven that I were so much clay, /As I am blood, bone, marrow, passion, feeling — /Because at least the past were pass’d away — /And for the future — (but I write this reeling, /Having got drunk exceedingly to-day, /So that I seem to stand upon the ceiling) /I say — the future is a serious matter — And so — for God's sake — hock and soda-water.” Works (Oxford Edition, London, 1904), p. 635.

22. Blackwood's, XX (1826), pp. 99, 776. [page 231:]

23. On Wilson's alternate attitudes to Wordsworth and Coleridge and others, see Elsie Swann, Christopher North, Edinburgh and London, 1934, pp. 86-87, 121-25. Wilson criticises Shakespeare's fairies, witches, and ghosts on grounds of neo-classical realism at great length (Blackwood's, XXI, 1827, pp. 779-83), and an editorial note on the passage (The Works of Professor Wilson, ed. J. F. Ferrier, Edinburgh and London, 1855 — 58, V, p. 157) says, “It appears from a M.S. memorandum that it was his intention to ‘write an equally eloquent answer to all about fairies, etc. in this paper.’”

24. He was accustomed at Oxford to debate either side of an issue with equal skill (Swann, op. cit. pp. 23-24).

25. London Magazine, I1 (1820), p. 674.

26. Carlyle to Mrs. Aitken, April 19th, 1854, New Letters of Thomas Carlyle (ed. Alexander Carlyle), London, 1904, II, p. 165.

27. North American Review, XXXV (1832), p. 176.

28. Democratic Review, X (1842), p. 225.

29. See A. H. Quinn, op. cit. pp. 194-95.

30. Reprinted, Works, II, pp. xxxvi-xxxix. See T. O. Mabbott, “On Poe's Tales of the Folio Club,” Sewanee Review[[,]] XXXVI (1928), pp. 171-76.

31. See A. H. Quinn, op. cit. pp. 745-46.

32. See A. H. Quinn, op. cit. p. 215.

33. Poe to H. Hall, Sept. 2nd, 1836, Letters, I, p. 103.

34. See A.H. Quinn, op. cit. pp. 745-46; Mabbott, op. cit. Sewanee Review, XXXVI (1928), pp. 174-75.

35. “The Devil was in It,” American Mercury, XXIV (1931), pp. 215-20.

36. Leslie A. Fiedler, Love and Death in the American Novel, New York, 1960, p. 408.

37. Letters, I, p. 58.

38. Works, XVII, p. 28.

39. Poe to Kennedy, Feb. 11th, 1836, Letters, I, p. 84.

40. Paulding to White, March 3rd, 1836, Works, XVII, p. 377. [page 232:]

41. Poe to H. Hall, Sept. 2nd, 1836, Letters, I, p. 103. This view of the early tales has attained wide modern currency. E. H. Davidson takes it for granted (op. cit. pp. 137-38) following J. S. Wilson (“The Devil was in It,” American Mercury, XXIV, 1931, pp. 215-20).

42. This stylistic quality is Clark Griffith's primary evidence for his brilliant but perverse view that “Ligeia” is a kind of burlesque (“Poe's ‘Ligeia’ and the English Romantics,” University of Toronto Quarterly, XXIV, 1954-55, pp. 8-25).

43. Letters, I, p. 118.

44. Works, II, pp. 380, 381. Disraeli’‘s Contarini Fleming was sub-titled “A Psychological Autobiography,” and this may be where Poe picked up the phrase. But Bulwer and De Quincey are the principal influences on the piece. Poe may have thought the phrase a suitable one to suggest vaguely that the piece was a parody of all three British writers, rather than a serious piece of writing influenced by them.

45. Works, II, p. 275.

46. Works, II, p. 277.

47. Ibid. p. 271.

48. Works, XI, p. 109.

 

VIII. POE AND THE AMERICAN REALITY

1. Margaret Fuller Ossoli, Art, Literature and the Drama (Works, ed. Arthur B. Fuller, Vol. V), Boston, 1860, p. 314.

2. E.g. The Museum of Foreign Literature and Science, The Albion, etc. See F. L. Mott, A History of American Magazines, 1741-1850, New York and London, 1930, pp. 397-98.

3. See F. L. Mott, op. cit. p. 505.

4. New York Mirror, VI, p. 151 (Nov. 15th, 1828), quoted and endorsed by Mott, op. cit. p. 341.

5. Hervey Allen, Israfel, New York, 1926, pp. 430-31.

6. W. Charvat, Literary Publishing in America, 1790-1850, Philadelphia, 1959, p. 19. [page 233:]

7. The Saturday Evening Post was central to the new movement: G. R. Graham already had an interest in it when he bought Burton's Gentleman's Magazine to inaugurate “Graham's Lady's and Gentleman's Magazine (The Casket and Gentleman's United), embracing every department of literature; embellished with engravings, fashions, and music, arranged for the piano-forte, harp, and guitar” (Title Page to Vol. XVIII, 1841).

8. Quoted by J. P. Wood, Magazines in the United States, New York, 1956, p. 53.

9. Godey's, VIII (1834), pp. 59-60; XVI (1838), pp. 74-79; XVIII (1839), pp. 1-4.

10. Godey's, IX (1834), p. 75; p- 155; VIII (1834), p. 199; XI (1835), p. 120; XII (1836), p. 84.

11. Godey's, VIII (1834), p. 301.

12. Godey's, VIII (1834), pp. 40-43.

13. Godey's, XVI (1838), pp. 33-40, 49-53, 145-53.

14. Godey's, XV (1837), pp. 65-68.

15. W. Charvat, op. cit. pp. 24-27.

16. Works, XVII, p. 66.

17. See W. J. Cash, The Mind of the South, New York, 1941, pp. 3-99.

18. J. B. Hubbell, op. cit. p. 212.

19. W. J. Cash, op. cit. p. 72.

20. Scott said that he was never a partisan of his own poetry (J. G. Lockhart, Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott Bart., Edinburgh, 1852, p. 195), and told his daughter not to read The Lady of the Lake as it was “bad poetry” (ibid. p. 196).

21. “Henry Fielding,” Lives of the Novelists, Everyman edition, London, 1910, p. 65.

22. “It has often happened that those who have been best received in their own time, have also continued to be acceptable to posterity.” The Fortunes of Nigel, London, 1892, I, p. xxxviii.

23. Lockhart expressed the generally felt amazement that “the man who was writing the Waverley romances at the rate of nearly [page 234:] twelve volumes in the year, could continue, week after week, and month after month to devote” afternoon, evening, and nearly all morning to gentlemanly activities and the entertainment of his guests (op. cit. p. 431). A writer in the New Monthly (VIII, 1823, pp. 83-84) suggested that since he was always seen in this role, he must employ hacks to write the bulk of the novels.

24. “It is most essential that the whole of the Waverley Novels should be kept under our management, as it is called. I may then give them a new impulse by a preface and notes; ... an edition of say 30 volumes ... if the shops were once cleared of the over-glut ... would bring in £10,000 clear profit over all outlay. ... Death (my own I mean) would improve the property, since an edition with a Life would sell like wildfire.” Sir Walter Scott's Journal 1825-32, Edinburgh, 1891, pp. 481, 500.

25. In his diary, August 11th, 1834. Memoirs, Journal and Correspondence of Thomas Moore (ed. John Russell), London, 1853, VII, p. 46.

26. Sir S. E. Brydges, The Autobiography, Times, Opinions and Contemporaries of Sir Egerton Brydges, London, 1834, I, p. 326; II, pp. 202, 203, 208.

27. After a youth of aristocratic leisure, he was deprived of his mother's allowance when he married against her will, and had to make a living by writing. (Michael Sadleir, Bulwer, A Panorama, London, 1931, pp. 98-103.)

28. In an early project he wrote, “Authors moderately popular in their time” were “generally the most durable. Books that enchant the public, and theories that enchant the public have seldom kept their ground.” “Scheme for a History of the British Public,” 1824, quoted by E.R. B. Lytton, Life, Letters and Literary Remains of Edward Bulwer, Lord Lytton, London, 1883, I, p. 261.

29. “ ... The work which is largely and permanently popular — which sways, moulds, and softens the universal heart — cannot [page 235:] appeal to vulgar and unworthy passions.” “On the Death of Sir Walter Scott,” New Monthly, XXXV (1832), p. 302.

30. New Monthly, XVI, (1826), p. 61.

31. Southern Quarterly Review, VII (n.s., 1853), pp. 486, 488.

32. Kennedy to White, April 13th, 1835, Works, VIII, p. vi.

33. Poe to J. P. Kennedy (undated, 1835), Letters, I, pp. 56-57.

34. Quoted by A. H. Quinn, Edgar Allan Poe, A Critical Biography, New York, 1941, p. 481.

35. See his “Dedication” of The Siamese Twins to his mother, The Siamese Twins, London, 1831, pp. v, xvi.

36. Works, VIII, p. 322.

37. Poe to Charles Anthon, October (?), 1844, Letters, I, p. 268.

38. Works, VIII, p. 3; VIII, p. 73; IX, p. 168; X, p. 197; XI, p. 11; X, p. 197; VIII, pp. 122-23; VIII, p. 51.

39. L. L. Schücking, The Sociology of Literary Taste, tr. E. W. Dickes, London, 1944, p. 22.

40. E.g. “The Bloomsbury Christening,” Godey's, IX (1834), pp. 14-17; “The Boarding House,” Godey's IX (1834), pp. 157- 61, 256-61; “The Steam Excursion,” Godey's, X (1835), pp. 86-92. The only story of the older type appearing in Godey's after 1834 seems to be “The Metempsychosis,” Godey's, X (1835), p. 148-58, reprinted from Blackwood's, XIX (1826), pp. 511-29.

41. Southern Literary Messenger, I (1834), pp. 387, 460.

42. June 22nd, 1835, J. A. Harrison Life of Edgar Allan Poe, New York, 1902-3, p. 125.

43. Works, XVII, p. 48.

44. Quoted by A. H. Quinn, op. cit. p. 203.

45. Paulding to White, March 3rd, 1836, Works, XVII, p. 377.

46. Quoted by A. H. Quinn, op. cit. p. 251.

47. Kennedy to Poe, Dec. 22nd, 1834, Works, XVII, p. 3.

48. Paulding to White, March 3rd, 1836, Works, XVII, p. 378.

49. Works, XVI, p. 121.

50. In a letter to T. W. White of March 3rd, 1836, J. K. Paulding had suggested earlier that Poe should “apply his fine humor, [page 236:] and his extensive acquirements ... to the faults and foibles of our own people. ... ” (Works, XVII, p. 378).

51. Reproduced in Mary E. Philips, Edgar Allan Poe, the Man, Chicago, Philadelphia, etc., 1926, I, p. 671.

52. The publication of this story in 1841 and Poe's reference to it in a letter to Snodgrass of that year (Letters, I, p. 175) support this date for it against Latrobe's earlier dating. See A. H. Quinn, op. cit. pp. 313, 746; G. E. Woodberry, The Life of Edgar Allan Poe ... , Boston, 1909, I, p. 284, II, p. 403; Killis Campbell, “A Word of Explanation,” American Literature, VII (1935-36), p. 464.

53. Works, II, pp. 6-7, p. 238.

54. See such passages in the later criticism as those found in Works, X, pp. 85-86; XI, p. 250; XIII, pp. 140-41, 155-57.

55. Works, XII, p. 6.

56. Southern Literary Messenger, II (1835-36), p. I.

57. Works, XI, p. 39.

58. Works, XIII, p. 175; XII, p. 103.

59. Graham's, June 1841, Works, X, p. 156.

60. Works, XI, pp. 255-56.

61. Works, IX, p. 153; XI, p. 24.

62. Works, VIII, p. 318; X, p. 191; X, pp. 66-67; XI, p. 242; XII,:p. 147.

63. Works, XI, pp. 39-41.

64. Works, XV, p. 247.

65. Works, XI, pp. 86-89.

66. Graham's, March 1844, Works, XI, p. 258.

67. Godey's, April 1846, Works, XIII, pp. 126-128.

68. Works, XV, pp. 2-4.

69. See letters to J. M. Field, June 15th, 1846 (Letters, II, pp. 319-20); P. P. Cooke, August 9th, 1846 (ibid. p. 329); E. A. Duyckinck, Dec. 30th, 1846 (ibid. p. 336); A. Ramsay, Dec. 30th, 1846 (ibid. p. 337). On December 15th, Poe told Eveleth that the review was to appear in Godey's for January 1847 (Letters, II, p. 333). He claims to have been ill for “more than six months,” and to have been, since recovering, [page 237:] preoccupied with the “business” which had accumulated (ibid. p. 331), among which, we may assume, was the Hawthorne review.

70. Works, XIII, p. 143.

71. Mrs. Mary Gove Nichols spoke of the “quiet exultation” with which Poe read the letter when she visited him. Reminiscences of Edgar Allan Poe, New York, 1931, p. 9.

72. April 1846, Works, XVII, p. 229.

73. Works, XIII, p. 149.

74. Studies in Classic American Literature, New York, 1923, p. 6.

75. Democratic Review, I (1837-38), p. 4, p. 15.

76. Edinburgh Review, XXXIII (1820), p. 79.

77. Knickerbocker, II (1833), pp. 5, 7

78. F. L. Mott, op. cit. p. 390.

79. North American Review, LXIX (1849), pp. 202, 207-8.

80. Works, XI, p. 2.

81. Works, VIII, pp. 258, 261.

82. Works, VIII, pp. 276-77.

83. Works, XI, pp. 1-2.

84. See, for instance, the final estimation of George Balcombe (Works, IX, pp. 264-65); Tortesa, the Usurer (Works, X, p. 30).

85. See, for instance, Works, X11, p. 185; XIII, p. 200.

86. Works, XIII, pp. 96-97.

87. Works, XI, p. 16.

88. Poe to J. E. Snodgrass, Sept. 11th, 1839, Letters, I, p. 116.

89. Poe's memo to Griswold of 1841 (J. A. Harrison, op. cit. Appendix p. 346), and the notes given to H. B. Hirst for his article in the Philadelphia Saturday Museum (quoted by A. H. Quinn, op. cit. p. 374). Killis Campbell records (The Mind of Poe and other Studies, Cambridge, Mass., 1933, pp. 222-23) some of the fruitless research that has been done in trying to locate Poe's articles in Blackwood's, the most extensive being that of Mrs. Mary Philips, op. cit. pp. 287-90, 591-93, 712-13, 720-31.

90. In his letter of July 9th, 1848, Eveleth accused Poe of writing [page 238:] the Blackwood's “American Library” review of his own tales (LXII, 1847, pp. 574-92), and asked if he also wrote an article on the North American Review in the same issue (“American Copyright,” Blackwood's, LXII, Nov. 1847, pp. 534-46.) Phillips, op. cit. II, p. 1233.

91. Graham's, XX (1842), p. 72.

92. Broadway Journal, January 4th and 11th, 1845, Works, XII, pp. 1-35.

93. Ibid. p. 13.

94. Broadway Journal, Sept. 6th, 1845, Works, XII, pp. 239-41.

95. Ibid. p. 240.

96. Works, XVI, p. 100.

97. Broadway Journal, II, pp. 199-200, pp. 404, 407.

 

IX. POE'S POPULARITY

1. Poe to Anthon, October 1844, Letters, I, p. 269.

2. Poe to Daniel Bryan, July 6th, 1842, Letters, I, p. 205.

3. To A. H. Smyth for publication in his Philadelphia Magazines and their Contributors. (J. A. Harrison, Life of Edgar Allan Poe, New York, 1902-3, p. 139.)

4. G. R. Graham, “The Late Edgar Allen [[Allan]] Poe,” Graham's Magazine[[,]] XXXVI (1850), p. 226, quoted by J. A. Harrison, op. cit. p. 407.

5. William Charvat, Literary Publishing in America, 1790-1850, Philadelphia, 1959, p. 25.

6. Graham did not pay top prices to Lowell, and explained to Longfellow in a letter of June 7th, 1844:

7. See A. H. Quinn, Edgar Allan Poe, A Critical Biography, New York, 1941, p. 341n.; F. L. Mott, A History of American Magazines, 1741-1850, New York and London, 1930, pp. 506-7.

8. G. R. Graham, “The Late Edgar Allan Poe,” Graham's, XXXVI (1850), p. 225. Quoted by J. A. Harrison, op. cit. p. 405.

9. Classics and Commercials, New York, 1950, p. 112

10. See F. L. Mott, op. cit. pp. 504-6.

11. See p. 189 below.

12. Israfel, New York, 1926, pp. 431-320.

13. Review of the poems of Frances Sargent Osgood, Godey's, March 1846, Works, XIII, pp. 106, 110-111.

14. The Mind of Poe and Other Studies, Cambridge, Mass., 1933, p. 37.

15. According to H.C. Lea, the publisher (New York Nation, XXXI, p. 408, Dec. 9th, 1880), less than 750 copies of the Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque of 1840 (the whole edition) were sold during the first three years after publication. A. H. Quinn questions this figure, pointing out that the publishers suggested “a Small Ed. say 1750 copies” in their letter to Poe (Quinn, op.cit. pp. 288-89).

16. See p. 67 above.

17. Letters, II, pp. 319, 327.

18. Poe to Eveleth, Jan. 4th, 1848, Letters, II, p. 357.

19. See A. H. Quinn, op. cit. pp. 467-68, 516-20.

20. American Review, II (1845), pp. 306-9.

21. “Marginalia,” Southern Literary Messenger, April 1849; Works, XVI, p. 145.

22. See A. H. Quinn, op. cit. p. 480.

23. See Poe's letter to E. A. Duyckinck of Jan. 8th, 1846 (Letters, II, pp. 309-10).

24. Works, XVI, p. 69. [page 240:]

25. Works, XIII, pp. 145-46.

26. Works, X, pp. 210-11; pp. 197-98; XI, p. 205.

27. “The popular author is always the one who expresses the people's minds and paraphrases what they consider their private feelings” (James D. Hart, The Popular Book, New York, 1950, p. 285). That the popular writer for the magazines “is identical with his public in background of taste and intellectual environment,” is argued convincingly by Q. D. Leavis, Fiction and the Reading Public, London, 1932, p. 42.

28. American Prose Masters, New York, 1909, p. 222.

29. “The tale proper, in our opinion, affords unquestionably the fairest field for the exercise of the loftiest talent, which can be afforded by the wide domains of mere prose. ... The ordinary novel is objectionable, from its length. ... As it cannot be read at one sitting, it deprives itself ... of the immense force derivable from totality.” (Works, XI, pp. 106-7.)

30. Works, IX, p. 205.

31. Works, XVI, pp. 10-11.

32. Symbolism and American Literature, Chicago, 1953, p. 37.

33. Killis Campbell, op. cit. p. 37.

34. Talisman and Odd Fellow's Magazine, I, p. 105 (September 1846); quoted by Campbell, op. cit. p. 59.

35. New York Mirror, XIII, pp. 324-25 (April 9th, 1836).

36. Knickerbocker, XXVII (1846), p. 461.

37. Quoted by Campbell, op. cit. pp. 57-58.

38. In Holden's Dollar Magazine, Jan. 1849. Reproduced in Mary E. Philips, Edgar Allan Poe, The Man, Chicago, Philadelphia etc., 1926, II, p. 1371.

39. Quoted Works, VIII, pp. xii-xv.

40. J. E. Cooke, Poe as a Literary Critic, 1850-51 (ed. N.B. Fagin), Baltimore, 1946, p. 6.

41. Snodgrass in Baltimore Saturday Visiter, April 2nd, 1842. Quoted by Campbell, op. cit., p. 58.

42. Lowell in Graham's, XXVII, pp. 49-50.

43. John R. Thompson, Southern Literary Messenger, XV (1849), p. 694, quoted by Harrison, Life, p. 394. [page 241:]

44. Works, XIII, p. 31.

45. “Editor's Book Table,” Godey's, XXXII (1846), p. 240; p. 288; XXXIII (1846), p. 144.

46. “Reply to Mr. English and Others,” Works, XVII, p. 240.

47. England and the English, New York, 1833, II, pp. 20-21.

48. Mrs. Mary Gordon, “Christopher North”, New York, 1863, p. 159.

49. “On Writing for the Magazines,” Democratic Review, XVI (1845), p. 457.

50. The Philadelphia Spirit of the Times, July 10th, 1846. See Poe's angry letter to Godey of July 16th, 1846 (Letters, II, pp. 323-24).

51. Works, XVII, pp. 261-62.

52. London Magazine, 1 (1820), pp. 380, 381.

53. Poe as a Literary Critic (ed. N. B. Fagin), Baltimore, 1946. It is approximately dated by the editor in 1850 or 1851 (ed. cit. p. vi).

54. Ibid. pp. 1-2, 6.

55. See N. B. Fagin's comments on the extent of Griswold's influence on Cooke, ed. cit. pp. v-vi, 3-7 (notes).

56. Ibid. pp. 6-7, 13.

57. In the letter to the Richmond Courier and Daily Compiler of Sept. 2nd, 1836 (reprinted Works, VIII, pp. xii-xv), and in the Broadway Journal, March 29th, 1845 (Works, XII pp. 85-86).

58. Lowell, “Edgar Allan Poe” (Graham's Magazine, Feb. 1845), reprinted J. A. Harrison, op. cit. (Appendix), pp. 368, 370.

59. Quoted by A. H. Quinn, op. cit. p. 307.

60. Works, XII, pp. 84-85.

61. Part II of The Principles of Nature, Her Divine Revelations and A Voice to Mankind, New York, 1847.

62. Godey's, February 1849. In a prefatory letter “To the Editor of the Lady's Book” he called the tale “a translation, by my friend Martin Van Buren Mavis (sometimes called the ‘Poughkeepsie Seer’). ... ” (Works, VI, p. 295).

63. See Andrew Jackson Davis, op. cit. pp. xvi, 2. [page 242:]

64. Poe to Eveleth, Feb. 29th, 1848, Letters, II, p. 361.

65. Literature and the American Tradition, New York, 1960, p. 9.

66. See H.W. Hetherington, Melville's Reviewers, Chapel Hill, 1961, pp. 20-65.

67. Doings of Gotham (ed. Jacob E. Spannuth and T. O. Mabbott), Pottsville, Pa., 1929, p. 33.

68. Works, XV, p. 247.

69. See letters written in November 1846 and April 1847 by A. Ramsay of Stonehaven, Scotland, to Poe, Works, XVII[[,]] pp. 268-69, 284-85.

70. R. H. Collyer of Boston to Poe, Dec. 16th, 1845, Works, XVII, pp. 225-26.

71. Works, XVII, p. 229.

72. See Blackwood's, VIII (1820), pp. 10-11, 259-60, 363-65; XXVIII (1830), pp. 608-9; XXIX (1831), p. 967.

73. Edinburgh, 1826.

74. Poe to E. A. Duyckinck, March 8th, 1849. Letters, II, p. 433.

75. Broadway Journal, II, No. 24, quoted in Works, VI, p. 291.

76. Works, III, p. 2.

77. Works, XVI, p. 160. Inevitably Poe has a contradictory statement on the gullibility of the “mob.” He claimed in a letter to the Columbia Spy, in May 1844, that incredulity was now characteristic of “the mob,” and that they did not believe in the “Balloon Hoax,” while the “more intelligent” did. (Doings of Gotham, ed. cit. pp. 33-34.)

78. Robert Carter to Poe, June 19th, 1843, Works, XVII, pp. 147-48.

79. Letters, II, p. 349.

80. Letters, II, p. 433.

81. Works, VI, pp. 246, 247, 249.

82. See note to Poe's letter to Duyckinck, Letters, II, p. 434.

 

X. POE'S ELITISM AND THE “STYLUS”

1. H. M. Jones, Ideas in America, New York, 1944, p. 41.

2. Eight American Authors: A Review of Research and Criticism (ed. Floyd Stovall), New York, 1956, pp. 24-25.

3. Vincent Buranelli, Edgar Allan Poe, New York, 1961, p. 64.

4. “Poe's Attitude toward his Tales: A New Document,” Modern Philology, XXV (1927), pp. 101-5.

5. The Development of the American Short Story, New York, 1923.

6. H. S. Canby, Classic Americans, New York, 1931.

7. Ibid. p. 305.

8. Mary Gove Nichols, Reminiscences of Edgar Allan Poe, New York, 1931, pp. 9-12.

9. Letters, II, pp. 328-29.

10. Letters, I, p. 270.

11. Poe to G. W. Eveleth, Dec. 15th, 1846, Letters, II, pp. 332, 333.

12. March 3rd, 1836, Works[[,]] XVII, p. 377.

13. See Elsie Swann, Christopher North, Edinburgh and London, 1934, p. 108.

14. See H.A. Eaton, Thomas De Quincey, A Biography, New York, 1936, pp. 266-68.

15. See S. C. Hall, Retrospect of a Long Life: from 1815 to 1883, London, 1883, I, pp. 314-20.

16. White to Beverley Tucker, Dec. 27th, 1836, reprinted by D. K. Jackson, Poe and the Southern Literary Messenger, Richmond, Virginia, 1934, p. 110. J. A. Harrison (Life of Edgar Allan Poe, New York, 1902-3, p. 121) is surely right in claiming that it could not have been Poe's idleness and irregularity which caused the break with White, when one-third of the last Messenger he edited was occupied by his eight contributions.

17. June 1st, 1839, Letters, I, pp. 131-32.

18. See “The Late Edgar Allan Poe,” Graham's Magazine, XXXVI (March 1850), pp. 224-26. [page 244:]

19. July 4th, 1841, Letters, I, p. 172. The British writers had 20. 21: 23; 23. 24. also seen the writer as a victim of the magazine trade, a superior being in chains to an inferior one. Wilson had written of the magazinist's plight: “From month to month ‘tis still his doom/ To drag the hopeless chain/ For fair or foul, in mirth or gloom,/ He shares the curse of Cain. ... The devil comesat break of day/ The hapless wretch toaedun,/ Oh then the devil is to pay,/ His work is not begun! ... ” (“Noctes Ambrosianae,” No. 24, Blackwood's, XIX, 1826, p. 222). De Quincey told Blackwood, “Tomorrow ... I will send you my bond (if I may so call it) selling myself soul and body to the service of the Magazine for two years” (De Quincey to Blackwood, Jan. 1st, 1820 (?), quoted by H.A. Eaton, op. cit. p. 265). But the lightness of tone here is indicative of the relative prosperity which the British journals allowed writers. Bulwer makes of the life of Laman Blanchard a tragic illustration of the evils of a situation “in which mind is regarded as a common ware of merchandise: its products to be bought but by the taste and fashion of the public,” but at least, as he says, Blanchard “was marked by publishers and editors as a useful contributor and so his livelihood was secure” (E.L. Bulwer, “Memoir of Laman Blanchard,” in Samuel Laman Blanchard, Sketches from Life ... , London, 1849).

20. See Poe's letters to J. E. Snodgrass of Dec. 19th, 1839 (Letters, I, p. 125), and June 17th, 1840 (Letters, I, pp. 137-38).

21. Poe to F. W. Thomas, May 25th, 1842, Letters, I, p. 197.

22. Poe to G. W. Eveleth, Dec. 15th, 1846, Letters, II, p. 333.

23. March 30th, 1844, Letters, I, p. 247.

24. “ ... it should be boldly printed, on excellent paper, in single column, and be illustrated, not merely embellished, by spirited wood designs in the style of Grandville. Its chief aims should be Independence, Truth, Originality. It should be a journal of some 120 pp., and furnished at $5” (loc. cit.). CE Poe's description of the “Stylus” to Anthon (Letters, I, p. 269): “ ... a large octavo of 128 pp. printed with bold [page 245:] type, in single column, on the finest paper, and disdaining everything of what is termed ‘embellishment’ with the exception of an occasional portrait of a literary man, or some well engraved wood design in obvious illustration of the text.”

25. Poe to G. W. Eveleth, Jan. 4th, 1848, Letters, II, p. 356.

26. Poe to G. W. Eveleth, Dec. 15th, 1846, Letters, II, p. 333.

27. Letters, I, pp. 268, 270.

28. Quoted by Mary E. Philips, Edgar Allan Poe, the Man, Chicago, Philadelphia, 1926, II, p. 921. Professor T. O. Mabbott, in a letter to me, gives the source as an article “Our Magazine Literature” in the New York New World, March 11th, 1843 to which he directed Miss Philips. The article, he says, is almost certainly by Poe, and was first attributed to him by W. M. Griswold in 1898.

29. Poe to Annie L. Richmond, April/May 1849, Letters, II, pp. 437-38.

30. A. H. Quinn, Edgar Allan Poe, A Critical Biography, New York, 1941, p. 456.

31. Broadway Journal, II (1845-46), pp. 1, 235.

32. Broadway Journal, II (1845-46), p. 407.

33. Jan. 16th, 1846, Letters, II, p. 312.

34. Scribner's Monthly, XV (March 1878), p. 709.

35. Letters, I, pp. 166n., 260n.

36. Letters, II, p. 450.

37. See William Charvat, Literary Publishing in America, 1790-1850, Philadelphia, 1959, pp. 24-27.

38. L. L. Schücking stresses the importance in most literary movements of a group within society with power, influence, access to publishing organs, and often a coterie or aesthetic clique at its centre. Such a group represents the core of a writer's audience, as well as a means of extending it and encouraging a climate of taste favourable to his own work (The Sociology of Literary Taste, tr. E. W. Dickes, London, 1944, pp. 35-76).

39. See William Charvat (op. cit. pp. 27-37) for an account of the decline of New England and Boston publishing. [page 246:]

40. See G.R. Graham to Longfellow, June 7th, 1844, quoted by William Charvat, op.cit. p. 25.

41. Southern Literary Messenger, I (1834-35), p. I.

42. Joseph Le Conte in his Autobiography, quoted by J. B. Hubbell, The South in American Literature 1607-1900, Durham, North Carolina, 1954, p. 213.

43. Works, XVI, pp. 39, 78-70.

44. Works, XVI, p. 12 (“Marginalia,” Democratic Review, Nov. 1844).

45. Works XVI, p. 152 (“Marginalia,” Southern Literary Messenger, April 1849).

46. Poe to William Poe, August 15th, 1840, Letters, I, p. 141.

47. Letters, I, p. 268.

48. Poe to E. N. H. Patterson, April 1849, Letters, II, p. 440.

49. Op. cit. p. 179.

50. Southern Literary Messenger, V (1839), p. 708.

51. Hubbell, op. cit. pp. 215, 216, 219, 342.

52. Works, XIII, p. 1. (Broadway Journal, Nov. 22nd, 1845).

53. “Penn Magazine Prospectus,” 1840, quoted by A. H. Quinn, op. cit. pp. 306, 307, 307-8.

54. Quoted by A. H. Quinn, op. cit. p. 376.

55. Works, XVII, p. 170.

56. Letters, I, p. 259.

57. See Patterson's letter to Poe, May 7th, 1849 (Works, XVII, p. 352), where he recapitulates an earlier letter.

58. April 1849, Letters, II, p. 440.

59. Poe to Chivers, Sept. 27th, 1842, Letters, I, p. 215. According to F. L. Mott (History of American Magazines, 1741-1850, New York and London, 1930, I, p. 514), most American monthlies had circulations of less than 7400 in 1850, as against Godey's 40,000 in 1849.

60. Poe to Lowell, March 30th, 1844, Letters, I, p. 247.

61. Poe to Lowell, Oct. 28th, 1844, Letters, I, p. 266.

62. Poe to Anthon, late October (?), 1844, Letters, I, p. 270.

63. Poe to Lowell, March 30th, 1844, Letters, I, p. 247. [page 247:]

64. Poe to E. H. N. Patterson, April 1849, Letters, II, p. 440.

65. De Quincey, “General Preface to the Collected Works of 1853,” Works (ed. Masson), I, p. 7.

66. Blackwood's[[,]] XXIX (1831), p. 551.

67. Letters, II, p. 440.

68. Poe to Lowell, Oct. 28th, 1844, Letters, I, p. 266.

69. Poe to R. T. Conrad, Jan. 22nd, 1841, Letters, I, p. 154. See also letters to J. P. Kennedy (ibid. p. 151) and F. W. Thomas (ibid. p. 224).

70. Poe to Thomas, Feb. 3rd, 1842, Letters, I, p. 192.

 

XI. CONCLUSION: POE AND THE BRITISH MAGAZINE TRADITION

1. The Philosophy of Literary Form, Revised, abridged edition, New York, 1957, p. 210.

2. Alfred Kazin, Contemporaries, Boston, 1962, pp. 469-70.

3. “Edgar Allan Poe: A Crisis in the History of American Obscurantism,” In Defense of Reason, New York, 1947, pp. 234, 236.

4. Ibid. p. 236. G. E. Woodberry, The Life of Edgar Allan Poe, Boston, 1909, I, p. 132.

5. The Shock of Recognition, New York, 1943, p. 84.