Text: James B. Reece, “The Relationship of the Sketches to the ‘Autography’ Series and to ‘Literary America’,” Poe's Poe and the New York Literati Story, dissertation, 1954 (This material is protected by copyright)

[page 41, continued:]

Most of the “Literati” sketches conform to a simple pattern; Poe first discusses the literary accomplishments of his subject, offering critical comment, and concludes with what he called “words of personality,” which consist of remarks on character, social qualities, and personal appearance.(1) Sketches of prominent [page 42:] figures of science, literature, and politics were numerous in periodicals easily available to Poe, but he appears to have followed no model in preparing his own gallery of portraits. The “Literati” papers differ from the usual sketch in that Poe included almost no merely biographical information and in the special emphasis he gave to the “words of personality.” Sketches of authors in the magazines of the period usually combined biographical facts with criticism, and occasionally contained remarks on personality and appearance. In giving detailed personal data, ostensibly drawn from first-hand acquaintance with his subjects, Poe was perhaps consciously following the pattern set by Willis in his intimate revelations of European celebrities. The personal remarks constitute one of the most striking features of Poe's series, and no doubt contributed materially to the interest which the papers excited. It is worth noting that, though these comments are at times frank, Poe is never offensive in offering the data he presumably had gathered from first-hand observation, even when he personally disliked the subject under discussion.

The “Literati” sketches are more closely allied to Poe's “Autography” series(2) than to any other of his productions, and, in fact, seem to have grown out of his studies in chirography. As the “Autography” series progressed, the articles tended to approach, in form, content, and style, the formula of the later [page 43:] series. In the earlier “Autography” articles, those which appeared in the Messenger in 1836, Poe was concerned almost entirely with descriptions of, and character reading from, the handwriting of his subjects, not all of whom were literary figures. Literary appraisal was not a significant part of his purpose, and critical remarks were few and only incidental. Upon ‘renewing the series in Graham's in 1841, however, he his announced his intention to confine himself to living authors. He also informed his readers that one of the aims of the new series would be to indulge in literary gossip.(3) Both modifications point to the “Literati” papers, in which Poe likewise confined himself to living literary subjects and in which he said he had aimed “at nothing beyond the gossip of criticism.”(4) Though few of the Graham's “Autography” articles, such as Sigourney, Mellen, and Paulding, were adapted from those on the former series without significant change, most of the new sketches contain remarks on literary accomplishment and critical comment, Often the sketches are primarily critical, the observations on chirography being confined to a short concluding paragraph. With but minor revision many of these brief surveys could be made to conform to the pattern of the “Literati” sketches.(5) [page 44:]

Further evidence of relationship between the two sets of papers is the fact that Poe appears to have intended to accompany his “Literati” articles with autographs, and, in fact, a few actually appeared. Somewhat belatedly — for the May number of Godey's, carrying the first installment of the “Literati,” had already appeared — Poe wrote to Duyckinck on April 28, 1846, asking whether he or Cornelius Mathews could furnish him with autographs of forty-five persons, eleven of whom are “Literati” subjects.(6) Apparently Poe had difficulty in securing the autographs he wanted or decided for other reasons to drop that part of the project, for only those of Hoyt, Francis, Colton, Gillespie, Willis, Bush, and Mrs. Mowatt were given.(7)

Poe seems to have been over-enthusiastic in stating that “no Magazine paper has ever excited greater interest” than the autography sketches in the November, 1841, issue of Graham's, but he was probably quite correct in noting that they had been of especial interest to writers and to their friends.(8) A month later he found further cause for gratification in the fact that [page 45:] there had been so little disagreement with his hasty critical observations.(9)

It appears likely that the success of the “Autography” sketches influenced Poe's projection of another series of critical articles, to which he apparently gave considerable attention over a five-year period, but which was never published. Because of its relationship to the “Literati” series, this critical survey must be taken into account here, even though the relationship is far from clear. The questions of the extent of Poe's efforts on the project, the nature of the work, and the fate of the manuscript form an interesting, if puzzling, chapter on Poe's later literary activities. At any rate, it is certain that long before the “Literati” series was published Poe had been contemplating, if not actually writing, a critical survey, not merely of New York writers, but of American authors generally.

A little more than a year after the completion of the “Autography” studies Poe wrote in the prospectus to the Stylus — another never-realized project — that one of the features of the magazine would be a series of critical and biographical sketches of American authors.(10) On March 27, 1843, Poe wrote to James Russell Lowell, proposing to inaugurate the series with a sketch of him and requesting biographical and critical data.(11) Nothing [page 46:] further is heard of the proposed sketches until August 18, 1844» after the plans for the Stylus had been postponed. On that date Poe, now living in New York, informed Lowell that he was industriously “collecting and arranging materials for a Critical History of Am. Literature.”(12) Poe, however, was soon busily engaged on the Mirror and a little later as an associate of Briggs in editing the Broadway Journal. Some work on the project, nevertheless, must have been accomplished by the summer of 1845, for in June he wrote to Duyckinck, requesting “an advance of $50 on the faith of the ‘American Parnassus,’” which he promised to finish as soon as possible.(13) Duyckinck arranged the matter with the publishing firm with which he was connected, for in November Poe acknowledged the receipt of the sum from Wiley, of Wiley and Putnam, “on account of the ‘Parnassus.’”(14) This advance, as well as the fact that Poe had requested it on the faith of the “Parnassus” rather than on either his Tales or The Raven and Other Poems — which, in fact, the firm published in July and November of 1845 — suggests that something substantial was in progress.

Since Poe was occupied with the Journal until the end of the year, and was probably writing the “Literati” sketches during the early months of 1846, it appears likely that the more [page 47:] general survey was laid aside for a time. However, once the “Literati” was in Godey's hands, Poe immediately resumed his former plan, or a modification of it. Even before the appearance of the first installment of the sketches of New York authors, he wrote to Philip Pendleton Cooke that he was at work on a book which would include the “Literati” papers and others of the same type on “American litterateurs generally.”(15) Apparently his purpose concerning the intended work had changed since 1843, when the proposal had been for critical and biographical sketches, not for articles similar to the “Literati,” in which the biographical element was minimized. But by the end of the year he had again altered the plan. He was engaged on the work “body & soul,” he wrote to George W. Eveleth on December 15, citing as examples of the manner in which the book was to be written his review of Hawthorne and “The Rationale of Verse.”(16) These lengthy articles have very little in common with the “Literati” sketches.(17) Other letters of the same month show Poe collecting material for the work.(18) On March 20, 1847, the Home Journal, probably at Poe's request, informed its readers that The Authors of America, in Prose and Verse, by Edgar A. Poe was soon [page 48:] to appear.(19)

The fullest evidence concerning Poe's plans for this or a similar book is provided by eight pages of unpublished manuscript in his handwriting now in the Pierpont Morgan Library.(20) The undated manuscript, probably written late in 1846 or in 1847, (21) is entitled “The Living Writers of America. Some Honest Opinions about their Literary Merits, with Occasional Words of Personality. By Edgar A. Poe. With Notices of the Author by James sell Lowell & P. P. Cooke.”(22) From Poe's notes one gathers that the work was to consist of five parts: first, “the Memoirs” of Poe by Lowell and Cooke; second, an “Introduction”; third, “Authors, as they occur, with autographs”; fourth, “a Resume and Classification in several Departments of Letters”; and fifth, a “Publisher's Appendix,” to be made up of press notices of Poe's previous works. The notes for the “Introduction” are quite detailed and reveal that Poe intended in this section to discuss [page 49:] such topics as the lack of proper recognition of Southern and Western writers, sectionalism and cliques in the North, previous works by Griswold and others on American literature, his own qualifications for his present task, and the depressing influence of the three-dollar magazines on American literature. As regards the present study, the most significant part of the notes for the “Introduction” is that which contains Poe's comments on the published “Literati” papers and their relation to the work then in hand:

Apparently the body of the work was to be made up of sketches similar to the “Literati” papers, and the scope of the series was to be extended to include American writers generally. [page 50:]

Nothing further is heard of the project until January 4, 1848, when Poe wrote to Eveleth that month he had been at work on his book.(24) In the same month he issued a revision of the old prospectus of the Stylus, in the first number of which, he promised, would begin “Literary America,” upon which he had “been employed unremittingly for the last two years.”(25) By late February, however, the prospectus had again been revised and the promise concerning the “Literary America” withdrawn.(26)

The trail of the “Literary America” ends with a brief manuscript bearing that title now in the Huntington Library. In addition to the title page, which bears the date 1848, there are Sketches of English, Cranch, and Locke, mere revisions of the “Literati” papers on those subjects. That Poe, in preparing this manuscript, mentally linked the contents with the earlier “Literati” is shown by the similarity of the sub-titles of the two works: that of the “Literati” reads, “Some Honest Opinions at Random Respecting Their Autorial Merits, with Occasional Words [page 51:] of Personality”; that of the “Literary America,” ‘'Some Honest Opinions Words of outlined about Our Autorial Merits and Demerits with Occasional Personality.” The pages contain nothing on the subjects outlined in the “Introduction” he had planned for “The Living Writers of America.”

It is difficult to believe that these few pages represent the total result of the effort Poe appears to have spent on the work between 1843 and 1848. The Huntington manuscript itself suggests that it is only a part of a larger work. The paper on Locke ends abruptly in the middle of a sentence and at the end of a full page, about half way through the sketch, judging by the length of the Locke “Literati” paper, which Poe was following closely. The assumption that originally there were at least a few additional pages seems sound. In fact, a few scraps of manuscript in Poe's handwriting now in the New York Public Library seem originally to have been part of the “Literary America.” They constitute part of a revision of the “Literati” sketch of Lewis Gaylord Clark.(27) The late Killis Campbell thought it probable that the manuscript of the work was turned over to [page 52:] Griswold after Poe's death and that it might still exist.(28) There is a possibility, of course, that some of it was among the great amount of Poe material which Charles Godfrey Leland told of finding in Griswold's desk and burning, considering it to be “to Poe's discredit.”(29)

There is some basis for question as to whether the “Literati” sketches published in Godey's include all the papers Poe wrote for the series. That he at least tentatively planned to include sketches which were not published is indicated by a note he wrote, probably to Duyckinck, in January, 1846. Here Poe asked for data on various literary figures, some of whom were not included in the Godey's series. Among these are George P. Morris, John L. O'Sullivan, James K. Paulding, Henry T. Tuckerman, and Henry R. Schoolcraft.(30) Further light on whom Poe may at one time have intended to include in the series is provided by his letter to Duyckinck, of April 28, 1846, in which he requested autographs, apparently to be used in connection with the “Literati” sketches, of forty-five persons, thirty-four of whom were not included in the published series.(31) On April 16 Poe wrote to Cooke that the “Literati” series would “run through the year”;(32) however, the final installment appeared in the October issue of Godey's. The readers of the periodical were not notified [page 53:] that the papers were to end in that number, and George W. Eveleth, writing to Poe on February 21, 1847, stated that Godey had told him that he did not know why the series had ended.(33) On December 15, 1846, Poe had informed Eveleth that he had been forced to discontinue the papers “because I found that people insisted on considering them elaborate criticisms when I had no other design than critical gossip.”(34) Poe added that the idea of extending the sketches to the proportions of a volume on American letters generally had given him a second motive for ending the series. Poe's reasons seem rather weak ones, especially in view of his desperate need for money in the late months of 1846.(35) Despite his claim of innocence in the matter, perhaps Godey had, under the pressure of complaints, refused to publish all the articles. In the manuscript in which Poe sketched his plans for the “Living Writers of America,” he spoke of Godey as having been “badgered into giving up” the series.(36) Poe's description, elsewhere in the same manuscript, of Godey as “a little round oily man with a fat head” suggests that the papers had caused ill feeling between author and publisher. Nowhere is it suggested that the series was discontinued simply because no more sketches had been prepared; however, no additional papers [page 54:] in the “Literati” manner which Poe may have written as early as 1846 are known.(37) Perhaps the question of additional “Literati” manuscripts, if such there were, is one with that concerning the “Literary America.”

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