Text: James B. Reece, “N. P. Willis,” Poe's Poe and the New York Literati Story, dissertation, 1954 (This material is protected by copyright)

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Nathaniel Parker Willis (1806-1867) was born in Portland, mine, but his father, an editor and journalist, moved the family to Boston in 1812. Young Willis began his formal education attended the Boston Latin in Concord, Massachusetts, and later attended the Boston Latin School and Andover Academy. He entered Yale in 1823 and while undergraduate began to publish verse, chiefly on Biblical themes, in the Boston Recorder, which his father edited. He soon gained considerable reputation as a poet, and upon leaving college in 1827 published his first volume, Sketches. He spent the following four years in Boston, where he found employment with Samuel G. Goodrich, for whom he edited the Legendary, a periodical, and the Token, a gift-book. In April, [page 67:] 1829, Willis founded the American Monthly Magazine, which he edited until the periodical merged with George P. Morris's Nev; York Mirror in September, 1831.

From October, 1831, until May, 1836, ‘Willis was abroad, his tour taking him first to Southern Europe and the Near East and, in 1834, to England. The letters in which he recorded his experiences for the Mirror were copied into newspapers and periodicals throughout America, and through them Willis became one of the most popular journalists of his time. Socially, too, his tour was a triumph. He found easy admittance into the drawing rooms of the fashionable and the famous, particularly in England, where the Countess of Blessington introduced him to many literary and court celebrities. In 1835 he married Mary Stace, of Woolwich. Before returning to America he published a volume of poems and two collections of sketches.

From 1837 until 1842 Willis made his home at “Glenmary,” a small estate near Owego, New York. For a while he continued his contributions to the Mirror, though he had temporarily severed his editorial connection with the periodical. For a year (March, 1839 - March, 1840) he was associated with T. O. Porter in-conducting the Corsair, a weekly which subsisted largely on reprints from British periodicals. Willis spent most of this period in England, and upon his return wrote for Graham's, Godey's, and Brother Jonathan. In April, 1843, he joined Morris in editing the New Mirror, which in October of the following year became the Evening Mirror, a daily paper.

In the spring of 1845 Willis's wife died, and a few months [page 68:] later he made his third trip to Europe. By the time of his return in March, 1846, Morris, having left the Mirror, had established the weekly National Press, which soon became the Home Journal. Again Willis and Morris formed an editorial partnership, and Willis remained with the periodical until his death twenty-one years later. He remarried in 1846, and in 1853 moved to “Idlewild,” an estate on the Hudson near Cornwall. In his last years he suffered much from ill health. He died on his sixty-first birthday.

Willis's Melanie and Other Poems appeared in 1835, and in 1843 he published Sacred Poems and Poems of Passion. Among his collections of tales and sketches are Pencillings by the Way (1835), Inklings of Adventure (1836), Loiterings of Travel (1840), Dashes at Life with a Free Pencil (1845); Hurrygraphs (1851), and The Rag Bag; a Collection of Ephemera (1855). Two dramas Bianca Visconti; or the Heart Overtasked, and Tortesa; or the Usurer Matched were published in 1839, end his only novel, Paul Fane, in 1857.

Willis's good looks, his foppish dress, his nonchalant, somewhat egotistical manner, and the preciosity of his prose style created an impression that some found distasteful. “Nat Willis ought to go about in spring, in sky-blue breeches, with rose-colored bellows to blow the buds open,” an elderly lady is reported to have remarked. The ease with which he had gained literary and social popularity created enemies, and his man-of-the-world pose did nothing to put down the rumors of dissipation which dogged his career. But to those who knew him best he was [page 69:] a man of much personal charm and of generous impulses.(1)

To the spirit of antagonism which so frequently characterized his association with literary men, Poe's relationship with N. P. Willis is a striking exception. Among Poe's male acquaintances, Willis was perhaps his truest friend. Certainly Poe never met anyone of equal literary prestige who was more ready than Willis to assist his career, to recognize his genius, and to defend his memory. His uninterrupted friendship with Willis is one of the rare bright spots in the dark portrait of the New York years.

The relationship, however, got off to an unpromising start. In 1829 Poe, as yet virtually unknown as an author, sent one of his immature poetic efforts to the cocksure young editor of the American Monthly Magazine in Boston. In the November issue of the magazine, Willis, writing in the cavalier vein he adopted in his editorial columns, confessed to a pleasure in disposing of rejected manuscripts by burning them in an open fireplace. He selected Poe's offering for specific comment:

Poe's immediate reaction to this disdainful reception of his verses is not known, but Willis's editorial affectations seem to be the object of Poe's satire in “The Duc de L’Omelette,” which appeared in the Philadelphia Saturday Courier in March, 1832.(3) The fastidious duke of Poe's tale dies of disgust when he is served an ortolan which has not been prepared to his satisfaction, descends to hell, but escapes punishment by beating the Devil at cards. The foppishness of the duke seems to parallel Willis's dandyism, and the furnishings of the duke's apartment correspond to some extent to those epicurean appointments which Willis, in the editorial department of the American Monthly had represented as adorning his story.(4)

It seems certain that Willis's popularity in English society [page 71:] is the target of ridicule in “Lionizing,” which Poe published in the Southern Literary Messenger for May, 1835. Because of his large nose, Robert Jones is lionized, by an apparently English group of celebrities headed by the Duchess of Bless-my-Soul (the Countess of Blessington) until he shoots off the nose of the Elector of Bludennuff in a duel. Bludennuff then becomes the the favorite, and Jones learns that though “the greatness of a lion is in proportion to the size of his proboscis ... there is no competing with a lion who has no proboscis at all.”(5)

From these rather pointless satires it is difficult to determine precisely what Poe's attitude toward Willis was, but one wonders whether it was not envy which prompted Poe, in reviewing Theodore Fay's Norman Leslie for the Messenger in December, 1835, to go out of his way to strike at Willis. Fay's hero, Poe wrote “takes it into his head ... to travel; and ... does actually forget himself so far as to go a-Willising in foreign countries. But we have no reason to suppose that, goose as the young gentleman is, he is silly enough to turn travelling correspondent to any weekly paper.”(6)

With the review of Inklings of Adventure in the Messenger for August, 1836, Poe turned from personal criticism of Willis to literary considerations. With an indignation not wholly righteous, he expressed his disgust at those critics who were [page 72:] in the habit of deciding upon Willis's literary merits by reference to his personal affairs and stated his intention of reviewing the volume without such reference. Upon examining one of Willis's sketches, Poe found it lacking in the essential quality of “totality of effect” and observed that the piece was “disfigured and indeed utterly ruined, by the grievous sin of affectation.” Poe particularly disliked such pretty little expressions on his title-pages as Pencillings by the Way, and Inklings of Adventure.” But he praised the “bantering humor” and the “graceful badinage” of the volume and offered the opinion that Willis had “stepped upon the threshhold of nearly every species of literary excellence.”(7) In the “Autography” article on Willis which appeared in the same number of the Messenger, Poe remarked that Willis's writings were “greatly underrated,”(8) and before leaving the magazine he found occasion to defend, against a criticism which had appeared in Charles F. Hoffman's American Monthly Magazine, Willis's use of trisyllabic feet in iambic verse.(9)

Poe reviewed Willis's Tortesa for the July, 1839, issue of the Pittsburg Literary Examiner, finding it, despite its episodic, improbable plot and weak characterization, a highly meritorious [page 73:] drama.(10) An abridgment of the review in another periodical a month later contained Poe's opinion that Tortesa was by far the best American play.” Poe added that he was happy to note that Willis had nearly overcome his worst fault, “the sin of affectation.”(11) In quite11a different tone was the review of Romance of Travel in Burton's for March, 1880. Poe here selected a story for special analysis and found that Willis dawdles too long; the reader feels “an itching to kick him along.” But the chief falling of the piece is that its readers are constantly reminded of the author, “whose image is sure to jump up every now and then before us, in an embroidered morning gown and slippers, with a pen in one hand, and a bottle of eau de Cologne in the other.” Quoting Willis's line, “I felt my brain reel!” Poe commented, “Body of Bacchus! — we were talking about [the plot] ... and not about those everlasting brains of Mr. Willis. ‘Who cares the matter of two pence halfpenny whether that gentleman has any brains at all?”(12) [page 74:]

For this change of attitude in Poe's criticism of Willis there is no apparent reason. Perhaps it is just as well that Willis, unlike others of Poe's subjects in like circumstances, apparently either pardoned or failed to see this exhibition of poor taste. Poe resumed his critical compliments in the “Autography” papers in Graham's, November, 1841: he praised the versatility of Willis, who had only narrowly missed placing himself “at the head of our letters.”(13)

The correspondence between Poe and Willis, which continued until the year of Poe's death, began no later than November, 1841. On the 30th of that month Willis wrote, in reply to a letter from Poe now lost, that he was prevented from writing for Graham's because of a contract with Godey's, and added, “I am very sorry to refuse anything to a writer whom I so much admire as yourself .... ”(14) Poe seems to have felt confident would comply with his request for a contribution, for on November 16 he had written to Lydia H. Sigourney that a paper by would appear in a forthcoming issue of Graham's.(15) [page 75:]

Just prior to moving from Philadelphia to New York in the spring of 1844, Poe wrote to James Russell Lowell that Willis was “no genius — a graceful trifler — no more. He wants force & sincerity. He is frequently far-fetched. In me, at least, he never excites an emotion.”(16) Two months later he wrote to the Columbia Spy that Willis “is well constituted, for dazzling the masses — with brilliant, agreeable talents — no profundity — no genius.”(17) In a later letter to the Spy Poe complained of the excessive praise in a recent review of Willis, who, he said, was harmed more by puffery than by censure.(18) By this time Poe had already been in touch, presumably by correspondence, with Willis, who had promised to recommend an article by Poe for inclusion in the 1845 issue of The Opal: A Pure Gift for the Holy Days.(19)

According to his own statement, Willis first met Poe when [page 76:] the latter accepted a position in the Mirror office as “critic and sub-editor.”(20) Poe's employment with the Mirror commenced in October, 1844, and ended about four months later, when he associated himself with the Broadway Journal. The intervals of intemperance which marked his later years had not yet begun, a fact which undoubtedly contributed to the agreeable impression he the made on Willis:

In the Mirror Willis began the practice, which he continued there and in the Home Journal until Poe's death, of praising his friend's abilities and of giving favorable publicity to his productions. In introducing his assistant to the readers of the Mirror, Willis announced an “authors’ crusade” and called on Poe “to do the devoir of Coeur de Lion [sic] — no man's weapon half so trenchant.’”(22) The Mirror for January 20, 1845, reprinted from Graham's the first part of Lowell's complimentary sketch of Poe. At this time Poe was seeking other employment, and Willis prefaced the article with a note suggesting that some New York publisher might do well to establish a critical monthly and engage Poe as editor. “Poe,” he wrote, “has genius of his own, as well as the necessary science, and the finest discriminative powers; and such a wheel of literature should not be without axle and linchpin.(23) On January 29 the Mirror copied from the American Review, “in advance of publication,” Poe's “The Raven,” to which Willis added a note complimenting the author.(24) Poe's lecture of February 28 was preceded by an announcement in the [page 78:] Mirror which promised the audience some “fine carving” from Poe's “critical blade,”(25) and was followed by a laudatory notice.

In the Broadway Journal Poe found opportunity to return some of Willis's compliments. Willis's unique prose style, he wrote, was the result of a brilliant fancy;(26) he rated Willis as the third best writer of tales in America, after Hawthorne and Simms.(27) In reviewing Loiterings of Travel Poe asserted that he had so frequently expressed his admiration for Willis's talents that there was little more to say on that subject. “We look upon Mr. Willis,” he added, “as one of the truest men of letters in America. About him there is no particle of pretence. His works show his fine genius as it is. They convey the man ...”(28) A few weeks later, however, Poe wrote, in reply to a Mirror article which had aroused his resentment: “However highly we respect Mr. Willis’ talents, we feel nothing but contempt for his affectations.”(29)

Poe's objective appraisal of Willis's literary merits in “Literati” sketch was not flattering. Willis, he wrote, [page 79:] composed too painstakingly to succeed as a newspaper paragraphist and lacked the readiness demanded of an editor. His popularity as an author Poe attributed to a vivacious fancy, a quality which made him unequalled as an essayist and which lent to his tales their charm. But, with a few’ exceptions, this fancy, “which should have no place in the loftier poesy,” displaces in his verse the superior virtue, imagination. Poe dealt but briefly with Willis as a dramatist; Bianca Visconti “deserved to fail, and did”; Tortesa, though the best American play, had a plot “a tissue of absurdities, inconsequences and inconsistencies.” The remarks on Willis's personality and appearance are favorable.(30)

By the time the sketch of him appeared Willis had returned to New York from Europe, but there appears to have been no further personal association between him and Poe until December of that year. At that time the Poes, then living at Fordham, were suffering from illness and poverty. A paragraph in the New York Express of December 15 stated that both Poe and his wife were dangerously ill” and “barely able to obtain the necessaries of life.”(31) This paragraph elicited from Willis an article in the Home Journal in which he characterized Poe as “one of the finest scholars, one of the most original men of genius, and one most industrious of the literary profession of our country [page 80:] ...” He noted with regret that Poe's illness had dropped him “immediately to the level with the common objects of public charity” and appealed for an institution where an unfortunate person of refinement and sensitivity “might secure aid, unadvertised, till, with returning health, he could resume his labors and his unmortified sense of independence.”(32) Writing in the Home Journal for December 26, Willis, who had already received from an anonymous donor a sum of money to be turned over to Poe, offered to “forward any other similar tribute of sympathy with genius,” and, as best he could, made excuses for the “conduct and language” arising from Poe's intemperance. Soon after leaving the Mirror, he wrote, Poe —

“Have I done right or wrong in the enclosed editorial?” Willis wrote to Poe concerning the Home Journal article. “It was a kind of thing I could only do without asking you, & you may express anger about it if you like in print .... Please write us as whether you are suffering or not, & if so, let us do something systematically for you.”(34) Poe, on December 30, replied to Willis, thanking him for the editorial, implying that his poverty had been exaggerated by the press, and vehemently denying that as had been reported, he was “without friends.”(35) Willis published Poe's letter in the Home Journal, January 9, 1847.(36)

Numerous evidences of Willis's esteem and friendship followed these events. He and Morris were among the few of Poe's literary acquaintances who attended his wife's funeral in February, 1847.(37) The Home Journal published Poe's poem “To M. L. S —” in the March 13, 1847, number, and in the following issue gave publicity to the projected “The Authors of America, in Prose and Verse.(38) In the fall of that year Willis wrote to Poe, in [page 82:] reference to matters yet obscure, “I could not find time possibly go to the concert, but why did you not send the paragraph yourself. You knew of course that it would go in.” The same letter gave Poe news of his sister.(39) On January 1, 1848, at Poe's request, Willis copied “Ulalume” into the Home Journal from the American Review with an inquiry as to its authorship, adding a commendatory note.(40) Responding to another letter from Poe,(41) Willis, in the February 5 issue, was late in publicizing Poe's lecture on “The Universe,” which was delivered on February 3. But he wrote with enthusiasm about Poe's plans for the Stylus, inviting those who “like literature without trammels, and criticism without gloves” to subscribe. Here he described Poe as “a born anatomist of thought” who “takes genius and its imitations to pieces with a skill wholly unequalled on either side [[of]] the water.” On February 12 the Home Journal reprinted a favorable notice of the lecture from the Albion.(42) The number for [page 83:] October 14 praised Poe's “Rationale of Verse,” the first part of which had appeared in the Southern Literary Messenger and in which Poe had repeated his defense of Willis's versification.(43) Poe's limited output of criticism after 1846 and the fact that his editorial connections had ceased had given him little opportunity to record his attitude toward Willis. He had, however, remarked that among American writers tales Willis was surpassed only by Hawthorne in the skill of construction,(44) and listed Willis among the “five or six” good conversationalists he had known.(45)

At Poe's request Willis copied “For Annie” from the Flag of Our Union into the Home Journal for April 28, 1849, and in doing so again displayed his more than casual interest in the welfare of his friend. Poe had admitted that “sheer necessity” had compelled him to offer contributions to a periodical which he considered inferior.(46) In a headnote to the poem Willis suggested society would do well to give Poe an annuity —

In view of these many favors and indications of good will, it seems not unlikely that Poe, as Mrs. Clemm asserted, requested Willis to “write such observations upon his life and character, as he might deem suitable to address to thinking men, in vindication of his memory.”(47) However, Willis's response to this request was inadequate, and it was the less admiring Griswold, whom Poe had asked to “act as his literary Executor, and superintend the publication of his works,”(48) who wrote the “Memoir” which depicted Poe as a man of infamous moral character. On October 13, 1849, the Home Journal, in a brief announcement of Poe's death, characterized him as “a man of genius and a poet of remarkable power.” A week later Willis protested at length against Griswold's “Ludwig” obituary notice in the Tribune; here he recounted in terms of affection and esteem his association with Poe on the Mirror, excused Poe's intemperance and its consequences, and cited letters to show that Poe possessed those ties of gratitude and humility which his detractors had denied him.(49) Here also Willis made a plea for donations for [page 85:] the support of Mrs. Clemm, and contributions for that purpose were acknowledged in the Home Journal on November 3 and November 24.

In the months that followed, the Home Journal continued to speak well of Poe and to counteract the attacks of his enemies. In the number for October 27, 1849, a note accompanying “The Bells” ranked it among those of Poe's poems which “are unquestionable titles to an enduring reputation.” The same issue published a poem entitled “Requiem,” lamenting Poe's death; the author was editorially identified as “one of the good and pure who had an unvarying sympathy and admiration for our friend Edgar Poe.” Another poem on the same theme appeared in the November 17 number. On March 16, 1850, the periodical carried an excerpt from George R. Graham's defense of Poe,(50) and on March 30, a letter from Richmond, Virginia, defending the dead poet against an attack by John M. Daniel in the Southern Literary Messenger.(51)

Willis’ s sincerity in his public remarks on Poe is evidenced by reports of his conversation and by his later correspondence. James Parton, Willis's brother-in-law, wrote that he had often heard Willis speak of Poe as “one of the most quiet, regular, gentlemanlike of men, remarkably neat in his person, elegant and orderly about his work, and wholly unexceptionable in conduct and demeanor.” But in a weak moment, Willis would add, Poe would [page 86:] take a glass of wine or liquor, whereupon “he was another being. His self-control was gone.”(52) Maunsell B. Field asserted that he had received letters from Willis in which he vehemently condemned Griswold's harsh treatment of Poe.(53) Willis again wrote of Poe's work on the Mirror in a letter to Morris, October 17, 1858: “Poe was one of our ‘boys.” We both loved him. He was rebaptized, and adopted, over our inkstand of appreciation and admiration.”(54)

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