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

[page 129, continued:]

George Hooker Colton (1818-1847), the son of a Congregationalist clergyman of New England background, was born in Westford, New York. He later named among the principal advantages of his youth “an indifferent district school, a large library belonging to my father, an unbounded love of reading .... and a disposition on my father's part to indulge it to the utmost.” In 1835 he entered Yale College, where an older brother was a tutor, and was graduated second in his class in 1840. For about a year he taught in a classical school in Hartford, Connecticut. Here he began his most ambitious literary effort, a narrative poem of epic proportions celebrating the exploits of the new President-elect in the wars against the Indians. The publication of the poem, Tecumseh; of the West Thirty Years Since, was meant to coincide with the inauguration, but it did not appear until 1842, after Harrison's death. In the meanwhile a few of his shorter poems had begun to appear in the Knickerbocker, Graham's, and the Democratic Review, but he never became a prolific contributor to the periodicals. In 1842-1843 he delivered a series of lectures prepared from materials he had collected [page 130:] for Tecumseh. Late in 1844 he issued in New York the first number of his monthly, the American Whig Review, which he conducted until he died, of typhus fever, at the age of twenty-nine.(1)

Colton was a half-nephew of Lewis Gaylord Clark, the son of his half-sister, but Poe's friendship with the young editor of the American Review seems to have been undisturbed by his quarrel with the Knickerbocker editor. Colton published several of Poe's poems and prose pieces in his magazine and. adopted a friendly editorial attitude toward him. The evidence concerning their personal association, though scanty, indicates that the relationship remained on an amiable basis throughout the three years that preceded Colton's death.

Lowell's letter to Poe of December 12, 1844, indicates that by that date Colton knew something of Poe by reputation and that he had not been favorably impressed:

Lowell's assumption that Poe had “cut up” Colton is apparently incorrect, for no review of Colton by Poe which antedates the letter is known.(3) Colton, however, may have thought Poe the author of a lukewarm review of Tecumseh which had appeared in Graham's two months after his editorial connection with that magazine had ceased.(4)

“The Raven” appeared in the American Review for February, 1845,(5) and was followed by three other poems, two tales, and a critical article from Poe's pen during the same year.”(6) Donald G. Mitchell (“Ike Marvel”) described Colton's reaction to Poe's first contribution:

After 1845 the American Review published only one Poe item “Ulalume,” which appeared in December, 1847, the month of Colton's death. Poe had found that his productions could be marketed more profitably elsewhere; on April 16, 1846, he wrote to Philip P. Cooke that, whereas Godey and Graham paid him five dollars or more a page, Colton paid only three.(8) However, Colton refused to publish “The Rationale of Verse,” which, so Poe wrote to Eveleth, “was found to come down too heavily ... upon some of poor Colton's personal friends in Frogpondium [Boston].”(9) But Colton wrote to Eveleth that he had refused the article because of its length.(10)

During the period when Poe was at odds with Colton's kinsman, Clark of the Knickerbocker, the American Review carried a highly complimentary review of Poe's Tales. The critic commented at length upon Poe's powers of analysis as demonstrated in his tales of ratiocination, but, recalling the severity of some of [page 133:] his criticism, expressed the fear that he could not expect praise from those “on whose brows he has been instrumental in fixing the brand of literary damnation.” The writer characterized the book as an original work which would achieve the popularity it deserved unless prevented by “a stupid prejudice which refuses to read, or a personal enmity, which refuses to admire.”(11) In the same number Colton joined Poe in ridiculing the verse of William W. Lord,(12) whose Poems had recently received Poe's most searching treatment.

Poe's occasional comments upon the American Review reveal that he considered it a superior magazine of its class.(13) What was perhaps his highest compliment for the periodical came late in 1846 or in 1847, when, in writing the notes for the projected “The Living Writers of America,” he noted that, for the most part, the magazines were “organs of cliques — honorable exception in favor of Colton.”(14) However, Poe at times questioned Colton's taste in admitting certain articles to his magazine. He described an essay on Elizabeth Barrett in the January, 1845, number as “an eulogy as well-written as it is an insult well intended.”(15) He objected to the sentiments of a later contributor who professed to find comfort in the fact that poetry was falling [page 134:] into disrepute. Poe thought this “decidedly cool” in view of Colton's authorship of Tecumseh.(16) When another writer for Colton's magazine referred in uncomplimentary terms to a “Colonel Benton,” the author of the “Gold Humbug,” Poe, mistaking the remark for an allusion to himself, wrote that the article reminded one of “the scratching, biting, kicking and squalling of a very fat little booby while getting flogged ... Such things seriously injure in degrading a Magazine.”(17) Had Poe been better informed on political matters, he might have recognized a reference to Senator Thomas H. Benton and his scheme for reforming the currency.(18)

Precisely when Poe and Colton became personally acquainted is not known. The description of Colton in the “Literati” sketch, however, was probably drawn from personal observation, for Colton had been a witness to the agreement of December 3, 1845, whereby Poe had transferred an interest in the Broadway Journal to Thomas H. Lane.(19) Poe's frequent contributions to the American Review in 1845 indicate that the meeting had occurred earlier in the year, but direct evidence on this point is lacking. [page 135:]

Colton took no notice in the American Review of the “Literati” papers, and there is no suggestion that his relationship with Poe was adversely affected by the rather unflattering sketch of himself. Poe here complimented Colton upon the success of his magazine, “by far the best of its order in this country.” As an editor his taste is “rather unexceptionable than positively good,” but he “improves wonderfully with experience.” Portions of Colton's Tecumseh, Poe continued, are eloquent and poetical, but in the length of the poem the author has committed a radical error and, on the whole, the work is “insufferably tedious.” However, in some of Colton's shorter poems Poe saw “indications even of genius.”(20)

Colton seems to have been the reviewer, identified as “C —— ,” who, with Mrs. Mary Gove, paid a friendly call on Poe at Fordham in the summer of 1846. During this visit, according to Mrs. Gove, Poe bested the reviewer in a leaping contest.(21) He may have made other visits to the Poe cottage at Fordham. Writing on January 17, 1847, Poe thanked Charles A. Bristed for ten dollars which had been sent to him “through Mr. Colton.”(22) On October 15, 1847, six weeks before his death, Colton wrote to Eveleth: “I hope Mr Poe has done drinking — I don't think he has drank any thing this long time. He is living in a quiet way out [page 136:] in the beautiful county of Westchester.”(23)

A disclosure by Eveleth, after Colton's death, provoked Poe's final and most uncomplimentary statement concerning the editor of the American Review. Colton had written to Eveleth, asking him to subscribe to the Review instead of waiting for Poe to bring out the Stylus, which, he said, was not likely to appear soon. “I understand the matter perfectly,” added Colton. Eveleth repeated these remarks in a letter to Poe,(24) who replied on February 29, 1848:

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