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

[page 287:]

Laughton Osborn (1809?-1878) was a native of New York, the son of a wealthy physician of that city. After graduating from Columbia College in 1827, he traveled abroad for a year. Soon after his return to New York he went into retirement and became the eccentric literary recluse that he remained until his death almost fifty years later. The death of his sister is believed to have been partly responsible for the oddity of his personality.

Osborn was not a popular author and many of his books were published anonymously and at his own expense. His Sixty Years of the Life of Jeremy Levis (183I), which employed the rambling style of Tristram Shandy, was followed by The Dream of Alla-Ad-Deen, from the Romance of Anastasia, by Charles Erskine White, D. D. (1835?). The Confessions of a Poet, by Himself (1835) was harshly reviewed, particularly by William L. Stone of the New York Commercial Advertiser, who became a principal object of satire in Osborn's next volume, The Vision of Rubeta; an Epic [page 288:] Story of the Island of Manhattan, with Illustrations Done on Stone (1838). The miscellaneous Arthur Carryl; a Novel, by the Author of The Vision of Rubeta, Cantos First and Second; Odes; Epistles to Milton, Pope, Juvenal, and the Devil ... appeared in 184I. Osborn also wrote many dramas, none of which, apparently, were produced.

“He was,” wrote James Grant Wilson, “a noticeable and handsome man As I recall him, he was at least six feet in height, with a fine physique and carriage. Laughton Osborn was not only an accomplished writer of prose and verse, but the master of many modern languages, a good painter and a skilled musician .... ”(1)

When they became personally acquainted in 1845, Poe appears to have been favorably impressed by Osborn and desirous of retaining his favor. Unfortunately, however, his criticism of Osborn's writings had been unusually severe. The friendship began to decline when Osborn found evidence of Poe's former critical hostility, and Poe's efforts to mend matters, in which he appears to have resorted to falsehood, seem to have been at best only temporarily successful.

One of Poe's most merciless early reviews is the brief notice of The Confessions of a Poet which appeared in the Southern [page 289:] Literary Messenger for April, 1835. He found, the work remarkable for the “bad paper on which it is printed, and the typographical ingenuity with which matter barely enough for one volume has been spread over the pages of two.” After ridiculing the author's annotations, Poe stated that there was some merit in the fact that the author —

A few weeks later Poe wrote in declining to reply to a newspaper complaint against the criticism: “The book is silly enough of itself, without the aid of any controversy concerning it .... My opinion concerning it is pretty much the opinion of the press at large. I have heard no person offer one serious word in its defense.”(3)

The March 15, 1845, number of the Broadway Journal contained an article entitled “Satirical Poems,” a review of Infatuation, [page 290:] a poetic satire by Park Benjamin. In the course of his remarks upon American satire, the critic asked., “What is the ‘Vision of Rubeta’ but an illimitable gilded swill-trough overflowing with Dunciad and water?”(4) In all probability the author of the review was Poe.(5) Apparently it was several months before Osborn saw the uncomplimentary reference to his poem. He wrote to Poe on August 14:

“I am neither disposed, nor can I afford, to give up your friendship so easily,” replied Poe on the next day in a denial that he had written the article. Poe added that on several occasions he had praised Osborn's works and that he had written the review of The Confessions of a Poet thinking that the author was John [page 291:] Neal.(7) Their letters suggest that the two had been on friendly terms previous to Osborn's discovery of the passage in the Broadway Journal. Osborn wrote that he had given Poe copies of Arthur Carryl and The Confessions of a Poet,(8) and Poe recalled a conversation with Osborn in which both had expressed favorable opinions of Halleck.(9)

Perhaps Osborn was convinced that Poe did not write the offending reference, for in September the Journal published three acts of his drama “The Magnetizer; or, Ready for Any Body.”(10) The Journal's readers were not told why the remainder of the drama did not appear, nor is the reason yet apparent. That Poe still hoped for an amicable continuation of his relationship with Osborn is indicated by a note in the Journal for October 4. Among American works of “exceeding merit which, through accident, have been nearly overlooked” Poe named The Confessions of a Poet “a very vigorous and powerful fiction.”(11)

But within a short time Poe had incurred Osborn's displeasure on another score. The tone of the following letter, from Osborn to Poe, November 12, 1845, suggests that this time the writer would not be easily appeased: [page 292:]

The translations did not appear in the Journal, and apparently there was no later personal association between Poe and Osborn.

The “Literati” sketch of Osborn, its length out of proportion to his contemporary reputation as an author, is Poe's most favorable critical estimate of his subject, though it falls short of flattery. Poe dismissed Jeremy Levis with a brief compliment and had little praise for The Dream of Alla-Ad-Deen and Arthur Carryl. But, in contrast to his earlier opinion, he found The Confessions of a Poet remarkable for its “artistic unity and perfection” and expressed doubt that “a better book of its kind has been written in America.” He ranked the Vision of Rubeta as the best of the relatively poor American satires, but termed it “very censurably indecent — filthy is, perhaps, the more appropriate word.” The paper concludes with a favorable personal sketch of Osborn.(13) [page 293:]

Poe's later remarks on Osborn(14) are drawn almost entirely from the “Literati” article. On one occasion he interpolated some uncomplimentary comments: “‘The Vision’ is bold enough — if we leave out of sight its anonymous issue — and bitter enough, and witty enough, if we forget its pitiable punning on names — and long enough (Heaven knows) .... ”(15)

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