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

[page 331, continued:]

Epes Sargent (1813-1880) was the son of a shipmaster of Gloucester, Massachusetts. He attended school in Hingham, Massachusetts, and in 1829 graduated from the Boston Latin School. In the year of his graduation the Literary Journal, conducted by [page 332:] the students of the school, published letters he had written from St. Petersburg, Russia, where he had gone with his father. In the early 1830's he assisted Samuel G. Goodrich in preparing some of the Peter Parley books and formed editorial connections with the Daily Advertiser and the Daily Altas, both of Boston. His dramas The Bride of Genoa and Velasco were produced in Boston in 1837.

By 1838 Sargent was in New York, where for a few months of that year he edited the Mirror. For about a year (1839-1840) he edited the New World, and in January, 1843, issued the first number of Sargent's New Monthly Magazine, which expired after six months. In the meanwhile he had produced several brief prose works for children and The Life and Public Services of Henry Clay (1842). His first volume of poetry, The Light of the Light House, and Other Poems, appeared in 1844 and was followed by Songs of the Sea, With Other Poems (1847).

Sargent returned to Boston in 1846 and there edited the Transcript from 1847 until 1853. In 1848 he married Elizabeth Weld, of Roxbury, Massachusetts. After leaving New York Sargent did much editing and compiling, producing the first seven volumes of The Modern Standard Drama (27 vols., 1846-1849) The Standard Speaker (1852) and other popular textbooks, and editions of works by Goldsmith, Gray, Hood, and Campbell. Planchette, or the Despair of Science (1869) and The Proof Palpable of Immortality (1875) were results of his interest in spiritualism.(1) [page 333:]

Sargent was on amicable terms with Poe's enemies Griswold and Clark. His friends among the “Literati” subjects included Mrs. Mowatt, Mrs. Osgood, and Maroncelli. “A dapper, elegant little man he was,” wrote William Winter, “neatly attired, swinging a thin, polished black bamboo cane, and seeming the embodiment of cheer.(2)

Other than the “Literati” sketch, the only piece of writing on Sargent which can be unreservedly attributed to Poe is the paper on Sargent in the “Autography” series. Poe here described Velasco as “a tragedy full of beauty as a poem, but not adapted ... for representation” and characterized Sargent as “a gentleman of taste and high talent.”(3) Poe also may have written the brief notice of some of the early numbers of Sargent's The Modern Standard Drama in the Broadway Journal, October 11, 1845. The series, stated the reviewer, “is an exceedingly neat and accurate one The editor's well-known taste, especially in dramatic matters, should answer for the fidelity and for the success of his labors.”(4) [page 334:]

Two additional articles which concern Sargent have been ascribed to Poe. The first of these, “Our Magazine Literature” in the New World for March 11, 1843, contains a vicious attack upon Sargent's New Monthly Magazine. As has been shown, the evidence for Poe's authorship of the piece is very slight.(5) The second article is the laudatory review of The Light of the Light House, and Other Poems in Graham's for June, 1844. “He [Sargent] is no mere metrical trifler, playing daintily with thought and passion, ... but a man of fancy and sentiment, who has too much of the material of poetry in him to need the affectation of the poetaster,” wrote the critic.(6) Here and in the “Literati” sketch a number of the same poems are selected for favorable comment and the estimates of Sargent's poetic ability are generally similar. But the evidence is entirely internal and does not conclusively show Poe's authorship of the Graham's review.

The paper on Sargent is not among the more flattering of the “Literati” sketches. Sargent, Poe wrote, had shown poor judgment as a magazine editor; Velasco he considered meritorious only in comparison with other American tragedies; in prose Sargent had shown some aptitude at burlesque but also, Poe broadly hinted, a faculty for imitation. He had a higher opinion of some of Sargent's verse, which, he remarked, “evinces a fine [page 335:] fancy, with keen appreciation of the beautiful and. natural scenery.”(7)

Beyond the brief personal comments in the “Literati” sketch, there is no evidence of acquaintance between Poe and Sargent.

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