Text: James H. Whitty and James H. Rindfleisch, “Appendix C: Thompson and Griswold,” The Genius and Character of Edgar Allan Poe, 1929, pp. 53-57 (This material may be protected by copyright)

APPENDIX C

THOMPSON AND GRISWOLD

“The Rev. Rufus W. Griswold, of New York, was appointed by the will of the late Edgar A. Poe, to be his literary executor; and in compliance with the wishes of Mr. Poe's more intimate friends, he will prepare for the press his memoirs and correspondence. Mr. Griswold requests persons having letters by Mr. Poe, which they will permit to be consulted, or printed, to forward them to his address in New York, or to the care of Jno. R. Thompson, Esq., of the Southern Literary Messenger, at Richmond. All such papers will be carefully preserved, and, when it is requested, returned to the present possessors.

“Two volumes of the Works of Mr. Poe, comprising about 1000 pages, will be issued under Mr. Griswold's supervision, in New York, in about 4 weeks.”

(1) NewYork, Feb. 19, 1850.

MY DEAR SIR:

I scarcely know how to excuse myself for not writing to you. I beseech you set down the sin to an incurable indisposition to answer letters. The last number of the Messenger reminds me of my neglect, and I will no longer defer my frequent (ly) renewed plan.

In the first place, of Poe. I was quite willing — so far as the mere labor was concerned — to write a brief sketch of his life; but having determined to prepare a more elaborate notice of him (some 50 or 100 pages — perhaps more), I was anxious that Willis and Lowell should occupy the preliminary pages of those two volumes that have been published — contenting myself with collecting and arranging the materials, and superintending the press —— which you may be sure was not a very slight labor.

Willis promised a new introduction, but did not give it; Lowell a memoir, but sent me only those old paragraphs; and after some hesitation I suffered the volumes to go from my hands in the form in which you received them.

It had some influence on my decision in this case, that for the hasty observation I ventured in the Tribune, for the morning after P's death I was denounced in many journals as a slanderer of the dead, uttering [page 55:] judgments I dared not express of the living. You know the injustice of this. There was no fit occasion to discuss P's personal character while he was alive. You will bear me witness that I have since done no wrong to his genius.

Nevertheless — though whatever I say of him will be misunderstood or misinterpreted — I shall ere long print a life of Poe that his true friends will confess to be just, and that will satisfy the reasonable curiosity of the public respecting so extraordinary a character.

You will have observed that the collection of Poe's works is incomplete. The publisher was doubtful (very) of success, and all of the efforts that have been made have not made these two volumes very saleable. Yet I am preparing a third volume, which I propose to entitle Literary Characters, Marginalia, and Discourses of the late E. A. Poe, the third and concluding volume of his works.

Under the head of Literary Characters I propose to place not only the notices of men and women which he himself printed under the title, but the more personal reviews which I can identify in the S. L. M. (Southern Literary Messenger), Graham's Magazine, The Whig-Review, &c. In the Marginalia I shall include the various series of thoughts and suggestions which he published in this form and has not repeated in his more elaborate performances. He had two or three discourses — one of which was on the Poetic Principle, and another I believe on American Literature — with him in manuscript at Richmond. Do you know anything of them? Mr. Poe, of Baltimore, wrote to me that he would send them for insertion in the volumes of “Redfield;” but they were never received. In his trunk I suppose, were the corrected copies of his tales, &c., of which you write, and of many other materials, including the MSS. of several literary biographies.

I suggest that you obtain the lecture on the Poetic Principle, and print it as a leading article in the Messenger, paying Miss R. Poe as much as you can for it, and sending me the proofs for the book, to come out subsequently. Will you do so?

Poe wrote to me that he was the author of a notice of my book, the Female Poets. Will you advise me what other things in the Messenger, that have not his name to them, were his — I mean, what things that should be printed with his other writings.

The new volume will cost me more trouble than the others, and will not be out, I suppose, until Autumn.

So P. P. Cooke, the finest poet that ever lived in Virginia — one of the finest that have written in our day — is dead. I corresponded with him for years, and made the arrangements for bringing out his poems, in Philadelphia — obtaining, to his surprise I believe, a hundred dollars of [page 56:] copy money. I read all his proofs, too — and the while had hopes of the Ballads creating a sensation — which they did not. Cannot something be done for his widow, with his MSS. and uncollected poems and prose writings that are in print? If you will undertake the preparation of his works, I will do all I can do in the matter of printing them and making them profitable. You certainly do not exaggerate his merits in the Messenger.

And now about the Poets and Poetry. I am sorry Hart did not send you the new edition, and am more sorry that you delayed sending me those poems of your own until it was too late to use them in the impression. Some time before I had completed my intended changes, the publishers directed that I should incur no more cost upon the stereotype plates, since, in the division of the property contemplated upon an approaching dissolution of partnership, it was not known to whose share this book would fall. I deferred with regret the addition of the pieces which you had gratified me by sending, and assure you that I shall not fail of an attempt to do you justice in the edition for the coming year.

I think you will admit that the book is much improved, but I am not less sensible than you or Mr. Headley, or the critics of the Literary World of its various and numerous defects.

I am,

JNO. R. THOMPSON, Esq.

OUR BOOK TABLE

The Literati: Some Honest Opinions about Autorial Merits and Demerits, with occasional words of personality. Together with Marginalia, Suggestions and Essays. By Edgar A. Poe, New York, J. C. Redfield, 1850.

The editor of this compilation, Dr. R. W. Griswold”“who prefaces this volume before us with a sketch of the life of the remarkable author — has been made the subject of much random abuse and animadversion for bringing out so much plain-spoken criticism upon “The Literati” of America — criticism which since its original publication, had been suffered [page 57:] to relapse into the limbo of forgotten things. Many a small poet and feeble essayist, who had winced beneath the lash of the critic while living, now belabors Dr. Griswold for reviving the recollection of his sufferings, and the ignominy of his castigation. We do not think that this animadversion is at all just. By far the greater part of the criticism contained in this book is well-considered, and for that portion which is not so, but merely abusive, abundant allowance will be made in the character of the critic. And this brings us to say something of the sketch of Poe's life, which Dr. Griswold gives us. As far as we are capable of judging (and we had some intercourse with Poe at one period of his life), the record is truthful, and while the biographer has been compelled to speak some hard things of his subject, they seem to have been brought out only because their suppression would have been as palpable a departure from an honest estimate of the poet, as a direct misstatement of any of his qualities. Kindness to the dead, indeed, requires that we should deal tenderly with their reputations, but there are some cases in which a too great fastidiousness would be positive injustice to the living, and this is one of them.

Morris & Brother have politely sent us the volume, and have it for sale.