105261
Israfel
The Life and Times of Edgar Allan Poe
Volume I
If I could dwell
^Nhere Israfel
TAath dwelt y and he where 7,
H<? might not sing so wildly well
A mortal melody >
Vf/iile a bolder note than this might swell
From my lyre within the sky.
BOOKS BY HERVEY ALLEN
WAMPUM AND OLD GOLD Tale University Press .... 1921
THE BRIDE OF HurrziL James F. Drake, Inc 1933
CAROLINA CHANSONS The Macmillan Co 1953
(WITH Du BOSE HEYWARD)
THE BLINDMAN (a reprint) Tale University Press . , . , 1923
EARTH MOODS AND OTHER POEMS Harper S3 Brothers 1925
TOWARD THE FLAME George If. Dor an Company . , 1926
FOB'S BROTHER George IL Dor an Company . . 1926
(WITH THOMAS OLLIVE MABBOTT)
Edgar Allan Poe as a Young Man
From a daguerreotype* probably taken in Baltimore in the early
Courtesy of the A /dryland Historical Society
Israfet
The Life and Times of Edgar Allan Poe
Ey
Hervey Allen
In Two Volumes
Volume I
New York
George EL Doran Company
1927
Copyright, 1926, by George EL Doran Company
Second Edition
THIB PLIMPTON PRBgfl NORWOOD
PRINTB0 IN THSJ UWTITBD HTATEB OV A M li it 1 A.
For
Mary Lucy Allen
*-^ *&.
&/>*& *^-~ ^
^&s?*..SsCa. -&**t*4t. .sS'irjusr**
ifS**-****' sX &
Poe's Own Comment on His Childhood
From a poem clipped from the album of a Mr/. BALDERSTONE of Baltimore, by
. L. DIDIER. The date and title are in DIDIER'S hand, and the date is in-
correct. POE was at Fortress Monroe on March 17, 1829. The poem probably
belongs to sometime later in 1829 before FOB entered West Point
PREFACE
IT IS not the intention in this preface to attempt to pre-
sent, in condensed form, a critical estimate of the great
figure whose semblance, at least, walks through the
pages of this biography. A long, laborious, and conscientious
consideration of the immense amount of material concerning
Poe, has convinced the author that any brief, comfortably-
clever, and convenient presentation of his character, either
from a literary, psychological, or romantic standpoint is
bound to be misleading. So diverse, so conflicting, and so
astoundingly confusing was the life experience of Edgar
Allan Poe that, in comparison, the lives of many other men
of letters are a simple tale.
The method followed here has been to disregard, for the
most part, the findings of all other biographers who have
worked in the field, and to depend totally upon source mate-
rial drawn from contemporary documents, letters, and the
evidence given by those who saw, talked with, and, to some
extent, knew the man. No matter how great the authority,
or scholarship of those who lived after Poe died, it is felt
that the evidence of those who affirm, " I saw him, talked
with him, on such and such an occasion he did, or said, or
appeared thus and thus " is of more value than theories,
be they ever so erudite and clever*
This biography, then, is the story of Edgar Allan Poe, and
the strange forgotten America in which he lived, and perished,
reconstructed from the direct evidence latent in the docu-
ments, letters, books, and illustrations of the period from
about 1800 to 1850. Neither expense, effort, nor meticulous
care have been spared in assembling this data, in which proc-
ess, the courtesy, advice, and enthusiasm of those who have
vii
vffi PREFACE
been drawn upon for aid, or for source material in their right
or custody, have been truly encouraging and have, indeed,
made this work possible during the past four years.
There are a great many Lives of Poe. This differs from
all others in that, for the first time, it tells the complete
story of the man, from birth to death, and makes reasonably
clear the mystery which has hitherto surrounded the first
half of his life and the formative processes of youth. For-
mer biographers because of the inaccessibility of material,
withheld, for sufficient personal reasons, have been largely
compelled to project Poe as a somewhat enigmatical torso,
with the base draped in convenient and impressive folds.
It is purely an accidental circumstance, but nevertheless
an important one, that the passing of time has brought
about the release of sources, hitherto inaccessible, which now
make it possible to tell amply the strange, and startling story
of Poe's youth. There is no longer any necessity for talking
about " the Poe mystery," indeed, it is no exaggeration to say
that there are few other literary figures whose personal
life is so fully documented. There exists in the files of the
firm of Ellis & Allan, the business house in which Poe's
guardian was a partner, a surprisingly complete record of the
daily life of the family, and community in which Poe lived
during his youth. These papers were purchased some years
ago by the Economic Section of the Library of Congress,
presumably as source material for the study of an early
Nineteenth Century Virginia mercantile firm. There are thou-
sands of papers comprising the business, and personal corre-
spondence of Poe's guardian, John Allan, and his partner,
Charles Ellis, covering a quarter of a century contempora-
neous with Poe's youth. During this time, Poe was in John
Allan's house, or in correspondence with him. There is, in this
store of material, a constant running reference to " Edgar "
from childhood to manhood, a number of items in his own
hand, and many letters concerning him, and his guardian.
PREFACE ix
The author and other researchers have sifted this mass of
documents, and from it drawn the material for the story of
Poe's childhood and youth. The story which emerged is start-
ling, strange, and contradictory of many assertions and
legends, hitherto accepted about Poe and his early environ-
ment.
For the most part, the statements made in this text are
heavily documented by footnotes, but the reader is asked
to remember that many assertions made in the body of the
work, about the character of those who had the moulding
of the young Poe in their keeping, is made from a knowledge
of the complete material as a whole. To quote sources in
every case would require an annex volume of references
alone.
In addition to the Ellis & Allan Papers, the publication
of the correspondence between Poe and John Allan by the
Valentine Museum, in 1925, amply covered the period be-
tween 1826 and 1832. By good fortune, the author was able
to locate the wills of William Gait, and John Allan, which are
here published in full, in the appendix, and from a synthesis
of all three sources: Ellis & Allan, the Valentine Museum
Letters, and the wills mentioned, to present his conclusions.
It is proper to state here that the construction put upon the
relations between Poe and his guardian is not an effort to
exonerate Poe, The domestic affairs of John Allan have, as a
matter of fact, been treated with considerable reserve. There
is no desire to make " startling revelations " in this biography.
Collateral material, bearing upon events and persons not
concerned with Poe, has been carefully excluded. It is also
pertinent to state that, in the author's opinion, the attempt
by John Allan to throw a shadow on the name of the poet's
mother was without foundation, and a doubtful gesture of
desperate self-defense.
A much closer, and more affectionate relation between
Edgar Poe and his elder brother, William Henry Leonard
x PREFACE
Poe, than has hitherto been suspected, has been brought to
light by the recent discovery of Henry Poe's poems and
prose bearing upon Edgar. The above-mentioned material
has been generously supplemented, and made more or less
complete by the letters and data supplied to the author by
Edward V. Valentine, Esq., of Richmond, related to Poe's
foster-mother, and one of the few persons still living, known
to have seen Poe, and to have had immediate knowledge of his
character, his family, and personal friends. In this matter,
and in others, the author is in great debt to Mr. Valentine.
Although Poe was an extraordinary, and unique character,
in attempting to reconstruct his life, it soon became ap-
parent that, without a recall of the forgotten and swiftly
changing world through which he moved amid the kaleido-
scopic incidents of his environment, it would be hopeless to
even approach an understanding of the man. Yet if Poe's
reactions to his environment were peculiar to himself, it is
in those very peculiarities that his essential literary charac-
ter is to be glimpsed, and that his triumphs and failures are
to be found. Because, for many intricate historical reasons,
the America from 1800 to the Civil War, and, particularly,
the America of the 1 830*5 and 1840*3 has been allowed to
lapse into oblivion, only the lyrical, and romantically-imagi-
native work of Poe is generally known to the present genera-
tion.
The peculiar and intense difficulties with which the writers
of the " Middle American " period struggled, and to which
most of them capitulated, are now much less evident, even
to scholars, than the environment of Restoration London,
or almost any other era. In this study, the intellectual and
physical background of the central figure has therefore been
reproduced with considerable care.
America is gradually becoming aware of its past. Sud-
denly realizing that, for some reason, the balance of influ-
ence in the planet may have been conferred upon her, she is
PREFACE xi
now looking about and behind, and wondering why. It is ludi-
crous to suppose that the three generations, from the found-
ing of the Federal Union to the Civil War, were merely so
many old-fashioned nobodies. We have already begun to be
intrigued by their furniture and costumes, and it is now time
to commence to look beneath the surface. Whether we ad-
mire or not is inconsequential. The type of culture, which
has now acquired a fearsome momentum, was then getting
under way among Americans, its future direction was being
settled so that, it is now little short of a necessity to be-
come familiar with all of this background. It seems startling,
at this time, to insist that in the Baltimore, or Philadelphia,
or Boston of the 1830*3 and 1840*3, or even earlier, there
were tides of thought, intellectual movements, and political
theories that congealed in literature. But it was so, and,
without understanding them, and resurrecting them, we can-
not understand ourselves.
It is, therefore, earnestly hoped that, in this biography,
the attempt to suggest some of the values of the " Middle
American scene " will become evident. Poe's own comment
was couched in a style and with an irony that made it dis-
tastefully, and even madly, iconoclastic, to his contempo-
raries. In the year 1926 a great deal of his criticism of social,
political, and literary life in America rings with a strangely
modern sound. It is significant that, while conservative
academic circles still continue to yawn through Mr. Emer-
son's doubtful Compensations, there is no knowledge, or
comment upon what Mr. Poe had to say of democracy, sci-
ence, and unimaginative literature about the same time*
The croak of the raven is conveniently supposed to be purely
lyric. In that direction, the discussion of Poe's contribution
to American letters may be said to be presented here in a
modern aspect.
The contribution to imaginative literature is, always, the
main, and most pertinent claim for attention that an author
Xll
PREFACE
can have upon posterity. Whatever may be the eventual
niche accorded to Edgar Allan Poe in the literature of Eng-
lish, and estimates vary, the great importance of his place
in the field of American letters cannot be successfully denied.
The legend of the man is enormous. One of the few Ameri-
can literary names that cannot be mentioned without
awakening interest, anywhere in the United States, is that of
Edgar Allan Poe. He is one of the few of our poets who en-
joys the perquisites of completely general fame. This is, in
itself, for whatever reason, a giant achievement, and de-
serves the attention of careful and complete biography, free
from sectional propaganda, the pet theories of specialists,
and sentimental, or moralistic twaddle. But there is some-
thing more than that; for those who care nothing, even for
those who deprecate his contributions to literature, the
story of the man, as a mere human adventure, must, by force
of its inherent, dramatic, genuinely romantic, and strange
psychological values, be found intriguing to the last degree.
Though we may find it impossible to love, and even diffi-
cult to admire, we cannot help but be intensely interested.
The bare material of the man's biography is fascinating. Its
events constitute a series of human accidents out of which
the timbre of personality, and the notes on the staff of inci-
dent, have produced the harmony and dissonance of an
orchestrated tragedy. With so great a theme, the present bio-
grapher can only hope that his audience will not be repulsed
by the many difficulties which, he is the first to acknowledge,
he has frequently been unable to surmount.
References in the text to authorities, sources, and the au-
thor's comments, are made in a series of running footnotes
numbered consecutively. Cumbersome Latin abbreviations
have been left out, and the numbers may refer to footnotes
either backward or forward. In using those references, the
reader is asked to bear in mind that the footnotes run from
i to 934, and that a reference to a note may also imply and
PREFACE xiii
include a reference to the discussion in the text upon the
same page where the footnote occurs. Duplication of foot-
notes, and cumbersome requoting of authorities have thus
been avoided.
The illustrations, with few exceptions, notably that of Poe
on Sullivan's Island, are all from contemporary sources, and
have been chosen and arranged, not only to illustrate a partic-
ular place in the text, but also to make clear the background of
the period in which Poe moved, and the panorama of the
changes which occurred. For the convenience of Poe scholars
and collectors, the title pages of Poe's bound works, issued
during his lifetime, are here reproduced, together with the
photographs of several rare newspapers, and a periodical
to which he contributed. In each case, these accompany a
discussion, and description of the publication in the text.
No reference in the biography is made to the " Quarles "
pamphlet supposed, by some to have been issued by Poe as
a reply to Dickens's American Notes. In the opinion of the
author, based on a thorough investigation, this is not an item
that can be assigned to the pen of Poe. The discussion of Poe's
" war " with Longfellow, and of his association with Dr.
Thomas Holley Chivers has, for reasons of space, been only
indicated. A study of Chivers is much needed in the bibliog-
raphy of American Literature. The relations between Edgar
Allan Poe, and his older brother, Henry, have only been
touched on in the text. A full discussion of the two brothers
will be found in Poe's Brother, The Poetry of William Henry
Leonard Poe, by Hervey Allen and Thomas Ollive Mabbott,
Doran, 1926, an excerpt from which is here printed in Appen-
dix IV. It should also be noted that this biography ends with
the death of Poe, and docs not purport to detail the after-
math of the Griswold controversy, and other posthumous
matters.
In conclusion, the author desires to make evident his pro-
found sense of gratitude, and indebtedness to the following
xiv PREFACE
persons, publishers, and institutions, for their invaluable
aid, and generous contributions of advice and data:
To the Edgar Allan Poe Shrine of Richmond, Virginia,
and to Mr. and Mrs. Archer Jones, personally, for their in-
valuable assistance, access to important stories of Poe mate-
rial, and for illustrations; to Granville S. Valentine, Esq., and
to Miss Julia Sully, both of Richmond, Va., to W. G. Stanard,
Esq., President of the Virginia Historical Association, and to
Mrs. Mary Newton Stanard for several valuable facts, remi-
niscences, illustrations, and helpful observations; to Edward
V. Valentine, Esq., for excerpts from his diary, and permis-
sion to reprint letters from the Allan-Gait correspondence;
to James Southall Wilson, Edgar Allan Poe Professor of
Literature at the University of Virginia in particular for
his generous attitude about the title "Israfel" and for
access to the Ingram collection, diaries, and Whitman corre-
spondence at the University of Virginia, as well as permis-
sion to quote sundry items, and for his helpful advice; to
William Van R. Whitall, Esq., of Pelham, New York, for the
loan of essential texts from his library and collection, and for
his advice and comment; to John T. Snyder, Esq., of Pel-
ham, New York, for the use of rare Poe items, and first
editions in his collection; to S. Foster Damon, Esq., of Har-
vard University, for advice and information; to a New York
" Poe Collector," who desires to remain anonymous, for the
loan of texts; to James F. Drake, Esq., for the loan of three
letters, and permission to reprint; to Dwight Franklin, Esq.,
for permission to reproduce his study of the young Poe; to
Miss Laura M. Bragg, Director of the Charleston Museum,
and to John Bennett, Esq., for information dealing with Poe
in Charleston, and The Gold Bug; to Theodore Spicer-Sim-
son, Esq., and to Miss Elena von Feld, of the American
Museum of Natural History, for the illustrations of Poe's
Gold Bug Synthesis; to Edwin M. Anderson, Esq., Librarian
of the New York Public Library; to Francis Rawle, Esq.,
PREFACE xv
President of the Pennsylvania Historical Society; to the
Librarian of the Century Association; to the Maryland His-
torical Society, in particular for rare files of newspapers and
illustrations; to the Librarian of the Virginia State Library;
and to the Custodian of the Ellis & Allan Papers at the
Library of Congress.
The author also desires to express his appreciation for the
release of copyrights on various and sundry items and illus-
trations to Houghton Mifflin Company, Thomas Y. Crowell
and Company, Harper Brothers, the Century Company, the
University of Virginia, the Columbia University Press, the
Lewiston Journal Company, Charles Scribner's Sons, The
Valentine Museum, of Richmond, Va., and J. B. Lippincott
Company Also to Professor George E. Woodberry, Pro-
fessor James A. Harrison, Professor Killis Campbell, and Dr.
Thomas Ollive Mabbott particularly, for the benefit of their
labors in the Poe field, without which no competent comment
on Poe would now be possible.
New York City, U. S. A.
October x, 1926
HERVEY ALLEIST
Contents to Volume I
PREFACE
Chapter I
II
III
IV
V
VI
VII
VIII
IX
X
XI
XII
XIII
XIV
XV
XVI
XVII
A DRAMATIC PROLOGUE 3
THE Two ORPHANS 17
LADY BOUNTIFUL CLAIMS ISRAFEL 27
" THE LITTLE ANGEL " TRIES His WINGS 50
ISRAFEL IN ALBION 63
ISRAFEL MEETS HELEN 90
ISRAFEL SALUTES THE MARQUIS 112
ELMIRA AND THE ENCHANTED GARDEN 132
ISRAFEL IN CAP AND GOWN 147
ALIAS HENRI LE RENNET 181
ISRAFEL IN CAROLINA 209
COLD MARBLE 227
THE WEST POINT INTERLUDE 269
THE WEARY, WAYWORN WANDERER 301
"THE MYSTERIOUS YEARS" 319
BOTTLED FAME 344
VALLEY OF THE MANY-COLORED GRASS 375
Illustrations to Volume I
Edgar Allan Poe as a Young Man Frontispiece
Poe's Own Comment on His Childhood vi
Mrs. David Poe 14
The House in which Mrs. David Poe died in Rich-
mond, Virginia 15
Frances Keeling Allan 20
The Richmond of Poe's Early Childhood 21
John Allan, Merchant 29
An Off-Hour at Ellis &f Allan 33
William Mayo 37
The Burning of the Theatre in Richmond, Virginia 44
The Monumental Church, Richmond, Virginia 45
The Right Reverend Richard Channing Moore 55
The Grammar School at Irvine, Scotland 79
The Manor House at Stoke Newington, London 79
The Home of Charles Ellis, partner of John Allan 92
"The Mother's Chamber" in the Ellis House 92
A Poem by Edgar Poe 93
The House of Poe's " Helen ", Jane Stith Stanard 106
Bill of J. W. Clarke in
The Earliest Known Lines of Poetry and Signature of
Edgar A. Poe 124
The Allan House, " Moldavia " 1 28
John Allan 129
Sarah Elmira Royster at Fifteen 144
"A Fountain and a Shrine" 145
The University of Virginia in Poe's Day 148
Professor George Tucker 149
XIX
xx ILLUSTRATIONS TO VOLUME I
No. 13, West Range 152
Bill for a Suit of Clothes 153
Title Page of Tamerlane and Other Poems 200
The Front and Back Wrappers of Tamerlane and Other
Poems 201
Poe's Gold Bug Synthesis 216
Original illustrations for The Gold Bug 217
Baltimore, about the time of Poe's First Story 248
Scenes in Early Baltimore familiar to Poe 249
Title Page of Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane, and Minor Poems,
Baltimore 1829 258
The United States Military Academy 270
An Early Steamboat on the New York to Albany
Route in the days of Poe 297
Title Page of Poems Second Edition 306
On the Philadelphia Trenton Line 316
Philadelphia from the Navy Yard 316
Baltimore in the Early 1830*5 317
Part of a page on which Poe's Prize Story of "The
MS. Found in a Bottle " appeared 346
Street Scene in Baltimore of the 1830'$ 347
John P. Kennedy 352
T. S. Arthur, Author of Ten Nights in a Bar- Room 353
The Southern Literary Messenger Building 378
"Sunday Evening at the Yarringtons" 379
ISRAFEL
Volume I
Israfel
CHAPTER I
A Dramatic Prologue
MRS. PHILLIPS was a milliner who lived on Main
Street in Richmond, Virginia, near that part of the
town known as the " Bird in Hand." In the year
1811, in addition to her usual summer creations of silk, lavender-
ribbon and lace, which were said to have occasionally attained
the distinction of good taste, she was also doing a more than
usually thriving trade in perfumes and cosmetics, owing to the
gathering next door at the Indian Queen Tavern' 1 of Mr.
Placide's Company of Richmond Players about to open the local
theatrical season.
Sometime in August the personnel of Mr. Placide's troupe was
further augmented by the arrival from Norfolk, where she had
lately been playing, of a young actress then twenty-six years of
age, Mrs. Elizabeth Arnold Poe, whose beauty, voice and terp-
sichorean accomplishments had made it worth while for Mr.
Placide to pay her way from Norfolk to Richmond, since her
failing health, the presence of two young children, and the death
or absence of her husband seems to have left her stranded in the
former place, despite the fact of a performance having 'been lately
advertised there for her benefit. 2
Mrs. David Poe 7 for such had been her second husband's
name, was accompanied by her two children, Edgar and Rosalie,
1 Mrs. Phillips* shop, which Is still standing in an altered shape, was next door
to a hostelry famous as the haunt of actors in a part of town where there were
a number of inns. Among others near by, and one of the oldest, was the Bird in
Hand, from which that portion of town took its name. Mrs. Phillips has been
called " Mrs. Fipps " heretofore, but in the Richmond directories of the time she
appears as "Mrs. Phillips." Fipps was evidently the Scotch equivalent adopted
by tradition.
3 Norfolk, Virginia, Herald for July 26, 1811. "Misfortunes have pressed
heavily upon Mrs. Poe, who has been left alone, the support of herself and sev-
eral young children."
4 ISRAFEL
and was then, or later, given rooms in Mrs. Phillips' establish-
ment, probably owing to the fact that the inn next door was al-
ready crowded, and that the nature of the entertainment pro-
vided there was at times too Bohemian and convival to suit the
needs of a young actress in delicate health, the mother of a
family.
Of the two children, Edgar was the older, then going on to
three years of age. He had been born in Boston on January 19,
i8o9, 8 while his mother and father were playing in that city at
the old Federal Street Theater, At the time of his arrival in
Richmond, Edgar was a handsome, sturdy little boy with large,
dark gray eyes, long, dark brown hair, and an engaging counte-
nance. His sister Rosalie was then a child in arms, having been
born most probably in December, 1810, in Norfolk, Virginia.' 1
A third and eldest child, William Henry Leonard Poe, had been
left shortly after his birth, in the Summer of 1807, in the care of
his paternal grandfather, " General " David Poe, at 19 Camden
Street, Baltimore.
Edgar Allan Poe, for that was the full name which the son of
the young actress was later to receive, was the child of strolling
actors, if so leisurely a word as " strolling " can be applied to
the painful and varied peregrinations of his parents, David and
Elizabeth.
Elizabeth Arnold (Poe), the poet's mother, was the daughter
of an actor, Henry Arnold, and an actress, Elizabeth Smith, both
of the Covent Garden Theater, London. The marriage bans of
the couple were published at St. George's Church in London in
1784, and the couple were married in June of that year. Eliza-
beth, their daughter, was born in the Spring of 1787, Henry
Arnold, Poe's maternal grandfather, appears to have died in the
8 This date has been agreed upon after the careful investigations of Prof.
Woodberry. All other dates, whether given by Poe himself, or (ho members of Hw
Poe family, can be confidently disregarded. Poe's autobiographic^ notes giv*n to
Griswold on the back of an old envelope are particularly misleading. Set; note on
Poe's parentage and heredity in Appendix I.
4 Accounts of Rosalie Poe upon her adoption by the Mackenzie a fnv months
later speak of her as much older and as " running about " even at the time of
Mrs. Poe's arrival in Richmond.
A DRAMATIC PROLOGUE
early Winter of 1790, as his name disappears from the play bills
about then. His widow continued to play at Covent Garden for
the next six years, but left London at the beginning of November,
1795, for the United States, taking her daughter Elizabeth along
with her. They landed in Boston from the ship " Outram " on
January 3, 1796, as a shipping notice two days later in the
Massachusetts Mercury shows. Miss Arnold was then nine years
old. The passenger list of the " Outram " included a number of
emigrating English actors among whom was one Charley Tubbs.
In February, 1796, with considerable success, 5 Mrs. Arnold
made her American debut at Boston. A little later she and her
daughter, accompanied by Mr. Tubbs, after a brief tour through
part of New England, arrived at Portland, Maine; where the
young Miss Arnold made her first appearance (sic) at a vocal
concert on June i, 1796, singing some songs, suited to her child-
ish age and part. It was about this time, if not earlier, that the
attractive widow Mrs. Arnold became the spouse of the genial
but superficial Mr. Tubbs. He accompanied her upon the piano-
forte and supported her in minor parts. During the Fall and Sum-
mer of 1796 they attempted to organize at Portland, Maine,
what may be quaintly regarded as the first " little theater " in
America.
Mr. and Mrs. Tubbs and the young Elizabeth Arnold were
the stars of the company, the other members appear to have been
recruited mainly from the local amateur talent. One winter's ex-
perience of the coldness of the climate and the frigid dramatic
enthusiasm of the Puritans appears, however, to have been
blighting, and in January, 1797, Mr. and Mrs. Tubbs together
with the ten-year-old girl, " the beautiful Miss Arnold whose
6 Massachusetts Mercury for February 16, 1796: " We have had the pleasure
of a complete fruition in the anticipation of the satisfaction a Boston audience
would receive from the dramatic abilities of Mrs. Arnold. The theater never
shook with such bursts of applause, as on her first appearance, on Friday last/'
etc.
Mr. Tubbs may have married Mrs. Arnold before they left England. The
actress naturally retained her old name on theater bills and the matter is there*
fore difficult to trace. Woodbcrry is followed here. The story that Foe's mother
was bom at sea is a legend with no basis of fact, it may be noted.
ISRAFEL
powers as an actress command attention," 7 attached themselves
to Mr. Solee's Company of Boston and Charleston Comedians
and started for South Carolina. On the way down the coast, they
stopped in New York to give two performances at the John
Street Theater, when an epidemic of yellow fever intervened and
the company was scattered to reunite again in Charleston, S. C.
The Tubbses arrived on the sloop " Maria " and went to board
with Colonel Maybery on Bay Street.
In Charleston, performances were given all winter. The season
opened November gth, 1797, and Mr. Solee engaged both Mr.
and Mrs. Tubbs for light comedy parts and songs, and the young
Miss Arnold in childish rdles such as " Cupid," and " a nymph." 8
In the Spring of JtTScj, just before the season was over, Mr.
Tubbs, together with two other actors of the company, Edgar
and Whitelock, caused such disaffection in the troupe as to re-
sult in a dissension in its ranks. Some of the actors, among whom
were Mr. and Mrs. Tubbs and the young Miss Arnold, were
forced to leave the city temporarily. Mr. Tubbs was described by
the manager, Mr. Solee, as the " least member of the company
and a vermin." These disgruntled players were later gathered to-
gether again in Charleston by Mr. Edgar, and for a month after
the close of the season by the Charleston Company, continued to
give performances under the name of the Charleston Comedians.
It was in this troupe that Poe's mother, Elizabeth Arnold,
ceased to take only juvenile parts and found herself described us
jp. actress. Mr. Edgar, the pseudo-manager of the new troupe,
appears to have been a drunkard with a disputatious disposition.
Owing to this, and the fact that the secession of his cast from
the ranks of the Charleston Players had been viewed unfavor-
7 The Eastern Herald and Gazette of Maine, December n, 1706.
8 Elizabeth Arnold made her debut on the Charleston boards November 18,
singing The Market Lass, and her first "important" theatrical appwirann? iH'ww-
ber 26, as the " Duke of York " in Richard ///. The family continual piayini' in
Charleston through the Spring of 1798. .
South Carolina State Gazette for April and May, 1798: Mta Army's nrw
parts at this time were: "Anna" in the Death of Major Andrf; "Mins Biddv
Bellair m Miss in Her Teens; " Nancy " in Three Wicks after Afarrtotf ' " Pink *"
in The Young Quaker; " Sophia in The Road / Rmn; and " Phoebe* " in The
Reapers.
A DRAMATIC PROLOGUE
ably by the public and press, the notices which he and his people
received were by no means favorable. To this, however, both
Mrs. Tubbs and Miss Arnold were notable exceptions.
It is about this time that all references to Mr. and Mrs. Tubbs
cease. They disappear from the scene; and it is quite possible
that the grandmother of Edgar Allan Poe rests in some unmarked
grave in Charleston, S. C., the victim of " Yellow Jack," the ter-
rible fever, which for years haunted the old port epidemically
and perennially, claiming, even a half century later, the brother
of the English poet, Hugh Clough, and many another. 10 There is
some tradition of Poe's grandmother having appeared later in
Baltimore but it rests on a shadowy foundation. That she ac-
companied Mrs. Poe and the children to Richmond in 1811 has
no basis of fact.
In the late Spring or early Summer of 1798, apparently with-
out her mother or stepfather, Elizabeth Arnold in the care of a
Mr. Usher 11 and a Mrs. Snoden came north to Philadelphia
where they joined the dramatic company then playing in that
city, and acted for the next four seasons, until 1802, with occa-
sional appearances in Washington, Southwark, and other places.
In March, 1800, the company with which the future Mrs. Poe
was then playing was joined by a Mr. C. D. Hopkins, comedian.
On July 4, 1802, Miss Arnold was given a benefit performance
in Baltimore, and it may have been at that time that she was
first seen by young David Poe, then about twenty-five years
old and engaged in studying law ls> with Henry Didier and
others. This meeting, however, is only a possibility. David Poe
10 Epitaph in St. Michael's Churchyard, Charleston, S. C.
GEORGE AUGUSTUS CLOUGH
A NATIVE OF LIVERPOOL,
DIED SUDDENLY 01* " STRANGERS FEVER "
NOV'R STII 1843
AGKD 22
A careful search of available records in Charleston, S. C., made by the author in
1923-4, failed, however, to reveal any trace of cither Mr. or Mrs. Tubbs being
interred there.
1 1 The name " Usher " thus appears curly in the history of Poe.
12 He was born "certainly not later than 1780." John Poe, Esq., to Prof.
Woodberry, June 10, 1883. The statement that David Poe eloped with Miss
Arnold about this time as related by Ingram is not true. He was misinformed.
8 ISRAFEL
went south to an uncle in Augusta, Ga., and in July, 1802, Eliza-
beth Arnold was married to Mr. Hopkins whose principal comic
r61e was that of " Tony Lumpkin." The couple continued to play
in Alexandria, Norfolk, Petersburg, and Richmond 13 as members
of the Virginia Players. Of this union there were no children.
In the meantime, young David Poe, who seems to have had
more interest in amateur theatricals where his appearance
had met some encouragement than in " Blackstone," left his
uncle's house in Augusta and went to Charleston, S. C., where
he made his " second appearance on any stage " December $th,
1803." Despite his desire for theatrical fame, David Poe seems
to have been of a retiring and even bashful disposition. In addi-
tion, he was delicate and tubercularly inclined, which probably
partly accounts for the fact of an awkwardness and self-con-
sciousness that precluded him from success in any but the most
minor r61es. 15 His amateur manner remained, and whatever his
talents, it may be definitely stated that they were always fur be-
low those of the young actress whom he afterward married. 11
Nevertheless, the young actor's first press notices lrt were not un-
favorable, and he seems to have met with considerable encour-
agement in Charleston, then one of the principal theatrical cen-
13 The plays and the r61es in which Mr. and Mrs. Hopkins appeared can be
found in the contemporary newspaper files of the towns mentioned.
** The Charleston City Gazette for December x, 1803, advertises David Poe\s
first appearance in a pantomime, La Perouse as "An Officer." For a full dis-
cussion of the relative dramatic abilities of both of Poe's parents, see Woodbcny'st
Life, 1909, vol. I, chap. I. I have somewhat curtailed it here as being of minor
importance in connection with Poe himself and have contented myself by intro-
ducing some new material not given by or accessible to former biographers.
" George Barnwell "Young Poe begins to emerge from the abyss of em-
barrassment in which natural diffidence, from his first appearance until two or
three of his last performances had plunged him so deep as to deprive him of all
power of exertion. But he must have not only courage but patience: 'slow rises
the Actor.' " Information from a contemporary dramatic criticism in a Charleston
newspaper supplied by Eola Wfflis of Charleston, S, C.
* "The Charleston Courier at this time had an official critic, *Tlu*pi*'~-
(Mr. C. C. Carpenter), a cultivated Englishman, who not only wrote dramatic
criticisms of a peculiarly honest and helpful nature, but took a keen fatherly
interest in the advancing careers of the young members of the company. His
sympathy and understanding must have been very comforting to the tyros who
were trying to prove their worth to the Manager's satisfaction," Eola Willis in
the Bookman.
A DRAMATIC PROLOGUE
ters, where he appeared during the entire Winter of 1803 17 under
the management of Mr. Placide of the Charleston Players, who
had succeeded Mr. Solee.
The best portrait of Edgar Allan Poe's father that remains is
to be found in the dramatic criticism of a contemporary Charles-
ton newspaper describing his first speaking appearance: 10
Of the Young Gentleman who made his first appearance on any
stage, it would be hazardous to take an opinion from his performance
this evening. For some time he was overwhelmed with the fears inci-
dent on such occasions to an excess that almost deprived him of speech.
A first appearance is a circumstance of novelty, and the audience
therefore did not, as the European audiences do, on such occasions,
greet the newcomer with encouraging plaudits; nor did the young
gentleman receive one token of welcome or approbation till it was
earned by him. Though he could not, even to the last, divest himself
of his fears, we thought he disclosed powers well fitted for the stage.
His voice seems to be clear, melodious and variable; what its compass
may be can only be shown when he acts unrestrained by timidity. His
enunciation seemed to be very distinct and articulate; and his face and
person are much in his favor. His size is of that pitch well fitted for
general action if his talents should be suited to sock and buskin. On
the whole, we think that if the young gentleman has a passion for
histrionic fame he may promise himself much gratification. What he
did disclose was greatly in his favor; and extreme modesty though it
may operate as a temporary impediment, will be considered by every
judicious person, as a strong prognostic of merit, and earnest of future
excellence!
That neither the professional performance nor the type of
17 The characters acted by David Poe at the Charleston Theater in 1803 were:
"Belmore" in Jane Shore; "Laertes" in Gustavus Vasa; "Harry Thunder" in
WUd Oates; "Donalbain" in Macbeth; "Grimm" in The Robbers; "Fallicro"
in Abaellinor or the Great Bandit; " Stephcno " in The Tale of Mystery; " Young
Woodland" in Cheap Living; "Williams" in John Butt; "Don Pedro" in Much
Ado About Nothing; "An Officer" in La Perouse; "Tressel" in Richard 111;
"Pedro" in The Voice of Nature; Allan-a-Dale " in Robin flood; " Thomas"
in The Marriage Promise; " Trueman " in George Barnwelt; " Carmillo " in Julia
or the Italian Lover; " Trifle " in The East Indian; " Dennis Crackskull " in The
Scheming Lieutenant; "Don Garcia" in A Bold Stroke for a Husband; "Meze-
tin" (Pantomime) in The Touchstom of Truth; "Don Antonio Gaspard" in
Liberty m Louisiana; "Hunter" in The Fatherless Children; "Hortensio" in
Catherine and Petruchio; "Sebastian" in Charlotte and Werter; and "Lover"
in The Old Soldier. Eola Willis in the Bookman, from files of contemporary
Charleston newspapers.
io ISRAFEL
plays in which David Poe acted entitled him to any claim upon
" histrionic fame," both the criticism of the time and the play
bills with the small parts in which he appeared confirm. 17
In the Fall of 1804 David Poe had evidently come North, for
we find him joining the Virginia Players in company with his
future wife, and playing in Petersburg and throughout the entire
circuit of that company. The season of 1805 was opened in
Washington under the management of Mr, Green. It was unfor-
tunate in several ways; financially, and from the loss of the com-
pany's star comedian, Mr. Hopkins, who died after a very brief
period of illness on October the 26th. His widow, the former
l^fiss Arnold, did not remain long unconsoled, for in a surprisingly
short time afterward she was married to young David Poe, who
borrowed money from a friend for the expenses of the occasion.
Whether the young widow's haste was due to the natural ardor
of her temperament or the failure of the deceased to engage her
affections, must remain in those realms of speculation sacred to
theologians.
The Poes remained with the Virginia Players until May, 1806,
when they went North to Boston, stopping on the way for sum-
mer engagements at Philadelphia and New York. By October
they had rejoined their old friends the Ushers of the Boston and
Charleston Players, whose influence may have been responsible,
together with the Poes' former appearance with the* company,
for their engagement at the Federal Theater in Boston.
^ The Poes remained in Boston for three years. Mrs. Poe played
several major Shakespearean r61es from time to time, " Blanche,"
"Ophelia," "Cordelia," "Juliet," and occasionally "Ariel."
She appeared frequently as a dancing partner with her husband,
dancing the Polish Minuet or singing between his clogs, reels,
hornpipes, and Scotch flings.
A digest of the criticisms which Mrs. Poe received shows her
to have been more gifted with diligence in her art than by native
talent, and deserving of praise rather than of admiration. David
Poe found his natural level in minor parts, or in appearing as an
entertainer and dancer, supported by the acceptable voice of his
wife. Together they managed to make a bare living.
A DRAMATIC PROLOGUE n
It was during this Boston sojourn that the two boys were born:
William Henry Leonard probably sometime in the early Winter,
or during the Summer of i8o7, ls as the records of Mrs. Poe's un-
broken appearances preclude any other time; and Edgar in Jan-
uary, 1809, when Mrs. Poe was again absent from the theater
from January 13 to February 8th. 10 At this time the family was
living at 33 Hollis Street.
As a great deal has been made in some quarters of the fact
that Poe was born in Boston and of his later brief association
with the place, it must always be kept in mind that he was born
there and nothing more. Even a genius can scarcely be expectedT
to have memories of the first six months of his life, even though
they be passed in New England. " Because kittens may be born
in an oven, that does not make them loaves of bread." Edgar
Allan Poe was not a Bostonian, despite the claim, largely one of
sentiment and convenience, on the title page of his first book.
By education, association, preference, and prejudice, Poe was a
Virginian, 20 and throughout all of his wanderings Richmond was
his home.
David and Elizabeth Poe continued to play in Boston after the
birth of Edgar until the end of the theatrical season. How poor
these actors were, is shown by the fact that three weeks after
Edgar's birth his little sylph-like mother was back on the boards
dancing and singing, her first appearance after the arrival of her
son having taken place on February 8th, 1809, and not two days
later as the newspaper notices indicate. 21 The sudden popularity
18 Almost certainly during the early Winter of 1807 as this child, William
Henry Leonard Poe, was left with his grandparents in Baltimore during the sum-
mer of 1807, the theatrical vacation. If he were born there, this might account
for the story in the Poe family that Edgar had been born in Baltimore.
30 Mrs. Poe is advertised to appear in January, 1809, on the 6, 9, 13, 20 as
the " Peasant " in The Brawn Mask, a pantomime. Her next appearance was on
February 8th. Her confinement probably took place between January i3th and
February 8th, the notice for the 20th having probably been inserted some days
before the event,
80 By "Virginian" I do not mean an "American"; the distinction, which
was once a real one, has since become blurred.
21 Original playbill of the Boston Theater. False Alarms, Brazen Mask, Mr.
and Mrs. Poe in the cast of the latter, February 8, 1800. This bill is of peculiar
interest because it shows that Mrs. Poe appeared two days earlier, after Edgar's
12 ISRAFEL
of the boy actor, John Howard Payne, who made his first appear-
ance in Boston in 1809, seems for a time to have threatened the
Foes' livelihood. " Master Payne/ 7 however, evidently had his
heart in the right place, for on April 19, the following notice ap-
peared in a Boston newspaper:
BOSTON THEATRE
For the Benefit of Mrs. Poe
MRS. POE RESPECTFULLY INFORMS THE PlJBUC,
THAT IN CONSEQUENCE OF REPEATED DISAPPOINT-
MENTS IN OBTAINING PLACES DURING,
Master Payne's
ENGAGEMENT, HE HAS CONSENTED TO PLAY ONE
NIGHT LONGER AT HER Benefit
THIS EVENING, APRIL IQTH (1809) WILL BE PRK-
SENTED, FOR THIS NIGHT ONLY, THE CELEBRATED
PLAY CALLED Pizzaro:
ROLLO (First Time) . . . Master PAYNE
Two nights before, Mrs. Poe had played " Ophelia " to Payne's
"Hamlet." Such a concession as the benefit must have been nec-
to keep the wolf away from " Ophelia's door.
Mrs. Poe's last appearance in Boston took place at the Ex-
change Coffee House where she sang on May 16, 1809. Septem-
ber found the family in New York at the Park Theater, where
both she and her husband played, mostly in light comedy, until
July 4th, 1810, Her husband's press notices were now often un-
favorable, and it is about this time that David Poe apparently
disappears. He either died or deserted his wife, and there is no
further authentic mention of him. The tradition is that he died
of consumption. If so, the sound of the small applause which had
occasionally been his must have been effectually muffled by the
clods of the potters' field.
-""The" disappearance" of David Poe in July, 18x0, dates the
birth, than the date which Prof. Woodbcrry records. A pathetic suldirfit is that
the r61e chosen for Mr*. Poe was "little more than a walking part." See note in
the Catalogue of the American Art Association Inc., for Poe Hums in sale of April
2*> 29, 1924, No. 932. *
A DRAMATIC PROLOGUE 13
beginning of a Poe family mystery about which there has been
a good deal of futile speculation. It gave rise to suspicions that
later on played an important part in the life of the poor actor's
famous son. According to one legend, with little basis of fact,
David Poe deserted his wife for a Scotch woman and went to
live with her abroad. By her he is reputed to have had a son
with whom Poe is supposed to have gone to school at Irvine,
Scotland, a circumstance that laid the basis for the plot of Wil-
liam Wilson. This can all be safely dismissed as imagination not
to be described as pure. A more credible Richmond tradition
supposes that David Poe died in Norfolk, Virginia, which one de-
tached and untraced newspaper clipping tends to confirm, giving
the date as October 19, 1810. This tradition is all very nebulous,
however, and the historical record of the poet's father ends with
July, 1810, in New York.
Whatever may have been the cause of David Poe's final dis-
appearance, there was something about it that afterward caused
great uneasiness to the son of the little actress. She treasured
some unfortunate correspondence, almost her sole legacy to her
son, Edgar, which he too cherished while he lived, but left direc-
tions that at his death it should be burned. The request was car-
ried out by his mother-in-law and aunt, Maria Clemm. What
part David Poe, the poet's father, played in this, if any, it is
therefore impossible to say and useless to guess. The position of
Mrs. Poe, however, is considerably clearer.
Deprived of her husband either by death or conjugal misfor-
tune, probably the former, she left New York in the Summer of
1810 and went south to Richmond. There she was once more
engaged to play on the Southern circuit, where she was already
well and favorably known- She was accompanied from place to
place by the child Edgar, now only two years old, but even then
involved in the maze of tragedy. Edgar was already separated
from his older brother by the poverty of his parents, who had
been forced to leave Henry in Baltimore. Mrs. Poe had now lost
her husband and was striving to support herself and her child.
She must already have been far gone in tuberculosis, of which
she died only a year later, yet she was forced to appear by the
14 ISRAFEL
dire necessity of her poverty, dancing and singing in motley,
night after night. To cap the climax she was pregnant with a
posthumous child. For an actress ill and without resources, a
"Helpless woman without a husband, engaged in a profession at
which the age was only too prone to point the finger of scorn,
^t was a dreadful and precarious plight. There can be no doubt,
that even while he was learning to talk, the little Edgar was
clasped, with many a dark foreboding of natural terror, to his
^mother's heart.
Keeping Edgar with her, Mrs. Poe continued to play in Rich-
mond and Norfolk, although her time was approaching. While in
Norfolk (at the Forrest House on December 20, 1810) accord-
ing to the Mackenzie family Bible, Mrs. Poe gave birth to a
daughter, Rosalie.
That David Poe was not with Mrs. Poe in Norfolk at this time,
is shown by the fact that Rosalie's birth took place so long after
the death or disappearance of her husband that doubt was after-
wards thrown on the paternity of the child. 2 - It is an ungrateful
task thus even to touch upon the reputation of this unfortunate
young actress who gave to the world what art she had, and be-
queathed to her adopted country one of its greatest geniuses in
the person of her son. But the facts of the situation should no
longer be suppressed as they undoubtedly affected the relations
of Edgar Poe with his guardian, and his own family later on. It
was this story, or the echoes of it, which long afterwards caused
Poe to put the deaths of his father and mother " within a few
weeks " of each other. 23
All the authentic dates and the known facts show that the
suspicion which was thus afterward thrown upon the memory
See the letter from John Allan to William Henry Leonard Poe in Baltimore,
dated Richmond, November i, ^24, in which among other things he ays-
At least she is half your sister and God forbid, my dear Henry, that we should
Jj*"? ^ errors and frailtit ' s of lh(J <lea<i '" Th "* fetter is to be
'
- ,* in the Library of Con W Photostat in the
possession of the author. For a full discussion of this see page 125
' '
ti, to William Po *' RMwwmd. 'August 20, 1835)
that "my father David died when I was in the second year of my age ... my
SS^fi* i*I T CkS , bC [ 0rC hi ?'" ! S Of a piccc with lhe rcst " f hi * Cuddled
autobiographical data and shows that he was either ignorant of the facts (sic),
or nghtly anxious to shield the reputation of his mother and sister
ffi&fe^.5r.*a
s. David Foe
life Arnold
miniature long cherished by
A DRAMATIC PROLOGUE 15
of Mrs. Poe was not only cruel but untrue. That it was thrown
upon her, however, there is no doubt. With the use that was
made of it, and its effect upon the character of her son Edgar, it
will be necessary to deal.
Soon after the birth of Rosalie, Mrs. Poe was again appearing
in various parts, continuing a now hopeless struggle to support
herself and her two " infants " despite her now fast-failing health
The earnings of a minor actress on the early American stage
were at best pitiable, and all the incidents of the life were ig-
noble, squalid, and precarious. The hardships of travel were
great, and the places of entertainment rarely comfortable and
not always respectable. For a sensitive woman with two babies
to care for, it was a difficult and exhausting mode of life. Mrs.
Poe's misfortunes and condition were evidently the cause of
solicitude to her fellow actors, as frequent appeals for herself
and her fatherless children in the columns of old newspapers stil
meet the curious eye. In Charleston, Norfolk, and Richmond, she
was accorded frequent benefits at which the charitable public was
urged to assist.
From Norfolk Mrs. Poe went to Charleston, S. C., where she
played in the Winter and Spring of 1810 and 1811. In April of
the latter year her health was evidently failing, for she was given
a special benefit performance. In the notice of this, which ap-
peared in the Charleston papers, her ill health was specifically
mentioned. From Charleston the young actress and her family
returned to Norfolk, where she was apparently in failing health
and destitute. 21 The article about her there is lengthy and ap-
pealing, and stresses the point that she " has been left alone, the
support of herself and several children." Evidently the response
was not great, and in August we find her again returning to Rich-
mond, where she was always most popular, in time for the open-
ing of the season.
It was to be the last of her many weary journeys with her
young and doubtless often fretful family. Her little space of
comedy was about to end in a tragedy, one of many which pur-
** Norfolk, Virginia, Herald for July 26, i8u.
16 ISRAFEL
sued her son Edgar through the remainder of his astonishing life.
As she drove through the brick arch 2C into the wagon yard of
the old Indian Queen Tavern and ensconced herself in the rooms
behind and over the milliner shop of the good Mrs. Phillips, she
had entered upon the last scene of the last act. Perhaps in her
heart she knew it, for she had already been very ill and must
have been, from the nature of the events which were soon to fol-
low, in a consumptive condition and a low state of health.
For an account of Mrs. Poe in the heyday of her fame, we
nave the description of one who had seen her as a care-free girl. 20
Although the description is evidently taken from the miniature of
Mrs. Poe which Edgar long cherished, a copy of which was sent
to Ingram, Poe's first competent biographer after Poe's death; 37
it, and the miniature itself, are the best memorials of the poet's
mother which exist. This description shows Mrs. Poe to have had
the childish figure, the great, wide open, mysterious eyes, the abun-
dant curling hair confined in the quaint bonnet of a hundred years
ago and shadowing the brow in raven masses, the high waist and at-
tenuated arms clasped in an Empire robe of faint, flowered design, the
tiny but rounded neck and shoulders, the head proudly erect. It is the
face of an elf, a sprite, an Undine who was to be the mother of the
most elfish, the most unearthly of poets, whose luminous dark gray
eyes had a glint of the supernatural in them and reflected as he says
in one of his earlier poems, " the wilder 'd " nature of the man.
Such was the charming young actress who, with her attractive
little boy Edgar, and her baby daughter Rosalie, took up her
abode with Mrs. Phillips, the milliner at Richmond, sometime in
August, 1811, "above that part of the town known as the 'Bird
in Hand.' " For the mother of Israfel it was the next to the last
remove.
* Since bricked up but still visible.
20 Beverly Tucker, a contributor to the Southern Literary Mftssengcr, and the
author of The Partisan Leader. The description was written in 1835.
27 The Ingram Papers and Manuscript in possession of the University of Vir-
ginia Library.
CHAPTER II
The Two Orphans
THE arrival of Mrs. Poe at the Indian Queen Tavern, as
the star of the little troupe of actors then gathered
there, was no doubt the signal for a good deal of com-
ment in local dramatic circles. Rehearsals and performances soon
began.
Mrs. Phillips' little shop at that time stood some little distance
back from Main Street, abutting the purlieus of the Tavern on
the corner of Main and Twenty-third. There was a neat walk up
through the dooryard, then lined with shade trees under which
the young child Edgar immediately after his arrival in Richmond
must first have played. 28
According to the testimony of a lady from Norfolk 20 who, as
a little girl, remembered seeing Mrs. Poe play there in 1811, and
made friends with her children who lodged nearby on Bermuda
Street (at Norfolk), the family was then accompanied by a
Welsh nurse who looked after the children and nursed Mrs. Poe.
This evidence is extremely legendary, however, and there is no
authentic mention whatever of the nurse's presence in Rich-
mond. 30
8 For the description of the house in which Mrs. Poe died and its environs, I
am indebted to information supplied me by the present owner of the property in
whose family it has been for many years, and under whose hands it has passed
through successive building changes greatly altering it and the old inn next door,
both belonging to the same owner. A personal visit was made to the spot, and
photographs of the premises made and compared with old ones, in July, 1925.
The former house of Mrs. Phillips is now inhabited by negroes and surrounded
by a tenement, all in a shocking state of neglect and disrepair. The former front
yard of her shop is occupied by a building erected some time since. The inn arch-
way is bricked up.
80 Afterwards a Mrs. Archer of Richmond, mother of Mrs. S. A. Weiss,
80 Although there is some doubt about this "nurse" having been with Mrs.
Poe, the evidence from this account and several others is too precise to be ig-
nored. I am inclined to accept it as accounting for the persistent rumors that Mrs.
Tubbs, for whom the nurse was mistaken, accompanied Mrs. Poe to Richmond.
i8 ISRAFEL
Mrs. Poe's bright little lad would no doubt have been a fa-
vorite with the members of the Virginia Players and the hangers-
on about the Indian Queen next door, and he must often have sat
on the knees of his father's and mother's friends before the great
open chimney of the inn. The hostelry was the center of the pro-
fessional dramatic life of old " Richmond City " and was also
frequented by the hangers-on and stage-door Lotharios of the the-
ater, together with a few teamsters and travelers. But its principal
business was that of a theatrical lodging house and its coterie.
Mrs. Poe, who was in increasing ill health, as the frequent
interruptions of her appearances at the theater showed, must
have been glad to have had the children taken care of by anyone
who would do so. Often enough, perhaps, there was no one at all
Mrs. Phillips, who appears to have been a kind woman, had prob-
ably taken the burden of the two little ones and the partial care
of their sick mother upon herself as any good woman would
between the intervals of waiting upon her customers in the little
front room with a low fireplace and small square window panes,
where her scanty stock of ribbons, poke bonnets, lace caps, cos-
metics and perfumes was on display.
Mrs. Phillips' clientele was of two strata: that of the fashion-
able ladies of Richmond who looked to her for the latest crea-
tions, and the dramatically inclined persons from the theatrical
hotel next door, who, no doubt, found upon her counters the
faultlessly blooming roses which have always enhanced the
cheeks of " the profession " both on and off the stage.
Thus there was ample opportunity for the ladies of the better
families of Richmond, who would not otherwise in those days
have been introduced to members of the theatrical profession off-
stage, to become acquainted with the fact that a young actress,
the mother of the handsome little fellow playing about the door-
yard, was ill in the rooms immediately behind the shop of Mrs,
Phillips. There can be no doubt either, that Mrs. Poe, as the
star of Mr. Placide's company, the mother of a family, and an
actress who, by repute and appearance, was well known to all of
fashionable Richmond, was held in a different estimate than
some of her more humble sisters in the theatrical boarding house
THE TWO ORPHANS 19
next door. These, too, however, were occasionally honored by
fashionable visitors who desired to testify to their admiration in
a more ardent manner than a discreet applause from a seat in
the theater might express. And among the most gay and ardent,
if contemporary accounts are to be credited, none were more so
than the members of a numerous circle of prosperous and pious
Scotch merchants*
The theater in which Mrs. Poe and Mr. Placide's Company of
Virginia Players acted stood on the present site of the Monu-
mental Episcopal Church, on the block between Twelfth and
Fourteenth Streets on Broad, known at the time as Theater
Square. 81 In order to reach this from the lower part of Main
Street where Mrs. Poe lived, it would have been most convenient
to pass along Fourteenth Street to Broad.
At the corner of Fourteenth Street and Tobacco Alley was the
residence of Mr. John Allan, the junior partner of Ellis Gr Allan,
Scotch merchants doing a general merchandising business in the
city and the region about, and trading by chartered ships and by
cargo at home and abroad. The store was not under the resi-
dence, as has heretofore always been asserted, but was around
the corner on Thirteenth Street about a block away on premises
which were leased by the firm and purchased later on 3 " in April,
12.
During the late Summer and the Fall of 1811, Mrs. Poe must
31 The Richmond Theater was on the site of a frame building which had been
built by a remarkable Frenchman in 1786 as an Academy in which he attempted
to introduce many new ideas in education and the fine arts into America. Among
other things, theatricals, painting, and sculpture. The first classic plaster casts
for models even seen in' America were shown here. M. Qucsnay's scheme failed.
The Academy was afterwards used for the Virginia Convention which ratified the
Federal Constitution, and in 1802, the building having been destroyed by fire, its
site was occupied by the new Richmond Theater, a brick and frame structure
also destroyed by fire in x8it. As many of Poe's earliest and most intimate asso-
ciations are connected with this spot it has been thought worth while to give the
above facts.
82 Ellis & Allan Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, D. C. Articles of
agreement made and entered into the 22nd day of April in the year of our Lord
1812, between Anthony R. Thornton of the Town of Frcdericksburg and State
of Virginia, of the first part and Charles Ellis and John Allan, Merchants and
partners trading under the name of Ellis 6 Allan. (Consideration one thousand
pounds of current money on or before the 22nd day of April, 1817, with interest).
To sell and convey to the said Ellis & Allan a house on Thirteenth Street, etc.
20 ISRAFEL
have often passed the house of John Allan, probably upon occa-
sions taking little Edgar with her to performances or rehearsals
at the theater. It is quite possible that Edgar may have some-
times appeared on the stage in an infantile r61e; 8a his juvenile
repertoire of poems and recitations was known to have caused
comment upon private occasions a little later. That he must have
gone to and fro with his mother, past the door of John Allan,
jthere can be little doubt.
Mrs. Frances Keeling Allan, the first wife of the merchant, had
at this time been married to him for eight years, but was with-
out children and undoubtedly longed for them with all the
yearning of her sex and the tenderest desires of a noble but
lonely and disappointed heart. The household consisted of John
Allan himself, his wife Frances, her sister Anne Moore Valentine,
and the negro servants or slaves. It is probable that either or
both the ladies may have made the acquaintance of Mrs. Poe
and her handsome boy, by whom Mrs. Allan was greatly at-
tracted, as they passed the door from time to time, while a
speaking acquaintance was struck up with the popular young
actress and Edgar was offered apples,'' 14 a fruit as much prized
then in Southern towns as oranges were in the North, one with
which the Allan house was always well supplied/' 15 Whether it
was in this way, or at the shop of the milliner, Mrs. Phillips,
certain it is that Frances, wife of John Allan, merchant, became
acquainted with and more than casually interested in the fate
and fortunes of Elizabeth Poe and her fatherless children.
Through Mrs. Allan, too, doubtless came the interest and help
of Mrs. William Mackenzie, a charitable and motherly woman,
the wife of one of Mr. Allan's closest friends, already provided
with two children of her own, John and Mary, It was, indeed.
88 Edward V, Valentine to the author at Richmond, Virginia, July,
8 * Frances Allan seems to have been the active factor in Edgar's 4t adoption "
from the first.
80 John Allan to Charles Ellis in New London, Connecticut, from Richmond,
Virginia, October 26th, 1812.
" P. S. I wish you would procure for me a barrel of nice green pippins on your
return to New York." For this and similar items see the Ellis & Attan Com*
spondence, Library of Congress, Washington, D. C.
Frances Keeling Allan
tite Valentine
First Wife of JOHN ALLAN, merchant, of Richmond, Virginia, Beloved
fostrr-mcitluT of KIWSAR ALLAN POK
Born February H, 1784; adopted by JOHN Dixon, printer, January 12, 1795?
married JOHN ALLAN 1803; died February 28, 1829
[/>r//rt emirtrsy nf JMward /'. falenlhif]
From ft portrait by namrtf SW//.Y, ?prt/ AV Ktlwanl J\ rafatiiie
Courtesy of the J'alentme A/usrum, Riclnmmth 9'irRinia
The Richmond of Poe's liarly Childhood
Frnm n r<irr olil print
Courtesy of the JM}\ar J II tin /'/ Xbrin?* A?/r/w/wr/, t'irt'jnia
THE TWO ORPHANS 21
for both Mrs. Poe and her children, a benign combination of cir-
cumstances, whatever they may have been, which brought these
two good women to her bedside in the house of the little Scotch
milliner.
The Scotch circle in " Richmond City " was at that time a
peculiarly close one. One of the Mackenzies afterwards remarked
that " Mrs. Phillips came of a good family," 86 and doubtless both
the kind ladies who had taken an interest in the young actress
were provided with news as to Mrs. Poe's condition, and in return
provided for her the necessities of life in the form of occasional
gifts of food and clothing.
During the late Fall of 1811 Mrs, Poe's condition grew rap-
idly worse. The burden of supporting her two infant children
must have fallen with crushing weight upon her narrow and con-
sumptive shoulders. Her appearances at the theater grew fewer
and farther apart; they finally ceased. Mr. Placide, the manager,
doubtless did what he could for so important a member of his
company, because all of these actors lived from hand to mouth.
Mrs. Phillips must soon have been contributing the room rent
free, as Mrs. Poe's stipend ceased with her appearances; and
doubtless Edgar was very much about the shop, much to the good
woman's terror for her poke bonnets and falderals, whose rigid
repose upon uprights would have been grievously disturbed by
the play of a vigorous three year old lad.
The rooms behind Mrs. Phillips' shop were not the best place
in the world for an invalid. There was one fireplace downstairs,
but whether there was any fuel to burn there, is another question.
The lower part of Main Street, a few blocks away, was subject
to periodical invasions of the River James which took every oc-
casion to overflow its banks. The season had been an exception-
ally rainy and unheaithful one throughout tide-water Virginia, as
the letters of that date show; mosquitoes must have been rife, 37
80 Meaning a good " Scotch " family.
87 Letter from Pedlar Mills, Virginia, from Joshua L. Ellis to Mr. Charles
Ellis at Richmond, August i3th, 1811, and others of like import at later dates.
"The rains have been greater here than I have ever seen them." Ellis & Allan
Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, D. C.
22 ISRAFEL
and this had added constantly recurring attacks of malaria to her
poverty and deprivations, to further deplete the ebbing strength
of the consumptive young actress.
t * The little upstairs room in which she lay dying had the scanti-
est of furnishings: a miserable bed for herself on a straw mat-
tress, 88 with perhaps a woven coverlet and a blanket contributed
by Mrs. Phillips; one or two old chairs; probably a trundle bed
for the children, or a cot upon which a nurse, if present, slept;
and some bottles with candle ends in them. Mrs. Poe's effects
would have been of the most meager description. A few soiled
odds and ends of dramatic costumes, tawdry splendors of her
past triumphs; a small trunk or chest in which some relics and let-
ters of the vanished Harlequin were cherished by his widowed
Columbine; the scanty remnants of even scantier meals; and the
children's tattered clothes. In such a room lay dying the mother of
^Edgar Allan Poe.
In her poverty-stricken condition medical attendance must
have been nil, probably luckily for her, as the science had not
yet passed beyond regarding the lancet and the barbers' bowl as
the panacea for all ills. She must have lain through the shorten-
ing days, as November waned into December, striving to read
the darkness of the future, which for her was dark enough, try-
ing to still the noisy and peevish crying of little Rosalie, listening
to the voices of Mrs. Phillips' customers in the room below, or
to the feet of her little son as they stumbled up the narrow stairs.
^ Her hopeless darkness, however, was lightened from time to
time by visits to the squalid, but interesting garret of the dying
actress and her charming children, by the grandcs dames and
lesser ladies of Richmond, who sought the latest mode in bon-
nets at the hands of Mrs. Phillips. She, indeed, poor woman, we
may be sure, had done her full part to interest her customers in
the misery of her guests, and had received perhaps an unex-
pected reward at finding her little shop the center of consider-
able interest, not all of which could have been in vain.
Those who care to search the Richmond papers of that time
will find in the Enquirer of November 25th, 1811, an appeal for
88 This is specifically mentioned in some accounts.
THE TWO ORPHANS 23
Mrs. Poe " to the kind hearted of the city," inserted no doubt
by the thoughtful hands of Manager Placide, for four days later
one comes across the advertisement of a benefit to be repeated
for the second time, "in consequence of the serious and long
continued indisposition of Mrs. Poe, and in compliance with the
advice and solicitation of many of the most respectable families."
Among the " ladies of the most respectable families " who vis-
ited Mrs. Poe and her children, as her tragedy neared the end
of its last act, none were more welcome and efficacious to the
little family in the dingy upstairs room than Mrs. Frances Allan
and Mrs. William Mackenzie.
It is not hard to imagine what must have been the thoughts
and emotions of Mrs. Allan, the tenderly inclined, childless
woman, as she sat in that bare garret with the handsome, curly-
headed young Edgar Poe in her yearning arms, talking to him;
and with the girlish mother on the bed, against whose soiled pil-
lows the black hair of the invalid lay tangled in dark disarray.
Nor could she have been oblivious to the silent appeal of the
haunted, "wildered" eyes of the young actress which shifted
tragically from the baby face of young Rosalie, resting trustfully
against the bosom of Mrs. Mackenzie, to that of her little son
smiling sadly back at her from the chair of Mrs. Allan. There
was a silent appeal there which even a rough man might under-
stand. To these good women, as the future proved, it was not
made in vain. A few days later there was an appeal of a more
obvious kind
I* TO THE HUMANE HEART
On this night Mrs. Poe. lingering
on the bed of disease and surrounded
by her children, asks your assistance:
and asks it perhaps for the last time.
For particulars, see the Bills of the day.
It was, indeed, " for the last time! " 80 Azrael had appeared
in one of his favorite disguises, pneumonia: and the tragedies
*' 10 Mrs. Elizabeth Arnold (David) Poe died December 8, x8n. On December
9th Mrs. Mackenzie took Rosalie home, and Mrs. Allan carried Edgar to her
house. (Statement by Mary Mackenzie, Rosalie's foster-sister.)
In the newspaper notice quoted on this page there was an error in spelling which
has not been reproduced.
24 ISRAFEL
of the little doll actress were over. " Ariel " had received release;
the tinsel stars of the wand were laid away with the paper flowers
of " Ophelia "; " Juliet " was tricked out in her best paste jewels,
and, for a few hours, lay in squalid state in the milliner's attic,
where all those who had made her small world, and who had
cared a little, might come to see. Among these, we may be sure,
were the members of Mr. Placide's company from the tavern
next door, Mrs. Phillips, Mrs. Allan and Mrs. Mackenzie and
their husbands, who by this time had been interested in the
startling little tragedy on lower Main Street to the extent of tak-
ng the arrangements for the funeral into their own hands.
It would be easy enough to pull out the vox humana for the
final scene when Edgar and Rosalie Poe were at last parted from
that which had been their mother. For the not unimaginative the
facts will suffice: Mrs. Allan and Mrs. Mackenzie came for the
children the morning after their mother's death. One can imagine
the sudden hush about the old inn and the milliner's shop. The
broad Scotch lamentations of Mrs. Phillips, the moment when
the two children were held up to look for the last time upon their
little doll-like mother, now waxen, indeed, and lying upon the
bed, dressed in some high-waisted Empire slip of the period.
Certainly, as the custom then was, 'some loll was taken of her
long, dark locks, and before the children left the room little
Rosalie was given an empty jewel case, the modest contents of
which had long ago vanished to put food in her mouth. For
Edgar there was a miniature of his mother, and a painting by
her of Boston Harbor, upon the back of which in her own piti-
ful cipher she had charged her little son to " love Boston, the
place of his birth, and where his mother found her best and most
sympathetic friends.' 740 Like many another death-bed admoni-
tion it was to be in vain, for her son always found there the re-
verse of his mother's experience. This, together with a certain
weakness of constitution, was the entire inheritance of the
orphans of David and Elizabeth Poe. 41
40 Woodbcrry, XOOQ, vol. I, papje 14, and other authority Incram T, 6, etc.
41 There was also a bundle of letters, and as it now appears from a poem by
Henry Poe recently discovered, a pocket book with locks of hair of both parents.
See Poe's Brother, Doran, 1926.
THE TWO ORPHANS 25
Outside the little shop some of the members of Mr. Placide's
company doubtless gathered to say, on the part of the women
at least, a tearful farewell to the little grey-eyed boy who had
been their pet. Some of them may have accompanied Mrs. Poe
to her last resting place in St. John's Churchyard where Mr.
Allan and Mr. Mackenzie, who were members of the congrega-
tion, had arranged for her burial, not without protest from cer-
tain members of the vestry who shared the prejudices of their
time and were reluctant to see even the mortal remains of an
actress sheltered by consecrated ground. Fittingly enough she
was buried " close to the wall." There is an entry for the burial,
but it is without name, and the grave was, and is at this writing,
unmarked. 42
Young as he was, Edgar Poe could scarcely have remembered
the actual scenes surrounding the final tragedy of his young
mother, but even a child of three may be conscious at the time
that its own familiar little world has suddenly gone to pieces
about it. When Edgar got to the street in front of Mrs. Phillips 7
shop he was parted from his baby sister, Rosalie, and suddenly
found himself alone with an affectionate but nevertheless strange
woman. The soft and always comforting presence known to all
children as " mamma " had disappeared. The doubtless protest-
ing sister Rosalie had mysteriously vanished in the arms of an-
other unknown person. As the boy rattled over the old, cobbled
streets of " Richmond City " in Mrs. Allan's hired hack 4a he must
dimly have experienced for the first time, in an emotion without
words, the extreme sense of fear and utter loneliness which was
to follow him to the grave. The tenderness of the strange woman
who sat beside him could never supply the intimate sense of
well being and spiritual safety which a real mother confers natu-
rally upon her child. Ishmael was gone forth to dwell in other
tents, and the hand of the stranger was henceforth mysteriously
against him.
42 August, 1925,
4:t John Allan did not at this time own a horse and carriage, but he was at
considerable expense for hack hire. For the frequent bills from Richard E.
Wortham & Co., for hack hire through 1811 and 18x2, see the Ellis & Allan
Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, D. C, Receipt for iath of November,
1812, etc.
26 ISRAFEL
Looking back after more than a hundred years, to us, the
bitter end of the little tragic-comedy of Mrs. Poe seems to be
one of those petty victories of which even Death might be
ashamed. To young Israfel, whose trembling little mouth was
for the time being stopped by the bread and kisses of charity, it
was the first and perhaps the most decisive of the many tragedies
which the Dark Angel Azrael was bidden to confer.
CHAPTER III
Lady Bountiful Claims Israfel
THE household in which the orphan child Edgar found
himself ensconced, if not entirely welcome, was as we
have seen, that of John Allan, the merchant, and
Frances Keeling 44 his wife, a charming young woman then
twenty-five years old. With them at this time and for many years
thereafter lived Mrs. Allan's elder sister Anne Moore Valentine,
soon to become known to Edgar as " Aunt Nancy," a lady whose
affection, like that of her married sister, never failed to follow
Edgar Poe till death stilled her loyal heart.
The house at the corner of Fourteenth Street and Tobacco
Alley was neither " one of a row of dingy three story dwellings "
nor a "princely Southern Mansion," as it has been variously
described, but a well built, rather spacious brick structure of the
Georgian type with three floors containing three or four rooms
each, and a garret which at that time had a small hall and two
rooms. In the rear there was probably provision for the housing
of the servants, of which at this time Mr. Allan is known to
have kept three and possibly more, 45 not at all unusual in slave
times, nor indicative of wealth. Either upon the first or second
floor, there was a large dining room with folding doors that
opened into a drawing room or library, which in all probability
did not contain many books, as the owner was of a practical
cast of mind. Most of the rooms contained open fireplaces which
at one time must have possessed handsome Georgian mantel*
44 Frances Keeling (Valentine) Allan born 1786, her sister Anne Moore Valen-
tine was born the previous year.
46 I find record of this transaction in the Ellis 6" Allan Papers: " Jan. ist,
1811, a negro woman named Judith hired from Master Cheatham for the sum
of 2$ to be retained clothed as usual under a bond of 50." Judith was retained
for some years. See also J. H. Whitty Memoir The Complete Poems of Edgar
Allan Poe, large edition, note page XXII for the names of the servants some
years later. Also will of William Gait, Appendix III.
28 ISRAFEL
pieces to match the style of the finely turned mahogany banisters
with delicate uprights that still remain. 46 It was in short an excel-
lently comfortable though not pretentious nor impressive dwell-
ing. The house was then owned by William Gait.
As the long residence, cherishing, breeding, and education re-
ceived in the home of John Allan is perhaps the central fact in
Poe's story, since the vital formative years of his life were
largely spent there, and since the relations between Poe and his
foster-father were in a sense decisive as to the poet's future, it
is the purpose here to discuss the character and affairs of John
Allan and his family relations at some length and with a consid-
erable degree of candor. 47
Almost a century and a quarter have elapsed since the events
and the persons involved in them troubled the world of men, and
it is now high time to set forth the facts. That the reputations of
those involved have all been carefully shielded, except the great
name which has caused their several obscurities to be remem-
bered, is already a smoking sacrifice to family pride.
John Allan was a native of Irvine, Scotland, where he had
been born in 1780 and received at least an ordinary but sufficient
education, of which he states, that at the age of fifteen his foster-
son Edgar had already received a better one. 4 * Whatever formal
<ltt The author visited this house in July, 1925, and found the lower story
still occupied as an office. The house has passed through many vicissitudes hav-
ing at one time been the most notorious in Richmond. The partitions have been
torn out to make storage space, but their location can .still be seen as well as one
old mantelpiece, the rest of which have been replaced by Victorian marble in-
sults. Viewed from the front, a very deceptive idea of the sixe of the place is
given, as it is in reality quite large, A great many of the absurdities in some of
Poe's biographies could have been avoided by a visit to the houses where he and
his friends lived, many of which are still standing in Richmond and elsewhere,
47 The relative importance of the time spent in Mr. Allan's house by Poe can
probably be brought home most vividly in a graphic form. Representing the
whole of Poe's life by a straight line, the time spent with Mr. Allan and his
family is shown by the heavier portion. The influences, of course, extended much
further. The scale is one inch to each decade of Poe's life.
48 Letter to William Henry Leonard Poe from John Allan, dated Richmond,
November x, 1824.
John Allan, Merchant
The foster-father of Edgar Allan Poe
Born at Irvine, Ayrshire, Scotland, in 1780, died at Richmond, Virginia,
March 27, 1834
From a silhouette
Signatures
of the partners
LADY BOUNTIFUL CLAIMS ISRAFEL 31
education he had was considerably augmented by a gift of keen
natural parts and a mercantile familiarity with the forms of busi-
ness correspondence, legal papers and accounts. His letters are
couched in a style which stamp their writer as a man of decided
and astute personality, not without a pleasant and softer gleam
here and there, but only too often with the glitter of steel and an
affected piety. In early youth he had been left an orphan 49 and
emigrated from Scotland to settle in Richmond, having been
brought up in the store, counting house, and ships of his uncle,
William Gait, a rich Scotchman doing a prosperous mercantile
and tobacco trade at home and overseas, said to have accumu-
lated before his death one of the largest fortunes in Virginia.
Mr. Gait's generosity and native clannishness were the main-
stay, the hope, and the means of final gratification of a host of
squabbling, poor Scotch relatives. 50
On a stool in the same counting house, where he had been
brought up with John Allan, was another young Scotchman, Mr.
Charles Ellis, also provided with previously settled relatives who
were already trading to some advantage. After having served
for some time about Mr. Gait's establishment, the two young
clerks set up for themselves as partners in a general mercantile
and trading business by sea and land, in which tobacco buying
and selling was the most profitable transaction. They were in all
probability backed by William Gait and Josiah Ellis, their two
uncles respectively, either by a capital stock or an advance of
credit sufficient to set up the new firm which traded under the
name of Ellis & Allan. In the meantime both the young partners
had married.
The nature of the trade carried on by the firm of Ellis & Allan,
40 The Allans and Gaits were petty traders and smugglers about the ports of
Greenock and Irvine toward the end of the i8th century. John Allan's mother,
whom one of the Gait cousins, once hoped to marry, kept a tea shop in Greenock*
For the life of the place and time, including characters from the Allan and Gait
families, see the works of the Scotch novelist, John Gait, the friend of Byron,
also see Chapter V, note 126.
60 For the statements made in this and the next paragraphs I am indebted to
the correspondence between John Allan, and his sisters and brother-in-law in
Scotland anent family affairs in general, Mr. William Gait of Richmond, and the
troubles arising about his will. All in the Ellis 6* Allan Files at the Library of
Congress.
32 ISRAFEL
the aroma and atmosphere of it, which literally and figuratively
permeated and dominated the household and the environment in
which Poe spent his boyhood, is not well described by the term
" Tobacco Merchants." The firm dealt in everything under the
sun, and would do or perform anything which was probably
profitable and ostensibly lawful. Peace could not satiate nor did
war abate the infinite variety of their correspondence and their
ways of gathering pence. 01
Shortly before the outbreak of hostilities between Great
Britain and the United States we find Mr. Charles Ellis dashing
off in great trepidation to New London, Connecticut, and later
on beseeching Mir. James Pleasants C2 in the Hall of Congress to
aid in liberating the good ship " Georgiana," which had sailed a
little too close-hauled into the weather eye of the embargo law,
nor did the commencement and duration of hostilities apparently
cause any cessation in the correspondence with the British and
foreign merchants, or with Mr. Allan's family in Scotland. Some
means were found, by cartel or privateer, and the letters slipped
through. 53
In addition to the great item of tobacco (in which most of
the imported merchandise purchased from the firm by Virginians
was paid for in kind) the partners dealt in wheat, hay, maize,
corn meal, grains, fine teas and coffees, cloth, clothing of all
kinds, flowered vest stuffs, seeds, wines and liquors (especially
Philadelphia claret); outfitted slaves; supplied plantations with
agricultural implements, nails and hardware; chartered ships and
61 One of the ten thousand various items in the Ellis 6* Allan Papers:
Messrs. ELLIS AND ALLAN Powhattan, Jan. 6th, x8n
This will be handed you by my son John E. Mcadc who wants a few articles of
clothing. Will you be so good as to furnish him on my acct, and oblige yours
respectfully,
D. MKADE
82 Afterwards governor of Virginia.
M The correspondence of the firm is interesting from the standpoint of show-
ing that the merchants on both sides of the water regarded the* War of 1812 purely
as a quarrel between two governments and as an unmitigated nuisance. In particular
the Regent (George XV) comes of rather roughly in the candid opinions ex-
changed.
An Off-Hour at Ellis & Allan
From an old print of a contemporary establishment
LADY BOUNTIFUL CLAIMS ISRAFEL 35
coastwise schooners; imported tombstones, 54 and, as a side
issue, were not above trading in horses, Kentucky swine from the
settlements, and old slaves which they hired out at the coal pits
till they died. 55 The concern also advanced money; dabbled occa-
sionally in city real estate; and both of the partners or their
families had plantations in the country, John Allan's at " Lower
Byrd's " and the Ellises' at " Red Hill " and " Pedlar's Mills."
These also were expected to pay. It was on the whole a thrifty,
a Scotch, and sometimes a sordid atmosphere in which Charles
Ellis and his partner moved. 56 But for all that it was not a nar-
row, and never a stingy one, until years later when it might have
been more generous still.
For over it all was the variety and the romance of the sea
that floated up the James to the thriving port at the Falls, the
long splendor of Virginia sunshine, the syrupy perfume of to-
bacco, and the almost magic life of old Richmond. About the
warehouse and docks of Poe's foster-father crowded the foreign
and coastwise shipping of square-rigged days. 67 Martingales
sprang away from the proud double curve of mirrored bows, brass
glittered, sails flapped, and the bo'suns' whistles sang like frantic
canaries. Drays laden with great tuns of fragrant Virginia leaf
rattled over the cobbles. Dark stevedores answered the hails and
songs of passing barges and canal boats; and the yellow river
stuttered and clucked, as the siphon of the tides rolled it back-
ward and forward under the piles and slivered planks.
At the store, planters rode up and tethered their horses;
wagons loaded for the western settlements with blankets, ging-
B * These for Charlottcsvillc seemed to have always had the names and dates
wrong:, doubtless to the present confusion of antiquaries. The New England stone*
cutters evidently had little reverence for Virginia families.
65 Memorandum marked " Old Papers 1811- 1812."
" In re. McCaul-Stevens and Eudocia. Stephens hired to McGrouder at the Coal
Pits, Eudocia hired to Dan'l Woode's son not far from Col. Saunders."
(This girl was bought from John McCaul January 2, 1811.) Also "tell Mrs.
F. McCaul at Hennrico her old man died last night."
50 Letter from R. S. Ellis to Mr. Charles Ellis, his brother, from Red Hill,
Virginia, December u, 1811. Ellis 6* Allan Papers. "Mr. Were has returned the
horse we sold him saying he was lame and too small, Brother Joshua was mar-
ried on 3rd instant., all your hogs arc disposed of except 3," etc.
97 This warehouse was rented from Joseph Galligo for $137.50 a quarter.
Ellis & Allan Papers.
36 ISRAFEL
hams, and the little puncheons of rum and powder, while the
clerks weighed out the rolls of ponderous lead. Students on their
way to William and Mary presented letters of credit from their
up-country sires. Ladies came to make choice of taffetas and
brocade stuffs, young gentlemen pursers, in semi-nautical garb,
strolled in and out with accounts and monies, while Ellises,
Allans, Mackenzies, McMurdocks and MacDougals punctuated
the snuff-dusty air with the bur of broadest Scotch, and John
Allan strolled off down Tobacco Alley with some British or
Yankee captains to dinner at the cozily furnished house around
the corner. Here their weathered seamen's countenances looked
masterfully across the table at the engaging Miss Valentine and
the wide-eyed young Edgar Poe, as Frances Allan brewed a
strong dish of the best of Imperial Gunpowder Tea, and her
husband spoke feelingly of the fine nappy ale of Kilmarnock. 58
The conversation was of the decline in the flax prices at Lis-
bon, of the latest alarms and excursions of Bonaparte, the Orders
in Council, and the prices last fetched at Liverpool for the best
Virginia leaf. To this board and household the young housewife
of twenty-five summers and her sister Miss Valentine brought
a fresh blonde beauty and the traditions of grace and ease of
Virginia planters, together with an unfailing feminine tenderness
in which a sensitive little orphan boy basked. It was the atmos^
phere of the old, vanished Eastern Sea-board, the South of 1
slavery and the days of sailing ships, something to be recalled
over a glass of old port and a churchwarden's clay pipe. Out of
this, it had pleased the wayward ways of fate to conjure a
prince and a master of dreams.
Despite the considerable volume of business carried on by the
partners, the condition of John Allan's affairs in December, 1811,
were not such as to permit the addition of another soul to his
permanent household without his pausing to take thought. 50 When
6ft Letter from Allan Fowlds, Kilmarnock, Scotland, 4th of January,
" Mrs. F. is keeping for you some fine nappy ale," etc. Ellis & Allan Papers.
60 The somewhat detailed account of the firm's affairs given above should not
lead the reader to suppose that at this time, 1812, Mr. Allan was a wealthy man,
The business was as yet a younjaj one, the firm was new and struggling, and enter*
ing upon a period of general commercial stagnation.
William Mayo
The Master of " Powhatan Seat"
A plantation on the site of an old Indian settlement in the suburbs of
Richmond, Va.
A gentleman of the Old Virginia school, a type familiar to POE during the days of
his childhood. Mr. MAYO was a member of POE'S church, a customer of Ellis fcf
Allan> and a friend of POE'S foster-father
By permission of Mrs. Mary Mayo Jnjfe,
LADY BOUNTIFUL CLAIMS ISRAFEL 39
Frances Allen brought young Edgar Poe home the day after
the death of his mother, her husband no doubt regarded it as
the kindly and impulsive act of a woman, but as the days and
weeks passed and the problem of what to do with the two orphans
grew pressing with both the Allans arid Mackenzies, it became
evident that the hands of the pretty young boy had twined very
deeply in the heartstrings of the childless merchant's wife that
she could not bear to part with him. Doubtless he clung to her;
his beauty and already romantic story were appealing to the
child-hungry woman it was enough.
With her husband, however, it was different. 60 He was willing
and kindly enough to indulge his lovely wife in a temporary
charitable impulse, against which no one but a boor would pro-
test, but to make the object of it his legal son and heir, with all
that would be involved, was a horse of a different color. That he
was altogether justified in this hesitancy, few, who can imagine
themselves confronted by a like problem, will deny. Left an
orphan himself, he could not but have been moved by the fate
of the child who rode cock-horse so engagingly, or sat upon his
knee, but it was by no means sure that he and his wife might
not yet have children themselves she was twenty-five and he
was thirty-one and the prospects of his own issue sharing alike
with strangers, even in future time, might well daunt him. Be-
sides, to put it coldly, and he was capable of doing that, the brat
of strolling play actors, as his Scottish tongue would frame it, was
perhaps not the best of blood to claim as his own. That he had
his doubts about Mrs. Poe, we have already seen. David Poe he
must have seen upon the stage, and he was capable of drawing
his own conclusions. Besides John Allan had social ambitions as
the future showed. What of the whispers about his " son " ? In
addition there were other more practical, and at that time secret,
but cogent reasons, which might well make him pause.
In the first place, the posture of his affairs was not at that
time such as to warrant the additional burden of the keep and
00 As a great deal of criticism has been levelled against John Allan for not
legally adopting Poe and making him his heir, the question will be presented toe
with the facts which have not heretofore been aired.
40 ISRAFEL
education of a child. In March, 1811, he had sailed to Portugal 61
with a considerable cargo on the ship " Sylph " in company with
one or two other vessels employed by the Ellises, himself, and
Mr. Gait, in expectation of selling provisions to the British Army
under Lord Wellesley, just then about to open the Peninsular
Campaign. Prices were high and some profit resulted, but owing
to the precarious situation of affairs in America just prior to the
then imminent war, the gain had been swallowed up, and he had
returned to Richmond in the Summer to meet a decidedly serious
and widespread financial situation owing to the Embargo and
Non-Intercourse Acts.
In addition, his whole family relationship was liberally pro-
vided with orphans. He, and four partially dependent sisters at
Irvine and Kilmarnock, Scotland, were orphans. The children
of at least one of his married sisters were the object of the
bounty of himself and his wife, a niece being Mrs. Allan's name-
sake. There was an old Aunt Jane, " the only surviving member
of our father's family," and four young orphan boys, cousins by
the name of Gait. These boys had to be, and were, well taken
care of by remittances from Mr. William Gait, the wealthy Rich-
mond uncle. That orphans and their doings were much in Mr.
Allan's mind about this time, and that he might well shrink from
adding another and gratuitous one to the family role of charity,
a few extracts from the family correspondence will make star-
tlingly clear. 02
Kilmarnock, 4th Jan. 1812.
MY DEAR BROTHER: (read brother-in-law)
I wrote you some time back with the Melancholy News of the Death
of my Little Boy William which I hope you have received. I had your
01 Letter from John Allan to Charles Ellis in the Ellis 6* Allan Papers, post-
marked New York, June *6, x8u, and dated Lisbon, April 28, 1811, Ship
"Sylph" off Bellumcastle "Dear Charles: I am happy to inform you that we
arrived in safety here on the 26th about xa A.M. after a most boisterous passage
of 23 days from the roads."
Also John Allan from Lisbon, May 3ist, 1811
"McLurin Scott has taken passage on board of the Ship 'Tolegra* for New
York to sail the and or $rd of June. I shall not be long: after him." Joaioh Ellis
accompanied Mr. Allan on the voyage. It was the intention of both of them to
visit Scotland on their way back, but this had to be deferred.
02 From the EMis 6- A.Uan Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, D. C.
LADY BOUNTIFUL CLAIMS ISRAFEL 41
favor of the 6th of August . . . which gave us all great pleasure to
hear that you and Mrs. A was in good health, and received from Mr.
Kerr the coral Necklace and Braceletts as a present from Mrs. Allan to
her Little Namesake. I am glad to inform you she is getting quite
about and is I trust beginning to walk, the rest of the children is all at
school. ... I had another from your uncle Mr. Gait, and I cannot
help thinking he is one of the best-hearted Men, his great anxiety for
the Education and support of those Little Orphan Boys the Gaits show
it in a clear point of view he has appointed me to look after them and
see everything done for their interest . . . they seem smart fine chil-
dren. . . . Your Uncle was so very kind as to send Mrs. Fowlds a
present for the education of my children one hundred pounds sterling.
. . . Dear Brother we are fully expecting to see you and Mrs. .Allan
this summer. . . . Your sisters Mary, Jean, and Elizabeth are well.
. . . Elizabeth is at Mrs. Gaits at Flowerbanks. Mrs. Fowlds desires
me to say to you that she received the five guineas for which please
accept her warmest thanks . . . etc.
I am My Dear Brother
Yours sincerely,
ALLAN FOWLDS
Some time later we get further news of the orphans from Mrs.
Fowlds, John Allan's sister:
MY DEAR BROTHER:
Your Letters of Feby. 3rd and July 6th I duly record. ... I was
extremely sorry to observe by it the account my Aunt has given of
poor Thomas Gait. I flatter myself he is not so bad as has been rep-
resented he is an Orphan, John, and I am convinced, none of his faults
will be hid; my Aunt and him had not sorted well some how or other;
but sister Jane blamed the Maid for it: however, she was so displeased
she would not allow him to sleep in the House last time he was at
home and Robt. Gemmel took him and I heard the vessel was to be
laid up for the Winter and I wished him to stay with me as ... was
informed the Owners were going to put him on board another vessel
so his education will be kept back this Winter he is a clever Boy I am
told and an excellent scholar and I have no doubt not withstanding all
his boyish faults he will be a clever Man he is the best Looking of the
whole. 7 myself know what it is to be an Orphan they require to walk
very circumspectly indeed to escape the censours of a criticising
World. . . .
42 ISRAFEL
But the tale of family troubles is not quite complete, John Allan's
sister it appears may have had her own reasons for suspecting
the frailty of womankind, the same letter continues
. . I was extremely happy to observe that Jane and you were come
to an understanding, nothing gives me greater uneasiness than friends
quarrelling. Were you not extremely sorry when you heard Cousin
William had acted so very foolishly, she was young and thoughtless no
doubt but no such apology can be offered for a Man at least 28 or 30
years older than her the betraying the trust Mrs. Gait 0:l had reposed
in him was not honorable and is what aggravated the trial to think she
had encouraged a man to go about her house who was doing everything
in his power to destroy the peace of it. However, Mrs. G. is reconciled.
... I hope Uncle William will forgive her and not let her impropriety
have any influence on him as she was a good hearted Girl and had an
innocent gaiety about her. I would have not have thought her capable
of so imprudent a step. . . . Jean Guthrie calls often and asks for her
Johnny she was here yesterday inquiring for you . . . etc.
As Mr. John Allan, merchant, then in some financial perplexity,
turned these and other family matters over in his mind, he can-
not be entirely blamed for a certain lack of enthusiasm and
pessimism about orphans. But there were several other reasons
why he could not acquiesce in the immediate adoption of the
boy Edgar Poe, reasons of which there is every right to suppose
he did not and could not present to his wife. He was already a
father, by two other women in Richmond, of several children, a
daughter by one and a son by the second/ 11 One of these, a son,
by a Mrs. Collier, he was then, or a few months later, educating
if not supporting, as is shown by the following receipt from
William Richardson, a Richmond schoolmaster. 115
M This is a Mrs. Gait at " Flowcrbanks " on Crcc Water. Sec Chapter V, page
69.
04 John Allan's illegitimate children at the time that Poe was taken into
his household were certainly two, *.<?., a daughter by a " Mrs. Wills " and a son by
a Mrs. Collier." There are traces of still others a little later not mentioned here
or in the will. Young Poe was sent to school with Edwin Collier, For further
complications as late as 1834, see John Allan's will, Appendix III.
6 Ellis & Allan Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, D, C. The evidence
does not rest on this one item by any means.
LADY BOUNTIFUL CLAIMS ISRAFEL 43
1812 Mr. JOHN ALLAN, Z>r.
To WILLIAM RICHARDSON
Oct.
5th To three Months Tuition of Edwin Collier $5
Received payment
WILLIAM RICHARDSON
That the good Scotch merchant was not cast down entirely by
these responsibilities, that he had the solace which is said to
soothe the breast, and was willing to pay for it, as for his other
pleasures, is brought out nicely by another item of about the
same date 66
Mr. J. ALLAN 14 Oct. 1812 6 *
Bought @ Auction
i Flute $21
Received payt. for Foster and Satchell
TH. FOSTER
It is, in all probability, the same flute upon which Edgar Allan
Poe afterwards learned to play in those early, easy days in Rich-
mond which were to permeate his dreams, for circumstances
and Frances Allan prevailed, and Edgar Poe became the foster-
child of John Allan.
The circumstances which added the force of public opinion to
the already patent desire of his wife to retain Edgar, and which
was the immediate decisive factor in persuading John Allan to
acquiesce in her desire, was one of those fearful tragedies whose
only mitigation lies in the fact that they arouse universal charity^
On December 26, 1811, only about two weeks after Mrs. Poe
had been buried at St. Johns, the Richmond Theater, where she
had so often played, took fire from the stage chandelier during a
presentation of the Bleeding Nun by Mr. Placide and his Com-
pany to a packed house. It was the night after Christmas. The
results were for a generation, memory-searing. Among the
seventy-three persons who are known to have perished was the
Governor of Virginia.
66 Ellis & Allan Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, D. C
44 ISRAFEL
On that night an Herculean negro blacksmith strode through
the flames along with other persons engaged in the work of res-
cue: heroism, pathetic sacrifice, and children in the fire moved
to one outcry the then not too United States. The Federal Sen-
ate purchased crepe sleeve bands, and even the Legislature of
Massachusetts was melted to official tears. This letter will give
some idea of how John Allan felt about it at the time, and why
he and all his family escaped. It is from a friendly commercial
correspondent.
New York, Jany. 8th, 1812
JOHN ALLAN, Esq.,
DEAR SIR:
I received your favor of the $rd inst. ... Of the Horrible Catas-
trophe which befel your city I have indeed had too correct informa-
tion , it was first announced here by a gentleman from Washington
who reported, that as he was leaving, the mail arrived from Richmond
announcing it. My Fears were it would prove too true and knowing the
confined manner in which the Stairs were built I felt confident (I)
would hear of the loss of some Friends, which the next day's mail
brought, and with it, a detail of all the Horror of that Fatal night
Haw fortunate, that yourself and Family went out of Town and what
a consolation that Mr. Richard and family escaped as they did with
the exception of poor little George Dixon whose fate I must lament
with you. , . . My God what must be the feelings of Mr. Gallego and
Mayor Gibson and Family, but I must stop I am going too far. . . .
W. WHITLOK,
Miss Valentine escaped too, having been on a holiday visit with
the Ellises in the country to see "Uncle Joshua" married.**
John Allan had good reason to congratulate himself, doubtless
he felt grateful that so far he had escaped the flames, and re-
flected that a little insurance with Providence as to the future
might pay. All of Richmond was at that time busy in works of
charity. Orphans were being cared for by wholesale, and the up-
07 Ettis & Allan Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, I). C.
** From Eliza M. Hunter, niece of Charles Ellis, at Red Hill, Virginia, Janu-
ary, 1812, to Charles Ellis of Kills & Allan at Richmond. " Nancy went home
about four weeks ago with Cousin Betsy to Cynthia Hunter. They came up to
the wedding and spent a few weeks with us,"
The Burning of the Theatre in Richmond, Virginia
on the Night of December 26, 1811
This was the theatre in which ELI/ABKTH ARNOLD POE, mother of EDGAR
AIMN POK, was actins just before her death on December 8, 1811
Copyright on photo ffepb applied for by the Rdyir Man ht Sbrine, Richmond)
j/w, Ibrvutb whose courtesy it is here reproduced
The Monumental Church, Richmond, Virginia
Mr, ALLAN and his partner held pew So, \\heiv the youtiR I'm-, sat with
his foster-parents
Frmn (i '.vrv raff ultl print
Courtesy nftbe lid^r Mian Vw .S'/'riV, Richnmn^ /'/V;;iiV;
LADY BOUNTIFUL CLAIMS ISRAFEL 45
shot of the matter was that the Poe children remained where
they had been taken; Edgar in John Allan's house, and little
Rosalie at Mr. William Mackenzie's.
In Edgar's case, that his fostering in the house where he had
been sheltered was mainly due to the intercession and insistence
of Frances Allan, there can no longer be any doubt There is the
direct statement of one of the family servants to that effect and
even the possibility that Frances Allan was so anxious to keep
the beautiful young boy in lieu of the child which nature denied
her, that she failed to answer the inquiries of his anxious grand-
parents in Baltimore, " General " David Poe and his wife, 60 and
Edgar's Aunt, Eliza Poe. Even after more than a hundred years
there is something touching in the beseeching tone of this long
dead voice speaking out of the dry mould of government archives
with the deep anxiety of tears.
Baltimore, Feb. 8th, 1813
'Tis the Aunt of Edgar that addresses Mrs. Allen for the second
time, impressed with the idea that a letter if received could not remain
unacknowledged so long as from the months of July, she is induced to
write again in order to inquire in her family's as well as in her own
name after the health of the child of her Brother, as well as that of
his adopted Parents. I cannot suppose my dear Mrs. Allen that a heart
possessed of such original humanity as yours must without doubt be,
could so long keep in suspense, the anxious inquiries made through
the medium of my letter by the Grand Parents of the Orphan of an
unfortunate son, surely ere this allowing that you did not wish to com-
mence a correspondence with one who is utterly unknown to you had
you received it Mr. Allen would have written to my Father or Brother
if it had been only to let them know how he was, but I am confident
that you never received it, for two reasons, the first is that not hav-
ing the pleasure of knowing your Christian name I merely addressed
it to Mrs. Allen of Richmond, the second is as near as I can recollect
you were about the time I wrote to you at the springs where Mr.
Douglas saw you, permit me my dear madam to thank you for your
kindness to the little Edgar he is truly the child of fortune to be
60 The reader will doubtless recall the fact that Edgar's elder brother, William
Henry Poe, was already residing with this couple, having been left with them
by his parents in 1807. See page 4 for this. For a further account of " General "
David Poe see Chapter VII, note 172.
46 ISRAFEL
placed under the fostering care of the amiable Mr. and Mrs. Allen, Oh
how few meet with such a lot the Almighty Father of the Universe
grant that he may never abuse the kindness he has received and that
from those who were not bound by any ties except those the feeling
and humane heart dictates I fear that I have too long intruded on
your patience, will you if so have the goodness to forgive me and
dare I venture to flatter myself with the hope that this will be received
with any degree of pleasure or that you will gratify me so much as to
answer it give my love to the dear little Edgar and tell him tis his
Aunt Eliza who writes this to you, my Mother and family desire to be
affectionately remembered to Mr. Allen and yourself Henry fre-
quently speaks of his little brother and expresses a great desire to see
him, tell him he sends his very best love to him and is greatly pleased
to hear that he is so good as also so pretty a Boy as Mr. Douglass
represented him to be I feel as if I were writing to a sister and can
scarcely even at the risk of your displeasure prevail on myself to lay
aside my pen With the hope of your indulgence in pardoning my
temerity I remain my Dear Mrs. Allen yours
with the greatest respect
EIJZA POE
Mrs. Allen the kind Benefactress of the infant Orphan Edgar, Allen,
Poe. TO
Now there are some remarkable things about this letter. In
the first place Rosalie is not mentioned at all for which there are
several possible explanations that suggest themselves, 71 secondly
this letter definitely disposes of the story repeated by so many Toe
biographers that either the Allans or the Mackenzie^ entered into
correspondence with the Poes in Baltimore who refused on ac-
count of poverty to take in the two orphans. Evidently nothing
of the kind had occurred, and as a matter of fact the shoe was on
the other foot. In a letter which Poe wrote to his guardian from
West Point in 1830, he specifically mentions the fact that John
Allan had followed his own desire, or the desire of his wife to
The letter is printed, of course, with the original spelling and punctuation
carefully reproduced from a photostat of the original in the Mi$ & Allan Papers.
"Allan" is spelt "Allen" by Eliza Poe.
71 There are several explanations of this possible:
x, Eliza Foe simply failed to mention Rosalie or chose not to.
2. She did not care to confuse issues with Mr. Allan by mentioning Rosalie.
3. The Poes did not know there was such a child,
4. The Poes were already in communication with the Mackensies.
LADY BOUNTIFUL CLAIMS ISRAFEL 47
adopt Edgar Poe, despite the express wishes of the grandfather,
" General " David Poe, to have the care of his favorite grand-
child. Poe represents that his grandfather was in good circum-
stances at the time, and that in order to induce the Poes to allow
Edgar to remain with the Allans, John Allan had held out strong
inducements for them to do so by promises of adoption and liberal
education. This letter Poe says was at that time (January 3rd,
1830) in possession of the members of the Poe family in Balti-
more. 72 The implication is clear, once having determined to
gratify the fond wishes of his wife for the " adoption " of Edgar,
John Allan carried the matter off with his usual vigor and deter-
mination.
Hence Eliza Poe seems more than doubtful as to whether her
letter to Lady Bountiful is going to be answered. It is also inter-
esting to observe that two commas in the last line quite subtly,
and thus early assert the boy's right to his own name. There is
a tradition but no record to show that both Edgar and Rosalie
were baptized respectively as Edgar Allan 7S and Rosalie Mac-
kenzie, but as neither was ever legally adopted they remained
" Poe/ 7 as they had been born. 74 Thus the boy came by the name
of Edgar Allan Poe, which he has successfully projected into
time. Aside from this, the baptismal water left very little trace.
Like other mortals the young Poe was subject to those inter-
nal frailties and afflictions which cause parents endless anxiety,
and Mrs. Allan must often have found herself, with this rather
delicate and pretty little boy, filling the r61e of mother in grim
earnest. Let it be solemnly recorded then for the first time, that
in May, 1812, " Israfel " was afflicted with the croup for which
his foster-father paid the bill. As the earliest documentary evi-
dence of Poe's being in John Allan's household it is not with-
out a genuine element of interest:
72 Poe to John Allan from West Point, New York, January 3, 1831. See
the Valentine Museum Letters, letter No. 24, page 253.
79 J. H. Whitty says, probably as early as December xx, 18x1, in the case of
Edgar. See his Memoir to The Complete Poems, page XXII, large edition. There
is also a tradition that both the children were baptized by the Reverend Mr.
Richardson of St. John's.
74 Legal adoption outside of the tics of blood was almost unknown in the
South at this time. Prof. James Southall Wilson to the author, July, 1925.
48 ISRAFEL
Mr. JOHN ALLAN
To P. THORNTON
1812
May 2ist. To Visit and medicine to child $1.50
22nd. To Visit i.oo
23rd. To Visit and Vial Pectoral Mint 1.50
$4.00
Rect. payment
PHILIP THORNTON 7ri
In July, as we have seen, the family visited the Springs where
Edgar was evidently noticed by a Mr. Douglas of Baltimore who
remarked upon his great beauty to his aunt Eliza Poe. That the
young boy was a really lovely child, whose winsome appearance
and romantic story appealed to all tender hearts, there is a mass
of testimony and tradition to attest. Frances Allan was evi-
dently in love with her little pet, now nearly three yeans old, an
affection which he is known to have passionately returned. Some-
time in the Fall the family returned to Richmond, probably after
having visited Mrs. Allan's relatives, the Valentines, near Stuun-
ton, as it was their custom to do. During the Winter of 1812 we
find them in Richmond as usual living at the corner of Four-
teenth Street and Tobacco Alley. " Uncle " William Gait seems to
have been living with them then. Edgar was by this time for
better or for worse a fixture in the household, where he was often
seen by an Abner Lincoln of Boston who was at this time a fre-
quent guest together with Dr. Thornton and the Ellises at John
Allan's table.
Mr. Allan was in considerable difficulties, one of his ships hav-
ing been seized by the customs authorities at Norfolk, and as
he sat in front of the coal fire, pondering the style of his " prayer
for release " to the Federal Court, his thoughts must have wan-
dered over the water to the orphans at Kilmarnock or have
paused between the wailing notes of his new flute to consider the
future of the little orphan whose bare feet could be heard padding
Tti Philip Thornton was a doctor, the persona! friend of John Allan. He fa fre-
quently mentioned in correspondence. The receipt is from the Ellis & Allan
Papers.
LADY BOUNTIFUL CLAIMS ISRAFEL 49
about upstairs while he was being put to bed by "Ma" or
" Aunt Nancy." John Allan, too, had his softer moods, and in the
years ahead, he conceived a pride and a tenderness for the little
lad whom he came to regard as his son. It was this which his
proud heart never forgave; that the youth to whom he had once
unbent and unbosomed, would not obey his behest, was unpar-
donable. For as with everything else that the merchant dealt in,
there was a price to be paid for his affections, a price which the
poet in Poe found too great to pay. It was the control of his heart
and soul. But now, for a while at least, Lady Bountiful and her
husband were in control of the clay, if not the spirit of the boy,
and that momentous modeling had begun which was to make and
mar the man.
CHAPTER IV
"The Little Angel " Tries His Wings
FRANCES ALLAN would undoubtedly have liked to adopt
the young Edgar Allan Poe formally and legally but her
husband continued to demur. It was only after consider-
able persuasion and the unexpected force of circumstances that
he had at length consented to receive the boy permanently into
his household. At first blush his refusal to adopt the child legally,
after consenting to his becoming a fixture in the family circle and
lending him his name, may seem a captious distinction, but from
his point of view many poignant reasons continued to operate
for refusing or at least deferring indefinitely such an irrevocable
act. In addition to those which have already been rehearsed, there
must have been a deep-seated feeling that in a certain way he
would be overriding Providence by adopting a child that it had
not pleased God to send him in the ordinary course of nature.
The Scotch sense of literal reality is almost morbidly honest, and
John Allan could not allow even his sympathy and affection to de-
ceive him into believing by legal fiction what was in reality not
true. He was willing to indulge his wife, with and for whom he
doubtless felt a great sympathy in their mutual childlessness, but
he was not willing to commit himself, without further demonstra-
tion as to the character of his ward, into declaring him to be the
inheritor of his property. All this, and a certain instinctive sense
of the vast gulf which separated the temperaments of himself and
his ward, something which both of them must have instinctively
felt almost from the first all this, must have decided him that
delay was the best policy, and as the good old Scotch adage has
it, he had best " bide a wee."
In this decision he differed profoundly from the feminine im-
pulsiveness of his wife, but the overwhelming desire of a child-
less woman for an object upon which to lavish the pent up ten-
" THE LITTLE ANGEL " TRIES HIS WINGS 51
derness of thwarted maternity, and the unemotional foresight of
a clear-headed man of affairs are two different things. It is im-
possible to say, even now, which was right, the blind love of
the foster-mother, or the oblique though logical view of the man;
possibly the former.
Had Edgar been legally adopted, it is probable that the feel-
ing of eating the bread of strangers, of in the final analysis being
an object of charity, of which fact he was often reminded, it is
quite possible that this feeling of inferiority against which he
built up an almost morbid pride, destined to be one of the con-
trolling factors in his character, would never have been present
at all, or have vanished as time went on.
As it was, Poe was compelled to move in a world of uncertain-
ties, one where the deepest and most intimate ties of life were,
as he increasingly realized with the years, dependent upon the
impulses of charity.
The illusion of the permanence of home and the immutability
of the paternal and maternal relations are the twin rocks upon
which a well integrated personality is built and stands. Shatter
these, or give them the quality of uncertainty, and the spirit be-
comes one with the quickstand upon which it feels that life rests.
Even in the endearments of his foster-mother, Poe must have
come to realize that he was a substitute for her own child. Her
affections were great, but the fact remains that she was not his
own mother. If he did not sense it, Mr. Allan on several well au-
thenticated occasions took care to make it painfully clear. As a
very young child, Edgar would have actually missed the physical
presence of his own mother; as he grew older and her memory
dimmed, he must have sought for compensation elsewhere. That
Frances Allan met this situation with a plenitude of endearments
that undoubtedly had an effect upon Poe's character there seems
every reason to feel. Mrs. Allan's unusual fondness for children
and for her foster-son in particular was the cause of remark at
the time and later. 70 That her affection for the little boy was one
of the holiest and finest of his many feminine contacts, does not
76 Sec Mrs. Gait's letter to Frances Allan about the Gait children from Irvine,
Scotland, in 1818, Chapter V, page 73.
52 ISRAFEL
lessen the probabilities of its far-reaching effects. In the same
house was also his " Aunt " Nancy Valentine who seems to have
been only a little less fond. In the light of modern psychology,
it may well seem to many that this is alone sufficient to account
for many of the apparent motions of his later life. It may be
that from the first Edgar Allan Poe was embarked upon one of
those hopeless quests of the soul that drive many artists to the
greatest heights of creation and the lowest depths of despair.
'As a little boy it seems that he cared more for the company
of little girls than of boys of his own age, and that his school
days were lonely and unhappy. 77 Though not unhealthy he was
delicate, a condition in which his foster-mother indulged him,
for he was brilliant and beautiful, and soon became the pet of the
household and its friends. At a very early date he is said to have
shown an innocent but passionate attachment for Catherine Eliza-
beth Potiaux, a pretty little girl, who as Mrs. Allan's godchild was
one of his first playmates. 78 It was also Mrs. Allan's particular
delight to take him upon calls to her various friends and relations,
upon which occasions she is said to have dressed him in a charm-
ing costume of a peaked, purple velvet cap with a gold tassel
from which his dark curls flowed down, like those of a Restora-
tion periwig, over an ample tucker that disappeared into small
baggy trousers of yellow Nankin or silk pongee. Seated upon a
davenport, swinging his little buckled shoes in the air, he would
gravely look on, while the assembled ladies dressed in the semi-
classic empire costumes of the day, with fillets in their hair,
chattered about the latest war news and sipped tea.
Sometimes he would be called upon to amuse the company by
standing upon a high-backed chair to recite jingles. Tradition has
it that the company was both delighted and amused. Even John
Allan was not insensible to his juvenile talents, and we have a
picture of the young Poe, mounted shoeless upon the long, shining
dining room table, after the dessert and cloth had been cleared
J T Poe in Burton's Gentleman's Magazine for April, 1840. " Since the. sad ex-
perience of my schoolboy days to this present writing, I have .seen little to sus-
tain the notion held by some folks, that schoolboys are the happiest of all
mortals."
7 * J. H. Whitty, Memoir, large edition, page XXIV.
THE LITTLE ANGEL " TRIES HIS WINGS 53
away, to dance; or standing between the doors of the drawing
room at the Fourteenth Street house reciting to a large company,
and with a boyish fervor, The Lay of the Last Minstrel. " He
wore dark curls and had brilliant eyes, and those who remem-
bered him spoke of the pretty figure he made, with his vivacious
ways." 79 The reward for such occasions was to pledge the healths
of the company in sweetened wine and water. Much has been
made of this fact, which in all conscience seems harmless and
trivial enough. 80
Of the early life in Richmond of this delightful little boy, who
later on felt competent to exchange places with the Archangel
Israfel, there remains a mass of legend and some few authentic
facts. Perhaps it will not be entirely without some contribution
as to the nature of the man as a human being to get a few
glimpses of him trying out his young wings even before he as-
pired to leave the nest.
Some of the earliest and dearest associations of Poe's life clus-
tered about the old Memorial Church on Broad Street which had
been erected on the site of the Richmond Theater as a memorial
to those who had perished in the fire. 81 John Allan and Charles
Ellis had both subscribed to the fund for its erection, the latter
twice as much as his partner, 82 and both had taken out their
membership there after leaving St. Johns. This was consonant
with a well marked determination to better the social status of
the " firm."
The building was an impressive one with a monument to the
sufferers of the fire at the entrance, a rather naive fresco of the
heavenly regions on the ceiling, tablets with the Ten Command-
ments, and a great gold lettered text, " Give Ear O Lord," just
over the chancel. It was the custom of all the children to try out
their spelling on this, and Mary Brockenbrough, a little girl one
Woodberry.
Sec the discussion of Poe's early drinking in Chapter IX, page 167.
81 The history of this church is in itself very interesting and closely connected
with the successful reestablishment of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Virginia
which had suffered a serious eclipse during the Revolution. Among those promi-
nently concerned with it were Bushrod Washington and Chief Justice Marshall.
82 The bills and receipts for this are in the Ellis & Allan Papers at Washington.
54 ISRAFEL
year younger than Poe, remembered looking back and seeing Poe,
" a pretty little boy with big eyes and curly hair " hypnotized by
the text
The Allans had pew 80 and, from the end where he usually
sat, Poe could see the back of little Mary's head obliquely in
front. Just across the nave was the front pew of Chief Justice
Marshall and his long-legged son who sat with the gate open and
his feet in the aisle. The Allan pew was directly before the pul-
pit in which the stout Bishop Moore, rector of the church at that
time, held forth, to what effect upon Israfel we can only surmise,
probably the usual one.
It was here that Poe first met his youthful companion Ebene-
zer Burling, of whom more hereafter, and laid that foundation
of familiarity with the Bible and the church services and sing-
ing which he never lost, 83 One biographer has averred "that
phrenologically considered," the bump of reverence was entirely
lacking in both Poe and Rosalie and that they never evinced any
interest in the saving works of religion.*' 1 However that may be,
to church he went regularly in the company of Mrs. Allan who
was extremely pious. From his foster-father who had a more
eighteenth century and encyclopaedic attitude and philosophy,
Edgar undoubtedly received or overheard opinions which made
him one of the first poets in America to view the world minus
the explanation of a miracle working deity, and to take a meta-
physical interest in the growing data of science.
Among the many visitors to the house then and later, was Mr.
Edward Valentine, a cousin of Mrs. Allan, who was very fond
of the boy. He was a great practical joker and by way of being
somewhat of a merry rogue himself. 8 * This young gentleman
taught young Edgar several amusing tricks. One of these was the
ancient amusement of snatching a chair away from someone
83 I am indebted to the kindness of Mrs. Mary Newton Stanard for the remi-
niscences of her grandmother, Mary Brockcnb rough, here included. Sec also J. II.
Whitty's Memoir, large edition, page XXV. Also Mrs, Shcw's account of Poe in
church, taken from the Ingram Papers.
84 Mrs. Susan Archer Weiss in The, Home Life of Poe.
8B For several amusing facts about this gentleman I am indebted to Mr.
Edward V. Valentine, the well known sculptor, of Richmond, Virginia, which he
related to me in July, 1925.
Rf. Rev. Richard Channing Moore
First Rector of the Monumental Church, Richmond, Virginia
Where EDGAR POE attended with his foster-parents, and Protestant
Episcopal Bishop of Virginia
The Monumental Church was completed in 1814 on the site of the burned "Rich-
mond Theatre," in which POE'S mother had often played, and where she received
two benefits while on her death bed. JOHN ALLAN'S pew was No. 80, directly
in front of the pulpit; there POE sat and looked up into Bishop MOORE'S face
By permission of Mrs. Mary Mayo Ingle
"THE LITTLE ANGEL" TRIES HIS WINGS 57
about to sit down. Unfortunately the newly acquired talent was
tried upon the person of a portly and extremely dignified lady
caller, and tradition has preserved for us the picture of John
Allan leading his too pert young charge away for chastisement
after the old fashioned manner, and of Mrs. Allan with tears in
her eyes hurrying upstairs shortly after to quiet the lamentations
of her pet
As a counterbalance to his wife's indulgence, Mr. Allan con-
scientiously set about to train up the boy according to his more
severe ideas of the proper way in which the twig should be bent.
Consequently, when the child was " good," he was indulged, but
any exhibition of waywardness or disobedience brought down on
him the usual punishment of the time which, it was said, was ad-
ministered to him upon divers occasions with undue severity. To
save him from this was the constant aim of the ladies, and even
the servants of the household. With their connivance the boy
soon learned to shield himself by means of petty subterfuges
upon his own part which were doubtless more clever than manly.
The child's education was early well looked after. As a very
little boy, there is a trustworthy legend that he was sent to a
"dame school," which would correspond most nearly to the
modern kindergarten, minus much of the element of organized
play. This was said to have been kept by an old Scotch lady with
a broad Lowland accent, doubtless in itself a recommendation to
the parents of many of her charges. Of her, very little is remem-
bered except a rumor that she called Edgar, "her ain wee
laddie," and in after years was said to have brought him pres-
ents of the best smoking tobacco she could obtain (sic). 88 Poe
also indicates in a seemingly autobiographical passage in The
Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, " He (Mr. Allan) sent me at
six years of age to the school of old Mr. Ricketts, a gentleman
with only one arm, and of eccentric manner." It has since been
found that there was in Richmond about that time a one-armed
schoolmaster by the name of " Ricketts." 87 One William Richard-
rt This story rests upon evidence that can be questioned.
7 I am indebted for the sources of this information to Mr. J. H. Wmtty s
Memoir to The Complete
S 8 ISRAFEL
son also kept a boys' school where John Allan sent some of the
other children in whom he was interested in 1813-14. The truth
is, it is not definitely known exactly where and to whom Poe first
went to school.
It is fairly certain, however, that shortly before the departure
of the Allans for England in 1815, Poe was a student with a Mr.
William Erwin who kept a boys school in Richmond at that
time. 88 Erwin from his letters seems to have had a dry sense of
humor, and in addition to have taken a real interest in his young
charge, remarking in a letter some two years after the lad had
left him that " He is a charming boy," and inquiring what he
was reading. Evidently, even by 1814 or 1815, Poe was one of
those strange freaks of nature in a school, a boy who took a
lively interest in his books. Mr. Erwin also received payments
from John Allan for Edwin Collier, the natural son, from March
15, 1815, to March 15, 1818. In all probability young Collier
attended the school in 1815 at the same time as Edgar Poe. BO
There are also indications that Mr. Allan was educating others
of his progeny about this time elsewhere, as the firm of Ellis &
Allan was called upon by other teachers for their tuition. 00
There is another side to Edgar Poe's childhood for which, by
the nature of things, there can be very little documentary evi-
dence, yet one that careful inference has every right to draw.
It is that of his intimate association with negroes as a Southern
boy brought up in Richmond during the days of slavery, and of
the profound affect which their rhythms, melodies and folk-tales
must have had upon his imagination.
From earliest childhood Poe must also have listened to a con-
88 Letter from William Erwin dated Richmond, November 27th, 1817, to
John Allan in London.
** tf Letter from William Erwin to John Allan from Richmond, Virginia, No-
vember ao, 1815.
Letter from John Allan to William Erwin from London, England, March
21, 1818.
w Young Collier seems to have been withdrawn from his former schoolmaster,
William Richardson, sometime in 1814 ami to have entered with William Erwin,
March, 1815. Whether Poe went to .school nlso under William Richardson, or
whether Erwin succeeded Richardson in the business is not clear. The where-
abouts and names of the other children have only a remote connection with Poe
at this time, and, for obvious reasons, they are not elaborated upon in the text.
" THE LITTLE ANGEL " TRIES HIS WINGS 59
tinuous stream of oral narratives and exploits related by the sea
captains, merchants and adventurers who sat at his foster-father's
table and later on unburdened themselves before the fire. That
much of his flair for sea narrative was the result of this seems
a warrantable inference.
That the boy often found himself seated by the glowing hearth
of many a negro cabin, or, in the slave quarters, listening to the
weird tales of the dark tenants and swaying to the syncopations
of their songs is inevitable. Northern critics and biographers
seem, largely, to have forgotten that Edgar Allan Poe was a
Southerner raised in the South. To them, the importance of his
early environment, and the romantic and grotesque incidents of
the life about him in his early but impressionable boyhood, must,
for the most part, on account of their lack of sympathy with
something which they have never experienced or suspected, be
forever a closed book.
For if there is one thing more than any other which sets off
that portion of the Union where Poe was raised, the Old South,
" Uncle Sam's Other Country," from all other sections, it is the
exotic and withal grotesque presence and influence of the negro.
He, more than any other factor, he, and the soft languor of its
sub-tropical springs and summers, are responsible for the com-
bined squalor and glamor of its ancient villages and towns. Here
transplanted to a new environment in a more boreal continent,
the negro has created for himself another native habitat, and
no one who lives there can fail to come under the peculiar and
oft-times fatal influence of his methodical-chaos of life. To this
influence the receptive and imaginative mind of young Poe was
constantly subjected during the most impressionable years of his
childhood. 01
Like all well j bred Virginia boys, he had his own negro
" mammy " up until the time when the family left for England in
i8is. 02 The life of the white man overshadows and often checks
01 One biographer avoids much of this by saying, " The psychology of a poet's
boyhood is obscure."
02 Possibly the " Juliet " or the " Eudocia " mentioned by receipts and the
bills of sale as being in John Allan's household. See note 45 ante.
60 ISRAFEL
the exuberance and strangeness of the modus vivendi of the
darky; the "black secrets " and the magic of his real existence
are seldom penetrated by the adult members of the dominant
race. Children, however, are always privileged characters, and
young Edgar, as a prime favorite and pet of the family, must
often have sat by their firesides in the rooms of his foster-father's
house-servants in Richmond, or in the slave-quarters and cabins
upon the plantations at which he was a frequent visitor.
There he must have feasted upon corn-pone and listened, while
many a tale of Bre'r Rabbit and his ilk went round, while the
ghosts, and " hants " and spooks of an ignorant but imaginative
and superstitious people walked with hair-raising effect, and songs
with melancholy harmonies and strange rhythms beat themselves
into his consciousness with that peculiar ecstasy and abandon
which only children and the still half-savage individuals of a
childish race can experience. Here it was then, rather than upon
some mythical journey to France or Russia, that he first laid
the foundation for his weird imaginings and the strange " new "
cadences which he was to succeed later on in grafting upon the
main stream of English poetry. Here too may have arisen his
flair for the bizarre, and the concept that birds and animals were
speaking characters, and that fear of graves and corpses and the
paraphernalia of the charnel, so peculiarly a characteristic of the
negro, which haunted him through the rest of his life. Reliable
tradition, indeed, has preserved some incidents which confirm the
probability.
One Summer, when Edgar was about six years old, the Allans
paid a visit to one of the smaller Virginia Springs, and on their
way back to Richmond stopped to visit Mrs. Allan's relatives,
the Valentines, at Staunton. Edward Valentine, whose interest
in Edgar has already been remarked, was fond of organizing
wrestling matches for small money prizes between Edgar and the
little pickaninnies with whom he played. He would also take
young Poe about the country driving, or seated behind him on
horseback. Valentine is responsible for the story that once as
they were returning from the country post-office, where Edgar
had astonished the rustics with his infant learning by reading a
" THE LITTLE ANGEL " TRIES HIS WINGS 61
newspaper aloud to them, 93 on the way home, they passed a log
cabin near which were several graves. The boy betrayed such
nervous terror that Mr. Valentine was forced to take Edgar
from his seat behind, and hold him before him on the horse,
while the boy kept crying out, " They will run after us and drag
me down." Upon being questioned later, he admitted that it had
been the custom of his " mammy " to take him at night to the
servant's quarters "Where many a tale of grave-yard ghost
went round " and he had been regaled with gruesome stories of
cemeteries and horrible apparitions. To such incidents as these
there can be little doubt that American Literature owes a con-
siderable debt. The time had come, however, when Edgar Poe
was to be removed temporarily from such plantation influences
and plunged into the midst of an older, and perhaps more civi-
lized and complicated world. With the cessation of hostilities
after the Treaty of Ghent in 1815, John Allan had decided to
pay a long deferred visit to England and Scotland, and the family
went abroad.
The early Spring and Summer of 1815 must have been largely
occupied by the family preparations for the voyage in which
Edgar would naturally have taken a lively interest. Frances Allan
had been hurt in an accident and the departure was delayed. We
catch a final authentic but fleeting glimpse of the boy at this time,
when the easy flow of his happy childhood in Richmond was
about to be interrupted by an important remove. From the remi-
niscences of one Dr. C. A. Ambler, 04 afterwards a well known
physician, we learn that about this time he used to swim with
Edgar Poe at a pool in Shockoe Creek, then situated where the
9:1 There is an interesting letter in the Ellis & Allan Papers which throws
considerable light on the state of culture among the poorer up-country whites at
this time, in which one of the Elliscs depicts their incredulity over his prediction
of an eclipse of the sun, and their superstitious astonishment at its fulfilment.
The mental condition of these "poor whites" seems to have approached that of
the medieval peasant during the early renaissance.
* This information is given in a letter from Dr. Ambler to Edward V.
Valentine of Richmond, which the latter read to the author in July, 1925- The
.story of Shockoe Creek and its peregrinations and floods is closely interwoven
with the history and fate of Richmond. In the early Nineteenth Century, a sud-
den flood in this stream prevented the perpetration of a massacre by an uprising
of the slaves.
62 ISRAFEL
shops of the C. & (X Railroad now stand. Dr. Ambler says that
he stripped with Edgar day after day, and that the boy was of a
delicate physique and rather timid disposition, taking to the water
a bit reluctantly. 95 The testimony as to Poe's physical develop-
ment in childhood is not without value, and in many particulars
confirms the evidence as to his early appearance. That he was
about to be removed to a more bracing climate and exposed to the
vigorous and sometimes brutal influences of the playgrounds of
English schools for the next five years, cannot but have exerted
a powerful influence upon his mental and physical equipment.
The sunlight of Virginia, and the mists and snows of Scotland and
Stoke Newington are two different things.
05 Dr. Ambler states Poe was about "nine years old at this time." As Poe
was in England during his ninth year, the doctor is mistaken on this point, Poe's
later prowess as a swimmer is in contrast with this early timidity.
CHAPTER V
Israfel in Albion
THE correspondence of Poe's guardian John Allan with
his relatives in Scotland during the year 1811 and
1812, and from then on to the end of the war, the let-
ters from his sisters and brother-in-law at Irvine and Kilmar-
nock ee fairly teem with references and invitations to him and
his wife to revisit the haunts of his youth. In 1811 he had in-
tended to return from Lisbon by way of Great Britain, when the
imminence of hostilities intervened. The war, of course, had en-
forced the postponement of the family wishes, and his own, for
some years. Now, at last, he was about to see them realized.
There were, in addition, business reasons the most urgent.
The cessation of trade between England and America had borne
peculiarly heavily upon the Virginia tobacco merchants. Ac-
counts for cargoes shipped just before the war were still un-
settled, and it was necessary to close these and to reestablish
personal relations with English houses in a market where tobacco
prices were extraordinarily high, due to the cessation of supply,
but which might be expected to be glutted as soon as intercourse
was resumed, from the immense reserve stocks on hand. All of
this required the personal presence of at least one member of the
firm, and it was the junior partner, who, combining his personal
desires and business advantage, undertook the mission to estab-
lish a foreign branch. 07
Personally it must have been with a good deal of pleasure that
John Allan looked forward to a reunion with his family upon his
native heath. It had now been many years since he had left Scot-
land a penniless youth to make his fortunes in the land where
See the letters in the Ellis & Allan Papers, Library of Congress, Washing-
ton, D. C., from John Allan's sisters, Mary, Elizabeth, Jane, and his brother-in-
law, Allan Fowlds, from 1811 to 1814.
07 Woodberry, 1.909 edition, page 20.
64 ISRAFEL
fortunes were then to be made. The pot at the end of the rain-
bow had not proved a mere dream, and the orphan was return-
ing to his relatives in comfortable, though not wealthy circum-
stances, enhanced social prestige, the prospect of his uncle's
fortune in the foreground, and a beautiful young wife and sister-
in-law, for Miss Valentine accompanied them. Perhaps not the
least factor in his natural pride of accomplishment was the pres-
ence of his handsome, brilliant, and lovable little foster-son,
Edgar, a living testimony to the charitable inclinations and
capacity of his purse. Some stress has already been laid on the
less appealing aspects of John Allan's character. It is only just
to make the point, at this juncture, that there was also in the
man a deep and abiding generosity and capability for the finer
manifestations of human affection. Like most of us, this wily
Scot had contradictions in his nature. He was capable, at once,
of a generous bounty and a mean parsimony, a large tolerance
and a bigoted determination to dominate. During his association
with him, Edgar Poe experienced the entire gamut of the capa-
bilities of a nature, the vigor of which can only be described by
the adjective " tremendous.' 7 It was no weakling into whose nest
the little fledgling had fallen, but that of a hawk, whose wings
were strong to protect, but with talons that clutched, and a beak
that pierced to the heart.
At the time when John Allan and his family sailed for Eng-
land, the child Edgar had been taken not only into the house,
but into the arms and heart of his foster-father. The merchant's
correspondence at this date and afterwards bears unmistakable
evidence of the pride, the affection and the hopes which he
cherished for the boy, and it is safe to say that from 1815 to
1820, and for a year or two after, John Allan looked upon little
" Edgar Allan " as he would have regarded the child of his loins.
As for his wife, Frances, and her sister, they were completely
under the boy's spell. Only the cloud of his school days cast a
shadow on an otherwise sunny landscape.
Before leaving Richmond, Mr. Allan auctioned his household
furniture and some personal effects through the commission house
of Monicure, Robinson & Pleasants, drew 335.10,6 from his
ISRAFEL IN ALBION 65
own firm, had his goods conveyed by dray and boat to the ship
"Lothair" anchored in the James, and, on June 17, 1815,
set sail for England with his wife, Miss Valentine and Edgar.
From these facts it can be seen that he contemplated a stay
of some duration. 98 Edgar left behind him his little sweetheart
Catherine Potiaux of whom, even at this early age, he was very
fond.
As the custom then was, Mr. Allan provided his own stores for
the voyage. These he purchased partly in Richmond, while the
rest came on board at Hampton Roads, sent over from Norfolk
by the firm of Moses Myers & Sons. A few brief glimpses can be
caught of the family during their voyage of thirty-six days. The
"Lothair" sailed from the " Roads " on June 22, 1815, and a
letter brought back by the pilot boat tells us that, " Ned (Edgar)
cares but little about it, poor fellow." From later letters, from
the other side, we learn that Edgar soon recovered, however, and
inferences show us John Allan, or his pretty wife with the child
on her lap in the cabin, instructing him out of Murray f s Reader,
The Olive Branch, or Murray's Speller which had been provided
for the purpose at a cost of i6s. 6d.
They arrived at Liverpool July 28, 1815, and next day Mr.
Allan writes his partner Charles Ellis that, " The ladies were
verry sick. . . . Edgar was a little sick but had recovered." In
Liverpool John Allan had business to transact with Ewart Myers
& Company.
Apparently family ties in Scotland were powerful, for business
detained them only a short while, and a few weeks later we find
them at Greenock in Scotland, where they had probably just ar-
rived, or had come over from Irvine only a few miles away in
order to catch an outbound American mail. Evidently they suc-
ceeded, for we have this hurried letter from John Allan to
Charles Ellis, his partner, written with the family hanging over
08 Letters in the Ellis & Allan Papers, also see letter from Col. Thomas Ellis
to Prof. Woodberry, from Baltimore, May 28, 1884, also J. H. Whitty Memoir,
large edition, Appendix, page 192. The author of the school texts was Lindley
Murray, and the Reader was / " The eleventh Philadelphia edition. / published by
Johnson & Warner, / at their Stores in Philadelphia, and Richmond (Vir). / John
Bouvicr, Printer, / 1814. ^
66 ISRAFEL
him with messages for home, and little Edgar pleading, " Pa, say
something for me."
Greenock Sept 21, 1815
D. CHARLES,
I arrived here about a half an hour ago . . . finding some American
vessels on the eve of sailing I avail myself of the chance to write a few
lines, though I cannot say much about our business . . . (evidently
the time was too short. Here follow some price quotations of tobacco,
of which he continues.) I flatter myself from the small quantity in
London & the Postieur of affairs on the Continent that our sales will
be profitable.
It would appear that France and the Allies have concluded a Treaty
but it has not been promulgated the Allies will hold the strong posts
for a while until the refractory spirit of some of the old adherents of
Bonaparte has subsided. France is far from being settled. Louis is too
lenient & too peaceable the French delight in War I believe they care
but little who rules them provided that ruler indulges them in their
Habit which 25 years of war has so strongly fixed upon them.
Provisions of every description are extremely low here and in this
quarter they are in the midst of Harvest, the crops are abundant and
I think will be got in well. . . ,
Frances says she would like the Land and lakes better if it was
warmer and less rain, she bids me say she will write Margaret (Mrs.
Ellis) as soon as she is settled but at present she is so bewildered with
wonders that she canna write. Her best Love to Margaret & a thou-
sand kisses to Thos. (Thos, Ellis a playmate of Poe) Nancy (Miss
Valentine) says give my love to them all Edgar says Pa say something
for me, say I was not afraid coming across the Sea. Kiss Theo, (?) for
him. We all write our best Love to my Uncle Gait and old Friends,
I am etc.
JOHN ALLAN xo
(Postscript) Edgars Love to Rosa & Mrs. Mackenzie.
Frances Allan's remarks about the weather in that part of
Scotland where the Allans had gone to visit was by no means
purely conversational. Greenock is officially the town with the
99 A seaport of Renfrewshire about twenty-three miles from Glasgow on the
Firth of Clyde. At this time it was one of the chief ports for American trade.
100 The letter is evidently very hurriedly written, a little difficult to read in
some places, which is unusual with John Allan, whose handwriting is large, round
and clear. The lapse into Scotch is unusual and testifies to his agitation, or the
effect of a return to early associations.
ISRAFEL IN ALBION 67
heaviest rainfall in Scotland, 101 and that is saying a good deal
for the rain. It may have been that some early memories of this
" dewey, misty " climate and
... the chill seas
around the misty Hebrides
were so thoroughly soaked into Edgar Poe that he long remem-
bered the plashy fields about Irvine and Kilmarnock.
Another great poet tramping through Kilmarnock only three
years later was overtaken by a rain in the very town, from where-
abouts John Keats writes to Reynolds on July 13, 1818, that the
rain had stopped him on the way to Glasgow. Mrs. Allan's
meteorological observations are therefore confirmed by great
authority, in which His Majesty's Weather Reports concur, so
we may be definitely sure that rain it did.
For a 9 that, however, Irvine in Ayrshire, where the Allans
" settled down " is in the heart of the Burns country, and was
at that time a lovely little seaport on the north bank of the
river of the same name crossed by a picturesque old stone bridge.
Here Poe must often have stood to watch the ships, or have
crossed on excursions with his father's young cousins and
nephews, the Gait or Fowlds boys, over the river to Seagate or
Stonecastle nearby, both picturesque ruins. An academy had
been founded at Irvine centuries before the Allans arrived, and
there during the Summer of 1815 he was sent to school, doubtless
in company with several of his " cousins." 102
The country about fairly swarmed with John Allan's relatives
and friends, all anxious to welcome him, to see his beautiful wife
and the " little boy," and to hear about the health of their rich
uncle in Richmond, a theme of considerable family interest. A
married sister and her husband, Allan Fowlds, lived at Kil-
marnock with several children, among them Frances, the name-
sake to whom Mrs. Allan had sent the coral bracelet some years
before. One cannot help wondering if Mrs. Fowlds had really
101 " 64 inches."
102 J. H. Whitty Memoir. The rest of the information is gathered from a mass
of family correspondence in the Ellis & Allan Papers and from competent descrip-
tions of the places themselves.
68 ISRAFEL
saved some of her " nice nappy ale " for her brother, and if Jean
Guthrie did come asking for "her Johnny," how Mrs. Allan
took it. 108
At Irvine itself, where the Allans seem to have set up some
sort of housekeeping while Edgar went to the Academy, lived
three other sisters, Eliza, Mary, and Jane, together with other
relatives, the Walshes 104 and some friends, a Capt. James Solo-
mon, whom Mr. Allan had befriended while a prisoner of war in
America, 104 and Mr. Ferguson " who kept a fine gig and dashed
about at a great rate." 106 There is also some reference to " little
brothers," 106 perhaps a term of affection for the Gait children,
the orphans.
At any rate, despite the rain and the Scotch mist, we may
be sure it was a merry little society and a pleasant home coming,
and that young Edgar Poe and Nancy Valentine shared in the
welcome. The bonds of family in Scotland are close, and these
two fell within the magic circle. The country about is beautiful,
and aroused Keats' admiration three years later, on his walking
trip with Charles Armitage Brown. 107 At Kilmarnock, Poe could
not escape hearing about Bobby Burns; "Highland Mary" is
buried at Greenock; and the poet's lines and songs were at that
time and for a generation to come on everyone's lips. Here they
saw the strange effect of the long northern twilight and the eery
red shadows of the sunsets long after the hour of a Virginia
night-fall. Even in England in July the twilight docs not end
until about 10 P.M., and Poe reveled in just such light effects
afterward, and strange valleys
108 Extracts from a letter to John Allan from his sister, Jane, at Irvine:
104 M r . Walsh has purchased the great part of a galeaat and sails out of
Irvine." There were Mr. and Mrs., and Jane Walsh in this family.
105 "A very agreeable young man; I had the pleasure of being his brides-
maid."
106 " All our little brothers arc well and are making fine scholars."
107 Extract from Keats' letter upon entering Ayrshire: We came clown upon
everything suddenly there were on our way the "bonny Doon," with the Brig
that Tarn o'Shanter crossed, Kirk Alloway, Burns's Cottage, across the Doon;
surrounded by every Phantasy of green in Tree, Meadow, and hill. The stream
of the Doon, as a Farmer told us, is covered with trees 'from head to foot'
you know these beautiful heaths so fresh against the weather of a summer's eve-
ning. . . ." John Keats, Amy Lowell, vol. II, page 46.
ISRAFEL IN ALBION 69
In the midst of which all day
The red sunlight lazily lay
Here, too, he was moving in the very scenes which Scott de-
scribes. If these things did not leave a direct mark upon his
style, his foreign experiences must at least have enhanced and
made vivid his future delving into the literature of Britain, amid
scenes of which he had personal knowledge.
About thirty miles south of Irvine and Kilmarnock on the Cree
Water, 108 in a country of beautiful private parks and small lochs,
lived the Gaits at a handsome estate called " Flowerbanks " that
overlooked a charming prospect in the Cree Valley where the
fishers could be seen drawing their nets. This is close to the
" Bride of Lammermoor " country, and is one of the most
charming sections of Scotland. The Allans visited their relatives
here and evidently stayed for some little time with the family,
which seems to have consisted of an Aunt, Mrs. Elizabeth Gait;
William Gait and his wife, " Cousin Jane "; and the orphans,
four or possibly three Gait boys, for Thomas seems to have
gone to sea. Here doubtless Poe played about the country with
these children, with whom he had ample time to become intimate
then and later on, amid scenes the charm of which could not
have been wasted, even upon his extreme youth. This was prob-
ably in the late Summer of i8is. 100
" Flowerbanks," however, was not the only place visited by
the Allans. From Kilmarnock the family went to visit in Green-
ock, and from thence to Glasgow and Edinburgh. Mr. Allan
doubtless combined his business and pleasure at these places, 110
but he was accompanied by his family and little Edgar Poe, who
certainly could not have been oblivious to the attraction of
strange sights for young eyes. Whether all of the Gait orphans
went along is uncertain, but it is known that one of them, James
108 A river between Wigton and Kirkudbrightshire in Scotland. The description
of " Flowerbanks " is from a letter of Mary Allan, who says, " I could be happy
to live here forever."
109 As late as December 30, 1846, Poe wrote one A. Ramsay of Stonehaven,
Scotland, inquiring after his (Foe's) Allan and Gait relatives.
110 Charles Denny was the Glasgow merchant with whom Mr. Allan trans-
acted much of his business.
70 ISRAFEL
Gait, then about fifteen years old, was of the company, and to his
later reminiscences we are indebted for the facts. This nephew,
it seems, was a favorite of old William Gait in Richmond who to
some extent kept a tab on John Allan through the boy's letters. 111
It had been John Allan's intent to leave Edgar at school at
Irvine during this pleasure trip, and upon his return to England,
but both Mrs. Allan and Miss Valentine objected, an attitude
ably seconded by young Poe himself, so that it was agreed to
allow Edgar to make the Scotch " grand tour " and return to
London with the ladies, provided he would go back to Scotland
later to attend school at Irvine with young James Gait. This
early rift in the family over Edgar's care and whereabouts is not
without significance as it shows plainly that Mrs. Allan was still
the main protagonist for the boy, while her husband was anxious
to settle matters, even then, by packing him off to school, a de-
vice to which he was to resort later on when the household be-
came divided over more important matters in Richmond.
In the Fall, the family returned to England, stopping at New-
castle and Sheffield on the way, and landing in London on Octo-
ber 7, 1815. Here was another sea voyage, part of the way, amid
notable scenery, at a time when Poe was beginning to awaken to
himself and the world about him. It may have been that he saw
Ailsa Rock glimmering far out at sea of which Keats wrote about
the same time:
. . . thou art dead asleep;
Thy life is but two dead eternities
The last in air, the former in the deep;
First with the whales, last with eagle skies
These coasts seem to have affected the sea poetry of Keats,
and it is certain that much of the poetry of Poe deals with a
craggy and mist-veiled region.
The Allans did not immediately find lodgings, but, upon their
arrival at London, stopped at Blake's Hotel, where on October
10, 1815, John Allan wrote Charles Ellis that they had arrived
three days before from Glasgow, and that their satisfaction with
111 J. H. Whitty, Complete Poems, large edition, Appendix, page 302.
ISRAFEL IN ALBION 71
the Scottish sights was, "high in all respects." A few days
later they found a satisfactory residence in Russell Square, on
the present site of the Bedford and West Central Hotels. From
here on October 15, 1815, John Allan writes that he is sitting
before " a snug fire in a nice little sitting parlor in No. 47, South-
ampton Row, while Frances and Nancy are sewing and Edgar is
reading a little story book." How we should like to know what it
was! Evidently Edgar read a good deal even at seven years of age.
Sometime later, probably about the end of 1815, Poe returned
with James Gait to Scotland to attend once more the grammar
school at Irvine. 112 Edgar, it seems, was very unwilling to part
with the family and the women folks pled to keep him in London,
but in vain. Poe's character even at this time began to manifest
its wilful characteristics. James Gait says that on the voyage
back from London to Irvine, Edgar made " an unceasing fuss all
the way." Young Poe had started for Scotland very unwillingly,
and he evidently intended to let the world know the state of his
feelings.
At Irvine, Edgar Poe and James Gait lived with Mary Allan,
John Allan's sister, while the two boys went to school. The house
where they stayed, called the Bridgegate House, was till lately
still standing. There, James Gait and the young Edgar Poe occu-
pied the same room, and from the lips of the older boy we begin
to get a definite impression of young Israfel. He was, it seems, very
mature for his age, full of old-fashioned talk, filled with a great
self-reliance and absolutely devoid of fear. Life with "Aunt
Mary" and at the Academy did not suit him, and he made
" plans " to go back to America, perhaps with Catherine in mind,
or to run away to London, probably back to his dear " Ma," and
" Aunt Nancy," but certainly not back to his dear " Pa," who
had so nonchalantly packed him off from all those he loved. This
is the first of Edgar's many plans to run away, and in a little
lad of seven or eight years at most, it shows a spirit of adventure,
self-confidence and obstinancy that is to be remarked. Evidently
" Aunt Mary Allan," who, from her letters, seems to have been a
kindly and knowing person, had a rapid time of it with the fiery
little boy storming about her quiet old house.
72 ISRAFEL
In the canny and dour atmosphere of the Scotch village, Poe
undoubtedly missed the note of gaiety and the warm, generous
influences of his Richmond home. Frequent services at the Irvine
and Kilmarnock kirks were long and lugubrious; the discipline
at the Academy, a school with medieval traditions, was strict
and probably corporeal; one of the exercises in writing was the
copying of epitaphs from the old graves in the kirkyard close by,
and there was doubtless no lack of " atdd licht " sermons by Dr.
Robertson, to the accompaniment of frequent reversals of the
hour glass, all the atmosphere of Protestant piety which had
so outraged Burns a few years earlier. Indeed, in the very square
with the Allan house at Irvine, was Templeton's book shop where
Burns had gone to turn over many a sheet of old songs. 118
There were mitigating circumstances, however; visits to Allan
Fowlds, the merry nurseryman, and his family at Kilmarnock
a few miles away; games in Nelson Street with Jock Gregory
and Willie Anderson, who, as an old man in 1887, recalled Edgar
Poe as, much fussed over by the Allans, and a lively apt youngster
with a will of his own; and there was a ghost-walk just opposite
in the garden of Lord Kilmarnock's mansion which the lord's lady
was said to haunt.
Certainly Edgar was restless, and much affected the old, red,
creaking-wheeled riding carts of the country upon which he rode
gaily beside the driver; a little grey-eyed, dark, curly-headed
boy dressed in a green duffle apron and thick-napped, red Kil-
marnock tarn o'shanter, drinking in the strange sights of
the old Scotch villages all about but still making trouble for
" Aunty Mary." She, at last, poor soul, could stand it no longer,
and in a burst of exasperation packed up his clothes and shipped
him back to London, 112 doubtless to the annoyance of John Allan,
and the rapturous kisses of " Ma " and " Aunt Nancy." James
Gait seems to have gone with him, for, not long after, there are
letters to Richmond from the former. Mrs. Allan was very fond of
112 For the facts detailed here I am for the most part frankly Indebted to the
excellent Memoir of Poe by J. H. Whitty, large edition, section VI, Appendix,
pages 201-209. Also to the illuminating article in the Dial for February, 1916, by
Prof. Killis Campbell, and to extracts from the Ellis 6* Allan Papers.
ISRAFEL IN ALBION 73
these Gait children, too, and in October, 1818, the curtain lifts on
the little family for a brief glimpse, when Mrs. Gait of " Flower-
banks " writes to John Allan in London, and encloses a message
to his good wife.
Oct. 24, 1818
. . . Tell Mrs. Allan that her attention and great kindness to my chil-
dren can never be forgotten as in every letter they are extolling her
goodness. . . . My kind love to Miss Valentine and if she is half as
good as she is represented to me she must be everything that anyone
would wish. Compliments to Mrs. A., Miss V., little Edgar and
Jane. . . .
Your affectionate Aunt
ELIZABETH GALT 113
This letter is interesting as supplying the names qf the persons
in John Allan's household in London, and is one of the many
proofs of the love for children shown by Frances Allan. " Jane "
is John Allan's own sister.
There is an earlier glimpse than this, though, some two years
before. Edgar could not have remained very long at Irvine, for
he seems to have returned early in 1816 to London where a let-
ter reached him written from Richmond in the Spring. It was
from his little sweetheart Catherine Potiaux, Mrs. Allan's god-
child. As the first of the many love letters that Poe received, and
from a little girl seven or eight years old, now dead for nearly
a century, it is not without a quaint interest of its own.
Richmond, 18, 1816
. . . Give my love to Edgar and tell him I want to see him very much.
... I expect Edgar does not know what to make of such a large City
as London, tell him Josephine and all the children want to see
him. . . . 114
Evidently Edgar was missed and remembered!
Upon his return to London in 1816, Poe was sent to the Misses
113 The extracts from this letter of Mrs. Gait to John Allan have been sup-
plied the author by the kindness of Mr. Edward V. Valentine of Richmond, who
has the correspondence in his possession.
* l * Ellis & Allan Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, D. C.
74 ISRAFEL
Dubourg's 116 boarding school at 146, Sloane Street, Chelsea, not
far from the South Kensington Museum, where he continued to
live, making short visits to the family, probably until the end of the
Spring of 1817 or later. The Misses Dubourg were the sisters of
a clerk in the employ of ElUs & Allan during 1816 and 1817, but
of them little is known. The record of Poe's life at this school is
now confined to the following bill for tuition, which tells a rather
complete story for such a document. Among other things we
learn that Edgar was known as " Master Allan."
Masr. Allan's School Acct. to Midsummer 1816
Board & Tuition \ year 7 17 6
Separate Bed i i o
Washing o 10 6
Seat in Church o 3 o
Teachers and Servants o 5 o
Writing o 15 o
Do. Entrance o 10 o
Copy, Books, Pens, etc., etc o 3 o
Medicine, School Expenses . o 5 o
Repairing Linen, shoe strings etc. . . o 3 o
Mavor's Spelling o 2 o
Fresnoy's Geography o 2 o
Prayer Book o 3 o
Church Catechism Explained . . . . o o 9
Catechism of Hist, of England . . . o . o 9
12 2 o
Receipted, July 6, 1816
sgd. GEORGE DUBOURG
On the back we find that, " School recommences Monday the
22nd of July." 110
During the stay of the family in England there are several
mentions of Mrs. Allan's being in ill health, a more or less
chronic condition, judging by other frequent references in family
correspondence of later date, that was to play a considerable part
115 "Pauline Dubourg" is the laundress in the Murders in the Rue Moraue
310 This receipt has been published in the Dial for February, 1916, and is to
be found in the Ellis 6- Attan Papers, Washington, D. C. Courtesy of Prof Killis
Campbell.
ISRAFEL IN ALBION 75
in the relations later between Edgar Poe and John Allan. In a
letter written to his uncle in Richmond as early as 1816, John
Allan specifically states that his wife is in poor health. The
earliest mention of any letters of Poe occurs in connection with
his foster-mother's illness. In August, 1817, John Allan took his
wife Frances to Chettingham where she seems to have improved,
and on August 14 of that year he writes his bookkeeper George
Dubourg in London, enclosing a letter from the boy, and saying
that if Edgar, who was evidently left behind at school, wishes to
write at all he must send his letters to his mama, " as I do not
think she will return with me." Mrs. Allan, finding the waters of
benefit, wished to give them a longer trial. Why John Allan
should have returned the letter is not clear unless it was to place
it in the office files (sic). In any event it appears he did not wish
to receive the boy's communications. Such incidents as these
would be trivial did they not show definitely from which direction
the warm and cold winds blew, even as early as this. 117
In the Summer of 1817 about the time that Edgar left the
Misses Dubourgs' school, John Allan moved from 47, Southamp-
ton Row to what is now number 83. This house was still standing
in 1915, and is the same one that Poe mentions in Why the Little
Frenchman Wears Ins Hand in a Sling, as " 39, Southampton
Row, Russell Square, Parish o' Bloomsbury." 6C7 Here they re-
mained till shortly before they left London.
While in that city, John Allan had his place of business at 18
Basing Hall, 118 under the name of Allan & ElUs, a reversal of
style that is said not to have pleased his partner at home. Most
of his business was with Thomas S. Coles, and A. Saltmarsh, his
" inspectors," and with the firm of John Gilliat & Co. His affairs
did not prosper, and that certain other worries followed him over-
seas, this rather snappy glimpse of home correspondence not
without direct interest in itself, and bearing directly upon Poe,
will testify. The letter is from William Erwin, Edgar's former
117 The full text of Allan's letter is in the Valentine Museum, Richmond, Virginia,
and a quotation from it is given in the Valentine Museum Poe Letters (published
in 1025), on page 17, introduction.
118 From addresses m letters to John Allan at that date. Also Mary Newton
Stanard to the author on August 21, 1925.
76 ISRAFEL
schoolmaster in Richmond, which reached Mr. Allan in London
March 7, 1818.
Richmond, Novr. 27th, 1817
DR. SIR
I take upon myself the liberty of writing to you this note, relative
to Master Edward Collier, whom you placed under my tuition in the
spring of the year 1815 and who has regularly attended my school
since that period. His mother informs me that she has frequently re-
minded your partner Mr. Ellis to mention Edward's situation to you,
but thinks that amid the hurry of important communications he had
omitted the subject altogether. She has accordingly solicited me to
write to you, and to present a statement of Edward's account from his
first entrance to the end of the year. It is as follows;
Mr. Allan To Wm Erwin, Dr.
For Master Edward Collier's tuition from March isth
1815 to March 14 1818 at $42 per annum $126.00
Cr. June 1815 by cash from Mr. Allan $12.25
Oct. 1816 by cash from Mr. Ellis $29.75 42.00
To Balance 84.00
Thus there will be a balance due me of $84 on the i4th of March next
You will confer a favor on me, and equally so on Mrs. Collier, by
dropping a few lines to me through the medium of your firm, first op-
portunity, expressive of your concern for the tuition and education of
the above child, as far as you may deem proper in regard to the future.
It is proper here also to add, that no improper step was taken by me,
or any call made on any of your friends here for the payment of my
bill, but on Mr. Ellis, who informed me, that some teacher had war-
ranted the firm of Ellis and Allan, which induced him to refer any
claims of this sort to your own inspection I mention this, lest you
might have imagined it to have been done by me.
I trust Edgar continues to be well and to like his school as much as
he used to when he was in Richmond. He is a charming boy and it
will give me great pleasure to hear how he is, and where you have
sent him to school, and also what he is reading. There is no news here at
present, . . . Poor Potter ended his earthly joy and miseries last week,
so also died. L. Joseph and Miles L., the latter was found dead by his
own door supposed to have fallen in drink and to have expired under
the consequences. . . , Let me only beg of you to remember me re-
ISRAFEL IN ALBION 77
spectfully to your Lady Mrs. Allan and her Sister who I hope are well
and do not forget to mention me to their august attendant, Edgar.
I am, etc.,
WILLIAM ERWIN
To this, in a somewhat less merry mood, John Allan replies,
London March 21, 1818
Mr. WILLIAM ERWIN
SIR
I received your favor of the 27th Nov. last post the " Albert " that
arrived here on the yth inst having your account for the education of
Edwin Collier . . . which sum Mr. Ellis will pay you; but I cannot
pay any more expense on account of Edwin, you will therefore not
consider me responsible for any expenses after the i$th of the month.
I cannot conceive who had a right to warrant Ellis and Allan on my
account.
Accept my thanks for the solicitude you have so kindly expressed
about Edgar & the family, Edgar is a fine Boy and I have no reason
to complain of his progress.
I am etc,
JOHN ALLAN 119
Mr. Allan's solicitude for his progeny was evidently in inverse
ratio to their distance. But we do not hear what Edgar is read-
ing which would, indeed, have been an interesting thing to know.
Probably in the Fall of i8i7, 120 Poe was entered at the Manor
House School of the Reverend " Dr." Bransby at Stoke Newing-
ton, then a suburb of London, which still retained the separate
identity and the antique atmosphere of an old English village.
The Academy was exclusively for young gentlemen, of the fairly
well-to-do, and it was here that the young poet laid the first firm
110 Both of these letters are from the Ellis 6* Allan Correspondence, Library
of Congress, Washington, D. C.
120 The reasons for supposing this date, are arrived at by the dates of corre-
spondence and the fact that the Allans were In Scotland during most of 1815.
In 1816, when they seem to have returned to London, Poe first attended the
Misses Dubourg's school and would probably remain for the full term. This would
bring his entry at the Stoke Newington Academy to some time in 1817. Poe
afterward spoke of a " five years' schooling in England." The " year * at Irvine,
a year with the Misses Dubourg, and three years with " Dr." Bransby covers this
satisfactorily as to the time elapsed. The Allans sailed for home in the late Spring
of 1820.
78 ISRAFEL
basis for an education. 121 He was now upwards of ten years of
age and entering upon that period of life when the lineaments of
character begin to make themselves visible and reflect most
forcibly the modelling of environment.
From Poe's own lips in the strange autobiographical and
tragic story of William Wilson we have the poet's confession
that in the old school at Stoke Newington began one of those
spiritual struggles in the personality of a genius, the results of
which have become significant to literature. Both the school
itself and its haunted surroundings were well calculated to stir
his imaginings, and despite his extreme youth, the capacity of
the boy to be moved by it cannot be doubted. " In childhood I
must have felt with the energy of a man what now I find stamped
upon my memory as the exergues of the Carthaginian medals "
this was written years later about his school days at Stoke
Newington , and " Oh, le bon temps que ce si&cle de jer" says
Poe, sighing in nostalgic retrospect in spite of the shadow of
loneliness which he claimed had been cast upon him!
In 1818 the ancient village of Stoke Newington which has
since been absorbed by the growth of London, was a dream-like
and spirit-soothing place, " a misty village of Old England/' as
Poe recalled it, rambling along an old Roman road bordered with
a vast number of gnarled elm trees and ancient houses dating
from the days of the Tudors. " At this moment," he says, writ-
ing many years later, "I feel the refreshing chilliness of its
deeply-shadowed avenues, inhale the fragrance of its thousand
shrubberies, and thrill anew with indefinable delight, at the deep,
hollow note of the churchbell, breaking, each hour, with sudden
and sullen roar, upon the stillness of the dusky atmosphere in
which the fretted Gothic steeple lay imbedded and asleep." It
does not, therefore, seem to be straining things too far to say
that from this ancient place steeped in the memories of a millen-
nium, where objective reminders of the past still lingered so ro-
mantically, some of the foreign coloring, the minute descriptions
121 The Academy stood on the northeast corner of Church Street and what is
now Edwards Lane, Prof, Lewis Chase in the London Athenaeum for May, 1916,
pages 221-222.
The Grammar School at Irvine, Scotland
Which POE attended for several months in 1815
From a pen and ink sketch. Courtesy of R. L. McTarisb
The Manor House School at Stoke Newington
London, England
Which POE attended from 1817 to 1820. From an old print
ISRAFEL IN ALBION 81
of ancient buildings, and the love for the " Gothic " and medi-
eval atmosphere, in which he so often revelled later, may have
originated.
For just off the village green among deeply shaded walls stood
the ancient house of that Earl Percy who was the unfortunate
lover of Anne Boleyn, and the mansion of Queen Elizabeth's
noble favorite, the great Earl of Leicester. To the west of the
little open square, green, shady lanes melted into the cool and
misty meadows, while the school itself was situated on the east
of the town on a quaint street of Queen Anne and Georgian
houses, " haunts of ancient peace/' carpeted about with darkly-
shaded English lawns and bordered by hedges. Behind its own
box bordered parterre, on this very street, stood the Manor
House Academy, a large, white, rambling mansion of various
architectures, with a roof that sloped away in the rear to a mas-
sive brick wall pierced by ponderous, iron-studded gates. One
cannot do better than to let Edgar Poe himself describe it and
the life he led there:
The house I have said was old and irregular. The grounds were ex-
tensive, and a high and solid brick wall, topped with a bed of mortar
and broken glass, encompassed the whole. This prison-like rampart
formed the limit of our domain; beyond it we saw but thrice a week
once every Saturday afternoon, when, attended by two ushers, we
were permitted to take brief walks in a body through some of the
neighboring fields and twice during Sunday, when we were paraded
in the same formal manner to the morning and evening service in the
one church of the village. Of this church the principal of our school
was pastor. With how deep a spirit of wonder and perplexity was I
wont to regard him from our remote pew in the gallery, as, with step
solemn and slow, he ascended the pulpit! This reverend man, with
countenance so demurely benign, with robes so glossy and so clerically
flowing, with wig so minutely powdered, so rigid and so vast, could
this be he who, of late with sour visage, and in snuffy habiliments, ad-
ministered, ferule in hand, the Draconian Laws of the academy? Oh,
gigantic paradox, too utterly monstrous for solution 1 At an angle of
the ponderous wajl frowned a more ponderous gate. It was riveted and
studded with iron bolts, and surmounted with jagged iron spikes. What
impressions of deep awe did it inspire! It was never opened save for
the three periodical egressions and ingressions already mentioned;
then, in every creak of its mighty hinges, we found a plentitude of
82 ISRAFEL
mystery a world of matter for solemn remark, or for more solemn
meditation. The extensive enclosure was irregular in form, having many
capacious recesses. Of these, three or four of the largest constituted
the playground. It was level, and covered with fine hard gravel. I well
remember it had no trees, nor benches, nor anything similar within it.
Of course it was in the rear of the house. In front lay a small parterre,
planted with box and other shrubs; but through this sacred division we
passed only upon rare occasions indeed such as a first advent to
school or final departure thence, or perhaps, when a parent or friend
having called for us, we joyfully took our way home for the Christmas
or Midsummer holidays. But the house! how quaint an old building
was this! to me how veritably a palace of enchantment! There was
really no end to its windings to its incomprehensible subdivisions.
It was difficult at any given time, to say with certainty upon which of
its two stories one happened to be. From each room to every other
there were sure to be found three or four steps either in ascent or
descent. Then the lateral branches were innumerable inconceivable
and so returning in upon themselves, that our most exact ideas in
regard to the whole mansion were not very far different from those
with which we pondered upon infinity. During the five years of my
residence here, I was never able to ascertain with precision, in what
remote locality lay the little sleeping apartment assigned to myself
and some eighteen or twenty other scholars. The school room was the
largest in the house I could not help thinking, in the world. It was
very long, narrow, and dismally low, with pointed Gothic windows and
a ceiling of oak. In a remote and terror-inspiring angle was a square
enclosure of eight or ten feet, comprising the sanctum, ' during hours, 7
of our principal, the Reverend Dr. Bransby. It was a solid structure,
with massy door, sooner than open which in the absence of the
' Dominie,' we would all have willingly perished by the pcinc forte ct
dure. In other angles were two other similar boxes far less reverenced,
indeed, but still greatly matters of awe. One of these was the pulpit
of the ' classical ' usher, one of the ' English and mathematical.' In-
terspersed about the room, crossing and recrossing in endless irregu-
larity, were innumerable benches and desks, black, ancient, and time-
worn,^ piled desperately with much-bethumbed books, and so beseamed
with initial letters, names at full length, grotesque figures, and other
multiplied efforts of the knife, as to have entirely lost what little of
original form might have been their portion in days long departed, A
huge bucket with water stood at one extremity of the room, and a
clock of stupendous dimensions at the other. 122
122 The quotations descriptive of Poe's school days are from his story Wittiam
WUson.
ISRAFEL IN ALBION 83
This description, however, is not to be taken too literally. It
is quite possibly a synthesis of both Irvine and Stoke Newington,
and in one particular quite misleading, the description of the
headmaster, Dr. Bransby. 123
In the first place the good man was not a " Doctor " at all, or
so only by courtesy. He appears on his bills as the " Rev*. John
Bransby." Nor was he " old " when Poe was at his school, being
at that time, 1817, only 33 years of age. The Reverend John
Bransby was an M. A. of St. John's College, Cambridge. He
seems to have been a merry, Tory clergyman with a large family
and convivial habits, very fond of field sports; the cleaning of
his gun was a signal to the boys that he was off for the day.
" He was a classical scholar of no mean stamp possessing a large
fund of miscellaneous information, both literary and scientific
. . . and combined an enthusiastic love of nature with an ex-
tensive knowledge of Botany," and gardening. " Dr." Bransby
wrote political pamphlets and looked upon the days at Stoke
Newington as " a bright spot in his life." He was much beloved
by his scholars.
These facts give us quite a different picture, indeed, from that
drawn by Poe in William Wilson. John Bransby in after years
was said to have been considerably nettled by the use of his name
in the story, and to have been quite reticent about Poe, remark-
ing, only, that he had liked the boy, who went under the name
of " Allan," but that his parents spoilt him by allowing him too
much pocket money. " Allan, 7 ' he said, " was intelligent, way-
ward, and wilful," which testimony agrees with James Gait's.
Of Poe's associations with his schoolmates nothing definite is
known. We have his own statement, however, to the effect that,
even thus early, his dominant characteristic of pride began to
make itself felt. " The ardor, the enthusiasm, and the imperious-
123 The description of Poe's schoolmaster, the Reverend John Bransby is
taken from the London Athenaeum No. 4605 for May, 1916, pages 221-222, an
article by Prof. Lewis Chase, part of which is quoted. In this connection note
that the pictures in several biographies of Poe purporting to be those of " Dr."
Bransby are in reality a likeness of Dr. William Cooke, a rector of Stoke Newing-
ton who died when Bransby was thirteen years old. John Bransby was born in
1784 and died March 5, 1857-
84 ISRAFEL
ness of my disposition, soon rendered me a marked character
among my schoolmates, gave me an ascendency over all not
greatly older than myself." Master Erwin, his former Richmond
schoolmaster, had desired himself to be remembered to the
"august" Edgar, so that there is some confirmation of the
statement. Pride is not a trait that would have tended to make
him companionable, and it is probable that much of the com-
plained-of loneliness sprang from this. There is also some indi-
cation that the boys revenged themselves upon him for his over-
bearing attitude by an annoying repetition of his name which
probably, from the Southern twist of his Virginian accent, gave
them ample opportunity for a rather obvious and humble pun
upon his patronymic. 124 The results upon his diction of a long
residence in England and Scotland, and of the Scotch dialect so
frequently heard in his foster-father's house are not to be over-
looked.
Bills from the Manor House School rendered for "Master
Allan," which have recently come to light, 125 give us the only
direct insight to the life of the schoolboy, Edgar Poe, at Stoke
Newington that we possess. From these it appears that like other
lads he played hard, and was ruthless on shoe leather. A pair of
shoes evidently lasted him a month, by which time they went on
the docks for repairs. The total bill for the summer term of 1818,
it appears, was i. 155. 6d. which includes two new pairs, three
mendings, and no less than six shillings worth of laces consumed
in that period! For the rest, Poe's memoirs of the Reverend
John Bransby's sermons in William Wilson are confirmed, and we
learn in addition that the boys were charged extra for listening
to them, as John Allan is billed 33. 6d. for pew-rent, and a
charity sermon for Edgar's share. Poe had a single bed at this
school, as he had at the Misses Dubourg's, and for " board and
education" was charged 23. I2S. 6d. a term. He took dancing
as an extra at 2. 2S., and had the services of a "hairdresser "
124 David Poe was listed on the tax returns in Boston for x8oq as " David
Poo," with taxables of $300 in personable property.
126 Valentine Museum Poe Letters, Bills from Reverend John Bransby to John
Allan for " Master Allan," see pages 319-327.
ISRAFEL IN ALBION 85
or barber for 2s. a term. The school allowance of pocket money
it seems was 53. the term, which, as it is certainly not the " ex-
travagant amount" that "Dr." Bransby mentions, must have
been supplemented by "dear Ma," and "Aunt Nancy." On
August 31, 1 8 1 8, he seems to have hurt his hand somewhat
badly, for his foster-father is charged with an item xos. 6d. for
having it dressed, and 25. 6d. for ointment and lint a month
later. The boy is charged with two large slates, but there is no
mention of school texts by title. The whole cost for the term at
this excellent English school came to 33. 23. nd. By January
25, 1819, Poe was back at school from the Christmas holidays
which he must have spent with the Allans in London, for at that
date the vacation came to an end.
Unfortunately, then, we do not know what, if any, were the
books that Edgar may have read at Stoke Newington. Master
Erwin's inquiry shows that he was reading. There must have
been something more than mere text books about the school
somewhere, although English grammar schools of the period were
amazingly innocent of anything but the dog-eared Latin gram-
mars, spellers, cheap editions of Homer, Vergil, and Caesar, and
the ponderous arithmetics of the period. Whether the boys ever
went to the theater is doubtful, although Edgar probably saw the
sights of London with his " mother " during the holidays, the
Tower and Westminster, at least, and perhaps the Elgin Marbles,
then newly arrived.
Let the searchers for the literary inspirations of Poe's boy-
hood make the most of the fact that he was in London at school
when the first edition of Christabel and Kubla Khan appeared
from John Murray's; but it is not likely that any of this magic
fell upon his ears until years later. That was " modern poetry "
then, and so we may be sure taboo in the schools where Pope
still reigned. " Byron " was a thing for young gentlemen ushers
to chuckle over in a knowing way, and conceal from the innocent
eyes of their charges. As for Shelley, if he were known at all,
to any of the faculty at Stoke Newington, what chance would the
works of an avowed atheist have under the watchful, churchly
eye of the Reverend and forceful " Dr." Bransby? That Poe was
86 ISRAFEL
in the same city at the time when Coleridge, Wordsworth, and
Keats were meeting about the same fire with Haydon, is a tem-
poral and geographic fact without literary significance, despite
the attempt to make it so from some quarters. 120
On Christmas, mid-term holidays, and week-ends Edgar must
have visited the Allans at their London lodgings. One thing is
certain, John Allan is not likely to have become acquainted with
any of the literary figures of the day. The Virginia tobacco trade
and the social circle which it implies, cannot by the wildest
stretch of imagination be advanced as a source for even juvenile
literary inspirations or associations. If Edgar saw anyone at his
guardian's house while in London, besides the immediate mem-
bers of his family, they were probably merchants who had bust
ness with the firm and discussed, in a broad lowland accent, the
prices current of Virginia leaf, or the vicissitudes of American
ships* Mrs. Allan, however, seems to have gathered about her a
more congenial and interesting group, for, while Edgar was at
school, Mrs. Allan, whose health continued to be precarious,
traveled about from place to place, in company with Jane Gait
and others, as a letter from Damlish written by Miss Gait to
" Miss (Mary) Allan " at 38, Southampton Row, Russell Square,
London, on October 24, 1818, shows. At that time Mrs. Allan
did not intend to return to London till November.
. . . I think she regrets leaving this part of the country. Mr. Dunlop
has been persuading her to remain for some time he will leave her
in charge of the beaus (army officers) who winter here, Major Court
and Captain Donnal who she is sure will take good care of her and he
would take a nice little cottage for her. What do you think of that
arrangement? Don't you think we plan very well. Mrs. Allan drank
120 Owing the the fact that John Gait, the Scotch novelist, and a friend of
Byron, hailed from Irvine and Kilmarnock and was a connection of the Gait
family, cousins to the Allans, some attempt has been made to connect Poe's f osier-
parents with the literary life of the London of the lime. There is not a shadow
of proof, however, on which to rest the assumption. John Gait wns, however, in
London at the same time as the Allans. The following occurs in a letter from
Byron to John Murray dated Bologna, September 17, 1819.
" Dear Sir: I have received a small box consigned by you to a Mr. Allan
with three portraits in it." etc. The Works of Byron, edited by Rowland E.
Prothero, M. A., John Murray, London, 1900, page 353.
ISRAFEL IN ALBION 87
tea last evening at Mr. Dunlops. They leave this Monday. Mr. Leslie
who has been with them for some time is quite delighted with the
country. He has been very busy taking views of the different places
around. Mrs. Allan is much about the same as when I wrote, I regret
often that we have not you all here to enjoy the beauties of Devon-
shire. . . . There is one view here which reminds me very much of
the first look you get at Ayrshire from . . . accept our best re-
gards to Miss Valentine and Mr. Allan. . . .
By which it would seem that Edgar's " Aunt Nancy " kept
house in London, while his invalid foster-mother was in Devon-
shire, assisted by one of John Allan's sisters. A little glimpse
into the family circle of ever a century ago in England is thus
afforded. Evidently Edgar was then well tucked away at " Dr.
Bransby's."
Leslie, the artist referred to, was E. C. R. Leslie, R. A., who
was born in London of American parents in 1784. His parents
returned to America and he was later a student at the Royal
Academy, exhibiting there the year this letter was written. He
later returned to America and became professor of drawing at
West Point. It is just possible that Leslie who was in close
touch with the Allans painted a portrait of " Master Allan " in
England. 127
The references to Mrs. Allan's constant ill health continue
steadily in nearly all the correspondence from now on until she
died over a decade later in Richmond.
Before leaving England, John Allan's affairs were in bad shape
and generally complicated. The tobacco market was poor, and
he had adventured considerably with a merchant by the name of
William Holder who writes in January, 1820:
I cannot express my dear Sir what I feel at this moment for your
kind, humane & feeling conduct toward me & my two unprovided
daughters at present I can only offer you my sincere thanks. ... It
would be the proudest hour of my life to make you ample restitution
. . . etc.
127 The letter from Jane Gait and the reference to Leslie came from Edward
V. Valentine, Esq., of Richmond, Virginia, from his diary, and from letters given
him to copy by Miss Sallie Gait on July 12, 1915, from the Gait-Allan corre-
spondence.
88 ISRAFEL
In March, Mr. Allan was attacked by a dropsy, of which he
nearly died, and he was not able to get to the counting house
until April 3rd to wind up his affairs. He found that in the mean-
time he had been robbed by a clerk by the name of Tayle, and
gives the details in a letter to Charles Ellis marked " private," in
which he adds, London, April i8th, 1820:
Would say we are all tolerably well, I certainly am much better,
Frances complaining a good deal & Ann & Edgar are quite well. . . .
The final crash financially came over the confusion between
Ellis & Allan in Richmond and Allan & Ellis in London, both
of which firms tried to collect a sum of 2700 due from the estate
of a Mr. Guilles of Glasgow, debtor to William Gait. Gravely in
debt and cast down by his failure, Mr. Allan rented his household
effects, and house (for he hoped to return), took Edgar out of
school, and prepared to depart for America. Had he been success-
ful, Edgar Poe would have been raised in England. On May 2oth,
Mr. Allan writes home from London:
... I trust to be off by the June Packet & when I arrive I shall use
every exertion of which I am capable to complete our engagements to
our creditors. . . . Mrs. Allan is in better health than usual, Ann
quite well & so is Edgar, as for myself I was never better. . . . The
arrival of the Queen produced an immense sensation. Few thought she
would return, but the bold & courageous manner by which she ap-
peared . . . has induced a vast number to think her not guilty. She
was received with immense acclamation & the populace displaced her
horses, drew her past Carlton House and thence to Alderman Wood's
House South Audley St. The same day the King made a communica-
tion to the House of Lords charging her with High Treason. , . .
From which it is quite plain that Edgar Poe, just before he
left England, probably saw the unfortunate Queen Caroline
drawn through the London Streets. It was probably his first and
last glimpse of royalty, and his last of London.
On June 9th we find the family at Liverpool where they ar-
rived the day before, waiting for the Packet.
(Mrs. Allan) , . . felt much indisposed. I hope the trip to Virginia
(?) will be of service to her, she has yet to learn what a pleasing sen-
sation is experienced on returning Home Even in verry Hot weather.
ISRAFEL IN ALBION 89
We will trust to God that our congratulations on the Birth of another
Daughter to your family will be ... finally realized . . . make my
best respects to our dear Margaret (Mrs. Ellis) & all the children.
Mrs. A. & Ann desire their love to you, Margaret & the young ones.
Remember us all to Mr. and Mrs. Richard, Doct. and Mrs. Thornton,
the children, Rose (Poe), Mr. and Mrs. Mackenzie. . . . Mrs. Mac-
kenzie of Forest Hill called and addressed her love to Mrs. Mackenzie,
they are all well.
In a few days, apparently about the end of June, 1820, Mr.
Allan and the family with young Edgar set sail for New York.
The net result of Poe's boyhood experience in England and
Scotland seems to have been a precious store of rather distinct
and romantic memories, a lively young body hardened by the
sturdy games of the English school ground and climate, a little
Latin, some mispronounced French, and an ability to work prob-
lems in simple arithmetic. Perhaps also, a too well developed
self-confidence and boyish pride. In addition, young Poe had
seen, long before most American youths, the beginnings of the
age of industrialism, in England and Scotland, factories operated
by steam, and the beginnings of railways. 128 His horizons had
been widened, the provincialism of a Virginia-bred youth inoc-
ulated with a valuable antidote, and he had heard and been
instructed in English spoken at the source.
In June, 1820, however, he left behind him forever the quaint
English town, and the rambling mysterious corridors and alcoved
dormitories of the old school where he had spent a considerable
portion of his boyhood, to return with Mr. Man and his family
to the United States.
128 "Railways" sec a letter from Allan Fowlds written from Kiimarnock,
Scotland, as early as January 4, 1812, to John Allan at Richmond, Virginia, in
which Fowlds says, ..." we are getting a fine new Harbor at the Troon with
3 or 4 fine dry docks, the railway from the Troon to Kiimarnock is almost com-
pleted, they are shipping great Quantity of Coals for Ireland " etc. Steam en-
gines were not used there at that time.
CHAPTER VI
Israfel Meets Helen
THE voyage from England to America was made in
thirty-six days, a fairly average passage for the time.
Mr. Allan and his family arrived in New York on
July 21, 1820, accompanied by young James Gait, then about
twenty years old, who came to Richmond apparently at the behest
of his wealthy uncle there. 129
Ships and the sea, which always have a fascination for boys of
an adventurous turn, and by this time Edgar was certainly
that, exercised a peculiar charm for young Poe if one can judge
anything -from his later stories, so many of which have their
scenes laid in a maritime setting. Along with young Gait he
would not have failed to take delight in the always-to-a-lands-
man novel incidents of a transatlantic voyage, and to have be-
come somewhat familiar with the picturesque setting and life of
the jack-tar on the sailing ships of the age. Nor could the busy
life of the London and New York docks and water-fronts have
been lacking in an appeal to his imagination.
A port of the early twenties of the nineteenth century, filled
with the square-riggers, barks, Indiamen, Blackwall frigates, and
men-of-war of the time, presented a romantic aspect even to con-
temporary eyes. Gleaming sails, black and yellow hulls careening
to the wind, and painted with white stripes along the rows of
square grinning port-holes, flashing brasses, bells and cannon,
and the chanteys of sailors as the capstan clanked ancl the
anchors walked home to the catheads, would not have been
waste material upon the retina of Edgar Poe even when only
twelve years of age. A great full-rigged ship under all sail, with
a " bone-in-her-teeth," graceful gilded figure-head and fluted
120 Woodberry, 1909, vol. i, page 24.
" Gait " J. H. Whitty, large edition, Appendix, page 206.
ISRAFEL MEETS HELEN gi
stern galleries, home from the Indies with all her national bunting
and house-flags flying, was a good thing for a young poet to see,
something which has unfortunately perished from the earth.
Poe's sea stories, even the most fanciful, such as The Narrative
of Arthur Gordon Pym, exhibit a familiarity with nautical ways
and terms which much actual experience at sea was the cause of
supplying. Two transatlantic voyages before the age of manhood,
and a life spent about the docks, and in seaports, was an unusual
and valuable experience for one of the coming figures in American
literature. In his voyages upon army transports from Boston to
Charleston, and upon his return thence to Hampton Roads, Poe
was at a later time to renew his direct acquaintance with the
ocean for a considerable time. 130 The magic sights and sounds
of the sea have been caught up into lines of his prose and poetry,
notably in Annabel Lee and The City in the Sea. One can hardly
quote even the titles without making the fact self-evident. In
this, Poe has carried on one of the great traditions of English
verse, the sea influence, and, that he was able to do so, is largely
the happy result of experience rather than a literary tour de force.
The letters of Mr. Allan's partner, Charles Ellis, written from
the new offices of the firm on i$th Street opposite the Bell
Tavern (whither they had moved in September, 1817) to his
wife, then in the mountains, afford an unusually intimate glimpse
into the events upon the return of the Allans and young Poe to
Richmond, and of the kind of a world with which young Israfel
was about to renew a long broken tie.
It was a hot, fever-ridden community to which they were
returning, with customs quite different than those current at
Russell Square or Stoke Newington.
Mr. Hughes of the house of Hughes & Armistead stabbed a Mr. Ran-
dolph son of Wm. Randolph of Cumberland the other night, at the time
it was thought to be mortal, as the dirk punctuated the left side just
above the hip to a considerable depth, but Dr. Nelson who attended
him, tells me no unfavorable symptoms exist now. Mr. H. is out of
town & perhaps will not return. . . .
"0 See Chapter XI.
92 ISRAFEL
Of the slaves working about the docks and ships in the swelter-
ing summer weather, Mr. Ellis remarks June 27, 1820, shortly
before the Allans returned:
. . . The Richmond gang look as if they would rather be at home, but
all goes on very well except the elopement of that troublesome fellow
Nelson who went off last Wednesday and has not been heard of since.
He is one of the best hands for work I ever saw, but he vexes me ex-
ceedingly when he goes off, especially in busy times, little Bill goes
about and does some light work, but still complains a good deal,
Africas feet is nearly well and indeed I hear no complaining among
any of the People except Caty's child, it is very poor. She says it is
very sick. It has no fever nor complaint of the bowels. I fear it is neg-
lected, I have sent it some chicken every day sence I have been
up. ...
So the days had been going on in the little town along the
James to which the young Poe was returning to spend the rest
of his boyhood and to become familiar with the life of a planta-
tion founded community. On July 3rd Mr. Ellis writes his wife:
. . . Mr. and Mrs. Allan are at last arrived in New York, and as soon
as they get on, and settle down a little I shall leave them the bag to
hold, and flee to the mountains. . . . Mr. Allan would set out from
New York last Friday via Norfolk and I suppose will be here on Fri-
day or Saturday. Mrs. Allan was rather unwell & was resting. The rest
was hearty, don't give yourself any uneasiness about my health. . . .
The inhalation of the exhilirating nitric acid gas in this place has
gained some amusement among the curious and idle, I have not seen
or felt the effects.
The city is healthy, except for children teething, and many of them
suffer greatly. . . .
CHARLES
The Allans with Miss Valentine and Edgar arrived at Richmond,
after a voyage down the coast to Norfolk, on August 2nd, and
went to stay at the house of Mr. Ellis as this letter shows. 1511
Richmond, August 7th, 1820
Your letter of the 4th inst. by last nights mail affords me great pleas-
ure, and that of Mr. and Mrs. Allan who are at our home receiving the
isi Also Woodbenry, Weiss, etc.
The Home of Charles Ellis, partner of John Allan
Franklin and Second Streets, Richmond, Virginia
Here POE lived with his foster-parents a short while after returning from England
in August, 1820. "The Enchanted Garden" was directly across the street from
this house. This was one of POE'S boyhood haunts
Courtesy of the Edgar Allan Poe Shrine, Richmond, Virginia
"The Mother's Chamber'' in the Ellis House
Occupied by Frances Allan in 1820
Photograph 1877
Courtesy of the Edzar Allan Poe Shrine* Richmond* firzinia
acrftej
'fijlSIZr&exsrvT^f
~/t&j$&
.';'- ;**\\
_ ^^ . *
<*
A Poem by Edgar Poe
Found in the 1822 files of Ellis & Allan
This poem, obviously in a childish hand, was found by Prof. Killis Campbell. The
lines are not signed but arc almost certainly I'oe's. The treatment of the
theme is characteristic. The poem may belong to the early * 4 lost volume"
ISRAFEL MEETS HELEN 93
congratulations of their friends. Mrs- Allan could she be as even tem-
pered and as accommodating as she has been sence her return, she
would make the path through life much more even to herself. ... I
find Mr. Allan can't do much yet, it will take some time to obtain a
knowledge of our affairs & he is engaged in seeing his old friends.
Mr. and Mrs. Allan will continue at our home, they are all well but
complain of the warm weather. . . .
On August 8th Robert S. Ellis writes to congratulate Mr. and
Mrs. Allan upon their safe return, and on August i4th 'from
Charles Ellis, in another letter to his wife, we learn that:
Our friends Mr. and Mrs. Allan, Nancy, and Edgar are very well &
you would be surprised to see what health and color Mrs. A. has. They
are quite well and satisfied at our house & make out pretty well altho
not as well as you would do. They are a little Englishised but it will
soon wear off. They talk of going to Stanton. . . .
Edgar Poe remained for the entire Summer at the Ellis house.
" Nancy and Edgar stay well," says John Allan in September.
He was now " holding the bag " in good earnest, and not very
much in it and goes on to gossip about cleaning up the old
garden across the street, about an old slave who could work no
more as her hip " seemed to be dislocated "... and prices cur-
rent on tobacco. The old house on Tobacco Alley and i4th Street
was still rented. Mr. Allan set about looking up a new house and
secured one fronting West on Clay Street beyond old St. James
Church. Nearby lived Dr. Ambler and Bishop Moore "right
across on the corner from Clay Street." It was probably now
that Edgar first took to swimming in Shockoe Creek with young
Ambler, and to wandering about again with Ebenezer Burling,
whose father Thomas printed the Journal of the State Senate.
"Aunt" Nancy Valentine was 'a pleasant companion with a
broad humorous face, good for a ramble with the boy out to the
Hermitage, or for a game of chess with him when " Ma " was
ill, or on rainy days sat sewing by her mahogany work stand.
"Pa" was no longer so pleasant as in times past, even more
stern than before. A great many things financial and domestic
preyed upon his mind. Edgar began more and more to step over
to the Mackenzies to see " Rose " and to play with Jack, to stay
94 ISRAFEL
at Burling's over night or with the Ellises. England seemed a
dream, a new life had begun. Somehow he was already quite
lonely and beginning to wonder about it all. Not long afterward
he began to write poetry.
Richmond in the i82o's was a good place for a boy to live in.
The meadows, streams, swamps, and forests around about were
beautiful, and the valley of the James from Church Hill and the
Bluffs, with the yellow river winding away into the distance, or
dashing among the wooded islands at the Falls, would present to
European eyes, perhaps, a magnificent spectacle, for it is at least
five times as large as the Marne and several times greater than
the Thames, like the rest of America upon a continental scale.
The little capital of Virginia had, at that time, a population of
about twelve thousand souls. The porches of its pillared churches
and political 'buildings looked down, with a semi-classic stare
from its hills, over Georgian houses set amid spacious gardens
and green lawns. At its foot ran the key-like flanges of docks,
and the black warehouses edged with a tangled fringe of masts,
sails, and flags; while around the curve of Penitentiary Hill
came gliding the canal boats drawn by tinkling bell-hung mules.
Boys swam in the river and creeks; over the fields sounded the
plantation bells, or the sonorous roar of the conch-bugle calling
the slaves from the fields; the tobacco waved, and the fortunes
of the planters grew.
No community in America had retained more of its pre-
revolutionary traditions than tide-water Virginia. It was the
home of an aristocracy born in the great houses of gentlemen, sur-
rounded by servants and family portraits, the life of a flourishing
colony projected forward into another time.
Upon Poe's return to Richmond in 1820, save for the domestic
chimneys, there could scarcely have been a smoke stack in the
place. 132 Planters rode about the streets on blooded horses; the
carriages of -the local gentry whirled by with black coachman
and footman; the governor, if he was so minded, and he often
was, kept at least a provincial court; the legislature met, and
great lawyers argued at the bar. There was a brilliant round of
182 Many old prints of Richmond show this delightful condition.
ISRAFEL MEETS HELEN 95
social activities in which the Allans were soon to take their part,
an intense local pride, a taste for the arts, and a respect for tra-
dition and inherited rank. In all this, the young Edgar Poe
moved and breathed, and had the roots of his being.
Immediately across from Mr. Ellis' house at Second and
Franklin Streets there was then, and for many years later, a
beautiful landscaped garden filled with lindens and the scent of
winter-blooming roses. Amid its walls and nooks took place many
of the incidents of one of the great romances of the poet's life,
and it still flourishes in the lines which have fixed some of its
scenes permanently upon the memories of men. But of that here-
after. 183
The family did not remain very long with Mr. Ellis, but moved
in the Autumn of 1820 into their new home, 134 where Edgar must
have renewed with peculiar intensity many of the scenes of his
earliest recollections, and greeted with mutual curiosity the now
budding young ladies and gentlemen with whom he had played
as a child.
One of these was Ebenezer Burling whom Poe had met at the
Memorial Church. He resided with his widowed mother at a
house in Bank Street, and seems to have played a not unimpor-
tant r61e in some of the major incidents of the poet's youth. 185
With Burling, Poe read Robinson Crusoe and the boys then had
a boat on the James which seems to have been the genesis of the
little pleasure yacht mentioned at the beginning of Arthur Gordon
Pym. Burling, it is said, had previously taught Poe to swim. 136
In 1836 Poe wrote the Southern Literary Messenger, harking
back to old " Robinson Crusoe days ":
How fondly do we recur in memory to those enchanted days of our
boyhood when we first learned to grow serious over Robinson Crusoe!
when we first found the spirit of wild adventure enkindling within
us, as by the dim firelight we labored out, line by line, the marvelous
import of those pages, and hung breathless and trembling with eager-
133 See Chapter VIIL
134 E. V. Valentine to the author, Richmond, July, 1925.
135 J. H. Whitty Memoir, large edition, page XXIV.
136 J. H. Whitty Memoir, large edition, page XXV.
9 6 ISRAFEL
ness over their absorbing over their enchanting interest. Alas! the
days of desolate islands are no more.
At any rate, the boys had many a lark together in " Richmond
City " and the country about. A Mrs. C. E. Richardson afterward
kept a tavern in Richmond which at one time sheltered Poe in
a day of adversity, and Ebenezer, it is said, developed the drink
habit early, which may have had some influence upon Poe in
company with him there, but that was later on. 137 This Eben-
ezer Burling, or Eerling, as it is sometimes spelled, was not a
schoolmate of Poe but attended the school of one William Burns,
a Scotch gentleman, who boarded at Parson Blair's house. 138
If by some magic we could return to Richmond, Virginia, in
the late Autumn of the early twenties after the harvest had been
gathered, we might come across Edgar Allan Poe, a well-knit,
broad-browed, curly-headed lad with astonishing long-lashed,
deep grey eyes, seated with his best chums Jack Mackenzie,
Rob Sully, little Bobby Stanard, and Robert Cabell upon a rail
fence like so many crows, each munching a tender juicy turnip,
or a raw sweet potato with a little salt on it, which, as many a
Southern boy knows, is not half bad. On Saturdays there were
fish-fries by the river and tramps through the luxuriant Virginia
woods above the James after wild grapes and chinquepins.
Edgar was well to the forefront in all of this. Much of the
delicate timidity of his baby days had been, superficially at least,
cast off. The playgrounds of the schools at Irvine and Stoke
Newington had made him an able runner and jumper, 180 and had
given him the English schoolboy's technique and readiness in
fisticuffs which must have compelled the respect of his com-
panions and have enabled him to indulge to the full a merry
propensity for practical jokes. At one time he appeared as a
ghost in the middle of a late card party in Richmond at which
General Winfield Scott was present. It is worthy of note that
Jack Mackenzie, the foster-brother of Rosalie, who knew him
137 J. H. Whitty Memoir, large edition, page XXIX.
138 Information gathered from the Ingram Papers.
130 There are several stories and authentic ones of Foe's powers as a runner
and jumper.
ISRAFEL MEETS HELEN 97
extremely well, and saw him often in his own house where Rosa-
lie Poe had been given refuge 'and tender care, remarked of him,
" I never saw in him as boy or man a sign of morbidness or
melancholy, unless it was when Mrs. Stanard (" Helen ") died,
when he appeared for some time grieving and oppressed. Aside
from this, cards, raids on orchards and turnip patches, swimming
in Shockoe Creek, and juvenile masquerades seem to have been
the normal order of life. 140
That there was another side, though, is abundantly evident
from other accounts. The truth is, that even at this early date,
Edgar Allan Poe began to develop that strange diversity, and the
contradictory sides to his personality that have so puzzled and
will long continue to intrigue the world. That he was a merry"
companion in minor ways, many of his little friends have left
their testimony. But that he was also a lonely and sometimes a
morbid little boy, already torn and troubled by the riddles of
existence, the demands of an esthetic nature for the unattainable,
and satisfactions not to be found in the objective life of his com-
panions, is equally certain. We hear of long lonesome tramps, of
attempts at juvenile self-expression with both the pen and brush,
which only secrecy could save from the inevitable ridicule of
boyhood and the ponderous misunderstanding of adults. He was
much given to day-dreams and reveries, and to the plucking of
flowers and the reading of books. Where the University of Rich-
mond now stands was once a meadow where the young Israfel
culled violets. These, with other " feminine " characteristics,
must inevitably have relegated him to a world apart from men
and little boys. It was the world of vision and of dear-bought
dreams.
Considerable mention is made of Poe's enthusiasm for draw-
ing, and there remains at least one drawing of his own hand,
around which cluster the tenderest and saddest of memories.
Poe seems always to have visualized with a keen eye for shadow
and color, and with sufficient vividness to make him desire to
reproduce his impressions. In this propensity he doubtless met
140 Mrs. Susan Archer Weiss in her Home Life of Poe, not always reliable, gives
John Mackenzie's own account of the intimacy between Poe and himself.
98 ISRAFEL
some sympathy at the hands of young Robert Sully 141 who came
of a family of artists, and became a creditable one himself in
after life. From Sully one gets a softer and more endearing pic-
ture. Young Sully was somewhat delicate, and so sensitive and
irritable that few of his companions could remain on good terms
with him for long periods. In view of this, the little glimpse he
gives us of Poe is doubly interesting. "I was a dull boy at
school," Sully says, " and Edgar when he knew that I had an
unusually hard lesson would help me with it. He would never
allow the big boys to tease me, and was kind to me in every way.
I used to admire and envy him, he was so bright, clever and
handsome. He lived not far from me, just around the corner, and
one Saturday he came running up to our house, calling out,
' Come along, Rob! We are going to the ' Hermitage Woods ' for
chinquepins, and you must come, too. Uncle Billy is going for
a load of pine-needles, and we can ride in his wagon/ " In the
shadow that soon falls over the life of this child of misfortune,
the picture of the "bright" young Edgar and his little friend
Rob rattling off with their childish arms around each other in
Uncle Billy's old wagon, is like a gleam of sunlight across a
somber landscape. In the future it was not often the clouds
parted, even for so brief a glimpse as this. No wonder that later
he was to look back upon these halycon days in Richmond as a
Utopia of memory in which to take refuge from a cruel world.
That the friendship with the Sullys was a close one is shown
by the fact that Robert's uncle, Thomas Sully, the well-known
American artist, some time later made a miniature portrait of
the young Poe, then at the beginning of his fame, in the attitude
of one of the portraits of Byron. 142
Immediately upon his returning to Richmond John Allan
placed his foster-son in the English and Classical School of one
Joseph H. Clarke, of Trinity College, Dublin, who has been de-
scribed as a fiery, pompous, and pedantic Irishman, making his
living by assuming the r61e of perceptor to the sons of the more
141 Nephew of the American artist, Thomas Sully.
142 The author has certain intelligence of the existence of this portrait but is
not at liberty to divulge full information owing to the conditions of the owner.
ISRAFEL MEETS HELEN 99
fashionable families of Richmond. 148 Like most Irishmen, how-
ever, indications are not lacking that he possessed a softer and
more genial side.
The curriculum was that of the old fashioned preparatory
school of the day, a continuation of the Latin, French, and pri-
mary mathematics of the English Schools which Poe had already
attended. In America, perhaps, there was even then some at-
tempt at actually teaching the spoken language, and of reading
some of its more classic literature, Johnson, Addison, Goldsmith
or Pope. That Edgar was well advanced in Latin for a boy of
his years, and that the cost of his education was not unduly
heavy, this interesting receipt found among his foster-father's
papers will testify:
Mr. JOHN ALLAN, Dr.
To present quarters tuition of
Master Poe from June nth to Sept n 1822 . . . $12.50
i. Horace 3.50, Cicero de Off. 62>
i. Copy book, paper Pen & Ink
$17-50
Rec'd pay.
JOS. H. CLARKE 143
On another bill dated March 11, 1822 there is a charge of $i
for a " Portion of Fuel." 148 No further text books are mentioned.
At this rate young Edgar's schooling could not have cost much
over $60.00 a year. Even this, however, is paid in installments
during 1822, which jibes with the accounts of Mr. Allan's finan-
cial embarrassment at the time. 143
Mr. Allan's English ventures had not been successful, and had
displeased both his partner, Charles Ellis, and his uncle, William
Gait, upon the backing of whose fortune in the final analysis,
rested the credit of the firm. Mr. Allan, was at one time forced
to a personal assignment to his creditors, but, by a special ar-
rangement, was left in actual possession of his various proper-
143 Receipts for Poe's tuition under Master Clarke in the Ellis & Allan Papers.
Photostats in possession of the author. Also see Woodberry, 1909, page 24-
ioo ISRAFEL
ties. 144 The record of mortgages upon the family real estate im-
mediately prior to the year 1823, show that, to say the least,
Edgar's guardian must have been forced to live with consider-
able prudence and an eye to the pennies. 144 This in conjunction
with the legends as to the early pampering of Edgar by "a
princely merchant/' and the possible result of the effect of 'busi-
ness worries upon John Allan's none too affable temper, may
have a direct bearing upon the early life of Poe. There must
have been times when the atmosphere of the family circle, de-
spite the gentle presence of Frances Allan and the gaiety of Anne
- -Valentine, reeked with Scotch gloom.
During these periods of gloom and family friction, Edgar
would spend the night at Burling's house which met with strong
disapproval from Mr. Allan.
As to what went on in the garret of the house on the corner of
Clay and Fifth Streets, it is not hard to hazard a fairly accurate
guess. There can be no doubt that it was very early Edgar Allan
Poe's ambition to be a poet. 14B Some of his schoolmates in Rich-
mond early noted in him a certain aloofness, and a tendency to
withdraw to his room and shut himself up to scribble verses. That
the desire for creative writing was so strong upon a lad of four-
teen or fifteen that he would leave the games and pastimes of his
schoolfellows to go alone to his room and write verses is some-
thing of major importance in the story of his life.
Poetry, in the frankly objective civilization of the United
States, which has largely given itself over to the conquest of a
continent and a preoccupation with things for their own sake, is
a lonely, and in all save its last honorable stages, a discounted
art. The physical form in which it congeals is expensive to pro-
duce, requires the cooperation of others, is silent in itself, and
has almost no marketable value. Hence, the young person who
chooses the art of poetry in which to embody the forms and
144 Woodberry, 1909, page 27, etc., the assets of Ellis & Allan were bought
in at public auction by John Allan's uncle William Gait who in 1825 returned them
by bequest. See Appendix.
145 For the statements here, I am relying on statements in the preface to
Poe's first book in 1827, and many other indications gleaned from various sources
too numerous to list.
ISRAFEL MEETS HELEN 101
enginery of his imagination, is suspected to be doing nothing at
all, or to be a little mad. In any case, his interruption upon any
pretext whatsoever is thought of as being of no importance what-
ever. The inevitable and unhealthy conclusion is therefore forced
upon such a one by the entire world that he is a being set apart.
That his art may be part and parcel of his surroundings and of
vital importance to his neighbors, is usually a posthumous dis-
covery. To write poetry he must dream with an intensity that
transcends reality; to focus his dreams he requires uninterrupted
leisure; and to find this he must hide himself. The result is only
too often the feeling of a hunted thing, a sense of remoteness
from the life about, and a nervous system jangled by the million
interruptions of family 'and economic life. Above all there is no
one to whom he may go to learn his art; or if there is, the result
is usually fatal. It is essential, then, that any great poet should
begin young, or by the time he has mastered his tools he may
be too old to produce. That all of this, including the nervous
stress of contempt and interruptions, played its part in the ex-
perience of Poe is an almost inevitable conclusion.
It is pertinent to note, therefore, that like Keats and Shelley,
Poe began to write very early. Some of the contents of his first
book, he claims to have composed at the age of fourteen; nor is
this at variance with what we know of his rather precocious de-
velopment which James Gait noticed even in the conversation of
the little boy at Irvine. That he was encouraged at home by
Frances Allan, both tradition and the knowledge of his foster-
mother's character seem to definitely indicate. Even John Allan
is said to have taken a secret pride in the boy's effusions and to
have read them upon occasions to the amusement of his friends,
who pronounced them " trash." 14C At any rate, sometime toward
the end of Edgar's attendance upon Master Clarke, John Allan
is known to have shown the Irish schoolmaster a whole manu-
script of collected verses by his youthful ward. 147
These do not seem to have been simply the occasional doggerel
which all sentimental young fellows at some time during their
140 R. H. Stoddard Memoir, page 27. Stoddard is to be taken with a grain of salt.
147 Statement by Master Clarke.
102 ISRAFEL
life write to the eyebrows of their calf-loves, but a whole " vol-
ume " of verses to an entire townful of young ladies. The object
cannot have been to make all the girls love him at once, such
Mormon propensities in an adolescent boy would, indeed, have
been alarming. Even at the risk of rating the attraction of the
ladies to be secondary, it looks very much as if the primary in-
terest of the young poet must have been in the poems themselves.
These must have been completed before Edgar was fifteen, as
old Master Clarke, the schoolmaster, said that Mr. Allan showed
them to him with a view of getting his judgment upon the wis-
dom of their publication, before the Fall of 1823 when that
worthy Irishman retired from the headship of the Academy, vice
Master Burke. As to what his comments were, we can guess. It
has since been claimed that some of these early verses were
those printed in Baltimore in 1823, signed " Edgar," but since the
verses themselves show no literary evidence to warrant the as-
sumption, the " fact " can be dismissed.
More amorous verses, however, continued to drip from the
enamoured pen of the young author, if the statements of several
Richmond ladies are to be relied on. These particular ones about
1823 or 1824 seem to have been addressed largely to the belles
of a fashionable boarding school kept by Miss Jane Mackenzie,
the sister of the Mrs. William Mackenzie who had taken Rosalie
into her home. " She was," says a lady biographer, 148 " tall and
stately, prim and precise, and was attired generally in black silk
and elaborate cap and frizette, a very lady-prioress sort of per-
son. . . . When Edgar was about fifteen or sixteen he began to
make trouble for Miss Jane."
This " trouble " took the form of clandestine correspondence
with the fair virgins immured behind the walls of Miss Jane.
The missives were, it appears, supplemented by candy and of-
ferings of "original poetry." It was Edgar's habit to make
pencil sketches of the girls who had most smitten his fancy, and
to request these favored maidens to attach locks of their hair to
the cards. Little sister, Rosalie, who is described at this time, as
a " pretty child with blue eyes, rosy cheeks, and of a sweet dis-
** 8 Mrs. Susan Archer Weiss.
ISRAFEL MEETS HELEN 103
position," was the postman for Eros until the indignation of Miss
Jane and the slipper of Mrs. Mackenzie rudely discouraged the
messenger of romance.
Rosalie appears to have been very fond of her brother, whom
she saw frequently at church and as a constant visitor at the
Mackenzies, the home of one of Edgar's closest chums, young
Jack. She followed the two boys about after school, and romped
with them whenever she could. Later on this propensity to follow
Edgar was to become embarrassing, due largely to an unfortu-
nate development, or rather lack of development, which came
over the girl when she was about twelve years old. Up to that
age she seems to have developed in a healthy and usual way,
but from then on she ceased to function as a normal human be-
ing. Probably due to a defective heredity, the sister of Edgar
Allan Poe, while apparently healthy physically, retained the men-
tality of an adolescent. To the extent that Edgar was plus, Rosa-
lie was minus. Viewed in the cold light of modern psychology,
there can 'be little doubt that they were both abnormal types.
Poe was a genius; Rosalie was a moron.
The recollections of this period of Poe's youth, both apocry-
phal and genuine, are many and various. Even some of those
which are well authenticated, however, are not all pertinent to
his development, and for the most part assume the nature of
irrelevant small-talk and gossip. But a few of the memories of
Col. Thomas H. Ellis, the son of Charles Ellis, who was on pe-
culiar terms of intimacy with both Poe and the Allans are worth
recording. 140
Among other things about Poe, he says that "He was very
beautiful, yet brave and manly for one so young. No boy ever
had a greater influence over me than he had. He was indeed a
leader among his playmates." Tom Ellis remembered that one day
Edgar Poe took him off into the fields and woods near Belve-
dere, an estate that then belonged to Judge Bushrod Washington,
and kept the little fellow there all day, while he shot a lot of the
good judge's domestic fowls. For this Mr. Allan gave his " son "
a good whipping when he returned late that evening. Poe also
14 *> Harrison's Life of Poe, pages 23, 24, 25.
104 ISRAFEL
taught Tom how to shoot, swim, and play bandy, and once " res-
cued " the little chap from drowning after throwing him into the
river 'at the Falls in order to teach him to swim. Edgar also
chased Tom's little sister Jane into hysterics with a toy snake
which caused considerable family difficulties. The Allans it
seems, significantly enough, would have liked to adopt this little
girl as their daughter, and showered the family of the " senior
partner " with the " largest Christmas and birthday gifts which
they received." Colonel Ellis recalled Poe's having taken first
prize in elocution when he competed with Channing Moore, Gary
Wickham, Andrew Johnston, Nat Howard and others. " He was
trained in all the habits of the most polished society. There was
not a brighter, more graceful, or more attractive boy in the city
than Edgar Allan Poe." Of the social affairs in the Allan house-
hold about this time, however, we get a somewhat different pic-
ture from young Jack Mackenzie.
That young gentleman, it appears, could not abide the ordeal
of a meal at the Allans. " Mr. Allan was a good man in his way,"
he said, " but Edgar was not fond of him. He was sharp and
exacting, and with his long, hooked nose, and small keen eyes
looking from under his shaggy eyebrows, he always reminded me
of a hawk. I know that often when angry with Edgar he would
threaten to turn him adrift, and that he never allowed him to
lose sight of his dependence on his charity." The Allans, who
were fond of giving teas and " sociables," required Edgar to be
present, usually with one or two boy friends, and occasionally he
was given a party of his own when both boys and girls were in-
vited. On such occasions, despite the charm of Mrs. Allan and
the good fun of "Aunt Nancy" Valentine, a rigid etiquette
reigned, and Mr. Allan used these occasions quite obviously to
cultivate in Edgar the stilted manners which the code of the time
prescribed, a type of social behavior more consonant with the in-
clinations and training of Mr. Allan, than that of higher Virginia
society.
Formalities, important as Mr. Allan may have thought them
,to be, could not have troubled Edgar very much at this time.
He seems to have led a double life of dreaming and verse mak-
ISRAFEL MEETS HELEN 105
ing on the one hand, and a thoroughly harum-scarum existence
on the other. He was fond of stealing off with three of four
cronies to swim in the James near Rocketts or the pool below
the Falls, where he met, and apparently enjoyed, the society of
the young toughs of that neighborhood known to all boys of
Richmond as " Butcher Cats." When the water was low, they
would wade over the rocky bed of the James to the far bank
and set fish-traps along the shores of its willow-islands. Here
Edgar with Burling and others led a more or less " Huck Finn "-
" Tom Sawyer " kind of existence during the summers, and de-
veloped a wholesome, and, for a boy of his years, an unusual
physique in muscle at least. On the James, indeed, occurred
the " great " feat of his boyhood, when he more than satisfied
the Byronic tradition. Poe himself was proud of his athletic ac-
complishment, and as late as May, 1835, wrote to Mr. White
the editor of the Southern Literary Messenger about some men-
tion of the incident which was remembered for years in Rich-
mond:
The writer seems to compare my swim with that of Lord Bryon,
whereas there can be no comparison between them. Any swimmer ' in
the falls ' in my days, would have swum the Hellespont, and thought
nothing of the matter. I swam from Ludlow's wharf to Warwick (six
miles), in a hot June sun, against one of the strongest tides ever known
in the river. It would have been a feat comparatively easy to swim
twenty miles in still water. I would not think much of attempting to
swim the British channel from Dover to Calais. 100
Edgar was evidently considerable of a hero. Quite a little
crowd gathered to see him start. Master Burke, the schoolmaster,
followed in a boat; with Robert Cabell, little Robert Stanard,
and some others trying to keep abreast of them along the banks.
Poe succeeded in reaching his goal and walked home afterwards
apparently none the worse for wear, and in triumph. Such, how-
ever, was not the experience of little Rob Stanard who returned
home very late, covered with mud and soaked. His excuse to his
father, Judge Robert Stanard, was that " he had been walking
o Published in the Southern Literary Messenger and also quoted by Ingram.
For the incident see also Harrison, Woodberry, etc.
106 ISRAFEL
down the river bank watching Edgar Poe swim to Warwick." 151
As to what followed immediately history is silent. Yet the ac-
quaintance of these two lads was important. Out of it sprang
the first great emotional experience of Edgar Poe's life, and one
of the supreme lyrical utterances of romantic poetry.
The tie which often exists thus between an older and a younger
playmate, is one of the dearest and most serene of human asso-
ciations* It is not a complicated one, and there are no selfish
motives in it. The recognition and protection of the older boy,
whose superior mental and physical development give him an al-
most magic superiority, the recognition of which is delightful, is
returned whole-heartedly by the younger partner in the form of
undisguised admiration, trust, and affection, to which only the
term, " hero worship," can apply. Between Edgar Poe and Rob
Stanard such a friendship seems to have existed. It is probable
that Poe found in the high bred delicacy and sensitive nature of
the younger boy, for such from many accounts he appears to
have been, a refuge from the more boisterous and insensate na-
tures about him. What more natural then, than that little Rob
should take his hero Edgar home and exhibit him proudly to the
family, who had doubtless been regaled with accounts of his
charm, prowess, and virtues. It is the essence of a hero that he
has no faults.
So it came about, one important day for poetry, that Rob
Stanard took Eddie Poe home to show him his pet rabbits and
pigeons. After these were duly, and no doubt satisfactorily ad-
mired, for Edgar was always very fond of pets, considering that
animals were in many respects superior to men, young Bob prob-
ably invited him into the house to meet his mother, Mrs. Jane
Stith Stanard. One can imagine the two quaintly dressed boys en-
tering the old house together to meet " mother," That meeting
was to be the awakening encounter and emotional inspiration of
his manhood.
~Mrs. Stanard was in one of the front rooms standing by a
window niche. The light falling upon her, caught in her dark
161 Reminiscences of John C. Stanard furnished to the author by W. G.
Stanard, President of the Virginia Historical Association, August, 1925,
The House of Poe's " Helen ", Jane Stith Stanard
Capitol Square, Richmond
(The house behind the statue of Henry Clay.)
The chimney to the right was on BUSHROD WASHINGTON'S office. It was in
this house that POK met the mother of his schoolmate, ROBERT STANARD. This
lady influenced his whole life, and has hcen immortalized in one of POE'S greatest
poems, To Helen
Probally the only extant photograph
Courtesy of the Edgar Allan Poe Shrine, Richmond, Virginia
ISRAFEL MEETS HELEN 107
ringlets crossed by a white snood, glowed in the classic folds of
her gown, and flowed about her slenderly graceful figure. Her
face, the lineaments of which were turned toward Poe, was tinted
by the gold of leaf-filtered sunshine. To the astonished boy her
very being and body seemed to radiate light. 152 " This is Edgar
Poe, mother," said little Robert. " This is ' Helen/ Edgar," said a
voice in the boy's soul, "in her behold the comfort of great
beauty." On the bewildered ears of the young poet fell the sweet
voice of Mrs. Stanard thanking him for his kindness to her little
son and bidding him welcome with gracious words to her house.
Poe went home in a dream from which he never fully aroused
himself. 158 In Mrs. Stanard he had found the chivalrous ideal of
a young boy's first idolatry and the material comfort of sym-
pathy and appreciation, for it is probable that to Mrs. Stanard he
read his verses, and received from her both helpful criticism and
wise encouragement. What she meant to him, only an aspiring
young poet, left an orphan, and a worshiper of beauty could
know. That there were many visits to her house during the course
of several years, and not one only, as has been so often stated,
is certain.
Judge Robert Stanard's house, where Poe's " Helen," and his
little friend Robert lived, is still standing. It is on Ninth Street
facing Capital Square in Richmond, and in the days of Poe's
boyhood had a portico and marble stoop with brass rails in front.
Its garden, which was a beautiful one, occupied almost the entire
square. Here in the midst of fragrant Southern bloom and. the
sudden wings of little Rob's pigeons, Edgar must often have sat
in some quiet nook with Rob and his mother, read his poems, and
listened to the words of encouragement which fell with a double
102 There is, of course, no precise contemporary account of the actual scene
of this meeting. I am giving the descriptions from a knowledge of the house and
descriptions of a portrait of Jane Stith Stanard. The poem To Helen seems to
be the first hand impression of a beloved person bathed in and radiating light.
ics Poe's own statement to Mrs. Helen Whitman that Jane Stith Stanard was
Poe's " Helen " is attested beyond all dispute by the knowledge of the Stanard
family, and a copy of the 1845 edition of Poe's poems given to Mrs. Whitman by
him. On page 91 of the first volume, the poem To Helen appears, besides the
title of which is the word " Stannard " written in Poe's own hand in pencil. Cata-
logue of American Artists' Association, April 28, 1924.
io8 ISRAFEL
value from such beautiful lips. There are many recollections in
the Stanard family of young Poe's intimacy with all the in-
mates of the house, and the sweet tie of sympathy existing be-
tween Mrs. Stanard and the handsome young lad was remarked
by all. John C. Stanard, a nephew of Robert's father, remembers
coming to the house one day and knocking for some time with-
out any response. He finally heard steps as if someone inside
were trying to make as little noise as possible. Then the door
was opened by little Robert Stanard and Edgar Poe, both of
whom looked embarrassed. He found that the family was out,
and that the servants had taken advantage of their absence to
go out, too. The two boys had been playing a forbidden game of
cards, and after his knock were hiding the pack before they let
him in. In the face of such testimony it is idle to say that Poe
met " Helen " only once. 151
Both Mrs. Stanard and Edgar Poe were types of those super-
sensitive natures whose higher inner processes take place in that
holy land of sensibility, the western border of which so often
marches with the kingdom of insanity. Both of them were to
trespass over this boundary in the dark caravan of melancholy,
Edgar for occasional sojourns, but " Helen " to be lost perma-
nently amid the strange gleams and shadows of that realm only
a few years later. Between these kindred there had arisen an in-
stinctive and instant bond of sympathy. For an instant before
they passed into the night, their fingers touched, and Edgar for
once was completely happy in another's presence.
I have been happy, tho' but in a dream.
I have been happy and I love the theme,
Wrote Poe three or four years later in his first book.
Thus to have found this first real love and the maternal ten-
derness, which filled the greatest need in his life, combined in a
single person was a piece of psychic good fortune of momentous
import to Poe. What was said in their conversations is too
long in the past to know, probably nothing of great verbal im-
port. These talks, however, seem to have marked those periods,
when for a few instants the clock ticked off a few moments
ISRAFEL MEETS HELEN 109
when Edgar Allan Poe found himself completely at home in
this world.
They were interrupted by the advance across the dial of the
shadow which was to completely envelope " Helen " and to wrap
her from the sight of Edgar. Mrs. Stanard was going insane. In
April, 1824, she died at the age of thirty-one. Azrael had scored
two in what was to be an increasingly intimate association with
Israf el. Jane Stith Stanard was buried in Shockoe Cemetery where
she now lies with the other members of her family, among whom
is " little Bob." A pall of violets, those " myriad types of the
.human eye " have filled the little inclosure with eternal spring. 154
There is an immortal story that Poe haunted the spot. He said
that he did, in a confession to another Helen years later, and
tradition seems to confirm the tale. That his great grief was noted
even by his companions, is a matter of record. Undoubtedly be-
hind the little gate rests the most ideal love of the man's soul.
There is another inscription upon the stone, but for posterity
there is only one epitaph
- TO HELEN
Helen, thy beauty is to me
Like those Nicean barks of yore,
That gently, o'er a perfumed sea
The weary, wayworn wanderer bore
To his own native shore.
On desperate seas long wont to roam,
Thy hyacinth hair, thy classic face,
Thy Naiad airs have brought me home
To the glory that was Greece,
And the grandeur that was Rome.
Lo! in yon brilliant window-niche,
How statue-like I see thee stand,
The agate lamp within thy hand!
Ah! Psyche, from the regions which
Are Holy Land!
16 * The epitaphs of the Stanard family read: " Jane Stith Stanard . . . departed
this life on the 28th of April, in the year 1824, in the sist year of her age."
"Robert Stanard (husband) born xyth Aug. 1781, died i4th May, 1846."
" Robert Craig Stanard (Poe's playmate) born on the 7th of May, 1814 and
died in Richmond on the 2nd of June, 1857." Hence Poe was about fifteen when
he first saw " Helen," and little Rob, ten.
CHAPTER VII
Israfel Salutes the Marquis
OVER a third of the span of the days allotted Israfel had
already flashed their way through the kaleidoscope of
their seasons, before "Helen" was borne to her final
refuge. The fiery, sensitive young boy was fast 'budding into the
even more sensitive man, a process which seems to have taken
place rather precociously in Poe, for all accounts agree that,
both mentally and physically, the young poet developed " beyond
his years." That his heredity and temperament completed them-
selves in an accelerated, but accentuated, and rather brief period,
the history of his parents and the evidence about him seems to
indicate. He was a lamp which burned intensely in response to
the current of a life which was so strong, and which alternated
so violently between hope and despair, that the filament was soon
burnt out. In the course of the next few years, from 1823 on, he
was to experience a nervous tension and undergo trials, the nerve
racking effect of which undoubtedly left him unstrung, and fol-
lowed him through the remaining lustra of his life. To a finely
organized body and intellect, the trials of adolescence are often
sufficient in themselves to dictate the future motions of the man;
add to this the body-blows of death, an unhappy and harassed
love affair, a complete change in the methods of living of one's
family, with all the adjustments of environment involved, accom-
panied by an agony of domestic dissensions, and it does not re-
quire the prophetic offices of a psychologist to predict the re-
sult. 155 Through such an experience the young Poe was about to
pass. For several reasons, then, the year 1823 may be said to
definitely mark the end of his childhood.
One of the minor changes, but, nevertheless to a youth, an im-
105 The evidence of the growing tension from this time on in the Allan house-
hold rests upon such a variety of indications that, to present all the proof, would
turn this chapter into an exhibition of stray phrases and hints from documents.
A few of the more important will be presented.
ISRAFEL SALUTES THE MARQUIS 113
portant one, was the resignation of Master Joseph Clarke as the
headmaster of the school which Poe attended, the somewhat
flamboyant regime of the Irishman giving way to that of the new
incumbent, Master William Burke, a man of sounder learning
and more rigid discipline, the rod being by no means a stranger
to his strong right hand. In the Fall of 1823, Edgar Allan Poe
was the star pupil in the ceremony attendant upon the change
of school administrations, and addressed his retiring master in
an English ode, written by himself for the occasion. 156 The de-
lighted old Irishman never forgot this, and, years later in Balti-
more, recalled of his famous pupil that " Edgar had a very sweet
disposition, he was always cheerful, brimful of mirth and a very
great favorite with his schoolmates. I never had occasion to speak
a harsh word to him, much less to make him do penance. He had
a great ambition to excell." Master Clarke also remembered that
during the vacation of 1822 two of his pupils, Edgar Poe and
Nat Howard, had each written him a complimentary letter in
Latin and that Edgar's had been in verse. That before he was
sixteen, Poe could manage Latin verses, and compose and deliver
in English a school ode for an audience of his schoolmates and
parents, may be minor exhibits, but they are at least tell-tale
straws on the current of his literary progress. 157
With the advent of Master Burke, a less happy period of
every-day and school life seems to have fallen upon Poe. Not
that the new schoolmaster was responsible, indeed, it was noted
by Edgar's schoolmates that Poe was almost alone among them
in escaping condign attentions, but the young scholar seems to
have developed an aloofness and moodiness, a tendency to with-
draw himself more than ever from the generally all-absorbing
activities of school life, so engrossing to the average boy, which
was the cause of remark and distinctly remembered by his fel-
lows. 158 Looking backward, it is not hard to understand what
must have been a mystery to his schoolmates.
ice Woodberry, 1909 edition, vol. I, page 25, and others.
167 Recollections of Joseph Clarke, Poe's schoolmaster, when interviewed by a
Baltimore reporter.
8 Recollections of John Mackenzie and Dr. Creed Thomas of Richmond,
Poe's schoolmates.
H4 ISRAFEL
Mrs. Stanard was going insane and dying. About this time the
visits to her house must have had to cease, and we can imagine
Edgar's anxious inquiries morning after morning of little Robert
before school, the mournful replies of his little friend, and the
vision of a loved face, seen through a haze of secret tears, glim-
mering vaguely upon the pages of Latin texts. Decidedly, this
would not be understood by the boys on the benches about him,
nor was it a subject which he desired to have discussed. The
repression and depression of secret sorrow had already begun to
erect its barrier between him and the bright juvenile world about.
There were also, in all probability, other reasons for sullen irri-
tation and disquiet, reasons the most profound.
About this time the health of Poe's foster-mother again be-
comes the subject of anxious remarks in the annals of the family
correspondence, 150 and it seems probable that Frances Allan be-
gan about now to pass into the state of ill health and decline
which in the space of three or four years was to stretch her not
far from Mrs. Stanard in Shockoe Cemetery.
Poe loved Frances Allan with one of the greatest loves of his
life, 100 the ties of gratitude and natural affection which bound
him to her were as great as can exist. In addition, she possessed
that quality of physical beauty which he worshiped, and by this
time he must have long known that it was to her and her sister,
to his " dear Ma, and Aunt Nancy " that he owed his preserva-
tion and his continued cherishing in the house of John Allan.
What were the physical causes of Mrs. Allan's continued illness,
and whether they were connected with her childlessness, is a
question which 'by its inevitable and proper privacy precludes
both the material for and the desire to discuss it. That Poe pon-
dered it, however, in his heart seems hardly problematical He
was now a man, possessed of the mature knowledge and feelings
which often come early to Southern youths, and he lived in an
1W > See Mis & Attan Papers, Washington, D. C., in the letters between John
Allan and his sisters about the Gait will this subject is incidentally mentioned,
100 The letters of Poe to his foster-mother a few years later were said to have
been couched in terms of passionate endearment.
ISRAFEL SALUTES THE MARQUIS 115
age and place where the frankness and outspoken habits of the
late Eighteenth Century still lingered strongly. What he knew,
or thought about this problem which affected him and his family
circle so vitally, we can never know, but it is possible that re-
sults of his speculations may have strongly affected him in his
attitude towards his foster-father. They were facing each other
now in the same house as man to man. It was no longer, as in
England, " little Edgar " and " Pa," but Edgar Allan Poe, poet,
looking searchingly into the eyes of John Allan, merchant. Upon
occasions it must have been a type of scrutiny which even John
Allan found somewhat disconcerting.
In 1823-1824 Richmond, Virginia, was a small town according
to modern standards, of whose inhabitants a large proportion
were slaves. The conventions of society were strict, and the con-
fines of the white community in the city were numerically nar-
row. The wireless was yet to be invented, but news of a certain
character undoubtedly radiated rapidly, and, from the nature of
the conditions existing in the Allan household from about this
time until the death and the filing of the will of John Allan,
which confirmed certain rumors, it seems warrantable to infer
that Frances Allan was by now aware of the fact that she had
not 'been the sole object of her husband's affections. 101
That the intelligence would be disturbing to her, and to the
little circle over whose destinies she had watched with tender
love and solicitude, it seems fatuous to remark. Whether she
confided immediately in Edgar no one can know. It seems un-
likely. Her loyalty to her husband, and her regard for the tender
feelings of the sensitive schoolboy would probably forbid, but
Poe would be quick to sense the electricity in the atmosphere of
trouble, and in the inevitable family alignment which was to fol-
101 Just when, or how, Frances Allan came to suspect this cannot, of course,
be shown. From all indications, the life of the family while in England had been
very happy. Between 1820 and 1824 something occurred to change this. Mrs.
Allan's health began seriously to fail, we find John Allan and Poe at serious odds,
and Edgar very gloomy. From later correspondence it is known that Poe took his
foster-mother's part in the family dissensions. Miss Valentine's sympathy was
naturally with her sister. It appears that about this time Edwin Collier or one
of the other illegitimate sons of Allan was taken from Richmond and sent to school
in Washington, D. C.
n6 ISRAFEL
low, he could not have helped but take the side to which sym-
pathy, and, a little later, full knowledge of the facts impelled
him. It was, of course, that of his " mother."
During the period of financial embarrassment leading up to
the mortgaging and assignment of his property 1G2 after the return
from England, John Allan's temper could not have been of the
best, and this too would have added to the stresses in the house-
hold. Two years later, on March 26, 1825, however, Mr. Allan was
relieved of the shadow on this side of his affairs by the death of his
uncle, William Gait, who left him the bulk of a great fortune, the
Allans, Gaits, and other relatives in both America and Scotland
coming in for minor shares. It was an event which had been an-
ticipated with various feelings by a large number of those who
expected to benefit. Poe afterwards stated that the fortune
.amounted in all to $750,000, whether that is substantially cor-
rect or not, it is difficult at this date to ascertain. 103 Suffice it to
say, that John Allan found himself the recipient of a fortune
in cash, merchandise, slaves, securities and real estate, which
would in modern times entitle him to be described as a mil-
lionaire. The readjustments involved in his life, status and so-
cial ambitions, and the effect of these upon his immediate
family were various and not altogether restful, nor entirely
happy.
As one of the richest men in Virginia, he would inevitably be-
come the object of considerable attention and remark, a condi-
tion which, owing to certain aspects of his private affairs, was
not altogether to be relished. Envy was, as always, present to
drop a little vitriol into the Falernian. John Allan was troubled
with a lame foot and raised his cane high when he walked " So
Gait has left all his money to old swell-foot Allan " was the
remark made by a Richmond acquaintance in a letter to a friend
102 The year 1823 had been one of extreme financial depression amounting to
panic. William Gait's death later, came in the nick of time to save John Allan.
103 Letter from Poe to William Poe dated, Richmond, August soth, 1835,
"Brought up to no profession, and educated in the expectation of an immense
fortune (Mr. A. having been worth $750,000) the blow has been a heavy
one. . . ." etc. See Harrison, vol. II, page 15. See also the will of William Gait,
Appendix.
ISRAFEL SALUTES THE MARQUIS 117
when he heard the news. 164 Perhaps the feeling of such an attitude
in the background, brought the cane down a little more firmly,
and gave a firmness and breadth to certain plans for the future
in which a grand family mansion played a part; plans that might
otherwise have been conceived upon a somewhat less impressive
scale. There was trouble in Scotland over the administration of
the will, too, and threats to appeal to the law. In the eyes of cer-
tain relatives the shares which they received appeared attenu-
ated, 165 and the 'brisk correspondence which ensued reeked with
Caledonian frankness, to which the replies were carefully pon-
dered.
All this was not conducive to the peace of mind of John Allan
or Edgar Allan Poe. The world about was troubled by many
things, its vistas were suddenly strangely widened, the prime af-
fections upon which it hung were becoming frayed, and in the
background She of the agate lamp was awfully dying. Of these
days, Creed Thomas, Poe's schoolmate, says 106 "It was a no-
ticeable fact that he never asked any of his schoolmates to go
home with him after school. The boys would frequently on
Fridays take dinner or spend the night with each other at their
homes, but Poe was never known to enter into this social inter-
course. After he left the school ground we saw no more of him
until next day/' Where was the merry and popular Edgar Poe
of other days? The shadows, it would seem, had already begun
to fall.
In April, 1824, occurred the death of Mrs. Stanard. It is not
known definitely whether her unhappy young admirer was pres-
ent at her burial or not. He was a close friend of little Rob, and
well liked by the family, but the chances are against it, as the
le* The author does not fed at liberty to quote the source. See also a letter
concerning William Gait printed, Appendix.
* w Letter from John Allan to one of his sisters, even some years later, from
Richmond, March 27, 1827. " . . . Perhaps the four first Legatees named in my
Uncle's Will do not attach sufficient importance to Capt. and Jane Walsh's
lawyer's letter, you are out of the scrape, unless indeed Capt. Walsh can prove
as he has written that there can be no doubt but Jane is entitled to the whole
residue. I think this rather too absurd, but will scuffle for her third in place of
a Seventh. . . ." etc., for three long pages. EUis & Allan Papers, Washington, D. C. .
i 6 Dr. Creed Thomas, afterward a well-known Richmond physician.
n8 ISRAFEL
nature of " Helen's " taking off had been so peculiarly tragic that
even the presence of dear " strangers " would have been painful
to the family. If Poe haunted her grave at night as tradition as-
serts, the nature of his experiences in a dark cemetery with the
sound of the night wind through the funereal gratings and tall
grave grasses must have been searing to the soul of one who was
scarcely more than a boy. Nor could a reckless abandonment to
even so extreme and natural a grief have failed to give a morbid
cast to his thoughts, and have tried his already taut nervous
system. The truth is that Poe's weeping "by night at the grave
of " Helen " is one of the episodes in his life which probably can
never be reduced to a certainty. The main evidence 'for it rests
upon his own account given years later to Mrs. Helen Whitman,
when he was under every inducement to render as romantic as
possible every association which hung about the name of
" Helen," past and present. The story is almost too dramatically
pat, and episodically fortunate, to be taken as wholly true. It
agrees too well with the legend which he built up about himself
later, and with the lugubrious sentimentality of the time. It is
what he would like to have happened, and that, only too often,
was sufficient for Poe to " make it so." That he was afraid of the
dark and a prey to terrifying visions, is against the probability
of his watching by a new made grave at night, nor was the
cemetery in those days of medical license without proper care-
takers. It is also true that other sad associations of the place
were later added to burden his memory. 107 A visit to the spot
with the facts in mind will best enable one to decide. That his
grief was a great one, and lasting, no one can ever doubt.
About this time Poe seems to have first been haunted by night-
mares, of which John Mackenzie heard him say afterward, " that
the most horrible thing he (Poe) could imagine as a boy was to
feel an ice-cold hand laid upon his face in a pitch dark room
when alone at night; or to awaken in semi-darkness and see an
IOT The author ventures it as his opinion here that Poc's terrible grief upon
returning from the army in 1829 and finding Frances Allan dead, and his well
authenticated despair at her grave after the funeral, was later on confused in his
own mind, and in the recollections of others, with a more romantic legend about
Mrs. Stanard. The reader is left to his own inferences.
ISRAFEL SALUTES THE MARQUIS 119
evil face gazing close into his own; and that these fancies had so
haunted him that he would often keep his head under the bed-
covering until nearly suffocated." Here at least is something to
make the psychologist ponder and the philosopher start. What
may be the significance of cold, dead hands laid at midnight upon
the brow of a shuddering boy must be left to them. The dead,
however, at this time were by no means the entire preoccupation
of young Poe.
In the Autumn of 1824 not only the City of Richmond but the
entire State of Virginia was looking forward feverishly and pre-
paring dramatically for the approaching visit of the Marquis de
La Fayette. 108 It was the greatest national event of a personal
nature since the death of Washington, and it occurred at a period
when there was nothing of much importance to occupy the mind
of the public politically or internationally. By the end of the first
quarter O'f the Nineteenth Century La Fayette had outlived nearly
all of his great revolutionary contemporaries, and he personified
to the new generations, and to the already awakening giant of
the young Western Republic, the ideals which in theory at least
were held most dear. No doubt had as yet been entertained as
to their efficacy to bring about the millennium, and in the ro-
mantic, affable, and intriguingly hawk-like little Frenchman, the
sons and daughters of the generation of the Revolution beheld
the foe of tyrants, the friend of Washington, a great soldier, and
the symbol of the triumph of the doctrines of Jefferson, and the
philosophy of Rousseau. Here was a perfect hero in fact and
body, and the reception tendered him throughout the Union took
on all the guise of a patriotic triumph. Nor was it without justifi-
cation. It was received on the part of the honor guest with a tact
and grace, the memory of which played its part in one of the side
shows of the World War a century later. In the life of Poe, it
provided the first opportunity for the young poet to participate
in the affairs of this world in the r61e of a man. What he learned
while La Fayette was in Richmond, and the effect of his active
168 jf the reader should think that the incident is given undue prominence
here, let him turn to the newspapers and letters of the time. The importance of
La Fayette's visit as a turning point in Poe's experience has never been made dear.
120 ISRAFEL
part in the military pomp and ceremonial display of the occasion,
bore fruit in the future actions and movements of the man. It was
his confirmation into the affairs of adult life.
Virginia was under peculiar debt to La Fayette, his campaign
against Arnold and his gallantry at Yorktown were remembered
as a part of her history, and the Old Dominion determined to
surpass herself in the tradition of open-handed hospitality. Let-
ters began to pour in to Governor Pleasants from all over the
State.
Frederickbwg, Oct. 6th, 1824
JAMES PLEASANTS, Esqr.
DEAR SIR:
Under the impression that Genl La Fayette on his route to York
will pass through this town the citizens are making preparations to
receive him.
Connected with these arrangements, it is wished to know the views
of the Executive of the State on this subject after the example of other
States, is it intended that you meet him at the State line in person or by
deputation, and what mode of conveyance is intended for him? I am
requested by our Committee of arrangements here to ask your reply to
the above.
Should you pass through this town to meet him on the Potomac, our
citizens will be pleased of the opportunity of testifying the respect
which they entertain towards you.
Respectfully,
GARRETT MINER lco
To a great soldier the chief honors were, of course, to be mili-
tary, and in addition to the letters from patriotic citizens, there
were many from the commanding officers of the State Militia
asking to be provided with arms for the occasion from the State
Arsenals. The helpless state of the militia, indeed, is not without
its alarming and amusing sides. 170
In Richmond the excitement and anticipation were intense, and
in no circles more so than among the young gentlemen of Burke's
100 This and the letters immediately following are from the archives of the
Virginia State Library.
170 See a characteristic letter from Yorktown, Virginia, dated 25 September,
1824, to George Pleasants requesting arms for the local militia unit, signed John B.
Christian, Capt, Virginia State Library Archives.
ISRAFEL SALUTES THE MARQUIS 121
Academy and other well-born youths of the town. A military
company, called the " Richmond Junior Volunteers " or " Morgan
Legion/' was organized and provided with a uniform of the
fringed hunting shirts of the frontier. Of this proud little com-
pany John Lyle was elected Captain, and Edgar Allan Poe Lieu-
tenant, a distinct tribute to Poe, for the offices were doubtless
much coveted. The next thing on the tapis was to provide the
organization with arms, the details of which transaction seem to
have been managed by the two young officers.
In the carefully fostered legend of the faithfulness and con-
tentment of the slaves under the ancient regime in the old South,
it has been conveniently forgotten that one of the ever present
fears under which a slave-holding community lived was the night-
mare of a rebellion of the blacks. Nor was it an idle dream.
There had been in Virginia already several alarming, though
abortive, attempts on the part of the negroes which, however
futile, had sufficed to raise the " goose flesh " of the planters and
the inhabitants of towns. In Richmond a regiment of the State
Guards was kept ready for emergencies at all times, and a portion
known as " the guard," was always under arms at the penitentiary
where the barracks were. The officers were required to appear
upon all occasions in uniform. In order to welcome La Fayette it
was proposed to march the igth, Richmond, Regiment out of the
city. As it would never do to leave the town entirely unguarded,
an arrangement was made to distribute arms to volunteer militia
which this letter records.
SIR
Dr. Adams the Mayor of the City of Richmond has suggested the
propriety on my part as the Col. of the ipth Regiment of applying to
the Executive for a number of arms to be used by the militia during
the absence of the many persons who are about to leave the City for
York, which can be returned after the particular necessity for them
ceases. In furtherance of his views I have thought it proper to make
the application and would be pleased jtf the Executive would communi-
cate their determination to the Mayor.
I am Sir, etc.
L. B. DARVIE m
Col. i$th Regt., Va. Inf 9
122 ISRAFEL
The permission was granted and among those applying for arms
was the Company of Junior Morgan Riflemen, the application
being signed by John Lyle, Captain, and Edgar A. Poe, Lieu-
tenant. The matter-of-fact indorsement on the outside
Richmond Oct. 13, 1824
TO THE GOVENOR AND COUNCIL
GENTLEMEN:
The subscribers to the inclosed list having associated for the purpose
of forming a patrol, for the protection of the City during the absence
of the Volunteer Companies, respectfully ask through me that they
may be furnished with the necessary Arms and Acoutrements.
Respectfully
INMAN BAKER, JR. ICO
can scarcely convey tfie pride and sense of rapture which must
have filled the hearts of the Richmond Junior Volunteers, who
were included in the list, as they put real guns over their
shoulders, or of Lieutenant Edgar Poe as he girt a sword on his
thigh and sallied forth to meet La Fayette.
La Fayette, 171 clad in a cocked hat and short trousers, a style
then almost extinct, arrived on a steamer from Norfolk. " Along
with John C. Calhoun and two members of the visiting committee,
he was drawn in a carriage by four horses while the Fayette
Guard marched in front, and young George Washington La
Fayette followed in similar state behind. This procession of car-
riages, filled with officers and worthies of the Revolution, passed
to a double arch of evergreens, in front of the Union Hotel, at the
corners of which were four beautiful young ladies posed as liv-
ing statues." Here the Marquis was greeted by forty officers of
the Revolution, his comrades in arms of as many years before.
Not the least moving sight of the procession which followed, and
certainly the proudest of all, was the company of " pretty boys "
called the " Richmond Junior Volunteers," which headed by Cap-
tain John Lyle and Lieutenant Edgar Poe, with their swords at
salute, now passed in review.
171 For a complete and excellent description, of La Fayette's visit to Richmond
see Richmond, lt$ People and Us Story, by Mary Newton Stanard, chapter XVI.
ISRAFEL SALUTES THE MARQUIS 123
The boys of this company, as representing some of the best
families of Richmond, seem to have acted as a bodyguard for the
old patriot, and there is a well-founded tradition of their escort-
ing him to the Memorial Church with Chief Justice Marshall,
where Captain Lyle and Lieutenant Poe accompanied him up the
aisle to the Marshall pew.
Poe would have been doubly proud, for he must have been
noticed and have become personally known to La Fayette as
the grandson of " General " David Poe of Baltimore, On his visit
there La Fayette is said to have gone especially to the grave of the
old Revolutionary hero and exclaimed, "Id repose un coeur
noble" 172t The knowledge of this fact, which could scarcely have
been unknown to Poe who was in correspondence with his brother
William Henry, 173 and other relatives in Baltimore, must have
quickened his sense of family pride on his paternal side, and have
drawn his attention to a military career. At any rate, less than
three years later we find him joining the Army.
The effect of a boys' cadet company upon the psychology of its
members is more lasting and goes deeper than most casually
minded parents realize. The pride of gold lace and brass buttons,
the fine feathers of the young warrior, their affect upon the young
ladies of his acquaintance, and the gang spirit engendered by the
organization which develops the chief virtue of youth, loyalty, is
often character-fixing in its effect. Poe, as an officer, had exercised
authority, its taste was sweet, beyond doubt, and his pride and
self reliance had been aroused. That the "Richmond Junior
Volunteers " were a great success is evident from the fact that they
172 Here, indeed, rested a noble heart David Poe, Assistant Deputy Quarter-
master for Baltimore during the Revolutionary War, had been one of the fore-
most of the young patriots who had cleared the British out of Maryland. Notable
among his deeds was the leading of a mob that drove out the Royal Sheriff and
made one William Goddard, editor of a Tory sheet which had attacked Washing-
ton, feel the weight of patriotic wrath. " General " Poe, as he was called, not
only fought for his country but, out of his own scant savings, advanced certain
sums to the cause which were never repaid. In 1814, at the age of seventy-one,
he again volunteered and saw active fighting against the British in the Battle of
North Point. Many years after his death in Baltimore, his widow, then in greatly
reduced circumstances, received a pittance from the Republic.
ITS dgar had received a letter from Henry Poe in Baltimore while La Fayette
was in Richmond See John Allan's letter to Henry Poe page 125.
124 ISRAFEL
did not disband, and, a month after La Fayette's visit, they
are to be found still drilling and petitioning for the permanent
possession of their arms.
Richmond, Nov. 17, 1824
To THE GOVERNOR:
At the request of the members of the Richmond Junior Volunteers,
we beg leave to solicit your permission for them to retain the arms
which they lately were permitted to draw from the Armorey. We are
authorized to say that each individual will not only pledge himself to
take proper care of them, but we ourselves will promise to attend
strictly to the order in which they are kept by the company.
We are, etc.
JOHN LYLE
EDGAR A. PoE m
As to Governor Pleasants 7 reply, the records are silent, but for
Poe the end of his military juvenilia was not yet.
During his association with the members of other military
organizations and various persons with whom this new freedom
of experience brought him in contact, young Poe seems for the
first time to have ranged the city rather freely, and to have been
treated as a man. It cannot be positively stated, but it seems
highly probable, that the effect of this experience at a time of
open house and mardi gras while La Fayette was being fgted,
was to bring him in contact with new acquaintances of a type
who regaled his ears in no uncertain terms with the details and
circumstances of his foster-father's indiscretions; so that he
gathered from a portion of the community, with which he had
not heretofore been familiar, a more precise idea of the estima-
tion in which, in some quarters, his guardian was held.
I Be this as it may, at any rate there is direct evidence of the
/fact that about this time his moodiness and general attitude began
'to give his guardian considerable alarm. Inference seems to war-
rant the assumption that the severe visitations of John Allan's
discipline could not Have been received at this time by Edgar
with the purely regretful protests of childhood. As the rod fell on
shoulders which had just worn epaulets, or upon that humbler
1T * Calendar of Virginia State Papers, X, 518, (1892). The original letter has
been lost.
The Earliest Known Lines of Poetry
with Signature of Edgar A. Poe
lj 0#!Srw
Weary .. I hid me on a conch to reit "
ISRAFEL SALUTES THE MARQUIS 125
locality where the rods of parents are wont to descend, it is highly
probable that the hurt pride of " Lieutenant Poe," lately attached
to the Marquis de La Fayette, replied to the reproaches of his
guardian in a truthful but disrespectful manner; or that he
sulked like a young bear and indicated that there were good
reasons why. John Allan was not only displeased, he was alarmed;
and shortly after the departure of the Marquis we find him
justifying himself to the Almighty and fortifying himself in the
regard of Edgar's brother in Baltimore in a rather interesting
style. The letter is to William Henry Leonard Poe then seventeen
years old.
Richmond Nov. 1824
DEAR HENRY:
I have just seen your letter of the 2Sth ult. to Edgar and am much
afflicted he has not written you. He has had little else to do, for me he
does nothing and seems quite miserable and sulky and ill tempered to
all the Family. How we have acted to produce this is beyond my con-
ception, why I have put up so long with his conduct is little less won-
derful. The boy professes not a spark of affection for us, not a par-
ticle of affection for all my care and kindness towards him. I have
given (him) a much superior Education than ever I received myself.
If Rosalie has to relie on any affection from him God in his mercy
perserve her I fear his associates have led him to adopt a course (?)
of thinking and acting very contrary to what he professed when in
England. I feel proudly the difference between your principles and his
and hence my desire to stand as I ought to do in your Estimation. Had
I done my duty as faithfully to my God as I ought to Edgar, then had
Death, come when he will have no terrors for me, but I must end this
with a devout wish that God may yet bless him and you and that suc-
cess may crown all your endeavors and between you, your poor Sister
Rosalie 175 may not suffer. At least she is half your sister and God for-
bid my dear Henry that we should visit upon the living the errors of
the dead. Believe me Dear Henry we take an affectionate interest in
your destinies and our United Prayers will be that the God of Heaven
will bless and protect you. Rely on him my Brave and excellent Boy
who is ready to save to the uttermost. May he keep you in Danger,
preserve you always is the prayer of your
Friend & Servant
(JOHN ALLAN)
176 In the Ellis & Allan Papers, from which this letter is taken, are found
about this time nine charges by John Allan against both Edgar and Rosalie for
small amounts of postage.
126 ISRAFEL
On the back of the copy of this note, there is characteristically
enough, a calculation for compound interest of a certain sum at
six per cent in the same pious hand. 176
Perhaps the cold palm which Edgar had felt upon his brow
was not altogether a dream. To be able in the same breath to
defend oneself, by endeavoring to cause dissension between
brothers, while casting a slur on the mother of the same youth
on whose head the divine blessing is invoked and to calmly
turn over the same sheet of paper and calculate the amount of
compound interest due, is to proclaim oneself in the possession of
qualities which, if not human, are certainly not divine. Such was
evidently the spirit of the man who devoutly consigned the future
of the Poe orphans to the mercy of God.
Keeping the spiritual vista thus opened to us by John Allan's
own pen in mind, his more mundane proceedings can now be
chronicled. The old house at the corner of Fourteenth Street and
Tobacco Alley once more comes into view. It had been left John
Allan as part of the Gait estate, and to it the family now moved
once again for a while, but not for long. It is this house, still
standing, with which the most intimate and earliest memories of
Poe must be associated when thinking of his boyhood in Rich-
mond. Strangely enough it has been almost overlooked, doubtless
eclipsed by the traditions of Edgar Poe which gathered about a
grander and more impressive mansion to which the family next
removed.
Naturally enough the inheritance received from William Gait in
1825 changed the social outlook and the mode of life of John Allan
and his family. Coincident with the turn for the better in their
circumstances there had been, despite Mrs. Allan's precarious
health, an increase in the round of social gaieties, and the old house
at Fourteenth Street, so convenient from a business standpoint,
was found inadequate for their different needs. 177
376 Photostat of this letter in the possession of the author. The letter was a copy
kept in the JEHKs & AUan FUes, the original, of course, having gone to Henry Poe.
No doubt the copy was retained to show to Edgar. The copy is unsigned, but is
in John Allan's own hand.
177 William Gait's will was signed March 25, 1825 and probated March 29, 1825.
The house at Tobacco Alley and Fourteenth Street was a bequest to John Allan.
See appendix III.
ISRAFEL SALUTES THE MARQUIS 127
On June 28, 1825, only three months after the probating of his
uncle's will 7 Mr. Allan bought at auction a large house on the
southeast corner of Main and Fifth Streets for the sum of
$i4,95o. 178 It was a good bargain as the former owner had paid
$19,100 for it, but died before he completed payments. The
house had been built by David Meade Randolph, but was after-
ward purchased and much improved by Sefior Joseph Gallego, a
rich Andalusian merchant of Richmond, who had indulged his
Spanish fancy for landscaping by planting a double garden below
the house; that on the east being for vegetables, while the slope
of the hill on the south, which the house overlooked, was green
with abundantly bearing grape-vines, fig trees, and raspberry
bushes; nor were flowers, vines, and shrubs lacking with bloom
and sweet scent. Here was a garden, indeed, for a certain young
poet who loved flowers, and was doubtless not averse to figs.
In this house, since torn down, occurred the most momentous
passages of Poe's early life; it is forever connected with his name
and that of John Allan in Richmond; some of its furnishings have
achieved a permanent place in our literature, and to it, in his
thoughts, Israfel forever returned "home." In view of this, a
description of it, as a background for the life he led there, will
assume more than an antiquarian interest.
From its windows there was a magnificent sweep of scenery to
be seen, a view of the valley of the James stretching away into
Henrico and Chesterfield Counties, and of Manchester, on the
south bank, then a delightful little village. This with its bridges,
its islands, its river, falls, meadows, woods and hamlets was the
country of Poe's boyhood. The generous doorway of the mansion
opened into a spacious hall, on the right of which was the morn-
ing reception and tea room. Just across the hall from the front
room was the dining room, octagon in shape, and beautifully
lighted. On the second floor was the large octagon parlor or ball
room, famous for many a brilliant affair, while John Allan's own
chamber was immediately over the front door, with windows that
overlooked the drive and front yard. On the same floor were three
Letter of Col. Thomas Ellis to George E. Woodberry dated Baltimore,
May 28, 1884.
I2 8 ISRAFEL
other bedrooms, one occupied by Miss Valentine, another spare
room for guests, and a third which was Edgar's.
Poe's room was at the end of a hall that ended in a wedge-
shaped alcove just beyond a rather dark twist in the stairs. 179 In
this recess, so that it protruded somewhat beyond the door, was
a table upon which stood an agate lamp, always kept burning at
night, because of the dark stairs and hall. On this table it was
Poe's habit to throw his coat as he entered the room. The cham-
ber had two windows, one fronting north, and one east with an
extensive view, for at that time there were no other buildings upon
Mr. Allan's square. There was in addition to the usual bedroom
furniture, a comfortable lounge where Poe loved to lie and read;
a table for his books; and a wardrobe well furnished we hear
of occasions upon which young visitors to the house were sup-
plied with extra clothing from Edgar's store. This, especially,
must have been grateful to Poe, who was at this time by way of
being a bit of a dandy, neat and careful of his rather dis-
tinguished person at all times, except when in the clutches of
poverty later on, or during one of his sprees. In short, his ap-
pearance was always a barometer of his mental and financial con-
dition. By inclination and training he was orderly in his living
and punctilious about his dress.
We are told by one who had often been there, that against the
walls of Poe's bedroom in the Allan house was a modest shelf of
books, and at this time there would certainly have been more in
his father's library. In view of the fact that many of these books
must have been instrumental in shaping the man's imagination,
it is interesting to speculate what volumes may have been there.
Nor is this a mere guess, books were infinitely less numerous then
than they are now, literary taste was more fixed, and the sources
of the boy's lines in his first volume of poetry, most of which
goes back to Richmond or University days, are often quite ob-
vious.
179 For some of the details as to Poe's room In the Allan house I am indebted
to a Richmond antiquary, to the recollections of Thomas Boiling, a visitor to
Poe's room, and to articles still preserved at the Poe Shrine in Richmond and
elsewhere, and to the letter of Col. Thomas Ellis to Prof. Woodberry see note
173.
John Allan
The foster-father or guardian of Edgar Allan Poe
From a portrait by an unknown artist, probably painted after Jl/r. ALLAN
inherited his uncle's fortune
Photograph of the picture
Courtesy of the Edgar Allan Poe Shrine, Richmond, I'irginia
ISRAFEL SALUTES THE MARQUIS 129
On the shelves and table of his room where he studied there
were, of course, his text books, among them some of the classics,
Homer, Virgil, Caesar, Cicero, and Horace. There would have
been old grammars, dog-eared spellers, readers, and French
readers, some of them perhaps brought back from England,
English and American histories, some of the Gothic Romances,
and probably a manual or two on military tactics. Byron, Moore
and Wordsworth we may be sure were present, with Coleridge
and Keats, and more doubtfully Shelley, certainly some of the old
Eighteenth Century poets with which the libraries of Southern
gentlemen were so liberally stocked. Don Qwxote, Gil Bias and
Joe Miller we hear of later in a letter. Milton was there, the boy
knew him, Burns, of course Mr. Allan was a Scotchman.
Campbell and Kirke White can be added to the list and perhaps
E. C. Pinkney. 180
Of novelists, Poe would by this time have come across Scott,
Cooper, Charles Brockden Brown, and some of the earlier things
of Irving, and he would have made the acquaintance of Macaulay
and other English essayists and reviewers in the pages of the
Edinburgh Review, and Blackwood's which were largely sub-
scribed to in Richmond. Certainly he must have read the poetical
effusions of local and contemporary, but now long forgotten,
" bards " and " bardesses " in both the American and British
periodicals and newspapers of the day.
There is direct evidence of an abundance of these. Richmond
and his father were in close touch with England through foreign
trade and family relations, and one of the obliging side issues of
the firm of Ellis & Allan was to act as agents for subscriptions
to newspapers and other publications. During part of the firm's
history it handled popular London periodicals and even sheet
music. These were kept upon the second floor of the Ellis &
Allan establishment, and Poe's fondness for the spot was a matter
of note. Although the boy was rather shy, it was remembered that
upon occasions he would recite some favorite poem to those about
the place. Among the periodicals which Poe is known to have
iso For the last three names I am indebted to Dr. Thomas Ollive Mabbott.
i 3 o ISRAFEL
seen there beyond all peradventure, were the London Critical
Review of Annals of Literature from 1791 to 1803 in thirty-nine
bound volumes, and the London Ladies' Magazine for the same
period bound in thirty volumes. Moore, Byron and Goldsmith
seem to have greatly interested him, 181 Along with the rest of
the world he must have been familiar with Scott. This together
with the books in the libraries and upon the tables of his friends,
his formal instruction at school, but, above all, the stock of
volumes and periodicals over the offices of his " father's " firm,
seems to have constituted for the most part the literary back-
ground of Edgar Allan Poe. For that time, at least, it was by no
means a scant one. He was an accurate and omniverous reader.
Frances Allan furnished the new house lavishly but in good
taste. There were many rich hangings and some busts by Canova
of Dante and Mary Magdeline, both of which seemed to have
remained in Poe's mind. The furniture was in a graceful late
Empire style with gilt brass inlay. Poe seems to have had a desk
in his room, or at least a table, upon which was a handsome brass
inkstand and sand-caster, purchased by his foster-father and
marked "John Allan '13." 182 These Poe afterward took with him
among the few things which he carried from John Allan's home,
and kept them by him for a long time.
The most delightful feature of the new dwelling, however, was
the long portico extending the full depth of the house. The re-
ception and dining room opened out upon it on the first floor, and
Mr. Allan's room and the parlor upstairs. Here through the long
Virginia Spring, Summer, and Fall the family spent most of their
time together with their constant guests. There was " a splendid
swing " on the upstairs porch, and a telescope through which the
young folks, particularly, loved to peep at the stars and the
country across the James. Through its lenses the eyes of young
181 Prof. Killis Campbell is to be credited with extracting many of these facts
from the Ellis 6* Allan Papers. I am also in possession of book and newspaper
lists ordered by the firm. J. H. Whitty, Complete Poems, large edition, page 200,
also notes.
isa NOW in possession of the Bucks County Historical Society at Doylcstown,
Pennsylvania, with an interesting record of their history. The style of the furniture
shows that the house was furnished by Frances Allan about 1825.
ISRAFEL SALUTES THE MARQUIS 131
Israfel first became familiar with those stars and constellations,
the lovely names of which are strewn through his poetry, and,
while his passion for astronomical and cosmic speculations was
being aroused, through the same glass he became familiar with
the quaint face and the dead mystery of the moon. 188 * 761
But not all of Poe's time during the Spring and Summer of
1825 was spent reading in his room or at ElKs & Allan, swinging
on the porch, or peering through telescopes. There was other and
more serious game afoot.
188 See the Adventure of Hans Pfaall, The Balloon Hoax. In the latter story
Poe's knowledge of astronomical perspective is mathematically correct. The
mathematics of the stars interested him as well as their poetical names. Poe cer-
tainly knew sufficient mathematics to navigate.
CHAPTER VIII
Elmira and the Enchanted Garden
WHERE " Linden Row " now stands in Richmond, Vir-
ginia, at the corner of Franklin and Second Streets,
there was once a beautiful garden that Edgar Poe
loved more than well. 184 Even its story was romantic. Thomas
Jefferson had once sought to use the space of ground that it occu-
pied in order to erect a prison in whidh to carry out one of his
favorite theories in regard to the reform of prisoners, but one
Colonel Thomas Rutherford arranged to exchange the property,
and under the care of well trained gardeners the spot became one
of the most beautiful on a once lovely old street. The prisoners
which dwelt behind its high brick wall were roses, honeysuckle,
jasmine, and the flowering myrtle.
From childhood it had been familiar to Israfel, who on his way
to and from school, or on play-larks with little Tom Ellis, caught
the scent of Southern Spring as it drifted over the old walls, ar-
resting passers-by with its perfumed invitation from many flow-
ers, and inviting them to leave the white sunshine in the quiet,
warm streets, and tarry for a while amid its green coolness.
Charles Ellis, of Ellis <& Allan, lived just across the street on
the opposite corner, in the long frame house with five dormer-
windows and double chimneys where the Allans had visited after
their return from England. 184 From the front windows, the whole
of the block across the street stretched away in a green and
flowered vista, musical with birds, a labyrinth of mystery for
childhood, and a seat of shade for old age. The place was tended
by Mr. Ellis's gardener a85 and must have been a favorite haunt
for the solitary hours beloved by Poe.
184 See Chapter VI, page g$.
^ IBS i n p oe > s story> The Landscape Garden, the hero is Ellison, my young
friend." It now appears that the land upon which this garden was situated actually
belonged to Poe's guardian, for in William Gait's will amon& other bequests to
John Allan is, " my vacant lot corner of F and 2nd Streets, opposite the residence
of Charles Ellis." See appendix IIL
ELMIRA AND THE ENCHANTED GARDEN 133
In his story, The Landscape Garden, he has left us the im-
perishable memory of its delights in the form of a phantasy upon
the art of landscape gardening, and in a half homesick mood
afterward recalls it by a quotation from Giles Fletcher:
The garden like a lady fair was cut,
That lay as if she slumbered in delight,
And to the open skies her eyes did shut;
The azure fields of heaven were 'sembled right
In a large round set with flowers of light;
The flowers de luce, and the round sparks of dew
That hung upon their azure leaves did show
Like twinkling stars that sparkle in the evening blue.
Here was a retreat, indeed, where he could forget the world of
docks and ships along the river banks below, and the interminable
babble of prices and merchandising at his foster-father's counter
and table. For Edgar Poe, it was the setting and the background
of a world of dreams.
" Helen " was dead, but Israfel was still moving in the world
of men; he looked about him and saw that their daughters were
fair, and he walked with them in the enchanted garden. It was
there that he brought Sarah Elmira Royster and whispered to
her through her tangle of unforgettable curls. She was one of the
first, and was destined to be the last, love of a life star-crossed by
many women.
Elmira, for by that name the young lady was known, was the
daughter of one of the neighbors. 180 She at one time lived just
across the street from Edgar's school. 187 Propinquity at any rate
was present. Young Poe was not one to overlook the charming
because they were near, and at the time she " swims into our ken "
she was about fifteen and dowered with a trim little figure, an
appealing mouth, large black eyes, and long, dark, chestnut hair.
The combination was irresistible to Poe.
He had probably known her since 1823, certainly during 1824,
180 The Roysters were well known to both John Allan and Charles Ellis.
This connection afterward was probably fatal to Poe's hopes. Miss Royster became
Mrs. Shelton. In 1810 I find that the Roysters loaned money to John Allan,
charged to his personal account. Ettis 6* Allan Papers a receipt dated Richmond,
December 22, 1810.
**T Old Richmond directory.
134
and after the gloom of " Helen's " passing and during the days of
change and trouble in the Allan household, the walks with Elmira,
or " Myra," as he called her, along the quiet streets of old Rich-
mond, or in the woods and fields about, must have been a balm,
and have brought a glow of strange unwonted happiness to his
lonely heart.
But it was to the enchanted garden above all that he brought
her, to sit there in the myrtle shades, and talk to her about his
love and dreams. Here it was that he recalled her, in the troubled
days of aftertimes. Looking back, the dream seemed idyllic, and
the light that lay upon it with such peculiar glory, he has caught
up and left for us in some of his finest lines:
Thou wast that all to me, love,
For which my soul did pine
A green isle in the sea, love,
A fountain and a shrine,
All wreathed with fairy fruits and flowers,
And all the flowers were mine. . .
And all my days are trances
And all my nightly dreams
Are where thy dark eye glances,
And where thy footstep gleams
In what ethereal dances,
By what eternal streams. , . .
The stuff that dreams are made of, in the case of Poe, has had
a strange power of congealing. The garden, its brick walls, its
roses and Elmira, have long vanished into the gulf that waits for
all things, but as a memorial to the poet's dream, and to the fresh
young beauty of the little girl who would have been Poe's wife if
Fate had not intervened, there has arisen a memorial l88 nearby,
which like its original, the enchanted garden, is also
a fountain and a shrine.
Before John Allan moved to the mansion of his better circum-
stances on Main and Fifth Streets, the Roysters lived in a frame
188 The Edgar Allan Poc Shrine in the Old Stone House, Main Street, Rich-
mond, Virginia, is one of the best conceived and most beautiful memorials to
literary genius in the United States.
ELMIRA AND THE ENCHANTED GARDEN 135
house still standing across lots, or as it was then, across gardens,
on Second Street. From Edgar's window where he was then living
to the back of Elmira's house there was at that time an unbroken
view, and it was the custom of the two young lovers to conduct a
handkerchief flirtation, Edgar from his window, and Elmira from
the casement at the head of the landing on the stairs. One can
imagine their hearts fluttering with every wave of the white
signals, and Elmira must have looked up many a night and seen
the lamp glowing in the room of the young boy she loved. Nor
were these signals purely sentimental. From after events it is
known that Mr. Royster did not look too favorably upon the
obvious attentions of young Poe, and certainly John Allan's sym-
pathy must at this time have been, to say the least, attenuated.
But the canny Scot along with the other increased ambi-
tions and more impressive mode of life which his Uncle's fortune
brought into prospect, seems to have changed somewhat his plans
for the education of Edgar. Up until the receipt of the Gait estate
in 1825, it is probable that if John Allan had any plans at all for
the future of his brilliant young foster-child, they centered about
the store and warehouse of ElUs & Allan, where the practical-
minded merchant probably visualized Edgar Poe as occupying a
stool and working his way up to a possible share in the business,
or to the point where he could start out on a mercantile career
of his own, as he and Charles Ellis had done years before. Nor
was it by any means an unkindly vista. That Edgar was much
employed about the store, we know, and that he occasionally
served behind the counter as a dry-goods clerk, or as a messenger
carrying papers and valuables to and fro, was afterward recalled
by many who saw him there. Of the use to which he put the book
and periodical department we have already seen. Here he also met
the book lovers, journalists, and literati of the town, and occasion-
ally favored the clerks and customers about the place with the
recitation of some favorite poem, a song for he sang well or
a conversation upon literature, the world of which had become
known to him in the articles and reviews between the covers of
the magazine counter stock of ElUs & Allan. There is no record
of his being carried upon the firm's payrolls, though. Quite reason*
i 3 6 ISRAFEL
ably enough, his guardian seems to have charged up his small
services against his board and keep. Whatever pocket money he
had, came from his " Ma " and " Aunt Nancy," their generosity,
as his companions and schoolmates testify, supplied him with a
more than usual amount which seems to have been as easily and
generously spent as it was given.
So far, Poe had received as good an education as any boy in
Richmond. With the new house, and the higher social status to
which his " father " aspired, seems to have come a different idea
as to the possible future and training of the foster-son. Edgar's
abilities at declamation, and his leaning toward literature and the
world of the intellect, may have caused John Allan to ponder the
manifest advantages of a professional career, the law, 180 with
perhaps the halls of Congress in view; nor was he, it is only right
to say, oblivious to the remarkable qualities of Edgar's mind.
There was another factor, too. A course at the University would
take him out of the house, and out of the house for reasons that
we have seen, Mr. Allan was very anxious at this time that the
foster-son should go. At any rate, the University began to be
talked of, and in March, 1825, Edgar Poe was removed from
Master Burke's school. 100 He was put under the care of private
tutors with an early entrance at the University of Virginia di-
rectly in view.
Of the interviews with John Allan and of his life about the
warehouse of ElUs & Allan together with the provincial and
mercantile clap-trap of the conversation enjoyed there, Poe has
left us a neat but sardonic picture in the thinly disguised auto-
biographical satire of The Literary Life of Thingum Bob, Esq.
nor does he forget in an amused way to hint at his own naive
literary aspirations. With even a small knowledge of his life in
Richmond about this time, the whole thing is reasonably clear.
Even his middle name with the ironical thoughts it afterwards
occasioned, creeps into the satire.
OJf one's very remote ancestors it is superfluous to say much. 101 My
189 Both Poe and Mr. Allan specifically mention " law " in later correspondence.
190 Woodberry, 1909, vol. I, page 29.
191 A covert reference to his real parents seems quite evident.
ELMIRA AND THE ENCHANTED GARDEN 137
father Thomas Bob, Esq., stood for many years at the summit of his
profession, which was that of a merchant barber, 192 in the city of
Smug. His warehouse was the resort of all the principal people of the
place, and especially the editorial corps a body 193 which inspires all
about it with profound veneration and awe. For my own part, I re-
garded them as gods, and drank in with avidity the rich wit and wis-
dom which continuously flowed from their august mouths during the
process of what is called " lather." My first moment of positive in-
spiration must be dated from that ever-memorable epoch, when the
brilliant conductor of the Gad Fly* 941 in the intervals of the important
process just mentioned, recited aloud, before a conclave of our appren-
tices, an inimitable poem in honor of the " Only Genuine Oil-of-Bob "
(so called from its talented inventor, my father,) and for which occa-
sion the editor of the Fly was remunerated with a regal liberality by
the firm of Thomas Bob & Company, merchant-barbers. 195
The genius of the stanzas of the " Oil-of-Bob " first breathed into me,
I say, the divine afflatus. I resolved at once to become a great man,
and to commence by becoming a great poet. That very evening I fell
upon my knees at the feet of my father.
" Father," I said, "pardon me! but I have a soul above lather. It
is my firm intention to cut the shop. I would be an editor I would
be a poet I would pen stanzas to the * Oil-of-Bob.' Pardon me and
aid me to be great! "
"My dear Thingum," replied my father (I had been christened
Thingum after a wealthy relative so surnamed), " My dear Thingum/'
he said, raising me from my knees by the ears " Thingum, my boy,
you're a trump and take after your father in having a soul. You have
an immense head, too, and it must hold a great many brains. 196 This
I have long seen and had thoughts of making you a lawyer. The busi-
ness, however, has grown ungenteel, and that of politician don't pay.
Upon the whole you judge wisely; the trade of editor is best and
if you can be a poet at the same time as most of the editors are,
by the by, why you will kill two birds with one stone. To encour-
age you in the beginning of things, I will allow you a garret; pen, ink,
and paper, a rhyming dictionary, and a copy of the Gad-Fly. I sup-
pose you would scarcely demand any more."
192 Le., a merchant who gave his customers a close shave.
193 Poe had all the delight of the day in puns. Like Keats he revelled in them.
lw A reference to Poe himself and his editorial criticisms that stung deeply,
and his recitations of poetry about the office.
185 No salary was given him by the " close shaving " firm hence the irony.
106 A study of Poe's portraits will make this literal description of himself
plain.
i 3 8 ISRAFEL
" I would be an ungrateful villain if I did," m I replied with enthu-
siasm. " Your generosity is boundless. I will repay it by making you
the father of a genius."
And he did!
Here we have the whole bucketful in a thimble, the cursory
allusion to his real parents, " the remote ancestors of whom it is
superfluous to say much," "my father, the close-shaving mer-
chant," the cheap lather of conversation about the warehouse, the
Genuine Oil-of-Bob of family pride, and the applause of the
clerks which aroused Poe's ambition and John Allan " rais-
ing me from my knees by the ears/' It is all quite palpable, and
very, very tragic. How could he demand more than a garret, pen
and paper; would he not be an " ungrateful villain " if he did?
John Allan had provided the garret, the pen and paper, the
. clothes, and the food. That as he grew older he was incapable
. of providing more for " the immense head that must hold a great
many brains," and for the heart that was beating so highly and
proudly, was the beginning of a tragedy that has had no end. 108
The duel between these two giants, for they were both that, and
duel it was, echoes even now in a subtle way in the melancholy
and morbid cast of much of Poe's work. Without a thorough
understanding of the relations of these two extraordinary men
there can be no comprehension whatever of the motions of Poe.
For almost a full half of its life one of the most delicately ad-
justed and sensitively organized nervous systems that the world
has ever seen was subject to the ceaseless and exacting dominance
of a potent, a massive and a gigantically virile will. It was not
Ariel at the beck of Caliban, the colors will not stand that, but
it was Hamlet fostered by a northern Shylock, a central fact in
Poe's life that the world, which is seldom subtle, will probably
not take the trouble to understand.
The relation of father and son is one that has been left
strangely undisected in our literature, while its feminine counter-
part has been unduly exploited. In John Allan vs. Edgar Poe the
187 " Ungrateful was John Allan's favorite reproach of Poe.
198 From his influence upon Poe's life, John Allan becomes automatically one
of the great secondary characters of literary annals.
ELMIRA AND THE ENCHANTED GARDEN 139
perturbations of father and son were raised by circumstances to
the nth degree of possibilities and the result was in proportion
to the cause. The relation between them was one of the most
perplexed, complicated, and subtle in the whole range of life or
literature, and therefore doubly hard to understand. But it is
also one of the most interesting, for as always in the case of Poe,
it was cast dramatically and carried in its involved ramifications,
domestic secrets, hidden and damaging letters, unforgiving pride,
and the sorrow and death of a beautiful woman beloved by both
of them. As we have already taken some pains to look at the physi-
cal furnishings in the Allan house, let us for a few moments retire
behind the arras.
When John Allan permitted his wife to take the infant Edgar
Poe into her house and arms, it was, as we have seen, on his part,
reluctantly. Once the fact was accomplished, however, it must
also be said that his acceptance of it was more than generous.
The child, and John Allan was fond of children, seems to have
undoubtedly crept very deqply into his affections, to such an
extent that there can be little doubt that for many years he ac-
cepted him as his son. In England he went by his foster-father's
name, and John Allan made statements to his Scotch relatives
that can only indicate that he regarded him then as his heir.
Tradition as to Mrs. Allan's coddling and Mr. Allan's undue
severity with frequent corporal punishments, in reality means
little. Frances Allan was a childless woman whose indulgence her
husband corrected in the universal manner of mankind. In plain
English, Edgar was probably a naughty and wilful little boy who
took no harm from being spanked. The situation thus created,
however, grew more serious later as a basis for a dangerous
family alignment, one which John Allan could not help but resent
more than if the boy had been his own. The charges that the
older man wounded the pride of the boy by constantly reminding
him of his dependence upon charity are more serious, and from;
much direct testimony appear to be true.
As they grew older, the gulf between their temperaments began
to widen. Most men, even of a thick fiber, have a tenderness and
fondness, though a hidden one, for little children. Edgar's beauty
i 4 o ISRAFEL
and " his vivacious ways " no doubt appealed for a while to John
Allan. As the boy became more of the man, the natural indif-
ference and antagonism of male for male began to play its part
in his foster-father's attitude. There was, too, probably unknown
to them both, a jealousy for the affection of Frances Allan so
strongly concentrated on Edgar, one which even a real father
sometimes experiences, as his part in the life of the woman is
replaced by the advent of children; and in John Allan's case this
was accentuated by the actual fact of the extra parentage of the
child.
As he increased in years, the older man seems to have lost, as
often happens, some of the more endearing and easily youthful
sides of his nature which he undoubtedly, at one time, possessed;
and he became harder-grained, closer, short-tempered and obsti-
nate. Quite incapable, in short, of appreciating the possibilities
in the more delicate aspects of Edgar, and perhaps dissatisfied in
a certain way with his wife. He had wronged her, but by that
very fact he knew the reason why he had no legitimate children;
as he became less attached to Edgar and the possessor of a great
estate, he was more than ever desirous of a natural heir. In the
meantime, while his wife's affections for young Poe increased
with the fine promise of Edgar's young manhood, his own had
waned. This seems to have been about the situation when he fell
heir to the Gait fortune, and to have warranted Poe later in his
statement that, " He treated me as kindly as his gross nature
would permit." Edgar had been provided with a home and educa-
tionthe garret and the pens and ink but he missed in his
foster-father what was of much more importance to a boy of
genius, the sympathy and understanding of a generously respond-
ing temperament.
The situation was tragic and, as is nearly always the case, an
ironical one. Into the house of a hard-headed, literal and com-
mercially-minded Scotch merchant, the eccentricities of Fate had
introduced one of the most cunningly and highly strung instru-
ments that has ever trembled to the delicate breath of song, com-
bined with an esthetic ego that later could not bear to contem-
plate the idea that even God was its superior. Add to this, the
ELMIRA AND THE ENCHANTED GARDEN 141
ugly noise of domestic dissension under the stress of secret sor-
row, and the curious stage is set for an inevitable tragedy, a
favorite one of the Infernal Mimes, known as the " Breaking
Heart of Youth."
For it was not mere incompatibility of natures that brought
about the inevitable; that, perhaps, as in many an other family,
might have spent itself in minor ways, but sometime between the
return of the family from England and La Fayette's visit to
Richmond, Frances Allan seems to have become aware of her
husband's unfaithfulness, and the knowledge which was then
or afterward shared by Edgar, brought the two together in
an aggrieved compact that was inevitably against, and prob-
ably supremely exasperating to, John Allan. Miss Valentine's
"position as a dependent upon her brother-in-law's bounty was
anomalous, but it is not hard to guess where her sympathies lay,
and upon occasions they must have shown. But this was by no
means all.
When Mrs. Poe, Edgar's mother, died, John Allan had come
into the possession of her letters, and, among these, there was
some family secret that was extremely damaging to the Poes.
Mrs. Clemm, Poe's mother-in-law, said that years later she de-
stroyed the correspondence after her " Eddie " died, in order to
keep the fact from ever becoming known to the world. 199 Just
what it was, can therefore never be proven, but there is a strong
suspicion that it in some way compromised David or Elizabeth
Poe and dealt with the paternity of Rosalie. In the family scenes
which occurred, for under the conditions they were bound to, it
was this secret which John Allan reserved to add the last sting
to the reproaches of ingratitude, which he heaped on the foster-
son who now dared to sympathize with her whom he had come to
regard as his mother. No scribe was present to record this as a
fact for posterity, but what John Allan had written albeit shame-
facedly, in a letter to Henry Poe, 200 he would scarcely in his
rage withhold from Edgar. To have stones cast at his dead mother
199 See the mention of these letters Chapter II, page 4, note 41,
200 Letter of John Allan to Wflliam Henry Leonard Poe, quoted page 125,
ante, " God forbid, my dear Henry," etc.
I42 ISRAFEL
and his little sister, from the hands of one who should have been
the last to throw them, was something which no lad of spirit
could stand. That Edgar replied ably, and perhaps out of all
bounds, is a warrantable guess.
In the Spring of 1824, Mrs. Stanard had died; Mrs. Allan's
health was failing through sorrow or some other cause; and the
gloom in the privacy of John Allan's house must have been quiet
and deep, when it was not stormy. A few months later, we find
John Allan writing Henry Poe that Edgar is moody and adding,
hypocritically enough, " I cannot imagine what we have done to
deserve this." 20 There is not a word of pride over Edgar's escort-
ing La Fayette, or of his excellent record at school. Only a vague
and irritated reproach. In the light of all the facts, it can now
only seem that the letter to Baltimore was a gesture of precau-
tion, on the part of John Allan, and a deliberate attempt to malign
Edgar Poe.
Sometime in the Summer of 1825, however, Henry paid a visit
to his brother Edgar in the new house on Main Street. Doubtless
the brothers had much to talk about. They had seen each other
at most, only upon two or three occasions before. Some of the
contents of John Allan's letter may well have been on their
minds. Henry, it seems, was considerably upset and impressed by
the inuendoes, and as late as 1827 published in the North Ameri-
can in Baltimore a poem entitled Lines on a Pocket Book in which
" Rosalie " is addressed as being of doubtful paternity. This poem
constitutes the closest approach to an explanation of the Poe
family mystery that exists. 2 * 1
" William Henry Leonard Poe was a rather delicate and tubercu-
larly inclined boy of some literary plromise, as his few pub-
lished poems show. He and Edgar may have had a good deal in
common and enjoyed each other's society. It was only upon rare
occasions that Poe could " open up " with the freedom and con-
fidence that a blood relative of sympathetic temperament inspires.
At this time Henry Poe seems to have been in the Navy or the
merchant marine. On this visit to Richmond he wore a nautical
201 gee Poe's Brother, by Hervey Allen and Thomas Ollive Mabbott, Doran,
1926.
ELMIRA AND THE ENCHANTED GARDEN 143
uniform and, upon one occasion at least, in company with Eben-
ezer Burling, the boys called upon Elmira Royster. If Rosalie
came over from the Mackenzies' to visit her two big brothers, it
was one of the few occasions upon which the children of Elizabeth
Poe sat together in the same room.
Rosalie was at this time a dull and undeveloped little girl of
about fourteen or fifteen. She could have been in her condition
only an annoyance and a sorrow to Edgar Poe. He was on close
terms of friendship with the Mackenzies, whose kindness and
care of Rosalie had continued, and was a frequent visitor in their
house. Mrs. Mackenzie he often called " Ma," and upon several
occasions was heard to remark that he wished he had been
adopted by them instead of the Allans, words which could not
have failed to reach his guardian's, by this time, burning ears.
About this time, too, it is said he began to talk to the Mackenzies
about running away to sea, and to complain frequently of
Mr. Allan. 202 To the Mackenzies, Mr. Allan replied that Edgar
did not know what gratitude was. Nevertheless, Mrs. Allan
and Mrs. Mackenzie were still fast friends and continued so till
the end.
Through the Summer and Autumn of 1825 Edgar Poe con-
tinued this work with tutors, looking forward to his entrance at
the University of Virginia. Despite the trouble in the background,
he could not have eluded a certain joy in the new variety of con-
tacts in the life which surrounded him now in the new house.
The Allans, as part of the social campaign for the position to
which their wealth now entitled them, gave many entertainments
and the house was noted for its hospitality. John Allan's gen-
erosity in the manner of his way of life is not to be impugned.
Thomas Ellis speaks of the many young folks and children who
ran in and out, to peep through the telescope, or to see Edgar.
Doubtless Elmira's curls were no strange sight in the garden on
the slope of the hill when the grapes were ripe. An arbor is an
excellent place to exchange kisses. Poe seems to have idolized
202 New light is thrown on Edgar's desire to go to sea by the fact that, shortly
after the visit to Richmond noted above, Henry sailed as a midshipman (sic) on
the U.S.S. " Macedonian " for South America. See note 201.
144 ISRAFEL
her, and a study of the changes in the text of Tamerlane will re-
sult in some interesting speculations about this little girl. 208
Poe's family moved in the best of Richmond society. Some of
John Allan's neighbors were Thomas Taylor, whose daughter
William Gait married; Mr. Joseph Tate, Major James Gibbon,
Mr. Joseph Marx and Thomas Gilliat. " These gentlemen were
of the highest social position in Richmond " and were associates
of Chief Justice Marshall, Colonel Ambler, Dr. Brockenbrough,
Judge Cabell, Judge Stanard and others, famous for good dinners
and whist parties. In such houses young Poe was welcome, and
the associations of such an environment stamped upon him the
attitude and the mode of conversation of a gentleman. It was the
Virginia of the Old School, a school for manners.
Doubtless the possibility of Edgar's being Mr. Allan's heir did
not escape the speculation of certain mamas with eligible daugh-
ters, young people married early then, but young Poe was becom-
ing more and more interested in Elmira and the visits to her
house were frequent. From her lips we get a fresh and vivid ac-
count of Israfel. 203
'It was Edgar's habit, during the Summer and Fall of 1825,
to slip over to the Royster House nearby and to spend long hours
in the parlor with Elmira. She played the piano and they would
sing together, Edgar in a fresh young tenor voice, or he would
accompany her upon the flute which he played quite well. Some-
times, but not often, Ebenezer Burling would go along. But
Elmira does not seem to have cared much for him. The conversa-
tion was of the news of the younger set of the day. Once, upon
her repeating a brisk remark of a young lady acquaintance, Poe
replied that he was surprised that Elmira would associate with
anyone so unladylike. Years later she remembered this. There
must also have been certain moments upon the sofa, or upon the
window seat on the landing upstairs, when the conversation was
of a decidedly endearing nature and more than mere words were
203 In the accounts of Elmira (Mrs. Shelton) and her accounts of Poe, I have
followed carefully the letters from her to Ingram, published in his biography of
Poe, and other letters of interviews with Mrs. Shelton by Edward V. Valentine
of Richmond, later sent to Ingram and now at the University of Virginia. Some
of these latter have never been published.
OJ
Sarah Elmira Royster at Fifteen
Poe's own sketch of his Sweetheart
Made in the parlor of the Royster House in Richmond, Virginia, in 1826
Miss ROYSTER is the heroine of Tamerlane
The little girl who was engaged to POE just before he left for the University in
1826 In 1849 Miss ROYSTER, then Mrs. SHELTON and a widow, again promised
to marry POE. His death in Baltimore in 1849 prevented the consummation of
the early romance of his youth
Courtesy of the Edgar Allan Poe Shrine, Richmond, Virginia
"A Fountain and a Shrine''
Garden and Fountain of the Edgar Allan Poe Shrine,
Richmond, Virginia
Showing the rear of the "Old Stone House" fronting on Main Street not
far from where Mr s. POE died
The Poe Shrine at Richmond is the legitimate center of interest and activity in
preserving material and relics connected with EDGAR ALLAN POB, and in
perpetuating his memory
ELMIRA AND THE ENCHANTED GARDEN 145
exchanged, for before Poe left for the University, Elmira had
promised to be his wife. A promise which was kept a secret, prob-
ably on account of the parental attitude toward the match.
Elmira said that Poe was shy but very handsome, with large
dark grey eyes and rather august manners. In short, we get the
feeling that little Elmira was carried off her feet by quite an
impressive and princely young man. There was talk of books and
poetry, and perhaps some verses in Elmira's album, 204 the custom
of the day, and when other amusements failed, Edgar drew pic-
tures and sketches for his sweetheart. One of these, a portrait of
Elmira herself by Poe's own hand, has come down to us as a
record of some of the happiest hours of his life. One can
imagine the little girl sitting on the sofa in the Royster parlor,
the sheets of music and the flute lying upon the open pianoforte,
while Edgar Poe, pencil in hand, sketched the wistful little face
that still looks out at us from the yellow paper, after more than
a hundred years. There is certainly a very fetching flaunt to the
tangle of pretty curls. One can almost hear their fresh voices
blending in The Last Rose of Summer, through the half -open win-
dow; or the tinkle of the piano and the low bubbling notes of the
flute.
Mrs. Allan does not seem to have looked upon Edgar's ap-
proaching departure with anything but sorrow. Doubtless, her
husband's anxiety to have Edgar out of the house could not be
concealed, and she may have had a feminine foreboding that it
was the beginning of the end. Her health was rapidly failing, and
the thought of being left alone in the house, to confront the
Scotch harshness of her masterful husband, was probably more
than she could bear. Perhaps she had some inkling of his future
intentions as to Edgar, and knew that although his means for
charity were now ample, the will for bounty had run out. That
it was a gloomy time, the servants have testified. The antagonism
between John Allan and his ward was extreme. On this account,
and because of her great love for Edgar, Frances Allan seems
to have deferred her parting with him to the uttermost. She re-
solved to accompany her son to Charlottesville, and to see him
204 This is inference. Mrs. Shelton does not say so.
I46 ISRAFEL
settled at the University. Christmas that year, despite the ample
setting at the Allan house, must have been, at best, a gloomy
affair.
Of Foe's parting with John Allan there is no record. Let us
hope there was a gleam of the old affection. Of admonitions and
promises we can be certain. Perhaps Elmira's kisses and avowals
served somewhat to soften the admonitory thumping of the lame
man's cane; there was at least a fond farewell from " Aunt
Nancy" Valentine. One of the new Allan carriages was ordered
out, Edgar's small baggage lashed at the back, and with old Jim
on the box, 205 Frances Allan and Edgar Allan Poe drove away
from the great house down Main Street. The black coachman re-
membered that they were both very sad. It was just about Valen-
tine's Day in February, 1826.
^ While they trotted along in the new family carriage, perhaps
Mrs. Allan remembered another ride down Main Street, in a
hired hack, some fifteen years before, and once again clasped
warmly the hand of the same orphan who still sat by her side.
She at least had given him all that any mother could. It was the
end of the first momentous act. As Jim cracked his whip over
the straining horses along the road to Charlottesville, and the
spires and pillared porches of Richmond disappeared behind the
snowy hills, Edgar's boyhood with its homes, and warehouses,
ships, " Helen," Elmira and the Enchanted Garden, disappeared
into the irrevocable past. As if in final farewell Poe entrusted a
love letter for Elmira to be delivered to her by the hands of James
Hill, the coachman. It was the last message which she was des-
tined to receive from him for a long time. 200 In addition to the let-
ter Poe left with Elmira a mother-of-pearl purse marked with her
initials in which the engraver had made an error. On February the
fourteenth, 1826, Poe matriculated at the University of Virginia. 207
205 James Hffl was the name of Mr. Allan's coachman. Edward V. Valentine
to the author at Richmond, July 16, 1925. The carriage belonged to Mrs. Allan
having been left to her by William Gait. See his will, appendix III.
206 J. H. Whitty Memoir, large edition, page xxvii.
207 Entry in the University of Virginia Records.
CHAPTER IX
Israfel in Cap and Gown
THOMAS JEFFERSON, that dreamer of dreams and
political-romanticist, had a great vision. From his
high place of Monticello in Albermarle County, Vir-
ginia, he looked down across the green slopes of the South-West
Mountains and beheld
In the greenest of our valleys
By good angels tenanted,
Once a fair and stately palace
Radiant palace " rear " its head
In the monarch Thought's dominion. . . , 208
The valley was the little vale where the hamlet of Charlottes-
ville nestled, and the palace was his vision of the classic courts
and cloisters of the University of Virginia.
During his gigantically active intellectual life, Jefferson wrote
some thirty-thousand letters, and among these, not a small pro-
portion was devoted to the bringing about of what has in the
end proved to be, perhaps, his most solid and far-reaching
achievement "The Oxford of the New World." Through the
barriers of the ignorant indifference of legislatures and the par-
simony of selfish individuals, the mercurial eloquence of his rest-
less pen penetrated with a Midas touch; public and private purse
strings were loosened for his " Educational Fund," and in the
wild heart of the Alleghanies the domes and colonnades, the
serpentine walls, and the five-fold terraced campus of the new
University arose as if by magic.
In October, 1823, near the close of his long career, we find
Jefferson writing to his friend John Adams "Against . . .
tedium vitae, however, my dear friend, I am now fortunately
208 There is no attempt here, of course, to imply that Poe meant these lines
to apply to the University.
148
mounted on a hobby, which, indeed, I mounted some thirty or
forty years ago, but whose amble is still sufficient to give exercise
and amusement to an octogenarian writer. This is the establish-
ment of a University for the education of all succeeding genera-
tions of youth in this Republic." 209 On Monday, March 7, 1825,
this vision and hobby became a fact, when without ceremony
or ostentation, the University of Virginia opened its doors and
fifty youths matriculated, followed by sixty-six more during the
first session.
The second session began February i, 1826, when thirty-four
students entered, who by the middle of the month had increased
to one hundred and thirty-one. On St. Valentine's Day the Uni-
versity records show that five students matriculated, and among
them is the illustrious name of Poe. The exact entry, spelling and
all, is as follows:
Edgar A. Poe: / 19 January, 1809 / John Allen Richmond, Va. / and
the Schools of Ancient and Modern Languages. 210
Poe's entry is number one hundred thirty-six in a total enrolment
of one hundred and seventy-seven for the entire session, which
ended at Christmas, i826. 210
Of the parting with Frances Allan nothing is known. No mother
leaves her boy at a University without realizing that she has re-
signed her complete control, and has committed her son to the
doubtful currents of adult life. The peculiar tenderness of the
tie which bound her to Edgar must have wrung both their hearts,
for the future was troubled. Doubtless she saw him " settled,"
and drove back over the cold February hills with a troubled heart
to the disturbing situation in her own house at Richmond, which
she must now face alone; nor could her knowledge of her foster-
son's impulsive and passionate temperament have left her with-
out forebodings about the months to follow. For the first time in
his life, Poe was left completely alone. He was about to be sub-
209 The letter is given here as it was partly quoted by Edwin A. Alderman,
President of the University of Virginia, in the Virginia Quarterly Review for April,
1925, pages 78-84. To Dr. Alderman I am also indebted for other facts.
210 Harrison, Life and Letters of Edgar Allan Poe, vol. I, page 38. Note that
Poe did not give the place of his birth as Woodberry states vol. I, 1909, page 32.
"Allen" is a misspelling, of course.
The University of Virginia in Poe's Day
West Front
From an old print
Professor George Tucker
One of the Faculty at the University of Virginia at the
time Poe attended in 1826
Courtesy of the University of Virginia dluvnni Dissociation
ISRAFEL IN CAP AND GOWN 149
jected to the difficult test of freedom, and the environment into
which he had been thrown was not without decided temptations.
Jefferson's ideas about the University were peculiar, in some
respects they were the most advanced of their age, and in others
they partook of that idealistic and impractical turn of mind,
which, arising from a too fond estimate of human nature, has in
some of its major aspects proved almost fatal to the Republic
over which the soul of the philosopher yearned. It was only by
the early modification of some of his pet theories that the Univer-
sity was saved from anarchy.
From an educational standpoint, the organization of the new
school was forward looking, a radical departure from established
methods, but on the whole excellent. A highly competent and
learned faculty had been cajoled by the glowing letters of the
" Old Man Eloquent " into lending the luster of their foreign de-
grees and exotic reputations to the traditionless school which
needed them. In 1826 six out of the eight professors were foreign
born, and were irreverently referred to by the students as " those
damned foreign professors." The faculty in Poe's day consisted of
Professors Blaettermann, Bonnycasitle, Dunglison, Emmet, Key,
Lomax, Long and Tucker. Seven of these men bore the best of
scholastic reputations, being for the most part Englishmen from
Cambridge and Oxford, with the exception of Professor Blaetter-
mann, who was a German of profound and pedantic classical
learning. George Tucker had been persuaded to leave a career in
the halls of Congress to undertake the Chair of Moral Philoso-
phy. He was the Chairman of the Faculty, which frequently met
for disciplinary sessions, and afterward distinguished himself as
an economist, essayist, historian, and biographer of Jefferson. 211
The courses were of a continental character that was probably
too advanced to suit the preparatory and secondary education of
the American youths who were then subjected to them, but to
Poe, who had received a more ample and thorough grounding in
English schools, they offered an opportunity of which he took
211 Life and Letters of Edgar AUan Poe, J. A. Harrison, Chapter II. Also
various other articles and pamphlets dealing with the establishment of the Uni-
versity of Virginia.
JSO ISRAFEL
advantage. A field in which, as the records prove, he distinguished
himself. This field, as might be supposed, for a young poet in
love with words, was that of language.
Jefferson himself, while Governor of Virginia at an earlier date,
had first introduced the formal study of modern languages into
America. The organization of " his " new University offered him
the opportunity for further educational innovations. Among the
most notable of these was the abolition of the class system in
favor of a modified form of the elective system of German Uni-
versities, the introduction of an optional period of training in
military drill, the establishment of workshops for practical edu-
cation, somewhat along the lines of modern industrial training,
the encouragement of vaccination by gratis treatment, and the
permission of optional attendance at chapel. Over all of these,
the reactionary pedagogues shook their doubtful heads, and none
more doubtfully than George Ticknor at Harvard. Some of these
departures, though philosophically sound, were too far ahead of
their time and went down to defeat. 212
Above all, of course, or it would not have been Jeffersonian, the
University of Virginia was to be democratic; the students were to
govern themselves as individuals, and when discipline became
necessary, it was to be by the intervention of the local arm of
the civil law. This item in particular, naturally enough broke
down completely, scholastic anarchy and student escapades dis-
turbed the peace of the College, Charlottesville and the planta-
tions about, until the faculty threatened to resign in a body and
obtained the authority to exert a sufficient internal control from
above, and the establishment of a more efficient method of police.
In the midst of this era of airy confusion and adolescent non-
sense, young Poe arrived. That, in some sense, he was its victim
there can be little doubt. One of his college-mates has left us an
excellent picture of the times. 212
212 Reminiscences of William M. Burwell from the New Orleans Times Demo-
crat for May 18, 1884. BurwelPs facts about Poe are not always to be taken with-
out reservations, but his descriptions of contemporary life with Poe, when at the
University, there is no reason to doubt as they are in many other ways confirmed.
The text here is an excerpt from the Alumni Bvttetm, University of Virginia, for
April, 1923.
ISRAFEL IN CAP AND GOWN 151
To the first sessions of this admirable school poured in the Southern
youth, most of them intent upon availing themselves of the advantages
afforded. Among them, however, were many who had little other object
than to combine enjoyment with the preparatory routine of a liberal
education. Some of this class arrived with unlimited means, others with
elegant equipages. One came from the Eastern Shore with a tandem of
blooded horses, a servant, a fowling-piece, and a pointer or two. Some
were afflicted with habits of extravagance and contempt for the toil-
some acquisition of knowledge. These not only indulged in unseemly
fun in the college, but invaded the little courthouse town of Charlottes-
ville, where they were objects of admiration, with those at least who
had goods to sell or horses to hire. Mr. Jefferson having assumed that
these high-spirited coadjutors in the defense of our constitutional ram-
parts comprehended his patriotic motives, had provided no discipline
for their scholastic deportment. He confided that the restraints of pro-
priety would be sufficient to make them behave themselves as gentle-
men. They certainly did behave themselves as gentlemen of the highest
style. They gamed, fought duels, attended weddings for thirty miles
around, and went in debt in the most liberal manner. Mr. Jefferson
often invited some of the students to dine at Monticello, where they
were entertained with that urbane hospitality for which he was so re-
markable. The repasts inclined no doubt to the French style of cookery,
which had led Patrick Henry to dose a diatribe against his doctrines
with the crowning charge, " He hath abjured his native victuals! "
Little is remembered of these honored entertainments except that the
great statesman commended a Swiss wine of the most acid and as-
tringent character, then regarded as a sorry substitute for the " peach
and honey " of the period. . . .
The buildings first completed stood in the midst of uncultivated fields
and other unattractive scenery. The county of Albemarle contained
many families of the highest worth. Indeed, it had furnished many of
the most eminent men in the State's history. Mr. Jefferson, Lewis, the
explorer of the Missouri, and perhaps Clark, who captured Kaskaskia
from the British; the Minors, Gilmers, Carters, Carrs and others were
all natives of Albemarle, but these families were scattered over a large
country. The courthouse town of Charlottesville had been the place
near which the prisoners captured at Saratoga had been confined. It
had been the temporary seat of the Legislature during the invasion or
raid by Tarleton. It had a population of several hundred, but at the
period now spoken of Mr. Jefferson has recorded, as one of the reli-
gious tolerations, that there being no church in the village, each of the
principal church persuasions held its services in the court house under
a rotation agreed on among themselves. The families of the professors
ISRAFEL
were too limited to furnish social facilities to the students. So far, then,
from there being at or around the University a social intercourse of
sufficient extent to have provided even reasonable recreation for so
many young men, there was not even a public opinion strong enough
to rebuke their excesses.
In this there was nothing strange. Station an army or a belligerent
body in a small village, and a large element in that body will be de-
moralized by the ennui of idleness. The same body would find social
and public enjoyment in a large city. Systematic drunkenness or per-
sistent gaming are restrained, if not prevented entirely, by the variety
of attractions and by the positive enforcement of law in every great
metropolis.
The public opinion and corporate ordinances of the village were alike
disregarded. The disorder and dissipation of the students were subjects
of indignant censure. The few merchants and hotels found their account
in this extravagance, though the reckless creation of debt led to the
enactment of a statute subsequently by which such debts, when beyond
the reasonable wants of a student were declared void. A party of stu-
dents on a frolic were coming along the road between the village and
the University when they suddenly encountered the professor of moral
philosophy and political economy. Most of the party escaped; but, one,
afterward a distinguished advocate, disdained concealment. "I am,
said he, " K.M.M., of Tuskaloosa, Alabama too firm to fly and far
too proud to yield." " And," said the professor, " Mr. M. might have
added, " almost too drunk to stand." . . .
The habits of this jeunesse dorie had attracted the reprobation of
the municipal authorities, and it was decided to extend the jurisdiction
of the commonwealth over these elegant young outlaws. At a session of
the grand jury, impaneled for the county of Albemarle, process was
issued summoning some of the students to testify as to any violations
of the gaming act known to them. No sooner was this summons known
than every one who could have criminated his associates left the Uni-
versity and took refuge in a little wooded knoll a mile or so west, de-
termined to remain until the great inquest of the county should have
adjourned. The rendezvous then assumed the aspect of a gypsy camp.
There was a dear running stream, huge rocks and a surrounding forest.
The darkies, delighted with the excitement, ran between the camp and
the village bringing supplies of food and drink and intelligence of the
hostile movements. With a glass, indeed, the high road and buildings
were distinctly visible. Of course, the laws which they had violated
received additional infractions, as there was reckless pleasure in play-
ing cards on a table of gneiss or granite and in employing pebbles for
counting.
No. i 3, West Range
Poe's room at the University of Virginia,
memorial to the poet
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ISRAFEL IN CAP AND GOWN 153
The conjoint effect of legal penalties, scholastic discipline and pa-
rental authority, however, terminated these excesses. A few of the
richer and more reckless went away, the rest settled down to their
legitimate duties, and in two years lie excellent faculty of the Uni-
versity had inaugurated the system and standard of study which grad-
ually ripened into its present reputation for solid and universal
learning.
Such, in some of its more objective lineaments, was the scholas-
tic community in which Poe found himself. Like a great many
other American Universities, then and now, the learning seems
to have been available and the organization of social life nil.
Upon his first matriculating, Edgar Poe was assigned a room
on the " West side of the Lawn " from which he soon afterwards
removed, for what cause is not known, to room number 13 West
Range, the chamber which is now known at the University of
Virginia as " Poe's Room," being kept vacant and sacred to his
memory. The story that Poe first roomed with one Miles George
and soon afterwards fought with him, the quarrel being the occa-
sion of Poe's move, is now known to be untrue. 218 He did, it
seems, have a fist fight with young George, with the usual result
of a closer friendship between them, but there are no records of
his ever having a roommate, and at number 13 West Range he
certainly roomed alone.
Poe's room was pleasantly situated under the second arch to
the left, from the walk that divides the west dormitory arcades.
It was a combined study and sleeping apartment, about fifteen
by twenty feet, with a latticed and a solid door opening out upon
the arcade, from which there was then a distant view of the
Ragged Mountains. One window looked to the rear over a lawn,
then, it seems, used as a wood yard. There was a mantelpiece
and a small open fire place. 214
Here the young poet undoubtedly passed most of his time while
213 Letter of Dr. Miles George to Mr. Edward V. Valentine of Richmond, later
sent to J. B. Ingram and now in the Ingram collection of Poe Papers at the Uni-
versity of Virginia, printed in the Alumni Bulletin, University of Virginia, for
April, 1923. This letter contradicts flatly and ultimately many of Thomas Goode
Tucker's " too complete memories " which have been so often followed by Poe
biographers.
214 From data gathered on a visit to the University of Virginia in July, 1925.
IS4 ISRAFEL
at the University, held his long remembered readings and parties,
and wrote home the pathetic letters to his family, and those be-
seeching lover's complaints and declarations which little Elmira
never saw, or saw too late. 2i5 The room is dark; it is on a
level with the ground, and has in common with other dormitories
at the University of Virginia, a quaint, but rather cell-like and
faintly melancholy air. In the winter it could not have been
anything but cold. The heating arrangements of the time, and
of many Southern homes and institutions even to-day, are con-
structed with an eye to the long Summer, and seem to ignore the
Winter and late Fall. Of other facilities there were none. The
architects of the period were engrossed with the facades of the
ancients, but the baths of Caracalla remained, as in the middle
ages, unstudied and unknown. 216
From the mass of records and reminiscences now available it
is possible to reconstruct, with some degree of accuracy, the char-
acter of the life and even the daily routine of the students while
Edgar Allan Poe was in " cap and gown," a medieval idea which,
by the way, America had not then adopted.
Poe was awakened every morning, probably about half-past
five, by William Wertenbaker, secretary to the Faculty, Librarian
and general factotum, whose duty it was to see that the students
were up, dressed and ready for work. There were probably some
sort of hurried ablutions, and then a rush for breakfast to some
boarding-house nearby, followed, in Poe's case, by early morning
recitations. His schedule shows that these fell between the hours
of seven and nine A.M., and that his course consisted of lectures
in Latin, Greek, French, Spanish and Italian. 2 * 1 One of his class-
mates, remembering these occasions, afterward described Poe,
" as having been an excellent French and Latin scholar; he could
read and speak both languages with great ease, although he could
215 Few of Poe's biographers seem to have realized that the young student who
inhabited No. 13 West Range in 1826 was under stress of great anxiety about home
matters. An unhappy love affair, plus home dissensions and great financial em*
barrassment, all of which Poe experienced here, is enough to unsettle any college
freshman. Henry Poe was away on a cruise.
218 Even the means of obtaining fire was still in the flint and tinder age.
Pocket matches, at a considerable cost, were introduced from England about a
year later.
ISRAFEL IN CAP AND GOWN 155
hardly be said to have known either language thoroughly. Greek
he read indifferently. Time and again he would enter into the
lecture room (Pavilion V, or Pavilion VI where Professors Long
and Blaettermann lived) utterly unprepared to recite if called
upon. But his brain was so active and his memory so excellent,
that only a few moment's study was necessary, and then he was
ready to make the best recitation in the class. To have an oppor-
tunity of ' reading ahead ' . . . was all that Poe desired when
unprepared. As a consequence of this wonderful faculty he was
able to maintain a very high position in his classes, and win for
himself the admiration, but more often the envy of his fellow
students." 21T In this account there is an indication of a certain
superficial cast to Poe's learning which agrees well with his im-
mense affectation of it in later times. Tradition has it that the
classes of young Dr. Blaettermann, who had come to the Uni-
versity via London, with a pleasant English bride, were par-
ticularly lively. The doctor's strong German accent, penchant for
puns, and inability to keep order, brought about, it seems, some
memorable and amusing scenes which Poe must have witnessed
but does not seem to have taken an active part in. Indeed, both
his scholastic and disciplinary records were officially excellent.
The University minute books yield these items:
At a meeting of the Faculty, December isth, 1826,
Mr. Long made a report of the examination of the classes belonging
to the School of Ancient Languages, and the names of the students
who excelled at the examination of these classes:
Semor Latin Class:
GESSNER HARRISON of Rockingham.
ALBERT L. HOLLADAY of Spottsylvania.
BERTHIER JONES of Amelia.
EDGAR A. POE of Richmond City., etc.
II
The names of the students who excelled in the Senior French Class
as reported by the Professor of Modern Languages were as follows:
PHILIP ST. GEORGE AMBLER of Richmond City.
JOHN GARY of Campbell.
217 Reminiscences of Thomas G. Tucker, confirmed by similar memories o!
other classmates of Poe, and by the University records. Tucker wrote an article
called Edgar Allan Poe while a Student at the University of Virginia, much
quoted from.
i S 6 ISRAFEL
GESSNER HARRISON of Rockingham.
WM. MICHIE of Hanover.
CONWAY NUTT of Culpepper.
EDGAR A. POE of Richmond City.
WM. SELDEN of Norfolk.
HENRY TUTWILER of Rockingham.
Poe also did excellent work in Italian, and was at one time
complimented by Professor Blaettermann for a translation from
Tasso. Evidently one poet moved another.
The names on the class lists of these long dead lads, bring
back vividly the air of the vanished classroom with all the pathos
that an old teacher feels as he turns over the faded leaves of
some dusty roll book of years before, while the names and images
of those long-lost to conscious memory leap out at him with
the recollection of half-forgotten incidents, recalling the ghosts
of happy and laughing faces turned to dust, or long hardened into
caricatures of their youthful. beauty by the grim mold of manly
metal. Wiping such secret, but withal not unkindly mistiness
from a pair of pedagogical spectacles, the years of a century roll
back before us, and we stand in Professor Blaettermann's class-
room in Pavilion VI at the University of Virginia in the Spring
of 1826.
The tousled heads of ten or twelve boys in their late teens, at
their early morning recitation, are dotted lackadaisically about
the whittled benches, trying to imbibe by inspiration from the
puzzling text, what they should have learned by candle-light the
night before. A mumbled conversation, despite the glare of Pro-
fessor Blaettermann, is going on in one corner of the room; and
on a bench near the front, seated with his cronies Tom Golson,
Upton Beale or PhHip Slaughter, their faces shining from the
early morning pump and the run to the classroom, sits Edgar
Allan Poe. "Mishter Chorge," says the young German at the
desk, are you prepart? " silence " Vel den, Mishter Longl
Haf you prepart your Tasso? Ckerusalem Delivered, virst
stanssa, pegin" George Long, a mild youth of some eighteen
summers, given to dining with visiting ex-presidents rather than
to the midnight oil, arises and fumbles out some lines. " Ach
ISRAFEL IN CAP AND GOWN 157
Gott! dot vill do, Mishter Long, I see you are not Long for dis
blace " (laughter and stamping of feet). " Mishter Poe. . . ."
Edgar gets up. He is a little flushed, his large eyes shining with
eagerness; a rather slender and delicate boy of seventeen, with
a mass of dark hair and an easy carriage. On the little room falls
the spell of his low but arresting and unforgettable voice. 218
The lines roll on with something in them of the sonorous Italian.
The surprised class grows hushed; Professor Blaetterman beats
time ecstatically with a muttered, "Das is gud, gu&l" then
the bell and the whole class laughing and slapping Poe on the
back for having actually wrung an encomium from one of those
damned foreign professors, pours out under the peristyle and
rushes shouting, boy-like, into the bright spring sunshine of one
hundred years ago.
Classes over, the day was Poe's, and the night too. There were
certain periods of military drill taught at that time at the Uni-
versity of Virginia by Mr. Mathews, a West Point graduate. 219
This was one of Jefferson's hobbies, who felt that the future
leaders in the Republic should be trained to arms, and Poe seems
to have elected to take the drill probably from the flare given to
his military ambition aroused as an officer in the Richmond
Junior Volunteers. La Fayette's praise was evidently not for-
gotten, nor the exploits of Grandfather David Poe. Edgar seems
to have nourished the military tradition considerably, and in a
few months it was to bear bitter fruit. The military instructor
afterwards recalled Poe, as, "thick-set with a jerky gait and
bandy legs," but as this jars with nearly all other descriptions of
the young poet at this time, we may feel certain that the instruc-
tor's recollection was at fault, or that he confused someone else
with Poe. 220
Monday mornings the colored washerwomen made their
rounds, of whom no less than seven afterwards asserted that they
218 Th e scene j^ reproduced here from contemporary accounts of such recita-
tions and the peculiarities of Professor Blaettermann. Foe's translation of Tasso
is specifically mentioned.
21 * J. H. Harrison, Life and Letters of Edgar Allan Poe, chapter II, page 39.
220 Mr. Mathews, the drill master, seems to have followed Thomas Tucker's
description which is at fault.
i S 8 ISRAFEL
had all washed for " Marse Eddie Poe," and quarreled over the
honor much as the Greek Cities over Homer's birth. The after-
noons were spent at the library, at the stores, or about " hotels "
in Charlottesville, a mile or so away, and there was swimming in
the yellow Rivanna, and rambles amid the Ragged Mountains
nearby. Lessons, however, were not neglected, and the Reading
Room of the Library, then located in Pavilion VI, saw Poe often
and deeply immersed in his books.
William Wertenbaker, the librarian, recollected Poe as, " then
little more than a boy . . . about five feet two or three inches
in height, somewhat bandy legged, but in no sense muscular or
given to physical exercises. His face was feminine, with finely
marked features, and eyes dark, liquid and expressive. He dressed
well and neatly. He was a very attractive companion, genial in
his nature, and familiar by the varied life that he had already
led, with persons and scenes new to the unsophisticated provin-
cials among whom he was thrown. . . . What, however, im-
pressed his associates most were his remarkable attainments as a
classical scholar. . . . Poe was often found in the Library
which was then open from three-thirty to five o'clock where he
seems to have revelled in the rare and fine collection of standard
authors assembled by Jefferson himself. The records show that
Edgar A. Poe borrowed these books from the Library, a list which
gives us some inkling of his interests outside of class work.
Historic Ancienne .... _ Rollin
Historic Romaine .... _ Rollin
***** ...... Robertson
Washington ..... Marshall
Historic Particuliere . . . Voltaire
Nature Displayed . . . . Dufief 221
The mixture of romantic history and natural science is char-
acteristic. To the same reading room came Jefferson himself, his
well-known figure about the University must have been familiar
to Poe. They must have been together frequently in the Library,
-
ISRAFEL IN CAP AND GOWN 159
and it is scarcely possible that at some time some conversation
was not exchanged. For all that, Jefferson left no mark on the
imagination of Poe. Their worlds of thought, indeed, were uni-
verses apart*
Poe's life at the University of Virginia has hitherto had to be
constructed solely from the testimony and reminiscences of his
classmates; it is now possible, however, for the first time to add
to it the facts given in his own letter to John Allan. 222 Only two
of these written from the University remain. It is probable that
he wrote several others to his foster-mother but these, if they
exist, and they probably do not, have not come to light. In May,
1826, Poe writes to John Allan that he has received from home
a uniform coat together with six yards of striped doth for panta-
loons, and four pair of socks. He says that the coat, which is a
beautiful one, fits him exactly. It seems that at this period some
of the students, those at least who took military drill, wore a
sort of cadet uniform which accounts for the word " uniform."
The disturbances caused among the student body by the meeting
of the local grand jury also comes in for brief mention. Poe says
his guardian will no doubt have heard about them by that time,
and tells us that those whose names had been put upon the
sheriff's lists had gone on their travels into the woods and moun-
tains taking their bedding and provisions along with them. Poe
himself is evidently not among them. The Hegira, it seems, took
place the first day of the fright. Finding that those who were
" wanted " were thus disappearing into remote places, the faculty
now took a hand in the affair and issued a sort of proclamation
confining the student body to the dormitories between the hours
of eight and ten A.M. during which time the visitation and in-
quisition of the sheriffs was to take place. Little attention was
paid to this, however, and those with troubled consciences took
to the woods freely a second time. In consequence of this the
faculty the next morning reprimanded several, suspended for
two months James Abbot Clarke of Manchester, one of Poe's old
222 xhe facts narrated in this and the ensuing paragraph are taken from two
of Poe's own letters to John Allan while at the University, first published in the
Valentine Museum Poe Letters, pages 37-44 " letters Nos. i and 2," now available
for the first time,
r6o
ISRAFEL
schoolmates at Burke's Academy, and Armstead Carter from near
Charlottesvffle for the rest of the session. Thomas Barclay was
dismissed.
The constant fighting, duelling and bickering of the student
body also comes in for mention. It was a rude age in some
respects and among the students lingered many of the barbarous
customs of the American frontier. Poe tells us that a common
fight was such an ordinary occurrence that no notice was taken
of it. A more savage and feudistic affair between Turner Dixon
and one Blow from Norfolk attracted more lasting notice. In the
preliminary scuffle Blow it seems had the advantage, but Dixon
took revenge by posting him in most indecent terms. This, and
Blow's reply, was for a week the main topic of conversation. All
the pillars in the University were turned white with scribbled
reminders and counter replies, until finally Dixon was provoked
into making another assault on Arthur Smith, one of Blow's Nor-
folk friends, by striking him on the head with a stone. At this
Smith pulled out a pistol and would have ended the controversy
then and there if the weapon had not missed fire. Finally the
Proctor of the University took a hand, summoned all the ag-
grieved parties before a magistrate, and bound them over to keep
the peace. The picture given of the lax discipline of the student
body at this period, and the hot-headed bickering of young
Southern gentlemen brought up in the traditions of the duel-
ling code is illuminating. Poe closes the letter with affection-
ate messages home to the ladies of the household and a re-
quest for a copy of Tacitus Historiae and a further supply of
soap! 86 *
In a second letter from the University, written to John Allan
on September 2ist, 1826, Poe tells us of the consternation among
the student body at the announcement of the examinations to
be given in the following December. As the University had only
been under way for two years, he thinks it doubtful whether any
diplomas or degrees will be conferred. Other institutions require
three or four years before a degree is conferred, he tells us, and
there was evidently some feeling that it would be unfair to ex-
amine those who had only been there one session, in the same re-
ISRAFEL IN CAP AND GOWN 161
quirements, along with those who had been attending lectures
for two. This, of course, covers his own case. Nevertheless, he
seems fairly confident. He has been studying hard, he says, in
order to prepare, and expects to come off as well as the rest, pro-
vided he is not too nervous.
Among other things, we also learn that the Rotunda was at that
time nearly finished and the pillars of the Portico completed, to
the great improvement of the appearance of the campus. The
books, of which he says there was a fine collection, had recently
been moved into the new Library. Another, and peculiarly brutal
fight to the finish is also described. Poe saw the entire affair which
came off just in front of his door.
One Wickliffe, who, it will appear from the sequel, must have
been well-versed in the tactics of gouging and biting, then preva-
lent in the Western settlements, retired behind West Range to
settle his differences with another student, and being the stronger,
soon had the latter down and completely at his mercy. Not con-
tent with that, he then preceded to bite his antagonist from the
shoulder to the elbow. Poe says that he saw the arm afterwards
and that the flesh was so seriously torn as to probably necessitate
the cutting out of pieces as big as his hand. Poe adds without
further explanation, that Wickliffe was from Kentucky. Scarcely
a generation before, the same customs had disturbed the consti-
tutional convention when it met at Richmond, Virginia. With
such wolfish tactics still lingering about, the situation of Poe
when he enraged the young bloods among the gamblers of the
place by failing to meet his card debts, may be imagined. Poe's
September letter from the University also informs us that John
Allan had already paid him a visit sometime before, and sug-
gests that business may require his presence in Charlottesville
about examination time in December. What that business eventu-
ally turned out to be, and how momentous the visit was to Poe,
must be related shortly.
Of the life about the little hamlet of Charlottesville, then con-
fined to the valley below the college, there remain many authentic
traditions. With the opening of the University and the conse-
quent influx of gilded youth, there sprang up a parasitical com-
ISRAFEL
mercial group which lived upon and exploited the students. 223
Chief among these were the hotel and boarding-house keepers
who supplied the young gentlemen scholars with apple-toddy,
egg-nog, mint slings, and the famous " peach and honey " of the
neighborhood, or who kept dogs for the students, and connived at
their clandestine affairs and gambling parties. There is some men-
tion of Poe's paying some attention to a daughter of one of the
boarding-house keepers and taking her to dances, but he does not
appear to have taken any unusual part in the bucolic revels of
the place, nor to have fallen at any time under the formal censure
of the University authorities. The legend that he was expelled
has, of course, long ago been exploded. 224 The University records,
however yield us this:
The Faculty met December 20th, 1826
Present: JOHN T. SOMES, Chairman
DR. DUNGLISON
DR. BLAETTERMANN
MR. BONNYCASTLE
MR. TUCKER
MR. KEY
The Chairman presented to the faculty a letter from the Proctor giv-
ing information that certain Hotel Keepers during the last session had
been in the habit of playing at games of chance with the students in
their Dormitories he also gave the names of the following persons
who he had been informed had some knowledge of the facts, Edgar
Mason, Turner Dixon, William Seawell, E. Le Branche, Edgar Poe,
Drummond Emmanuel Miller, Hugh Pleasants and E. G. Crump who
having been summoned to appear . . . etc.
Poe with some others said he knew nothing about it and the
matter was dismissed. Evidently, in common with the other school
228 In a letter from West Point to John Allan, dated January 3rd, 1830, Poe
specifically states that he was compelled to borrow money from "Jews" in
Charlottesville at exorbitant rates of interest.
224 William Wertenbaker's recollections made in 1869 "I was myself a
member of the last three (Poe's) classes, and can testify that he was tolerably
regular in his attendance, and a successful student, having attained distinction at
the Final Examination in Latin and French; and this was at that time the highest
honor a student could obtain. The present regulations in regard to degrees had
not been adopted. Under the existing regulations he would have graduated in the
two languages above named, and have been entitled to diplomas " The Inde-
pendent for September, 1900.
ISRAFEL IN CAP AND GOWN 163
boys, Edgar Poe did not make a very good witness. That he was
a devotee if not an adept at gaming, however, the amount of his
losses later bear a better witness than he himself did.
The merchants of the town evidently did a thriving trade,
mostly, of course, on credit. The parents of the students were re-
quired to give surety that their bills would be settled, although
there was also an act of the legislature that absolved a student
from debts which were found to be " unjust." 225 The relation ex-
isting between careless and spendthrift youths, whose expenses
were guaranteed, and irresponsible and avaricious shop-keepers,
was one which lent itself to exploitation. In Poe's case, the situa-
tion was undoubtedly aggravated by conditions which have only
lately come to light.
Young Poe was known to be the ward, and was said to be the
heir of one of the richest men in Virginia. 226 It was probably not
only easy and possible for him to exploit his credit to an unusual
degree, but he was almost certainly pressed to do so by the shop-
keepers who were familiar with his " father's " circumstances.
It would seem that in the matter of clothes particularly, Poe soon
ran into considerable debt. This, in itself, would have been a
minor extravagance all the clothes that even a young man of
dandiacal inclinations could wear in one session would not have
been a serious matter to a father in John Allan's circumstances
but Poe, it seems, used his clothes and orders upon his tailors to
pay his gambling debts. He developed a great leaning for cards
and no less than seventeen -broadcloth coats 227 are said to have
amply failed to satisfy his ill luck at Loo and Seven-up. This, on
the surface, has an ill look for Poe, and that he was culpable to
some degree cannot be denied. The real reason for Poe's " passion
for gaming," which his classmates soon noticed has, however,
never been told. Family letters which have recently come to light
225 it was probably this statute that John Allan afterward took as a legal
ground for refusal to pay Foe's debts. Bills of merchandise purchased by Poe from
Charlottesville merchants were rendered to the firm of Ellis 6* Allan as late as
1835. These items are to be found in the Ellis & Allan Papers, Library of Congress,
Washington, D. C. See page 154 this volume.
220 Poe seems to have made considerable capital of this on various occasions.
227 R. H. Stoddard Memoir, page 34, W. J. Middleton, publisher, 1875.
I64 ISRAFEL
put a new face upon the matter, a face with a strange and serious
expression.
John Allan, it seems, retained such a lively memory of the
household controversies prior to Foe's departure for the Uni-
versity, that, either through previous deliberate intention, or an
after-developed unwillingness to give where it hurt probably
the latter his remittances to his foster-son were not only inade-
quate but almost nil. In the light of later events, it is scarcely too
much to say that the firm Scotch merchant and " millionaire "
had embarked upon a policy of embarrassing his foster-son.
Without the revelations contained in some of Poe's letters
which have just been published (September, 1925) his embar-
rassed and harassed condition while at the University would never
have been suspected. 228 Upon leaving for Charlottesville, John
Allan provided him with $110. The expenses of attendance were,
Poe assures his foster-father, at the lowest possible estimate,
$350 a year, and he itemizes his immediate outlay in advance as
follows:
For Board $
For lectures under 2 professors ....
Room rent in the University
For bed
For room furniture
Total $149.00
Thus Poe was already $39.00 in debt immediately upon arrival
at the University, and, as he says, he had the mortification of
being regarded as a beggar because he owed for public property.
In reply to Poe's expostulations, John Allan did not neglect
the opportunity of reproaching his foster-son for not attending
three lectures and subjected him to the utmost abuse as if the
boy were " the vilest wretch on earth " for running in debt. In
compliance with the suspicious Scotchman's " command " Poe
228 The facts in the discussion which follows are taken from the Valentine
Museum Poe Letters published by Lippincott of Philadelphia, in 1925, and hitherto
inaccessible to former biographers. See particularly letter " No. 24 " dated at West
Point, January 3rd, 1830, pages 253-258.
ISRAFEL IN CAP AND GOWN 165
wrote him a letter giving an itemized account of his expenditures.
To cover the debt of $39 the merchant sent Poe a check for $40
leaving $i for " spending money." Text books at that time were
furnished from home. Of these John Allan sent him those which
were evidently in stock at Ettis & Allan, among them a Cam-
bridge Mathematics in two volumes, and a set of Gil Bias which
had no connection with the courses which Poe was taking.
Poe was obliged to hire a servant and pay for fuel, laundry,
and all other expenses and as a consequence again "ran into
debt." It was then, he says, he became "dissolute," meaning
probably that he played cards for money, and adds touchingly
that he calls God to witness that he never loved dissipation, but
that even the hollow profession of friendship of his companions
was a comfort to one whose only crime was that he had never
had anyone on Earth who cared for him. His letter is, indeed, a
cry of pathetic despair, and the indubitable proof of a parsimony,
on the part of his guardian, which, if it was not premeditated,
brands him as one of the meanest of mankind. In any event it is
beneath contempt.
Poe wrote a letter to James Gait asking for relief which Gait
was unable at the time to afford him. Knowing that John Allan
was one of the richest men in Virginia, the other Scotchman may
well have hesitated. After this he became desperate, Poe says,
and involved himself irretrievably in gambling. Towards the end
of the term John Allan sent him $100, but it came too late to
afford him relief, and he seems to have been literally hounded
from the University. Thus, in all, during the entire year at
Charlottesville, Poe's guardian sent him $250, a sum which, in
toto, was $100 less than the expenses required. The inference is
plain. The result was, that Poe returned to Richmond followed
by warrants and under the stigma of "extravagance." Mr.
Allan's position is clear, for he not only refused to meet the debts
of honor but even the bills for sweeping out his "son's room"
and making his bed. 229
Had John Allan been in straightened circumstances, there
might have been some excuse for this strange parsimony, but he
229 See the letter from Geo. W. Spotswood, Chapter X, page 189, also note 263.
i66
ISRAFEL
was now in the full enjoyment of his uncle's ample fortune and,
at that time, planning expenditures which make Edgar's expenses,
debts and all, seem a bagatelle in comparison. The plain ugly fact
seems to be that he disliked the boy because of what he knew,
and that Edgar Allan Poe was already cut off with a shilling, and
a Scotch shilling at that. Between the two men and an open rup-
ture, was only the fast-wasting form of Frances Allan. To prevent
it, even at the last, was the prayer literally on her dying lips as
her breath failed. 230
To pay his way, and even at various times to obtain food and
fuel, Poe was thus reduced to the necessity of exploiting his
credit in Charlottesville, and to playing cards for what he could
make out of them. As always happens in such cases, he was un-
lucky; the debts remained unpaid, and as a consequence he
began to lose caste. Even a gentleman gambler is supposed to
play for the excitement and amusement, once his necessities be-
come apparent, he enters a professional but unhonored class.
Among the Virginia planters' sons and Southern youths with
whom Poe played, this was particularly true. Even the labor of
hands for gain was despised as being performed by slaves, to
play for it was beyond the pale.
But there was cause of more heart-torturing worry than un-
paid debts or the unflattering opinions of his classmates; no word
had come from Elmira. All his ardent, beseeching, and heart-
broken letters remained unanswered at a time when, to a young
lover, silence is despair. Mr. Royster had intercepted the lovers'
correspondence, and both her parents were pressing upon Elmira
the suit of an older, and, in their eyes, a more acceptable man,
one Mr. A. Barrett Shelton, a persistent young bachelor, and a
man of means and some social distinction. Thinking that Edgar
had forgotten her, the little girl reconsidered her promise to Poe
and unwillingly acquiesced. That there must have been some col-
lusion between Mr. Royster and John Allan seems an unavoid-
able conclusion. The two men were friends, and if Mr. Royster
had thought that Poe was even to share in John Allan's estate
sac See Chapter XH, page 231, also James Gait's testimony given by J. H.
Whitty Complete Poems of Edgar Allan Poe, large edition, appendix page 195.
ISRAFEL IN CAP AND GOWN 167
there can be little doubt that he would have regarded him with
more complacence as a son-in-law. From whom he learned that
this was not to be the case is not certain, but it is not hard to
guess. 281
Poe's condition at the University of Virginia was therefore a
peculiarly trying one to a sensitive young lad of seventeen " with
a feminine face." Outwardly he was the spoiled and petted heir
of a wealthy man with a dangerous but enviable credit among
the shopkeepers, a well dressed, handsome, and brilliant young
scholar who played too much Loo; inwardly he was the prey to
exasperating and debilitating anxieties, worried at the unexpected,
unjust, and embarrassing withholding of funds, tortured by the
inexplicable silence of the girl whose promise and kiss had gone
with him when he left Richmond, and torn between his fear of,
and duty towards his guardian, and his sympathy for his foster-
mother. What he knew, he durst not tell, and it would have done
him no good if he had. The letters from John Allan were worm-
wood and gall, and there was no one to whom in this dilemma he
could turn for advice. Then too, what of the future? This also
was to be considered. It is not stepping out of the surrounding
frame of facts to say that it was a situation so exquisitely per-
plexing, that at times it was more than he could bear. In an evil
hour he resorted to the temporary oblivion and releasing excite-
ment of the bottle.
The motives which first led, and later compelled Poe to resort
from time to time to drink, are not mysterious, and are certainly
not inexplicable, but they are difficult to discuss and to place in
their true light especially in the United States. In a country and
age where the vending of alcoholic beverages has become a crime
and their interdicted consumption an event of cheap bravado, the
visualization of an era when a glass of wine or beer was regarded
in the same light, and as inevitable, as turkey soup after Thanks-
giving, requires an effort of the imagination which if the average
person possesses, he is not willing to exert. Drinking has become
romantic; in Poe's day the spigot was associated with, and for
gustatory reasons, preferred to the pump. The gentleman of taste
231 See Chapter VIII note 186, page 133.
i68
ISRAFEL
saw to it that his wines were old and properly served, just as the
good housewife now exerts herself to have the fish reasonably
fresh and not too thoroughly fried. It is true that there were
even then total abstainers, but there were also then, as there
are now, vegetarians. Tipsyness, especially after dinner was re-
garded as enviable; drunkenness was unfortunate, only when
the habit became inveterate and disgusting did it really enter the
realm of morals. To understand the, cause and nature of Poe's
drinking is essential to the understanding of his character; to mis-
understand it is to ignorantly malign the man. Just as De Quincey
is forever associated with opium, and Amy Lowell with her cigar,
Poe has been credited with the bottle as the source of his inspira-
tion. Mention him in any company, and like a reflex action comes
the inevitable question, " Did he drink? " The answer is, " He
did "; but to the moral indictment implied, it is no answer at all.
The first mention of Poe's drinking crops up while he was at the
University of Virginia, To be sure, some capital has been made of
the fact that on various occasions Poe is known to have tasted
wine before. To anyone who is not hopelessly bigoted about the
matter, however, these stories can be dismissed as futile attempts
by special pleading to lay emphasis on facts which, by their
nature, can have no significance. To say that Poe on this or that
occasion in his childhood tasted wine, a beverage which, in the
age of its universal use must have been in the houses of his foster-
father and his friends, is of no more significance than to say that
he drank coffee. Had Poe not over-indulged upon occasions some
years later, such tittle-tattle would now no more be mentioned
than the news that he ate several meals every day. Up until the
time of his arrival at the University of Virginia, there is, meticu-
lously speaking, not the slightest trace or indication, nor any
evidence upon which to base even a supposition, that he had ever
been intoxicated, or that he cared particularly for liquor.
That alcohol played a large and important part in determining
the events of his career cannot be denied, but that it was the
determining and most important factor is a false conclusion. 2 * 2
282 Many of the "Medical," "Psychological," and "Psychoanalytical," etc.,
etc., lives of Poe are vitiated by the fact that the premise of biographical facts
ISRAFEL IN CAP AND GOWN 169
The proof of these statements will be found in the facts of the
poet's life already related, and those to be set forth in the nar-
rative which is yet to follow.
At the University, Poe for the first time began to drink. The
motives which led to this seem to have been somewhat involved
and various. In the first place, from his method of imbibing, Poe
does not seem to have liked the taste. Your drinkers may be
grouped into four several kinds; sippers, tipplers, gulpers, and
guzzlers. The Sipper is your exquisite gentleman who inhales the
bouquet, is particular as to the temperature, and tastes drop by
drop, to the last in his delicate glass, the rare aroma of an old
vintage whose date he judges not by figures but by flavor. Tip-
plers are those who drain the glass in private, slowly but often,
judging the brew by the quality and duration of the dreamful
aftermath. Gulpers are those who care nothing for the taste, but
with a single direct motion send the drink home for the result.
Your Guzzler is he who drinks all, as rapidly, as frequently, and
as persistently as he can. In this convivial category our hero was
of the third degree, a Gulper. " He would always seize the tempt-
ing glass, generally unmixed with sugar or water, in fact per-
fectly straight and without the least apparent pleasure, swallow
the contents, never pausing until the last drop had passed his
lips. One glass at a time was all that he could take; but this was
sufficient to rouse his whole nervous nature into a state of strong-
est excitement which found vent in a continuous flow of wild,
fascinating talk that enchanted every listener with siren-like
power." 288
Edgar's revels were held in his own room. A good fire would be
lit, the furniture or other odds and ends sometimes serving for
from which their conclusions are drawn is at fault, due to the statements of old
biographies that rest on legendary sources. To put the case mildly, for instance,
very little is really known of Poe's heredity. The real character of his parents and
immediate grandparents cannot be ascertained with sufficient clearness to warrant
any scientific conclusions. See the appendix for a discussion of Poe's heredity.
233 Reminiscences of Thomas G. Tucker, Poe's classmate. Peter the Great of
Russia had caused a great furor in England in the Seventeenth Century by a
similar method of drinking. Bishop Burnett says it was Peter's custom to drink large
bumpers of brandy, raw, before breakfast, and to gulp them down. The Muscovite
seems to have derived much pleasure from the performance, and in contradistinc-
tion to Poe, "liked the taste."
170 ISRAFEL
fuel (if the wood yard outside the window was not privateered
upon) the table was drawn out and the game began. Several of
those who were present at such times, have testified to the fact
that Poe seemed under great nervous strain and excitement.
When the means for his daily needs depended upon the run of
cards, we can understand this. Ill luck would make it worse. Of
the strain he was under from other causes, his classmates could,
of course, have known nothing. Poe's drinking, which at worst
seems to have been very occasional at the University, probably
took place for a variety of reasons.
In the first place as we have seen, it was the custom of the
time and the fashion at the University. There must also have been
a certain amount of bravado in the young student, in common
with many others at a similar stage of development, who want to
" Play the man " and impress the world with their manly sophis-
tication. Poe seems to have rather affected the r61e of the finished
youth. His experience abroad, his coming from Richmond the
" big town " of his group, and the reputed wealth of his " father,"
all led him to live up to the jejune ideal which he assumed the
others to demand of him. It was the boy's aim to impress and to
be remarkable. There was also another motive, perhaps not a con-
scious one, but a powerful one. Poe was not to the manner born,
In the group of " F.F.V.'s " in which he found himself, he desired
to be accepted without question, and the social doubt that his
birth implied drove him not only to equal, but to try to exceed
his companions in their own modes; to be a remarkable, a strange
and a good fellow. As always the thing was overdone. Those who
are sure of themselves never need to impress. So the fire burned
more brightly, the stakes were perhaps a little higher, and the
drinking a little deeper than was necessary. Lastly, but most
important of all, in the temporary excitement of wine came self-
confidence and oblivion. It made him confident, and it made him
forget. This, at all times, then and in the future, was the main
reason for his drinking.
The effect upon Poe of even a small quantity was out of all
usual proportion. He seems to have been so sensitively organized,
that a dram, which to the average man caused only a faint glow,
ISRAFEL IN CAP AND GOWN 171
was sufficient to make his actions and conversation unusual. One
glass was literally too much; two or three were disastrous; and
a continued round of potations reduced him to a quivering carica-
ture of himself, a libel on genius, and a portent of fallen humanity.
The aftermath was physical torture, spiritual despair, and the
remorse of a " lost " but abnormally sensitive soul. These mani-
festations are discussed here in the light of what was to follow
rather than in connection with Poe's imbibing at the University,
which is important as a beginning and a tendency rather than
for its immediate importance.
While at Charlottesville, Poe's drinking seems to have been
noted for its unusual effects upon an already remarkable person-
ality rather than for its frequency. It was not habitual but rare.
A visit to his room while one of his parties is underway, in the
company of one of his classmates, will perhaps serve to make
this clear. A classmate says: 234r
Poe roomed on the West side of the Lawn, I on the East, he after-
wards moved to the Western Range (Number 13) I was often in
both rooms and recall the many hours spent therein. ... He was
very excitable and restless, at times wayward, melancholic and morose,
but again in his better moods frolicsome, full of fun and a most attrac-
tive and agreeable companion. To calm and qidet the excessive nervous
excitability under which he labored^ he would too often put himself
under the influence of the " Invisible Spirit of Wine."
Another companion remarks:
235
The particular dissipation of the University at this period was gam-
ing with cards, and into this Poe plunged with a recklessness of nature
which acknowledged no restraint. ... It led to a loss of caste among
his high spirited and exclusive associates.
Tom Tucker also tells us: 2se
Poe's passion for strong drink was as marked and as peculiar as that
for cards. It was not the taste of the beverage that influenced him;
2 4 Dr. Miles George in a letter to Edward V. Valentine of Richmond, May 18,
1880. This letter is now in the Ingram collection at the University of Virginia.
235 William M. Burwell, May 18, 1884, in the New Orleans Times Democrat.
23 Thomas Goode Tucker to Douglas Sherley letter April 5, 1880. Also
quoted by Prof. Woodberry vol. i, 1909, page 33.
I72 ISRAFEL
without a sip or smack of the mouth he would seize a full glass, with-
out water or sugar, and send it home at a single gulp. This frequently
used him up; but if not, he rarely returned to the charge.
Such drinking bears all the marks of being a very juvenile per-
formance, indeed, Baudelaire has called it potations en bar-
bare, but it has about it, laying aside the pitiably boyish {
bravado, a certain gesture of childlike despair that is signi-
ficant. No letter from Blmira and several from John Allan
down goes a nasty dram which " frequently used him up " and
no wonder, the "peach-honey" of the University was a man's
drink.
West Range was known in Poe's day as " Rowdy Row " and
there were strict rules that the students' doors must be unbarred
when a professor tapped on them, a rule hard to enforce. But not
all of the parties in Number 13 were given over to cards and
convivialities; these, it seems, in the light of after events have
been overstressed. The real boy who dwelt there was of another
stamp, or there would not now be over the door of Number 13
" Rowdy Row " a bronze tablet with
EDGAR ALLAN POE
MDCCCXXVI
Domus parva magni poeta 237
Many a long hour in the little dormitory was spent poring over
favorite poets, Shelley, Keats, Coleridge and Wordsworth, present
now beyond all doubt, and the old favorites Byron and Moore.
Here, too, first began to take shape Tamerlane, through which
moved the ghost of Elmira as he imagined her, and longed for her
walking with him through the wild glens of the Ragged Moun-
tains, that, with Kubla Khan's magic on his lip, he called the
" Mountains of Belur Taglay." Why were his letters never an-
swered? Did he suspect the truth before the term was over
287 The inscription seems to be after that on the house of Erasmus in the
Hoogestraate, Rotterdam.
ISRAFEL IN CAP AND GOWN 173
I pictured to my fancy's eye
Her silent, deep astonishment,
When a few fleeting years gone by
(For short the time my high hope lent
To its most desperate intent,)
She might recall in him, whom Fame
Had gilded with a conqueror's name
(With glory such as might inspire
Perforce, a passing thought of one,
Whom she had deem'd in his own fire
Wither'd and blasted; who had gone
A traitor, violate of the truth
So plighted in his early youth,)
Her own Alexis, who should plight
The love he plighted then again,
And raise his infancy's delight,
The bride and queen of Tamerlane. 288
Ah, yes! He would show her that he was faithful, he, whom she
had thought forgetful. To her he would return and make her his
bride and queen when fame was his! How delightful, how youth-
ful, and how pathetic! In the meanwhile he crammed his mind
from " many an ancient volume of forgotten lore," and treasured
all those honeyed fancies that cloy the too sweet lines of Al
Aaraaj.
n?he Sephalica, budding with young bees, \
^Jpreared its purple stem around her knees, J
he writes, culling the rich vowels of the flower's name from the
pages of Nature Displayed flung at random on the table " bees
bees " there occurs the ready rhyme of " knees " and the
vision of a certain intriguing petticoat flaunted from a sofa in
a parlor on Second Street in Richmond, then Elmira standing up
to her knees among flowers in the Enchanted Garden just as they
were said to have sprung about the feet of Sapho, and the lines
say themselves. But that will never do. No, he is the scholar
now, too, and the young poet solemnly notes of the sephalica,
" This flower is much noticed by Lewenhoeck and Tournefort,
the bee feeding upon its blossom becomes intoxicated." 239 One
288 From the 1827 version of Tamerlane, stanza XII.
230 See Foe's own notes to Al Aaraaf.
I74 ISRAFEL
wonders how anybody with a name like Lewenhoeck could have
noticed anything so charming. Nor did he keep these fancies en-
tirely to himself. " Poe was fond of quoting poetic authors and
reading poetic productions of his own, with which his friends
were delighted and entertained; suddenly a change would come
over him; then he would with a piece of charcoal evince his
versatile genius by sketching upon the walls of his dormitory,
whimsical, fanciful and grotesque figures, with so much artistic
skill, as to leave us in doubt whether Poe in future life would be
a painter or a poet." 24 Among these sketches were grotesques
of the plates of an edition of Byron. What an enthusiasm and a
necessity for self-expression was pent up in these close walls!
The company that gathered about the fire in Number 13 to
listen. to some of the early American Short Stories and the im-
passioned voice of Israfel reciting his own poetry, was a brilliant
one and comprised some of the future leaders of the time. 241
Those who listened to Poe then never forgot him. Between the
glasses of hot apple-toddy, the bursts of laughter and the green
oaths of youth, the anecdotes about the campus queans, the
idiosyncrasies of the faculty, and the latest student duel, Poe
would read something he had just written, putting his whole soul
into his gestures and the low melodious modulations of his voice,
while the fire flickered and the long candle shadows waved to
and fro. Then followed an open expression of opinions. 212 " On one
occasion Poe read a story of great length to some of his friends
who, in a spirit of jest, spoke lightly of its merits, and jokingly
told him that his hero's name c Gaffy ' occurred too often. His
proud spirit would not stand such open rebuke, so in a fit of
anger, before his friends could prevent him, he had flung every
sheet into a blazing fire, and thus was lost a story of more than
ordinary parts which, unlike most of his stories, was intensely
amusing, entirely free from his usual somber coloring and sad
conclusions merged in a mist of impenetrable gloom. He was for
2 * Dr. Miles George to Edward V. Valentine, letter, May 5, 1880, now in
the Ingram collection, University of Virginia.
241 For a long list of the distinguished men who were at the University of
Virginia with Poe, see Harrison, Life and Letters of Edgar Allan Poe, vol. I.
2 * 2 Thomas Goode Tucker is quoted here.
ISRAFEL IN CAP AND GOWN 175
a long time afterwards called by those in his particular circle
i Gaffy ' Poe, a name that he never altogether relished." And so,
as might have been expected, the proud " Alexis " who was to
come back as the conquering hero, " gilded by fame," to make
Elmira his queen and his bride, had become " Gaffy "! The name
followed him to West Point. But there is nearly always affection
in a nickname, even ridicule is familiar, and Poe was evidently
liked. "Whatever Poe may have been in after years," says a
classmate and intimate friend, " he was at the University as true
and perfect a friend as the waywardness of his nature would
allow. There was never then the least trace of insincerity."
With all of its distractions, this was seed-time for a great har-
vest. Under Professor Long, who had a passion for geography in
its relation to history, may have first arisen Poe's minute knowl-
edge of the bizarre facts in the customs and landscapes of " far
countrees," and the curiosity to continue the research out of
which tales could be fabricated with that " imaginative-realism "
in which he delighted. Professor George Tucker, who touched
even the dry data of statistics and treatises on population with
the virile wand of interest, could scarcely have failed to attract
Poe, for while Poe was at the University, Tucker was writing a
story called A Voyage to the Moon?** after the very manner
followed later by his pupil in his Balloon Hoax, Hans Pfaatt, and
the like. Poe not infrequently visited the faculty at. home and
such things as lunar voyages may have been discussed. It was
a topic upon which Edgar would love to enlarge. Keats longed for
the moon like a child; Poe with his combined mathematics and
poetry imagined that he reached it.
And there were the Ragged Mountains! Poe knew a private
and little-trod path that led there, to glens glistering in the Spring
with the bleached flame of the dogwood blossoms, or brilliant
beyond European imagination after the first frosts with the pied
motley of the scarlet and golden Virginia Fall. Here he could find
solitude and dream of Elmira, and make poems "upon a dim,
warm, misty day, towaird the close of November, and during the
strange interregnum, of the seasons which in America is termed
248 Published in the American Quarterly Review in 1827.
I7 6 ISRAFEL
the Indian summer/' 244 Of what he saw and thought there, let
him speak for himself when "... attended only by a dog upon
a long ramble among the chain of wild and dreary hills that lie
westward and southward of Charlottesville."
The thick and peculiar mist, or smoke, which distinguishes the In-
dian summer, and which hung heavily over all objects, served no doubt,
to deepen the vague impressions which these objects created. So dense
was this pleasant fog that I could at no time see more than a dozen
yards of the path before me. This path was excessively sinuous, and as
the sun could not be seen, I soon lost all idea of the direction in which
I journeyed. ... In the quivering of a leaf in the line of a blade
of grass in the shape of a trefoil in the humming of a bee in
the gleaming of a dew drop in the breathing of wind in the faint
odors that came from the forest there came a whole universe of sug-
gestion a gay and motley train of rhapsodical and unmethodical
thought.
This was a very excellent classroom, indeed, for a poet, and
there is no better incubator in the world for dreams than the
sun diffused in warm mist.
Thus slipped the months away. On July 4th Jefferson had died
and Poe heard the old University bell tolled for the first time to
mark his passing. Edgar was himself secretary of the " Jefferson
Literary Society," 246 a type of organization that in the college
life of the time provided not only literary and oratorical occa-
sions, but became a convenient means for the formal recognition
of cliques; it filled very largely the place of the modern fraternity.
In a Southern college, the death of its great founder would not
fail to be marked by the student orators of the time. It was still
the age of the spoken word. 240 But the Fall of 1826 was marked
244 The quotations here are from Poe's Tale of the Ragged Mountains, pub-
lished in Godey's Lady's Book for 1844.
245 Some doubt has been thrown on the authenticity of Poe's signature as the
secretary of this society.
246 When the History of Oratory in the United States is written, as it ought
to be, the large part played in national political movements by the literary
societies in American schools and colleges will become apparent. Starting as senuine
debating groups, in which argumentation was actually studied and practised, these
forensic-social groups gradually deteriorated; parliamentary procedure devolved
into a patter and ritual; the laws of evidence were disregarded, and the palm
awarded to the loquaciously-eloquent, whose flights were unhindered by the weight
ISRAFEL IN CAP AND GOWN 177
for Edgar Poe by an event which must have caused him more
immediate and genuine sorrow than the death of Jefferson. Some
time in the late Autumn of the year John Allan seems to have
visited Charlottesville. It was no mere matter of academic inter-
est that drew his reluctant feet to the University; certain manu-
scripts bearing his foster-son's signature had come to light, not
poems, but bills payable.
As the term drew to its close near the Christmas holidays, the
merchants of Charlottesville who supplied the University stu-
dents, doubtless began to want to see the color of money before
their gay young customers departed from the neighborhood. Bills
were sent home and the usual difficulties began. Owing to his
guardians untimely parsimony in sending Edgar almost no cash
allowance at all, the boy had no doubt had to use his credit to
an unusual extent to begin with.
One can imagine the almost apoplectic effect of the cold record
of his ward's progress along the primrose path, when presented
in dollars and cents to the purse-careful Scotchman. John Allan
seems to have called James Hill, ordered out the carriage, and
driven post-haste over to Charlottesville. Nor would two days
journey over the mountain roads of Virginia, in the McAdamless
year of grace 1826, have served to smooth his wrath. He had
plenty of time to think over what he would do and say, and as
usual his action was vigorous and his remarks characteristic.
The interview between Edgar and his guardian at Number 13
must have been a fiery one. Poe's proceedings had been, indeed,
most unfortunate. The result was fraught with tremendous con-
sequences to his future. Mr. Allan no doubt found a rather re-
calcitrant and exasperated youth to deal with; the whole story
came out inevitably, as the bills were there to expose it; and Poe
was curtly informed that his University career was over.
Whatever drinking there had been, must have been made the
most of, and the gambling debts were, of course, inexcusable in
of logic. One of these " orators " from Buncombe County, North Carolina, who
was elected to the United States Congress, has added a new word to the language,
buncombe, later shortened, to bunk. The necessity for the word is by no means
sectional.
17 8 ISRAFEL
the eyes of the older man. These, Mr. Allan refused to pay. He
may have settled some of those for which he was legally respon-
sible and afterward have driven away in high dudgeon, nor would
it be any balm to his feelings, under the circumstances, that to
a certain extent his attempt to put his ward on short commons
had resulted in his having to pay more in the end. Edgar's bril-
liant scholastic record gave him nothing to complain of, so the
affair was entirely financial. When all is said and done, a few
apple-toddies could not have weighed very heavily in the scale
except to lend extra force to the older man's invective. Poe's
predicament will scarcely be evident to modern eyes. In his day,
imprisonment for debt was still in full force; the laws of Virginia
were stringent, and the boy, as soon as the news of his guardian's
attitude got about, which must have been instanter, would find
himself pwswd by warrants. Until the debts were satisfied, he
could not return to the county where they had been contracted,
and in a short while processes were issued which drove him from
the state. By simply withholding his aid, John Allan automatically
made Poe's return impossible. Whatever indiscretions Poe may
have committed, there is no evidence that he deserved a punish-
ment which involved the whole of his future. Mr. Allan was not
legally responsible for the gambling debts, but a few hundred
dollars would have staved off the merchants at Charlottesville.
The cold fact remains that the goad merchant did not think that
his foster-son was worth this. The threat to his Scotch purse was
unforgivable. A few years later he made ample provision for his
natural children in his will, legacies which, although a long and
scandalous litigation was involved, his second wife undertook to
set aside. In possession of a great fortune, $250 was the extreme
limit of his effort to carry out his promise to give Poe a liberal
education. In short the " jig was up." Poe had lost his opportunity
of a University education, and had to face alone the demands
for the payment of his debts of honor, doubtless to him the most
unpleasant aspect of the affair. As a result of the situation he
247 In Poe's last letter to John Allan from West Point he specifically states
that he was hounded out of Richmond by warrants. See Valentine Museum Poe
Letters, letter No. 24, page 256.
ISRAFEL IN CAP AND GOWN 179
seems, as one of his classmates says " to have lost caste." The
last of the Charlottesville episode closed in gloom. From William
Wertenbaker, who was a close friend of Edgar, we have a vivid
description of the final hours at the University.
On the night of December 2oth, 1826, or thereabouts, the two
young men spent the early hours of the evening at the house of
one of the faculty, probably Professor Tucker, or Professor
Blaettermann, whose conversation and young English wife must
have attracted the boys to the fireside. After the visit, Werten-
baker and Poe walked over to "the small dwelling of a great
poet " in West Range, where Poe began to smash up the furniture.
This he burned with sundry papers, and the accumulated rubbish
of 'the term in the little fireplace, meanwhile telling his troubles,
in a gloomy and foreboding vein, to William Wertenbaker, a
sympathetic listener.
It was a cold night in December, and his fire having gone pretty
nearly out, by the aid of some tallow candles, and the fragments of a
small table which he broke up for the purpose, he soon rekindled it,
and by its comfortable blaze I spent a very pleasant hour with him.
On this occasion he spoke with regret of the large amount of money
he had wasted and of the debts he had contracted during the session.
If my memory is not at fault he estimated his indebtedness at $2000,
and, though they were gaining debts, he was earnest, and emphatic in
the declaration that he was bound by honor to pay, at the earliest op-
portunity, every cent of them. 248
William Wertenbaker probably went home about midnight,
leaving Edgar to fall asleep by the flickering shadows of the dying
fire as the last sticks of his little table, upon which Tamerlane and
Other Poems had come into being, slowly turned into ashes, the
ashes of lost opportunity.
The next day he climbed on the Charlottesville coach in com-
pany with Philip St. George Ambler, Robert Hunter, Zaccheus
Lee, Creed Thomas, and other youths of Richmond, Washington,
and the vicinity, and started for home. They must have stopped
overnight on the way, and arrived in Richmond the day before
248 This is one of the most authentic glimpses of Poe at the University that
we have. William Wertenbaker afterward became Librarian of the University of
Virginia. It was his " profession " to cherish the literary memories of the place.
i8o ISRAFEL
Christinas, 1826. Poe brought with him a small trunk, in which
were the remnants of a considerable wardrobe, the spoil of the
Charlottesville merchants, a few cherished books, and the man-
uscripts of some of the poems which appeared in Boston about
six months later. 249 The prodigal had returned. As he ran up
the steps of the big house on Main Street, dressed in a " London
hat, a super-blue broadcloth suit with gilt buttons, a velvet vest
and drab pantaloons," 25 he probably had no hallucinations as
to the fatted calf, or that John Allan, under the circumstances,
would rehearse the paternal r61e in the parable. But he seems to
have been met with fondly welcoming arms by Frances Allan
and his dear "Aunt Nancy." Holly was in all the windows, and
mistletoe festooned the chandeliers, but where was Elmira?
249 Tamerlane and Other Poems. It is also even possible that the notes and
many of the lines of Al Aaraaf were in existence at this date as it bears the stamp
of having been conceived where a library was available and leisure to use it. Al
Aaraaf was published in 1829. Foe afterward used it as a mine for later poems,
Zante, etc.
250 Poe purchased these articles on December 4, 1826, from Samuel Leitch,
Jr., a Charlottesville merchant. Mr. Allan refused to pay the bill, now in the
Ellis & Allan Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, D. O, Foe's name on the
bill is misspelled Powe.
CHAPTER X
Alias Henri Le Rennet
SO the prodigal found himself, suddenly, in Richmond again.
Ill at ease, too, for he had now given John Allan real
cause for complaint, and his position in the household was
essentially uncomfortable; lawyers were trying to force Mr.
Allan to recognize his foster-son's gambling debts which, it ap-
pears, in all totalled about $2soo, 251 when the final sums came in.
These John Allan resolutely refused to recognize, and his exas-
peration seems to have been so extreme then, or later, that he
would not even settle for accounts that were legitimately con-
tracted. 352 The greeting between the two could only have been
curt.
Poe must have felt his position keenly. The other boys, to
some of whom he doubtless owed money, were also home for the
holidays. For them it was Christmas and a merry time. Poe, in
his chagrin, would scarcely care to see them. There would be no
happy return on a noisy coach to Charlottesville after New
Year's. He was no longer the brilliant young student and sport
of his set, with a literary career ahead, but the prodigal whose
brief career of glory was over, whose social position with his own
friends was compromised by unpaid debts of honor, with the dubi-
ous prospects of perhaps a place on a stool in the counting house
of Ettis & Allan. The pill was a bitter one, and it was made no
easier by his discovery of the truth about Elmira. Luckily, it is
not hard to piece out the events of the first day at home, the day
before Christmas.
Edgar must have had a long talk with his "mother" and
26i Statement made by Col. Thomas H. Ellis in a letter to the editor of the
Richmond Standard, April 22, 1881. Lawyers' letters relating to collection of these
debts are still extant in Richmond, Virginia.
252 see specifically the letter of Edward G. Crump to Poe, March 25, 1827 on
page 200.
Ig2 ISRAFEL
" Aunt Nancy "; that at least we can be sure was comforting.
On his drive to the University, the February before, it seems
that he had even then broached the subject to Frances Allan of
leaving John Allan's house, and making his own way in the
world. She, however, had persuaded him to go on to Charlottes-
ville. 258 The return of Poe in " disgrace " must have again aroused
apprehensions that he would leave her, and she was anxious to
soften the hard places of his fall, and make him welcome again
by the fireside which she had done so much to make happy.
Nothing is more indicative of her affection than the fact that
she had arranged for him, that very night, a Christmas Eve party
to which his friends were to be invited, as a formal advertise-
ment of the fact that he was still at home as the beloved foster-
son of a hospitable house. Nor was this in reality putting much
of a strain on the circumstances surrounding Poe's withdrawal.
That John Allan permitted it, shows that even he acquiesced. 264
It must be remembered that Edgar had not in any official way
disgraced himself. 255 That he had gambled, and upon occasions
overstepped the mark in the drinking bouts, was true, but it was
also true of nearly all the other students. He had not incurred the
displeasure of the authorities, and been dismissed; his guardian
had withdrawn him, not so much because of the " immorality "
of his conduct, as on account of his debts. 250 In the final analysis
this was what worried Mr. Allan most, as it would worry any
Scotchman or commercial-minded man. Had Edgar's wayward-
ness been of an inexpensive type it might have been censured, but
no very drastic action would have followed. The tune of $2500.
258 Statement made by James Hill, the Allan's coachman, who drove Mrs.
Allan and Poe to Charlottesville in 1826. See Whitty Memoir, large edition, page
xxvii. Also close of Chapter IX, this volume.
254 Thomas Boiling, a young friend of the Allan family and an acquaintance
of Poe, visited the Allan house in Richmond the day before Christmas and was
invited to this party. The Boiling family was settled in Goochland County at
^Boiling Hall," and "Boiling Island" Plantations. John Allan's plantation was
in the same neighborhood. See page 859.
255 See John Allan's letter to the Secretary of War from Richmond, May 6,
1829. " I have much pleasure in asserting that he (Poe) stood his examination at
the close of the year with great credit to himself."
288 John Allan says in the same letter referred to in note 255, " He left me in
consequence of some gambling at the University at Charlottesville," etc.
ALIAS HENRI LE RENNET 183
for one term was a melody which did not appeal to a Scotch ear,
however, and as Mr. Allan had to pay the piper, he had decided
to put a period to the dance. It was, in the opinion of him who
had to bear the expense, not worth the cost. At best, Mr. Allan's
enthusiasm over a liberal education for the foster-child must have
been limited. That limit had already been exceeded during the
first year of the cultural interlude, and, as a consequence, Master
Edgar found himself suddenly very much at home. It was this
financial aspect, too, in a more personal and proud way, rather
than the pricking of bad conscience, which appears to have
worried young Poe the most. The drinking escapades, on which
so much emphasis has been laid, could not have caused him
much self reproach at the time. He could not see them as the
evil portents of the future. He must have been a little ashamed
of the fact that his head was not as hard as the heads of his mates
who could carry their liquor better than he, but, that he had taken
a not unusual part in what was then expected and practised by
every live young gentleman at college, did not cause him much
spiritual dismay we may be sure. Drinking in all its aspects stood
on a different moral plane in 1826 than in 1926. What did worry
and cause him chagrin, perhaps even a feeling of disgrace, was
the remembrance that a goodly number of ex-college mates
possessed certain I. O. U.'s for not inconsiderable amounts, notes
which his foster-father had refused to honor. These in the boy's
eyes were debts of honor; in Mr. Allan's they were debts of dis-
honor, and in legal fact to him did not exist. The fact that his
disappointing and troublesome foster-son might lose prestige
among the members of a fast young set, whose good opinion Mr.
Allan did not think worth having, especially at a great price, left
him unmoved.
Edgar, on the other hand, like most boys of his age, probably
felt, and valued more keenly, the attitude of his fellows than the
opinions of his parents. 267 This, coupled with an inability to ap-
preciate the nature and difficulty of acquiring what was so easy
257 One of the main motives for Poe's leaving Richmond and assuming an
alias was undoubtedly his desire to avoid the unbearable contacts with those to
whom he owed debts of honor.
l84 ISRAFEL
to spend, undoubtedly contributed the main stress in an already
strained condition of affairs.
With the women of the household this monetary consideration
could not have been the most important one. Like most women,
they regarded the situation in its purely human and personal
aspect as a conflict of personalities. They were more apt to con-
done what in their eyes was, at worst, the result of the natural
exuberance and inexperience of a handsome boy under whose
more manly clothes beat the romantic heart and pulsed the warm
body which they had loved and cherished since childhood. It is
scarcely possible that Mrs. Allan ever forgot the purple cap with
the gold tassel, the Nankeen trousers and the buckled shoes. No
good woman ever would.
So there was to be a party! We can imagine Edgar's reception
of the news, his appreciation of all that it meant, and his passion-
ate gratitude to his " mother." What would he do without her?
She who was frail and ill, his " dear, dear Ma!" Now he would
run over and see Elmira. . . .
The blow was a staggering one. " No, she was not at home.
Miss Royster has left Richmond." The door closed, shutting out
the little parlor where the flute had once warbled and the piano
tinkled, leaving him, can we doubt it, in tears. Someone must have
told him, and someone must have left him in despair. 258
It was all plain now. He could hear John Allan and Mr. Roy-
ster talking it over, see all of his pathetic letters opened by an
unfeeling hand, the amused grins over the ardent lines, and a
little girl in tears. Then the advent of the unwelcome Mr. Shelton,
his plausible talk, and Elmira at last sent away where her lover
could not find her to tell her he still loved her, that it was all a
cruel lie, and that her Prince Charming had come back to claim
his princess after all. How dreary the Enchanted Garden now,
and how cold the snow looked on the roofs as he looked across
258 There is, of course, no " document n describing this visit to the Royster's.
Poe may have learned of Elmira's plight even before he left the University, or
from the servants or his foster-mother. In any event, the result of the news would
have been the same. If the story was held from him, as seems likely, his first
instinct would have been to visit Elmira. At the Royster house further conceal-
ment would have been impossible.
ALIAS HENRI LE RENNET 185
to the Roysters' and saw the empty window where a handkerchief
had once waved! It was all like a bad dream. As he unpacked the
mementoes of his lost room at the University, who can doubt that
the lines of certain manuscripts indited to a lost little lady swam
dizzily before him through the mist of his despair. Could she, had
she actually forgotten him? Most of Poe's historians have dis-
missed the " Elmira incident " as an amusing story of puppy-love.
They forget that in 1826-27, especially in the South, marriage
took place commonly in the 'teens. Poe had not simply lost a nice
little sweetheart but his promised wife. Elmira married Mr.
Shelton the next year. She had two children by him, both named
Sarah Elmira, who died in infancy, and a son. This " affair " was
in reality a great emotional crisis, and a frustration in the life of
Edgar Allan Poe. The home-making instinct here received its
deathblow, with a consequent tendency towards wanderlust. It
was one of the deepest sources of Poe's melancholy.
In considering Poe's parting and break with his guardian, dur-
ing the months of December, 1826, and January, 1827, the fact
of his broken engagement and the resulting irritation and wound
to his pride and hopes must be included. The spectacle of a
pretty young girl, from whose lips both the promises and pledges
of affection have been freely received but a few months before,
in the arms of an ardent young rival, is not one well calculated
to sooth the smart of misfortune. For with even the affectation
of Byronic pride and passion, and Poe had more than that, it was
a choking piece of humble pie. Hence the little Song from poems
written in youth and dated 1829.
I saw thee on thy bridal day 259
When a burning blush came o'er thee,
Though happiness around thee lay,
And the world all love before thee;
And in thine eye a kindling light
(Whatever it might be)
Was all on Earth my aching sight
Of loveliness could see.
259 written after the marriage of Elmira to Mr. Shelton and undoubtedly
addressed to her.
l8 6 ISRAFEL
Nor were a few rather poor lines the end of Elmira. After the
exit of Mr. Shelton she was to come on the stage again with Isra-
fel to take part in the last brief, hopeful, sunset glow of his final
act. But in December, 1826, the end seemed inevitable a merry
Christmas, indeed! The scene now shifts to a little later on in
the afternoon.
We are indebted to the testimony of Thomas Boiling, 254 a
former schoolmate of Edgar's, to whom Mr. Allan had extended
a cordial invitation to call, sometime before when he was on a
visit to the country, for a description of the events at the Allan
house on Christmas Eve, 1826. The young man, who was about
Edgar's age, had taken the opportunity of paying his respects to
Mr. and Mrs. Allan during the afternoon of the 24th, and was
somewhat embarrassed to see that preparations for an entertain-
ment were under way. He at once rose to leave, but was stopped
by Mr. Allan, who cordially insisted upon his staying, explaining
that Edgar had just returned from the University, and that some
of his young friends and acquaintances had been asked in to meet
him. Young Boiling replied that he was not suitably dressed,
whereupon Mr. Allan bade him, " Go up to Edgar's room. He
will supply you with one of his own suits." The remarkable ex-
tent of Poe's wardrobe was now probably thoroughly impressed
on Mr. Allan's mind.
Upon going upstairs, Tom Boiling found Edgar lying on a
lounge in his own room reading. " A handsomely furnished room,
with books and pictures arranged in bookcases around the wall."
One cannot help wondering if the little picture of Boston with
the pathetic lines on the back was among the rest. Edgar wel-
comed his friend cordially, and threw open the doors of his well-
stocked wardrobe, giving Tom his choice. Both of them then
went down stairs to the drawing room where Edgar did his part,
in welcoming his guests. As the evening wore on, Poe seems to
have become as impatient as usual with the formal social scene,
and pulling young Boiling aside, he quietly proposed that they
slip off down street and have a private spree of their own, Boi-
ling replied at first " That it would never do," but his friend was
so urgent that he finally yielded, and the company was left to
ALIAS HENRI LE RENNET 187
enjoy themselves as well as they could without the presence of
the " honor guest."
Just what led Poe to do this, it is not hard to guess. The re-
ception of friends who knew the story of his fiasco at the Uni-
versity was probably no easy matter, Elmira must have been
keenly on his mind, and the festivities of a Southern Christmas
Eve thoroughly out of keeping with his mood. In company with
Boiling, we can imagine him retiring to Mrs. E. C. Richardson's
tavern, a favorite haunt, where he may have found Ebenezer
Burling, and over a few comforting cups confided the perplexities
of his situation, while the festivities went on at home minus the
presence of the young host.
Poe's accounts to his friends of his University career were, as
might have been expected, not the whole truth. In self defense he
seems to have assumed a rather lofty indifference, and to have
tried with a college boy's braggadocio to impress his acquain-
tances with the " sporty " side of his life. His debts he explained
by saying that he wanted to see how much of the old man's money
he could spend, 260 and the seventeen broadcloth coats were an
item in his remarks. This, if it came to Mr. Allan's ears, could
not have helped to heal matters. Of the real reasons, neither he
nor Poe would have been anxious to talk. The deserted party must
also have been oil on the flames rather than a domestic lubricant.
One is warranted in picturing Mr. Allan as very angry, and
" Ma " perhaps in tears, when the boys returned that night, if
either of the couple were inclined to sit up that long. The holly
at the Christmas breakfast table could scarcely have expressed
the spirit of the occasion for Frances Allan any more than the
mistletoe did for Edgar. 261 It was all very tragic, and it was all
very human. There was right and wrong on both sides, a deter-
mined, exasperated, and incensed older man, and a despairing,
sensitive and love-sick boy. Out of such stuff the world's tragedies
are conveniently made.
The Christmas Holidays of 1826 marked the last passing phase
260 R. H. Stoddard Memoir. See note 146, ante.
281 Christmas breakfast in the South often assumes the importance of the
Christmas dinner in the North.
xgg ISRAFEL
of Poe's boyhood. New Year's, 1827, dawned and Poe was in
reality, if not wholly in years, a man. Like everyone who is not
born with at least a plated spoon in his mouth, he was now con-
fronted with the prime question of every man's life " Where-
with should he eat and wherewithall should he be clothed? " The
store of Ellis & Allan seems to have been the most obvious an-
swer, but this distasteful solution was not offered him. Condi-
tions at home must have been unusually uncomfortable and, for
a time, probably during the last of the holidays, Poe went down
to his " father's " plantation, " The Lower Byrd " in Goochland
County, to avoid the painful scenes in the big city house, and
the trials of seeing his friends depart for the University leaving
him behind. In the country, too, he could escape those who were
hounding him for his debts, for he was now pursued by warrants.
He seems to have returned to Richmond sometime in January
and to have talked about, and even begun the reading of law. 202
But this was not definite enough for Mr. Allan who seems to have
considered that young Poe had forfeited his chance to become a
professional man by his conduct. The older man on his part,
however, offered no help in Poe's attempts to obtain employment,
although he reproached the boy for "eating the bread of idle-
ness." The stories, related by former biographers, that he was
given work in the store of ElUs & Allan, are now shown by the
dates of letters which have come to light, and the nature of their
contents, not to be true. Poe's situation was, indeed, desperate.
John Allan would not pay off his debts, or make any compromise
which would allow him to return to the University. Neither would
he aid him in getting employment, while at the same time he
excoriated him for being idle. In the household, Edgar's position
had become anomalous; he was, it appears, subject even to the
whims, not only of the whites, but of the slaves, too. Indeed, he
specifically complains of this. For a young Virginian this was the
lowest rung of domestic tyranny. He was in fact trapped, and
there is every indication that his foster-father took the occasion
262 Poe's visit to the country and his attempt to read law are given on the
double evidence of James Gait, and Poe himself in one autobiographical story
published in Richmond, 1835, see note 150, ante.
ALIAS HENRI LE RENNET 189
to rub it in. Probably he deliberately improved the opportunity
to make clear to Poe the lesson that the way of the evil doer is
hard, and to impress upon him the value of money by allowing
him to remain without any at all, and no means of making any.
Fiery interviews must have occurred upon the receipt of such
letters as this from Charlottesville:
JOHN ALLAN, Esq., Richmond
DEAR SIR,
I presume when you sent Mr. Poe to the University of Virginia you
felt yourself bound to pay all his necessary expenses one is that
each young man is expected to have a servant to attend his room. Mr.
Poe did not board with me, but as I had hired a first rate servant who
cost me a high price, I consider him under greater obligations to pay
me for the price of my servant. I have written you two letters and
have never received an answer to either. I beg again, sir, that you will
send me the small amount due ($6.25). I am distressed for money and
I am informed that you are Rich both in purse and Honor.
Very respectfully,
GEO. W. SPOTSWOOD 229 268 '
From later indications it appears that this bill, along with the
others, was never paid. John Allan at one time seems to have
planned a public career for Poe, but in his indignation he allowed
his foster-son to hang about the house, subject to the petty
tyranny of his servants and his own reproaches, and pursued by
warrants, which, about the middle of January, it appears began
to make Poe's future residence in Richmond, without the aid of
his guardian, an impossibility.
Poe was not merely passive under this. He is known to have
written a letter to the Mitts Nursery Company of Philadelphia,
a firm with which Ellis & Allan had dealings, asking them for
employment in that city. 264 His letter was, it appears, referred
back to his guardian, who with the written evidence in his hands
263 The date of this letter Is ist of May, 1827. The other letters, before, were
written a month apart. The photostat of one written April 2nd, 1837, is also in
the possession of the author. Poe may have received the first himself. It has not
been found.
264 J. H. Whitty Memoir, large edition, page xxix.
I90 ISRAFEL
of Poe's intentions to leave the house, seems to have precipitated
a scene more violent than any which had preceded it. Even with
a full knowledge of John Allan's character, it would seem impos-
sible that he should be keeping Poe at home merely to make him
suffer. He may have had some plan in mind for the boy later, and
have simply used the opportunity to impress Poe with the re-
sults of extravagance. A little pursuit by bailiffs might perhaps,
he may have thought, be a salutary lesson to be more careful in
the future, but the evidence all points to the fact that this was
not the case. He must have known that his own parsimony was,
in the final analysis, the cause of Poe's having run into debt, and,
as he made no move to secure his " son " any employment, nor
to save him from impending imprisonment, while he continued
to reproach him for not paying for his keep, the inference is
forced upon us that he desired to have him out of the house; to
have done with his interference in the discords of the family; and
be rid of the young upstart, " the black-heart," as he called him
later, who could if he desired make the family skeletons dance.
The scene now shifts again to the library of the Allan house
sometime after supper in the evening of March 18, 1827.
The great quarrel, resulting in his leaving the house of John
Allan, was the crisis of Poe's life. In point of time it falls about
midway in his span of days. In a certain sense, all the events of
his youth led up to it, and its results never ceased to affect his
manhood. Things were said by both men, which could never be
forgiven; it was the decisive turning point in Poe's career. From
the mass of evidence now at hand, and the knowledge of the per-
sonality and character of those involved, it is amply possible to
reproduce what took place. 205
265 xhe publication of the Valentine Museum Poe Letters on September,
1925, including correspondence between Poe and John Allan the two days im-
mediately after the quarrel show exactly what took place. The story of this
momentous event in Poe's life has hitherto, of necessity, rested on guesswork. The
exact date of the quarrel is arrived at by a series of deductions from the dates of
correspondence during this period of the end of March, 1827, viz: a letter written
by John Allan to a sister hi Scotland, March 27, 1827. A letter from Poe's creditor
Crump, dated March 25, 1827, Poe's two letters to John Allan after the quarrel,
and the tatter's reply. For the deductions from these I am frankly indebted to
Prof. Eillis Campbell, and Mrs. Mary Newton Stanard's excellent comments in
the Valentine Museum Poe Letters.
ALIAS HENRI LE RENNET 191
John Allan must have confronted Poe with the Mills Nursery
letter, and have demanded of him whether it was his intention to
leave Richmond as he indicated, or stay and work off his debts.
Stared in the face by his own handwriting, Poe took the bit in
his teeth and spoke his mind, reproaching his guardian for his
parsimony to him at the University. John Allan could counter
this by denouncing Edgar's extravagance and dissipation there,
which must have brought up the subject of the gambling debts,
a sore point with them both. This seems to have been the main
bone of controversy. Poe urged that he be allowed to continue
his course at the University by having his just debts paid there;
the rest he felt he could shoulder later himself. His conduct dur-
ing the last three months at the University, probably since John
Allan's visit, had, he represented, been exemplary, and he had
stood high in his classes. John Allan absolutely refused to send
him back to Charlottesville. He seems to have had an idea that
Poe should have continued at home to complete his studies.
"French, mathematics, and the classics," he afterward speci-
fically mentions. Evidently he had some vague idea of a profes-
sional career for Poe still in mind. It was this rock upon which
their further possibility of voyaging together split. From Poe's
and John Allan's letters of the two days immediately following
the quarrel it is quite evident that Poe desired to continue his
course at the University with the idea of a literary future in
mind. Even while so harassed in Richmond between January and
March, 1827, it is probable that he continued to work upon his
poems. John Allan regarded his time spent on these as idling, and
he seems to have made it a condition that if Poe remained in the
house it must be on his guardian's terms. Poe could either remain
and pursue the studies which would " promote the end," the
" eminence " in public life to which John Allan says he had taught
him to aspire, or he could get out! For a literary career the older
man had no sympathy and he would not permit his " son to idle
around the house while engaged in any scribbling, nor would he
make it possible for him to return to the University with such an
end in view, indeed, he would not permit that at all. The reading of
law is rather clearly implied, and Poe, it seems, was given the night
I92 ISRAFEL
to think it over. He was left for a few hours definitely at the
parting of the ways.
During the night of March 18, 1827, Edgar Allan Poe lying
in his bed in his room in the Allan house after the momentous
interview with his guardian, made the great decision of his life.
He decided not to submit to John Allan's dictation of his future,
nor to accept the conditions laid down, even if forced out upon
the world. Let us be fair, there were some ugly connotations to
this determination; it was "ungrateful," and it would bring
pain to several yearning hearts, among them Poe's, but it was
nevertheless a great decision and a brave one. Comfort had been
weighed in the balance with pride and the potentialities of genius,
and comfort had been found wanting. The possibility of fame and
honor had deliberately been preferred to wealth. More, although,
perhaps he could not know it, starvation and poverty had been
chosen. That they were risked, Poe must have known.
From his letter to John Allan later, on the afternoon of the
same day, it is plain that the final break occurred on the morning
of the nineteenth of March. The discussion was probably resumed
at the breakfast table. No doubt John Allan asked for Poe's de-
cision and Poe told him what it was. In addition he said that it
was his opinion that John Allan's real reason for not sending him
back to the University was that he was too parsimonious to do so.
This declaration seems 'to have been followed by an outburst of
extreme anger on the part of the older man, who had a violent
temper and a sharp tongue. By this time the whole house must
have been in an uproar, the harsh voice of the furious Scotchman
and the pounding of his cane on the floor advertised to the house-
hold the extremity of his anger, nor could the shrill strained
tones of Edgar's replies have reassured the frightened ladies and
scared servants. That the young upstart whom he regarded as the
object of his charity was about to shake off his dominance, must
have come as a terrible shock to the older man. The scene seems
to have ended in a furious round of mutual insults; both had a
gift of irony and were in possession of facts that hurt. Poe's self-
confidence in his future seemed insufferable " let him find out
what it means to starve," thought John Allan predicted that
ALIAS HENRI LE RENNET 193
Poe would soon be starving in the streets and ordered him to
quit the house. His command was carried out immediately and
literally, for Poe dashed out of the door with nothing but what
he had on.
From the letters between the two which immediately followed,
it is now possible for the first time to follow Poe's movements ac-
curately. 265 Poe left John Allan's house on the morning of Mon-
day, March 19, 1827. Having no place to go, characteristically
enough, his first place of refuge was a tavern. On the afternoon of
the same day he writes John Allan from the Court House Tavern,
Richmond, a three page letter. The letter is headed " Richmond,
Monday," and is undated. 265 He addresses his " father " as " Sir."
Poe says that after his treatment of the day before and the
quarrel which had taken place that morning, that he hardly ex-
pects John Allan to be surprised at the contents of the letter.
His determination is at last taken unalterably, however, to find
some place in the wide world where he will not be treated as his
guardian has treated him, and that, as he has been long consider-
ing such a move, Mr. Allan need not think that his departure is
the result of passion, and that he is already hoping to return.
Poe then proceeds to rehearse his reasons for Ms decision.
From the time he has been able to think on any subject he says,
he had been ambitious, and had been taught by John Allan him-
self to hope for a high position in public life. Therefore, a col-
lege education was what he most ardently desired. He continues
by asserting that this had been denied him in a moment of caprice
because he disagreed with his guardian in an opinion. This meant
that he told John Allan the real reason for his keeping him from
college was that he was too parsimonious to send him there.
Naturally enough the older man would not have agreed to that, in
spite of the fact. Poe also tells his " father " that he has over-
heard him telling others that he had no affection for his ward,
and as John Allan could not have known that Poe was listening,
his assertion could only be taken to be true. Furthermore, John
Allan had ordered him to quit the house (" often " seems to be
understood here) and had continually upbraided him for eating
the bread of charity while at the same time refusing to remedy
I94 ISRAFEL
the conditions by obtaining work for him. Lastly, and the
charge is significant from as proud a spirit as Foe's, his guar-
dian had taken a cruel delight in exposing the boy before those
from whom he hoped to obtain advancement, and had subjected
him, he says, completely, not only to the members of the white
family, but to the slaves.
He ends by entreating his " father " to at least send him his
trunk containing his clothes and books, and a sum of money suffi-
cient to pay his way to some Northern city and support him there
for a month until he can obtain a position and earn enough to
keep himself at the University. He asks that his trunk and effects
be sent to him at the Court House Tavern with some money, as
he is in dire need, and he adds, that if the request is not com-
plied with, he trembles at the consequences. A postcript informs
his guardian that it depends upon him whether he sees or hears
from the writer again.
The letter bears every impress of being written by one who
found himself insulted and wronged beyond all bearing. The
hint of suicide is significant; evidently Poe would rather kill
himself than return. He was already undergoing the pains of
hunger.
Having received no answer to this, the next day, Tuesday, Poe
writes John Allan again. He begs him to send him his trunk and
his clothes, doing his guardian the grace to say that, as he had not
received his clothes, he must suppose John Allan had not gotten
his first letter. His necessity, he says, is extreme. He has not
tasted any food since the morning before, has no place to sleep
and is roaming about the streets almost exhausted. His guardian's
prediction will be fulfilled unless he obtains his trunk and clothes
and enough money to go to Boston, $12.00. If John Allan will
not give the money to him, Poe asks him to lend it till he can
obtain a position. He says he sails Saturday, the day he refers
to in 1826 fell on March 26th, and he closes by a pathetic mes-
sage of affection and love to all at home, and a postscript saying
he has not a cent in the world with which to buy food.
John Allan sent neither the trunk nor the money. Before re-
ceiving the second of Poe's letters, he had replied to the; first.
ALIAS HENRI LE RENNET 195
In justice to the older man it must be said that his letter shows no
trace of passion, it is, indeed, so calm and judicial as to be utterly
cold. Its studied periods, to one who had been without food for a
day when he received it, must have been far from satisfying.
Mr. Allan says that he is not surprised at anything that Poe
may do or say, he reminds him of his debt for his rearing and
education already received and admits that he had taught him to
be ambitious for a high place in public life, but he adds, Don
Quixote, Gil Bias, Joe Miller and such books could not be expected
to promote such a career. Evidently these had been a bone of
contention, and John Allan did not approve of reading " novels."
We also learn elsewhere that he abhorred Byron. He defends him-
self from Poe's charges (and he is distinctly on the defensive in
this letter) by saying that his reproaches for Poe's idleness were
only made to urge him to perfect himself in the mathematics and
the languages. That Poe has not shown any intention to comply
with his wishes, (evidently in the matter of the direction which
his studies were to take) is the only subject upon which he says
he cares to be understood. He also adds, and we are bound to
credit him in this with being sincere, that unless Poe's heart is
made of marble, he can judge for himself whether he has not
given his foster-father good reason to fear for him in more ways
than one. He insists that his only reason for reprimanding his son
was to correct his faults, and that for the rest of the charges he
has no answer, as the world will reply to them. But he ends with
a taunt. Now, he says Since Poe has declared his independence
the first result is that he must tremble for the consequences
unless the man, whose support he has just shaken off, will send
him some money. With that word his correspondence with his
foster-son ceased for two years.
If any doubt remains, this letter makes ultimately clear that
the cause of Poe's final break with John Allan was the latter's
determination to force Poe into a career he did not care to follow.
As one reads the confident and admonitory periods of this self-
contained letter, addressed by the man in the comfortable house
in Richmond to the youth who was hungry on the city streets,
it is only natural to recall the remark of Cromwell made upon
196
ISRAFEL
another pregnant occasion to some self-righteous gentlemen, " Be-
think you, bethink you, in the Bowels of Christ, ye may be
wrong! " Such a possibility seems never to have troubled John
Allan. Strangely enough, in the matter of his choice as to the
future career and the treatment of his foster-son, he appeals in
the same letter to the judgment of the world. All the world now
knows the answer. But, perhaps, this is unfair, what could one
expect of a youth who deliberately preferred Don Quixote to in-
sults and mathematics?
Poe says that he is sailing for Boston on the next Saturday,
March 24th, after the writing of the letter, but he also says he
is penniless. It would seem as if his sailing were largely contingent
upon the receipt of the $12 which he says the passage will cost.
From the copy of John Allan's letter, originally in the ElKs &
Allan Files, it is evident he sent Poe no money. The immediate
sailing for Boston must, therefore, have been deferred. Tradi-
tion, circumstantial evidence and direct testimony all point to
the fact that it was. 286
Poe tells his " father " that he will receive letters at the Court
House Tavern, evidently this was a temporary arrangement, as
he had no money, he could not have stayed there. He seems to
have gone to stay at Mrs. Richardson's tavern where he was
known, and where his friend Ebenezer Burling was an habitue
about the bar. That Richardson's Tavern was Poe's hiding place
during the few days that he remained in Richmond after the
quarrel with John Allan, rests on direct testimony, for Dabney
Danbridge, one of th$ slaves of the Allan household, told persons
still living in Richmond that he carried packages from the Allan
household to Poe while he was there, but " Dab " did not dare
to reveal the fact to the members of the family. " Mars Eddie "
was a favorite with the servants, and it is probable, that finding
sae i^ editor of the Valentine Museum Poe Letters, Mrs. Mary Newton
Stanard, has very cleverly, and in a scholarly way, suggested that Poe sailed from
Richmond on the ship " Carrier," Captain Gill. The deduction is made from the
dates of letters and the files of the Boston Commercial Gazette between March
26 and April 7, 1827. If so, Poe arrived in Boston on April 7, 1827. The author,
here, is inclined to think that, for the reasons given in the text, the weight of
evidence is against Poe's having sailed on the " Carrier " as early as March 24th.
ALIAS HENRI LE RENNET 197
John Allan would not send him his clothes, he prevailed on the
house servants to bring them to him. In this way, too, he must
have gotten the manuscripts of his poems published a month or
so later. These he would hardly have had in his hand when ke
ran out of the house. Dabney Danbridge also said that during this
time he carried notes for Poe to a young lady of the neighbor-
hood whom his young master admired. She was at that time
boarding with a Mrs. Juliet J. Drew nearby.
It is very likely that Frances Allan saw Poe's letters to her
husband. At any rate she seems to have become aware of Poe's
intentions to leave Richmond, and must have created a scene, for
she prevailed on Mr. Allan to stop Poe's departure and the cap-
tains of the ships about the port were warned not to take him.
Not caring to offend the head of a great firm with whom many
of them traded, the avenue of departure was closed to Poe by the
ship captains. Frances Allan must have been hoping for a recon-
ciliation, and her husband doubtless thought that his recalcitrant
ward would soon be starved into submission. Both Mrs. Allan and
Miss Valentine appear to have supplied Poe with some small sums
of money, as he must have had some upon which to live during
the interim. 267 John Allan did not send it, and in Poe's condition
of debt he could scarcely have borrowed any. The amount at best
was small, and only sufficed to last him for a few weeks, until
May twenty-sixth to be exact.
In order to save himself from being arrested on a debtor's war-
rant, and to conceal his departure, Poe now assumed the name of
Henri Le Rennet, and having persuaded Burling to join him, left
Richmond, probably on some coastwise vessel for Norfolk. Burl-
ing had a small boat on the James in which the two boys had
formerly made many a " voyage," and they seem now to have
joined company for a real adventure.
Exactly what took place in Norfolk will probably never be
known. Burling was drunk when he left Richmond, and he began
to take a melancholy view of the future as he sobered up. Prob-
ably there was some difficulty in obtaining a berth aboard a ship.
267 xhe traditions to this effect seem to have come later from Miss Valentine
herself.
198 ISRAFEL
Burling returned to Richmond, evidently before Poe sailed, say-
ing he had gone abroad. Either there had really been some talk
of this, or the tale had been agreed upon to throw the family off
the scent, and to put a quietus on the warrants. The latter was
probably the main factor in Poet's incognito, then and for some-
time afterward. That Frances Allan thought Poe had gone abroad
is shown by the fact that four or five persons afterward saw two
letters which she wrote to him with a foreign address. Burling
simply got " cold feet " and dropped out. He was a weak and
dissipated youth who died some few years later of cholera, and
disappears from the record. Poe, however, did not go abroad, but
persisted in his decision to get to Boston, probably because of its
being a literary center, where, if his contemplated book of poems
was published, it would receive a better chance of being noticed
than if it emanated from Richmond. He may also have been influ-
enced in his decision by his mother's injunction " to cherish the
city of his birth," and have intended to look up the old friends of
his parents. At any rate he arrived in Boston certainly by the
middle of April, 1827. There is some evidence that he worked
his way north on a coal-ship. 288
Frances Allan is said to have been heart-broken; to one in her
condition, the bitter quarrel between the two men of her house-
hold, followed by the loss of her " dear boy " must have been
crushing. Poe never saw her again. 269 Her affection attempted to
follow him across the sea where she and John Allan thought he
had gone, 270 for Poe received from her, sometime during 1827,
two letters which are said by those who saw them to have exoner-
ated him from all blame in the dissensions of the Allan household.
These may have reached him at Boston or Fort Moultrie, or he
268 In many of the stories which Poe afterward told of these adventures, a
"coal-ship" remains a constant factor among much romance. See specifically
Woodberry, 1909, vol. I, page 67 Poe's story in Baltimore to Nathan C.
Brooks. Not much stress can be laid on this evidence, however.
sea p oe returned just too late to attend her funeral. See Chapter XII, page 232.
270 In his letter to his sister in Scotland, dated March 27, 1827, John Allan
specifically says " I'm thinking Edgar has gone to sea ... etc." This looks as if
at that date Mr. Allan was not at all sure where Poe had gone, despite Poe's
earlier statement. John Allan never trusted Poe's statements then or later, especially
in letters.
ALIAS HENRI LE RENNET 199
may have received them after their return to the writer when he
came back home. At any rate their existence is too well estab-
lished to doubt. 271 Poe's arrival in Boston sometime in the early
part of April of 1827 is now no longer a matter of conjecture and
all stories about his going to Greece, getting in trouble over pass-
ports at St. Petersburg, Russia, and being rescued by the inter-
vention of the American Consul, Henry Middleton, the visit to
France, and having his portrait painted by Inman while in Lon-
don, are at once and forever dismissed as legends. Poe's movements
from January, 1827, to February, 1829, are no longer "mysteri-
ous " but a matter of record.
In the meantime things at the Allan house in Richmond seem
to have taken their usual way that of John Allan's. Mrs. Allan
grew feebler, and the master of the establishment went grimly
about his affairs, except for the anxiety of his wife, taking matters
very coolly. In a letter written from Richmond, March 27, 1827,
to one of his sisters in Scotland, he covers three pages defending
his administration of his uncle's will and ends with a few signifi-
cant sentences about domestic affairs:
. . . though Mrs. Allan (is) occupying one of the airiest and pretty
places about Richmond, it seems to make no improvement in her it
is indeed a lovely spot. . . . Miss Valentine is as fat and hearty
as ever, I'm thinking Edgar has gone to Sea to seek his own for-
tunes. . . , 272
How obstinate of Mrs. Allan not to improve in so " airy " a man-
sion when her sister was heartier than ever! What could be the
reason? Perhaps the air was not so salubrious after all; even
Edgar seems to have sought a different atmosphere. " I'm think-
2fi These letters were long cherished by Poe. His wife, Virginia, is known to
have had them about the time of her death, when she read them to Mrs. Shew.
See the letter from Mrs. Shew to Ingram, Poe's biographer, now in the Ingram
collection, University of Virginia. In this, Mrs. Shew (then married a second time)
says these letters were the second Mrs. Allan's. This is an obvious error, although
she is quoting from her diary (sic). It can positively be stated that the second
Mrs. Allan never wrote any letters to Poe.
273 From the EUis & Allan Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, D. C.,
photostat in possession of the author. Also referred to in connection with the
William Gait will, Chapter VII, page 117, this volume. Also for further quotation,
see note 165.
200 ISRAFEL
ing," says John Allan one wonders. By this time he knew most
of the story of the runaway, even to the name which Poe assumed,
for on the very desk upon which he wrote the " airy letter to
Scotland, was some mail which the fortune-hunting Edgar never
received. Among it was this letter: 278
Dinwiddie County, March 25, 1827
(Mr. EDGAR A. POE)
DEAR SIR:
When I saw you in Richmond a few days ago I should have men-
tioned ffce difference between us if there had not been so many persons
present. I must of course, as you did not mention it to me, enquire if
you ever intend to pay it. If you have not the money, write me word
that you have not, but do not be perfectly silent. I should be glad if
you would write to me as a friend. There can certainly be no harm in
your avowing candidly that you have no money, if you have none, but
you can say when you can pay me if you cannot now. I heard when I
was in Richmond that Mr. Allan would probably discharge all your
debts. If mine was a gambling debt I should not think much of it.
But under the present circumstances I think very strongly of it. Write
to me upon the receipt of this letter and tell me candidly what is the
matter.
Your friend EDWARD G. CRUMP
Under the endorsement " to E. A. Poe " John Allan has added
in his own hand " alias Henri Le Renn&." Poe never got the
letter, and it remains to this day in the file where his guardian
quietly placed it. Meanwhile, what of Henri Le Rennet?
Upon his arrival in Boston, Poe probably tried to look up some
of the old friends of his mother and father. His knowledge of
such, at best, must have been slight; his parents had been ob-
scure, and they had been forgotten in Boston for sixteen years.
In some way or other he became acquainted with a youth of
about his own age of the name of Calvin Thomas. There was said
to have been some connection between the families of the two boys
which was not a pleasant one. A Miss Thomas had at one time
278 Crump's letter was written in Dinwiddie County on March 2$th and must
have taken a day or so for transmittal and delivery at Richmond. John Allan
writes his sister from Richmond on March 27th. Both letters therefore must have
been in his hands about the same day.
X AM E R L A N E
AND
OTHER POEMS
BY A BOSXONIAN
Vcung heads are giddy and young hearts arc warm
And make mistake* for manhood to reform-
COWER
BOSTOK
CAZ.VXN F. S, THOMAS . . . PRINTER
1827
Title Page of Tamerlane and Other Poems
Boston 1827
Edgar Allan Poe's first published volume
&MMMMMI
ALIAS HENRI LE RENNET 201
been in the same theatrical company with the Poes. 27 * Young
Thomas and his people had at one time lived in Norfolk and came
later to Boston, with their grandmother, who wished to educate
them there. They were originally New Yorkers. Whether there
had really been any family intimacy between the Poes and Thom-
ases seems very doubtful. One thing is certain, however, the two
youths became friends, the result of which was the publication of
Poe's first volume. 275
Calvin F. S. Thomas was the proprietor of a little job printing
shop at "No. 70, Washington Street, Boston, Corner of State
Street." The style of type fonts and printers ornaments which he
used show that he had newly set up in a small business, which he
had probably recently bought from someone else. He was about
nineteen years old and could have had little more than an appren-
tice's brief experience at his trade. To the hands of this tyro Poe
confided the printing of a book which is now one of the most
sought-after and most costly in the English language. It was
Tamerlane and Other Poems. This was probably sometime about
the beginning of May, 1827. The time of Poe's arrival in Boston
precludes its being much earlier, and the date of his ensuing en-
listment in the army fixes it as being sometime within the month
of May.
274 The Norfolk Herald, July 6, 1811 From this probable accidental re-
semblance of names there has been an attempt in some quarters to connect the
name of David Poe and the actress, Miss Thomas. There is no evidence that this
Miss Thomas was a relation of Calvin Thomas, the printer. Poe may never, as
Prof. Woodberry thinks (Atlantic Monthly, December, 1884) have told his real
name to Thomas. The printer never seems to have known that he had known Poe
despite the latter's great fame afterward. Thomas was a very obscure person. He
later moved to New York, Buffalo, and Springfield, Missouri, where he died in
1876. Communications from a Miss Martha Thomas, daughter of Calvin, elicited
the information that the Thomases knew nothing about Poe and had no records of
the Boston print shop nor any copies of Tamerlane and Other Poems. See letter
of Miss Martha Thomas to Prof. Woodberry Woodberry, vol. I, 1909, Notes,
page 360. Also Atlantic Monthly, December, 1884. The matter is very obscure and
equally unimportant. The fact that both Poe and Thomas had lived in Virginia
may have brought them together. The real point is that Calvin Thomas was a
printer who printed Poe's first book.
275 Poe's idea of earning money to go back to the University seems to have
quickly disappeared at this time under the stress of poverty and no work. That
he persevered in publishing his poetry shows how vital a place his desire for
literary recognition held in his mind. The pitiable result of this sacrifice was the
practical suppression of the volume.
2O2
ISRAFEL
Where and how Poe was living at this time is unknown. Prob-
ably on the remnants of his Richmond money. There is a story of
his having obtained work on a Boston newspaper. The preparation
of even this little volume for the press, together with the inevitable
revision of the text, must have consumed considerable time and
have precluded other work. By the time the book was printed he
must have been penniless. Thomas, of course, was only a printer
and had no means of publishing, so that the bulk of the edition,
said to have been forty or fifty copies at most, remained on
his hands. Poe probably bought a few copies himself with the
last of his dwindling stock of coins; two books are known to have
been sent out to reviewers. 276 Poe afterward said that the edition
"was suppressed for private reasons." The "private reasons"
are not hard to guess! There was no way to distribute the book
when it was printed; no one who would buy it, if it had been put
on sale; and the author was out of funds. Tamerlane and Other
Poems was a pamphlet of about forty pages, 6| by 4% inches,
bound in yellow, tea-colored covers. There have been at least
three reprints but only four genuine copies of the first edition are
known to exist. The author's name is not printed, the title page
giving only " By a Bostonian," and a motto which happens to be
the same as that chosen for Tennyson's first book, Poems by Two
Brothers.
Just why Poe published the book anonymously is an interesting
speculation. Evidently from this, and the fact that he later en-
listed under an assumed name, he was very anxious not to have
his whereabouts known, probably mainly to prevent his being
followed 'by duns and warrants. " By a Bostonian," certainly
looks as if he did not desire to hail from Richmond. Poe knew
that the book would have a better chance of being reviewed in the
Northern magazines if it came from Boston, or it may have been
merely a sentimental compliment to his mother and the lines
she had written on the back of her picture of that city. It was, of
course, the city of his birth, but the place where he was starving
could have been little more.
The United States Review and Literary Gazette, August, 1827. The North
American Review for October, 1827. For a full description of Tamerlane see Kiffis
Campbell, Poems of Poe, New York, 1917.
ALIAS HENRI LE RENNET 203
We would like very much to know just what Edgar Poe carried
with him from the house of John Allan in Richmond. He must
have rescued from his room the manuscripts of the poems which
appeared in Boston a few months later. Among them were prob-
ably some of those which Mr. Allan had shown a few years before
to the schoolmaster, Mr. Clarke. There were enough of them,
and some of them were of such length, as to show conclusively
that their composition must have covered a period of several years
prior to their printing. They prove Poe to have been hard at
work at his craft, consciously and determinedly a poet. In his
preface he says in part:
The greater part of the poems which compose this little volume were
written in the year 1821-2, when the author had not completed his
fourteenth year. They were of course not intended for publication;
why they are now published concerns no one but himself. Of the
smaller pieces very little need be said, they perhaps savour too much
of egotism; but they were written by one too young to have any
knowledge of the world but from his own breast. . .
It is chiefly for the knowledge of that young breast, which they
reveal, that the poems are of value now. Tamerlane is an ambi-
tious piece, which seems to have been written later than the
others, at the University, 277 as it bears the ear-marks of the type
of verse and the kind of semi-classical theme which the influences
of the formal education of the day would supply to scribbling
youth. It is chiefly of interest, though, in the light of what fol-
lowed later, and as an indication of the kind of material which
attracted Poe. For the rest, they show us a sensitive boy with an
innate sense of melody, a surprising order of technique for one
so young, and a spirit, which, while it found great charm in na-
ture and the people with whom it came in contact, valued land-
scapes and persons less for themselves, than for the dreams and
moods which they invoked. Thus Poe already possessed the two
main artistic factors that make a poet. He had mQods which were
of enough value to be worthy of being recorded; and he had the
artistry to record them successfully. In Tamerlane and Other
277 its connection with Elmira has already been noted. This also helps to place
it as later work.
204
ISRAFEL
Poems these qualities are best exhibited in The Dreamer, and
The Lake
In spring of youth it was my lot
To haunt of the wide world a spot
The which I could not love the less
So lovely was the loneliness
Of a wild lake, with black rock bound,
And the tall pines that towered around.
But when the Night had thrown her pall
Upon the spot, as upon all,
And the mystic wind went by
Murmuring in melody
Then ah then I would awake
To the terror of the lone lake.
Yet that terror was not fright,
But a tremulous delight
A feeling not the jewelled mine
Could teach or bribe me to define
Nor love although the lover were thine.
Death was in that poisonous wave
And in its gulf a fitting grave
For him who thence could solace bring
To his lone imaging
Whose solitary soul could make
An Eden of that dim lake.
This poern^ is doubly interesting because it is the first which
diOTOldiefinitely how early the strange spell of melancholy and
the preoccupation with death entered into^hisjwork. The young
boy who wrote it must clearly have hM^eriods of extreme sensi-
tivity when physical existence became actually painful, together
with a weird sense of the mystery of inanimate things that was
to haunt him through life. So far as we know, his real mother and
Mrs. Stanard were the only two instances in which he had actu-
ally, thus far, experienced the trial of death. That a sense of grief
and a feeling of brooding sorrow was thus early engraved on him,
the lines bear witness. It is true that early youth is more often
preoccupied by the themes of death and mutability than middle
ALIAS HENRI LE RENNET 205
age, but there seems to be an unusual sense of them expressed
here.
The realization that his poems were to become irrevocable in
print, would spur Poe to further revisions, so that while he tells
us that, " the greater part of the poems which compose this little
volume were written . . . when the author had not completed
his fourteenth year," we can take this with a grain of salt, as they
undoubtedly had been much revised at home, at the University,
and in Boston where they went to the press. The format, printing,
and punctuation 27S of the book show that Poe appreciated the im-
portance of the mechanical side of his art, and possessed both
the education and the inclination to turn out a literate, although
a typographically bungled piece of work. Thomas, the printer, who
was only a year older than Poe, could not have been a past master
in his art 2<79 and the passable result, despite some mistakes, must
largely be attributed to the active collaboration and supervision of
Poe himself.
With the publication of Tamerlane and Other Poems, Poe's
funds (or the patience of his landlady) seem to have been com-
pletely exhausted. His situation was desperate; he was not cap-
able of sustained physical labor, even if he could have secured
employment, and an appeal to Richmond was unthinkable. In
this extremity of pride and hunger he remembered his former
military episodes in the " Junior Richmond Volunteers," or on the
drill ground at the University, and joined the army.
The War Department records show that Poe enlisted in the
United States Army on May 26, 1827, under the assumed name
of Edgar A. Perry. 280 He gave his age as twenty-two years, al-
though he was only eighteen, and stated that he was born in
Boston and was by occupation a clerk. The enlistment records
describe him as having grey eyes, brown hair, a fair complexion
278 The punctuation already shows many of Poe's peculiarly individual ideas
about this "art," later developed to a "science" after his connection with the
Southern Literary Messenger.
279 Thomas was not even a member of the local printers' union.
280 All of the War Department records relative to Poe's connection with the
United States Army, are taken from the text of the documents as given by Prof.
Woodberry in his article in the Atlantic Monthly for December, 1884. The search
for this material was made by direction of the President of the United States.
206 ISRAFEL
and a height of five feet, eight inches. Without further delay the
new recruit was assigned to Battery " H," of the First Artillery
then stationed in Boston Harbor at Fort Independence. 281 In the
barracks there, Poe spent the time from the end of May to the
end of October, 1827. During this period he must have undergone
his training as a recruit, but he seems early to have gravitated
into the quartermaster's department where his clerical training
and mercantile experience with Ellis & Allan would recommend
him. The assertion that Poe enlisted in the army as a result of a
spree had no foundation in fact and little probability behind it.
From the time of his enlistment to his discharge we know that his
conduct was so exemplary as to lead to his rapid promotion, and
he was officially recommended upon discharge as being " sober,"
an unusual military virtue at that time.
Nevertheless, Poe's enlistment is significant of the fact that he
already found himself unable to cope with the world in civilian
life. His tender rearing, his education, his desire for leisure and
solitude and, above all, his nervous, impulsive and erratic char-
acteristics, which the events of the last few years had tended
to accentuate, now undoubtedly began to be tremendous handi-
caps in a world which despises a dreamer, and puts a premium
on physical endurance and insensibility. Poe was stretched from
now on between two drums of a rack that kept turning slowly,
torturing him until they pulled him apart. Every turn of the
screw of the one to which his feet were bound, was bent on drag-
ging him down to the callous level of the mediocrity about him,
while the cords about his head dragged him ever upward, insist-
ing that to be a poet and a dreamer, he must become hyper-sensi-
tive, see colors beyond the visible spectrum, and hear whispers
of voices inaudible to the average ear. It was to the latter world
that he belonged. Stretched between the two he was torn apart;
occasionally relieving the tension of the unremitted torture by the
anaesthetics of feminine sympathy, alcohol and, towards the last,
opium. The result of each attempt at relief being, of course,
a lowering of his power to withstand. Combined with this was,
perhaps, an unfortunate heredity.
28i poe seems to have joined his command about June i, 18*7.
ALIAS HENRI LE RENNET 207
Of the life of the young artilleryman at Fort Independence,
Boston Harbor, in the Summer of 1827, there is very little trace.
It was afterward said that at some time during the army episode
he wrote letters to his foster-mother dated from St. Petersburg,
Russia (sic). Some record of his doings at this time have recently
come to light due to the discovery of an old Baltimore publica-
tion of 1827 called The North American.
To this obscure periodical the elder Poe brother, William
Henry Poe, contributed steadily from the Summer of 1827 to the
end of the year and the demise of the magazine. His contributions
were in both prose and poetry, usually signed " W. H. P." From
the nature of these it now seems certain that he was in touch with
his brother Edgar in Boston and, perhaps, later from Charleston,
for more particularly in a story called The Pirate, W. H. Poe
treats romantically the episode of the love affair of Edgar with
Elmira Royster, and republishes in two instances poems from
Tamerlane over his own initials and as extracts. Dreams in a new
version appears signed " W. H. P."
From this evidence, it seems undeniable that Edgar, while in
the army, corresponded with Henry and sent him a copy of
Tamerlane from Boston. 282
It is possible that if, at this period of his life, Poe could have
found the shelter of some sympathetic and understanding influ-
ence capable of imparting a feeling of calm and security to his
intellect, and physical comfort conducive to the free working and
growth of his mind, this continent might have seen the flowering
of a genius which would have demanded a respectful and un-
qualified admiration for its unblighted blossoming, rather than a
belated recognition in which scorn and pity have slowly given
way to acceptance. Instead of that, the most sensitive nervous
system, and one of the keenest intellects then extant in North
America, was treated to a round of spiritual and mental outrage
282 The Happiest Day, the Happiest Hour, from Tamerlane and Other Poems,
1827. Republished by Henry Poe, 1827. The credit for the discovery of The North
American containing the work of Henry Poe belongs to Dr. Thomas Ollive
Mabbott and Captain F. L. Pleadwell. It is possible that portions of. The Pirate are
Edgar Poe's. Dr. Thomas Ollive Mabbott and I have collected all this material in
Poe's Brother, Doran, 1926, a book to which the reader is referred.
208
ISRAFEL
inherent for any higher nature in the ranks of a regular artillery
regiment lying idle in barracks during a time of profound peace.
The army of one of the most warlike republics which has ever
troubled the world, is not to be blamed if it is not so organized
as to provide an ideal home for neurasthenic young poets; its
domestic economy is bound to be of a different order. That Poe
did not die at about the same age, and of similar complaint to
Chatterton's, in a garret in Boston, Massachusetts, is due to the
food, clothes, shelter and refuge from the civil society of the time
provided by Battery "H" of the First Regiment of United
States Artillery. Of his not unimportant adventures under the
eagle, under various circumstances and upon distant shores, we
shall shortly learn. In the meantime his physical continuity was
assured, but
The happiest day the happiest hour 282
My sear'd and blighted heart hath known
The highest hope of pride and power,
I feel hath flown.
Of power! said I? yes! such I ween;
But they have vanished long, alas!
The visions of my youth have been
But let then pass.
And pride, what have I now with thee?
Another brow may even inherit 28a
The venom thou hast poured on me
Be still, my spirit!
It is a pitiful farewell to youth, an acknowledgment of the futility
of the Byronic formula, and a foreboding of the future. The
shades of the prison house had begun to descend upon Israfel,
but in them his spirit was never to be " still."
On October the 3ist, 1827, his Battery was ordered to Fort
Moultrie on Sullivan's Island at the mouth of Charleston Harbor,
in South Carolina.
283 This line and the one following can refer only to the fact that Poe felt
that a possible heir of his guardian might " inherit " the " venom " which had been
heaped on him. It seems to be a patent reference to conditions " at home."
CHAPTER XI
Israfel in Carolina
TROOP movements, in the leisurely days before the com-
ing of railroads, were by water. Outward bound from
Fort Independence, Boston Harbor, the army trans-
ports moved through the flashing November weather of 1827,
sinking the sand dunes of Cape Cod and the blue haze of Nan-
tucket behind them, as they stood far out into the Atlantic to be
rid of the perils of the coast. There was, at least for Poe, the
pagentry of adventure about it; the sparkle of brass buttons and
uniforms; the call of bugles from ship to ship; the bright sails and
the banners. 284
A voyage from Boston, Massachusetts, to Charleston, South
Carolina, in a sailing ship was, even with favorable winds, often
a matter of several weeks. In the old clipper days a sailing ship
stood well out from the coast to avoid the nightmare of all
windborne mariners, a lee shore. Hatteras, especially in the Fall,
was given a wide berth, and it was the custom of coastwise pilots
to make a " long leg " out into the Atlantic. 285
The whole interlude of Poe's life in the Army, taken in connec-
tion with the places he visited, affords a remarkable example of
the method the man sometimes followed in working directly from
his environment. The story of it might almost be called How Poe
Gathered his Material for a Short Story. Contrary to the fond and
oft repeated opinion of many critics, Poe often found his material
in the life and the place about him, and then worked only in a sec-
ondary and indirect way from literary sources. He visualized even
imaginary localities strongly, and his scenery, although often a
284 It may be suggested that Henry Poe's having joined the navy may have
influenced Edgar's joining the army in hopes of adventure. Edgar, we now know,
became the Byronic hero of Henry's group in Baltimore and the subject of their
poetic effusions in The North American. See L. A. Wilmer's Merlin afterward
referred to by Edgar Poe in a complimentary manner.
285 Poe's touching at the Bermudas is suggested.
2IO ISRAFEL
synthesis of the hills of one place and the lowlands of another,
nevertheless, sprang directly from the vistas which he had seen.
Out of the strange and impressive environment into which he
was about to be plunged for a year, free from the problem of sus-
tenance and with the opportunity for considerable leisure, came
directly much of his material for The Gold Bug, The Oblong Box,
The Man that was Used Up, the Balloon Hoax, and bits of the
melancholy scenery, and sea and light effects which, from the
time of his sojourn in Carolina, haunt so much of his poetry. A
comparison of his 1827 and 1829-31 volumes will at once make
this apparent. A familiarity with the peculiar nature of the land-
scape and the section where Poe was about to tarry during 1827-
28 will explain the " exotic " sources from which many of his
descriptions in prose and poetry are derived.
From November, 1827, to December, 1828, he did garrison
duty at Fort Moultrie on Sullivan's Island. Sometime in Novem-
ber of the former year, the army transports from Boston found
themselves "... in full view of the low coasts of South Caro-
lina," 286 and anchored just under the lee of the walls of the old
fortress, near the back channel, where they discharged Battery
" H " of the First United States Artillery, bag and baggage, offi-
cers and men, among whom was Private Edgar A. Perry, alias
Henri Le Rennet, alias Edgar Allan Poe, doing duty even then as
a company clerk. 287 He must have been given quarters somewhere
within the bastions of the old fort.
Style is very often the result of the impact of a new environ-
ment upon the unsuspected potentialities of artistic personality.
" For the first and only time in his life, Poe now found himself
in a sub-tropical environment," a district with a highly differenti-
ated fauna and flora, utterly different from anything he had seen
so far, either in Virginia or abroad. 288 In addition to this, the place
was full of piratical and Revolutionary lore, the very island and
286 From the Balloon Hoax.
287 See the letter of Lieut. J. Howard given to Poe on his discharge Chap-
ter XII, page 240.
288 Prof. C. Alphonso Smith to the author, July 23, 1921, " The point you
make seems to me a good one and so far as I know the matter has never been
presented as you propose. So far as I know, this was the only really "tropical"
badcground that Poe had ever seen.
ISRAFEL IN CAROLINA 211
the bay upon which he looked had been famous as the haunt of
pirates. To the south and west, Fort Sumter, only then beginning
to assume the formidable shape of brick and stone so familiar to
the reading public of the '6o's, looked across a narrow channel
at its sister, Fort Moultrie, while a few miles up the harbor could
be seen the pillared porches and spires of Charleston, a port which
was alive then with ships from all over the world. 289
Northward and eastward, stretched away from the barrack
windows, the long, low, beaches of Sullivan's Island some miles
away to an inlet which separated it from the Isle of Palms
where the prospect was repeated. The inlet could be breasted by
a powerful swimmer like Poe with a few vigorous strokes. The
young soldier had only to pass through the portcullis to find
himself upon a magnificent beach washed by a summer sea, a
firm strand that stretched for miles, with the Gulf Stream on one
side, and a low range of sand hills inland, covered with scrub
palmetto and myrtles, the home of strange birds, sand butterflies,
amusing beetles, and the haunt of great sea-turtles that crawled
out by moonlight to lay their eggs. Here and there, at long inter-
vals, was the hut of a lonely hunter or fisherman, far from the
little summer settlement then confined to the immediate vicinity
of the fort. The one overpowering impression of the place is the
continual bell-like breaking of the "sounding sea," the eye-
puckering glare of the lime-what sun, and the dirge of the wind
through the myrtles, accompanied by a faint, clacking sound like
an overtone of eery applause caused by the clapping together of
the palms of the palmettoes.
This island of sea-weathered monotonies, driven into Poe's con-
sciousness by the long hours of an idle year, is the home of the
Gold Bug. At the beginning of the story he has described it
himself. 290
This island is a very singular one. It consists of little else than the
sea-sand, and is about three miles long. Its breadth at no point ex-
289 At the time of Foe's service at Fort Moultrie, Charleston, South Carolina,
was one of the great American ports, hundreds of ships clearing weekly.
290 it must be borne in mind that Poe did not write The Gold Bug until many
years later, 1842. The beach at Sullivan's Island seems to have been "photo-
graphed " on his retina.
2I2 ISRAFEL
ceeds a quarter of a mile. It is separated from the mainland by a
scarcely perceptible creek, oozing its way through a wilderness of reeds
and slime, a favorite resort of the marsh-hen. The vegetation as might
be supposed, is scant, or at least dwarfish. No trees of any magnitude
are to be seen* Near the western extremity, where Fort Moultrie
stands, and where are some miserable frame buildings, tenanted, dur-
ing summer, by the fugituves from Charleston dust and fever, may be
found, indeed, the bristly palmetto; but the whole island with the ex-
ception of this western point, and a line of hard beach on the sea-coast,
is covered with a dense undergrowth of the sweet myrtle so much
prized by the horticulturists of England. 291 The shrub here often at-
tains the height of fifteen or twenty feet, and forms an almost impene-
trable coppice, burdening with its fragrance.
SucH remote places, haunted by blue herons and other rare and
shy bird-life, are, even to~day, the retreats of eccentric characters
who find their compensation for loss of contact with their fellows
in the observation of nature. Amid the lonely scrub forests of
Sullivan's Island during the long hours of his rambles about the
place, Poe seems to have encountered such a person, for he says,
" In the inmost recesses of this coppice, not far from the eastern
or more remote end of the island, Legrand had built himself a
small hut which he occupied when I first, by mere accident, made
his acquaintance."
That Poe had a generous amount of idle time on his hands
while at Fort Moultrie there can be no doubt. He was a member
of a coast-guard regiment at a remote and little inspected post
during a long era of profound peace. There were not even any
lawns to be cut, and the situation of the fort, cut off from the
world by what was then a row or sail of several miles from
Charleston, curtailed even the social ambitions of the officers, and
prevented the garrison from being kept busy about the multi-
farious trivialities necessarily required of the soldier at a " smart
post." The nearest hamlet was Mt. Pleasant, a community whose
amusements were strictly confined to the raising of children and
the delirious concerts of an orchestra of frogs. Leave in Charles-
ton was the only relaxation of the garrison (" the facilities of
281 Poe is probably thinking of the Rev. " Dr." Bransby's garden at Stoke
Newington, where he cherished exotic shrubs. See Chapter V, page 83.
ISRAFEL IN CAROLINA 213
passage and repassage," says Poe, " were far behind those of the
present day! ") To these pastimes, Poe seems to have added
some conversation with the more cultivated of the officers; swim-
ming, the study of the strange shapes of nature about him, the
polishing of verses, excursions in the pages of Moore and Byron,
and long hours of wandering along the sounding beaches and the
" coppice " of Sullivan's Island.
The orders of the day governing the routine and discipline of
the force at Fort Moultrie, show that the garrison rose about
five-thirty AM., policed, breakfasted, and engaged in a short
morning's infantry drill, varied from time to time by exercises
at the great guns. The passage of time was punctuated by the
sharp reports of the sunrise and sunset gun, the strains of the
bugles at meal times and retreat, and by nothing more. Beyond
this, there was little to do except to play Seven-up on a blanket,
or roll dice. Even from these strenuous duties Poe seems to have
absolved himself by assuming clerical work with the consequent
familiarity and favor of his officers which it entailed. After a
few hours of " paper work," we can imagine him " calling it a
day/ 5 and going outdoors to roam the beaches. To this mode of
life, the climate was conducive, and he says:
The winters in the latitude of Sullivan's Island are seldom very severe,
and in the fall of the year it is a rare event indeed when a fire is con-
sidered necessary. About the middle of October 18 , there occurred,
however, a day of remarkable chilliness. Just before sunset I scrambled
my way through the evergreens to the hut of my friend, whom I had
not visited for several weeks. ... A fine fire was blazing upon the
hearth. It was a novelty, and by no means an ungrateful one. I threw
off an overcoat, took an armchair by the crackling logs, and awaited
patiently the arrival of my host.
In such a scene as this The Gold Bug begins.
There are several prime factors to the story: The first is the
eccentric character of "Mr. William Legrand." He was of an
ancient Huguenot family; the next is " Jupiter," the negro serv-
ant, and the others are Poe himself, slightly disguised by the first
person pronoun, a wonderful, golden, skull-marked beetle, the
solution of a mysterious mathematical cipher, a buried pirate
2i 4 ISRAFEL
treasure, and the meticulous description of the locality. As an
example of Poe's method of assembling material for his more
objective kind of short story, it is the purpose here to suggest
briefly the probable sources of The Gold Bug.
The idea of buried treasure is one which would inevitably as-
sociate itself in Poe's mind with Sullivan's Island, which was
from early colonial times the haunt of pirates. Stede Bonnet him-
self was captured by a Colonel Rhett of Charleston only a few
miles north of Fort Moultrie, and the port itself was early
blockaded and its citizens held for ransom by Black Beard. Poe
gives his pirate the generic name of " Captain Kidd," who is sup-
posed to have buried his fabled treasure on Long Island, New
York. In Poe's day the Isle of Palms immediately north of
Sullivan's Island was known as Long Island, and so appears on
all old maps. That the suggestion of buried treasure was present,
seems fairly clear. "Legrand," the principal figure in the story,
although Poe himself is the real hero who so cleverly solves the
cryptogram, 292 was probably suggested by the very prevalent
Huguenot name of Legare (pronounced Le Gree) among the
many descendants of French settlers upon the Carolina " sea-is-
lands." There was a minor poet of this name, which is also com-
mon in Louisiana. According to the story, " Legrand " hailed from
New Orleans. Into the mouth of " Jupiter," the slave or valet,
Poe puts the negro dialect of Virginia with which he was fa-
miliar, rather than the flat, quacking Gullah patois of the Caro-
lina Low Country. " Jupiter " talks like a Richmond darkey. So
much for the human elements. When we come to the gold bug
itself, " the queerest scarabaeus in the world," there is a synthesis
of material which is perhaps even more interesting and original.
POE'S GOLD BUG SYNTHESIS
The genesis of Poe's " gold bug " seems to have been beyond
peradventure some of the beetles which he noticed on his rambles
2 2 Poe prided himself upon his ability to solve cryptograms sec Woodberry,
vol. i, 1900, pages 303-304, and his own articles on the subject in Alexander's
Messenger, Dec. 18, 1839, Graham's, July, 1841, etc. This was a later development
and the cryptogram in the story belongs to the Philadelphia period of about 1842.
ISRAFEL IN CAROLINA 215
among the sand dunes of Sullivan's Island. A clever synthesis of
several of these, together with the legends of pirates, the strange
aspects of the lonely landscape, and his well-known flare for the
solution of ciphers, give all the necessary factors for the plot.
Our immediate concern is with the beetles. In the story, the de-
scriptions are scattered; brought close together in connection with
one another, their origin becomes startlingly plain.
To make his "gold bug" Poe evidently super-imposed one
upon another several of the beetles common to the Island, tak-
ing the long antennae and the golden tint from one, and the skull
markings and shape from another. These, when assembled became
the Scarab&us Caput Hominis, a bug never seen before or since
upon sea or land. We can imagine him, upon some idle sunny day,
the young soldier in the scarlet and blue uniform of the artillery,
lying upon his stomach amid the sand dunes amusing himself
with a piece of manuscript and the gyrations of some unfortunate
beetle. The one of which " Jupiter " says, " I nebber did see sich
a deuced bug he kicks and he bite eberything what cum near
him. 293 1 didn't like de look ob de long mouff, myself, nohow, so
I wouldn't take hold ob him wid my finger, but I cotch him wid
a piece ob paper and stuff a piece of it in his mouff dat was de
WQ> y 294 aj^ that j s the wa y we can easily see several beetles
going home to Fort Moultrie in the pockets of one Edgar Allan
Poe, alias Perry, to be duly drawn upon paper that evening under
the light of the glimmering barrack lantern by a semi-scientific
young poet who combined imagination with observation and the
use of the artistic pencil. Indeed, it is this very operation of draw-
ing beetles in which we surprise " Legrand " at the opening of the
story.
. . . He seated himself at a small table on which were a pen and ink,
but no paper. He looked for some in a drawer but found none. * Never
mind/ he said at length, ' this will answer '; and he drew from his
waistcoat pocket a scrap of what I took to be very dirty foolscap, and
made upon it a rough drawing with the pen* . . . When the design
298 In corrections in his own hand in the Century Association copy of The Col-
kcted Works once owned by Poe and Griswold, Poe has changed deuced to
d d." See note 299.
294 xhe quotations are, of course, from The Gold Bug.
216 ISRAFEL
was complete, he handed it to me without rising. . . . * Well/ I said,
after contemplating it for some moments, ' this is a strange scarabceus,
I must confess; new to me, never saw anything like it before unless
it was a skull, or a death's head, which it more nearly resembles than
anything else that has come under my observation. ' A death's head! '
echoed Legrand. 'Oh yes well, it has something of that appear-
ance upon paper, no doubt. The two upper black spots look like eyes,
eh? and the longer one at the bottom like a mouth and then the
shape of the whole is oval.' . . .
Elsewhere " Legrand " says of the bug, " It is a brilliant gold
co l or about the size of a large hickory nut, with two jet black
spots near one extremity of the back, and another somewhat
larger, at the other. . . " The antenna, we also learn, are long
and accentuated, and the beetle had powerful jaws. With these
descriptions in mind we can now proceed to see how Poe played
with his beetles to the tune of a charming medley in fact and
fancy, the theme of which was the gold bug.
The reader is now asked to accompany an enthusiastic " bug-
hunter " upon Sullivan's and Long Island, South Carolina, about
one hundred years after Poe's historic visit, and to partake vicari-
ously of the excitements of the chase. Some years ago, it appears,
a noted entomologist, 295 armed with the classic butterfly net of
science, crossed over from Sullivan's Island to Long Island to
collect insects. While he was forcing his way through a dense
thicket, a large beetle lit on the end of the dagger leaf of a
bristling Spanish Bayonet. The insect was new to him and most
beautiful, nothing like it, he thought, was to be found out of
the tropics. It was gleaming with fiery gold, soft satiny green, and
dull old-gold the antennae nearly three inches long extended in
front of the insect as it stood at attention.* 9 *
In his excitement, the scientific gentleman missed it with his
2 Ellison A. Smyth, Jr. the author is frankly indebted to Prof. Smyth of
the Virginia Polytechnic Institute for the description of the capture of the beetles,
and for the idea which they suggested to him which are taken from his article in
the Sewanee Review for January i, 1910, Foe's Gold Bug from the Standpoint
of an Entomologist. The text of the article was supplied the author by the
Charleston Museum, Charleston, South Carolina, together with specimens of the
beetles described, captured on Sullivan's Island.
296 "At attention" with antennae pointing. This is the position which sug-
gested to Poe his idea for using the beetle as a " treasure pointer."
-^ a
a ^
CO
bo 3
3 W
PQ ^
o
cribed,and w again set to vork with tb
spade*. 1 was dreadfully weary, but, tcercely
uadr*landing -what had occasioned the change
efor
'iter'a
jhhe
>t the
fceof
tlfog
lihe
E
the
toy,
1ST
k!ng
Uler
Pino
cd it
assume. He seemed siopiffit
ffMttMly he fell opoa hi* knee* fa the pit, and,
bury .ng his naked araaup tftthaftftowp ift gold
letthittithrercm a m 1 *U'eioyJngtbelaxwyJ^M of antique dale wid of gwat
ofabatU. AttestU 1 w*h d P *, 8 b, h r x. French, S^jnin
' few Eniftwh
Je ,,My | wM.4i
ut iw ii|Kin inv i reuwve an imnitfipanM in nt vMrar. ferb|x
he left eye at* the ) 4 ample of Wowa with a mnttuck \vor surti-
of but one i'f. ck-nt, while bi coadjntow wre b^ in the j,u;
h for buried troa- 1 pertiapn it required a dozcu who shall lull .''
OF CO.UtJJO I>OWW THE WRONtf leaw Mr. iMlwIure hajcrin:; tsint, io r la- was
"a
nitrn
Iwp.
Vain
I win
Wit 111
Original illustrations for The Gold Bug
Published with the text for Poe's 100 prize story in The Philadelphia Dollar
Newspaper for Wednesday, June 28, 1843. The illustrations were by F. O. C.
DAR.LEY, the Philadelphia artist retained by POE to illustrate The Stylus,
which never appeared
From a file of the Dollar Newspaper
Courtesy of the Maryland Historical Society
ISRAFEL IN CAROLINA 217
net, but some years later when visiting the same locality he
managed to snare several by the pleasant and magic formula of
anointing tree trunks in daytime with an alluring mixture of stale
beer, rum, and brown sugar. Their fondness for sap it seems sug-
gested his " sugaring for them " as moth collectors do. A speci-
men of the beetle itself, it appears, must be closely examined if
its beauty is to be fully appreciated. A large specimen is about an
inch and a half long and about a half an inch wide; they have
black antennae that sometimes measure over two inches in length,
while the head and prominent prothorax are glittering with fiery
gold sometimes shot with iridescent green. The fore-wings are
satiny-green and, when opened, discover the full-gold of the
abdomen beneath, so that old " Jupiter's " description of, " Solid
goole inside and all sep hum wing," fixes it as Poe's very " gold
bug," indeed.
But how about the skull markings? These, it appears, we do
not have to go far to seek, as they are also forthcoming from a
beetle very common to the locality of Fort Moultrie. Mr. Smyth,
for such was the scientific gentleman's name, upon this same
" sugaring expedition " was so fortunate as to capture upon the
same tree, side by side with the golden Cattichroma, one of the
common big " Click Beetles " of the vicinity, which is known to
bug men as Alaus Oculatus and to small boys as "The Jump-
ing Jack." It is about the same size as the gold-beetle (Cd-
lichroma), but flatter and more oval. It has a background of
black, thickly spotted with white, and its very large prothorax is
provided with two oval, eye-like black spots edged with white that
give it a decidedly piratical and skull-like appearance. 297
Mr. Smyth was then visited, he said, by a " scientific revela-
tion," and a moment of literary insight, in which he saw that
Poe's gold bug was a composite, and that by placing Alaus Ocu-
latus, I, the " skull-bug," on CdtUchroma, II, the gold bug, he had
what the printer has so obligingly done for us here, Edgar Allan
207 The drawings of these insects have been made for the author (from speci-
mens captured on Sullivan's Island within a few miles of Fort Moultrie) by
Miss Elena von Feld of the American Museum of Natural History, New York
City, specimens furnished by Miss Laura M. Bragg, Director of the Charleston
Museum.
2I 8 ISRAFEL
Poe's clever little synthesis, or " Scarab&us Caput Hominis,"
Poe's gold bug. 208
The description of the beetle which " Legrand " finally places
in the hand of Poe is now complete:
It was a beautiful scarabceus, and, at that time, . . . unknown to nat-
uralists of course a great prize in a scientific point of view. There
were two round black spots near one extremity of the back and a long
one near the other. The scales were exceedingly hard and glossy, with
all the appearance of burnished gold. The weight of the insect was very
remarkable. . . .
The weight was necessary if the insect was to be used as a plum-
met and a divining rod, as it was used in the story. The black
marks at the rear, making cross-bones can, of course, be left to
Poe's imagination, but it is all very typical of the young Poe, of
his imaginative fancy, his preoccupation with semi-scientific ob-
servation, and his love of a good hoax.
There are many elements in The Gold Bug, indeed, which indi-
cate Poe's insatiable curiosity, his live interest in many things.
The long antennae of the beetle, which when lowered through the
eye of the skull, point to the treasure, imply a knowledge of the
old legends of the divining rod. There is also an understood ele-
ment of sympathetic magic, for the golden bug is attracted by the
golden treasure, like attracts like and there is, last of all,
the delightful poetic fancy that the very soil of the island, where
pirates have buried their doubloons and jewels, bred an insect
that partakes of the nature of the golden treasure and the fear-
some markings of the " Jolly-Roger " itself.
Indeed, confirmation of this association of the ideas in the
story with the pirate flag is unexpectedly forthcoming from the
pen of Poe himself. In an 1845 edition of The Raven and Tales
which he corrected for himself, Poe has inserted these para-
graphs in his own hand with the evident intention of including
them in a reprint of the text. These changes appear to have been
overlooked or disregarded by Griswold, Poe's editor, and they
298 Arrangement for the synthesis of CaZUchroma and Alans Oculatus designed
by Theodore Spicer-Simson, Esq. to conform with Poe's own description in The
Gold Bug.
ISRAFEL IN CAROLINA 219
should now be added to all texts of The Gold Bug which is other-
wise incomplete. The paragraphs show the hero of the story and
"Legrand "talking 299
(Hero) I presume the fancy of the skull and of letting fall a
beetle through the skull's eye was suggested to Kidd by the pirati-
cal flag. No doubt he felt a kind of poetical consistency in recovering
his money through his ominus insignium.
(Legrand) Perhaps, still I cannot help thinking that common-sense
had quite as much to do with the matter as poetical consistency. To
be visible from the Devil's seat, it was necessary that the object, if
small, should be white; and there is nothing like your human skull for
retaining and even increasing its whiteness under exposure to all vicissi-
tudes of weather.
In this bit of dialogue, the double attitude of " poetical con-
sistency " and " common sense," which Poe constantly employed
in his stories, is nicely stressed and the effect of pirate legends
upon the plot definitely confirmed.
For the rest, the remaining elements of the story are part and
parcel of romance. In the " high rugged country behind Sullivan's
Island," Poe introduces some of the scenery of the Ragged Moun-
tains into South Carolina, for the country back of the sea-islands
is in reality excessively low and flat. 800 The tree, however, is true
to life. In the huge tulip trees and live-oaks of the district, 801
299 These paragraphs added by Poe himself, are inserted in the present text
of The Gold "Bug immediately before the paragraph beginning, " but your grand
eloquence . . ." etc., and are taken from Foe's own copy of The Raven and
Other Poems by Edgar A. Poe. New York, Wiley and Putnam, 161 Broadway, 1845.
12 mo. and Tales, by Edgar A. Poe. New York, Wiley and Putnam, 1845. " mo.
" The above two works are bound together, the first precedes. This was Poe's
own copy, with many manuscripts, marginal corrections and additions, evidently
intended as the basis for a new edition, afterward the property of R. W. Griswold,
Poe's editor, with his autograph on a fly leaf. It was bequeathed by J. L. Graham
to the Century Association of New York. Quotations here by the courtesy of the
Librarian of the Century Association.
300 Prof. Basil L. Gfldersleeve in writing Prof. Harrison says ..." I am old
enough to remember what an excitement his Gold Bug created in Charleston
when it first appeared, and how severely we boys criticised the inaccuracies in the
description of Sullivan's Island." Harrison's Life and Letters of E. A. Poe, vol. I,
page 315. Prof. Gildersleeve knew the failings of his home town. Even Poe could
not improve on scenery that was " already perfect."
soi On Fairfield Plantation on the Santee, some miles from Sullivan's Island,
there is a live oak which requires thirteen persons to span it. Many other large
trees abound.
22O
ISRAFEL
covered with the funereal plumes of Spanish moss waving eerily
like the canopy of a catafalque, who, but the young Poe, could
help but seeing something charneHike, or resist providing a grin-
ning skull among the gloomy labyrinth of branches? Nor is the
size of the tree exaggerated. There are many near Fort Moultrie,
a little way inland, even more gigantic and incredible than the
one introduced in the story itself. The two guardian skeletons
buried with the treasure are part of pirate lore. Stevenson uses
the same device in Treasure Island, and such, in reality, seems to
have been the gruesome custom of the buccaneers. But nothing
can exceed the skill with which every item of fact and fancy is
combined in the story to lead the reader on and up to the climax
of the finding of the treasure when " Jupiter " is digging under the
great tree by the glimmer of a lantern, and the dog
leaping into the hole, tore up the mould frantically with his daws. In
a few seconds he had uncovered a mass of human bones, forming two
complete skeletons, intermingled with several buttons of metal, and
what appeared to be the dust of decayed woolen. One or two strokes
of a spade upturned the blade of a large Spanish knife, and, as we
dug further, three or four pieces pieces of gold and silver coins came
to light . . . , (then the iron bound box, with its heavy lid and two
sliding bolts!) These we drew back trembling and panting with anx-
iety. In an instant a treasure of incalcuable value lay gleaming before
us. As the rays of the lanterns fell Sashing within the pit, there flashed
upward a glow and a glare, from a confused heap of gold and of jewels,
that absolutely dazzled one's eyes.
In other stories and poems there are to be found distinct traces
of his visits to Charleston and the hinterland. The house of Usher,
itself, may well be some old, crumbling, and cracked-walled colo-
nial mansion found moldering in the Carolina woods, as it was left
desolate by the hands of the marauding British, surrounded by
its swamps and gloomy woods, its cypress-stained tarns, and its
snake-haunted Indian moats. To see these, is instantly to be re-
minded of descriptions by Poe. The whole country about, in fact,
was one peculiarly in sympathy with his more lonely and melan-
choly moods. The vault described at the end of The Sleeper, a
poem written in its first form about 1831, recalls almost literally
some of the great family tombs on the plantations about Charles-
ISRAFEL IN CAROLINA 221
ton, with the semi-feudal pomp that surrounds them. 302 And Poe
saw this country, it must be remembered, before the devastations
of war had laid low the glories of its old royal grants and baronies.
As a disinherited son he must have envied, and as a Virginian
sympathized with, its prodigally-generous plantation life.
The young soldier seems to have risen rapidly in the estimate
of his officers. Doubtless his gentlemanly manners and appear-
ance soon recommended him. With this and his education, he
would, indeed, have stood out in sharp contrast to the average
regular army recruit of the period. His attention to duty was
strict and evidently satisfactory, for on May i, 1828, we find him
being appointed " artificer," 80S a title which does not necessarily
carry any mechanical duties with it, but is merely the first rung
in promotions carrying higher pay and leading to the higher non-
commissioned grades. He had already served as company clerk
and assistant in the commissariat department, and was evidently
about headquarters where he attracted attention and gave satis-
faction. The Colonel himself must have had his eye on him, for
his rise through all the non-commissioned grades seems to have
taken place between May and December, 1828, and on January
i, 1829, he was appointed regimental sergeant major at Fortress
Monroe, Virginia.
Naturally enough, with added responsibility went the com-
pensation of greater personal freedom. Poe would have had little
difficulty in obtaining considerable leave, and there is evidence
that he spent part of it in visits to the nearby city of Charleston.
Here was a city with whose quaint streets and high-walled gar-
dens he must have had considerable contact. The wanderings of
a young soldier upon leave are not always without romance, and
the unique and foreign aspect of the place could not have been
lost upon him. Perhaps he knew that he had been there before,
as a child-in-arms, with his even-then dying mother, in i8n, 80 *
302 Typical of these is the family tomb at Middleton Gardens near Charleston.
BOS one biographer is somewhat confused by Poe's being appointed an
" artificer."
so* xhis is doubtful, however, as Poe knew almost nothing about his family
until he lived among his relatives in Baltimore in 1829. See his mistake in regard
to being Benedict Arnold's grandson, Chapter XII, page 248.
222
ISRAFEL
and so sat through some play given upon the stage of the theater
where she had trod the boards in The Wonder seventeen years
before. Mr. Placide, the manager of Mrs. Poe's company, had
been succeeded in Charleston by his son, and it is by no means
impossible that Poe, who was on the hunt for information about
his parents, may have looked him up.
At any rate, certain passages in the Oblong Box show that he
was familiar with the departure of the Charleston sailing packets
and the life along the docks, and he may have visited the " Old
State House " (the rooms of the Charleston Library Society were
located in the same building) and turned over some of the colo-
nial records in the Probate Court relating to pirates and ship-
wreck, material which seems to have affected The Gold Bug.*
.For the rest, oblivion has it in its quiet keeping. The officers
of Poe's regiment died before they could be questioned as to the
details of his life at Charleston, and almost nothing but the offi-
cial records are left. Here is a whole year whose social and whose
human contacts are nearly blank. Of its dreams we know more,
for Al Aaraaf is the monument.
This is the longest poem that Poe wrote. Its story-plot and
general architecture are negligible, although the conception is
poetic. Into it the young poet poured, during the lonely hours
at Fort Moultrie, a wealth of imagination, lovely sound, and airy
fancy that entitle the work, for such it is, to a higher considera-
tion than it has ever received. It has inspired other young poets
to first take flight, and it remained for years a poetical bank upon
which he continued to draw. Despite its frequent echoes, no
one in America up to that time had ever written so many magic
lines. Poe's dreams of the region between earth and paradise,
however, were rudely interrupted by the place from which inter-
ruptions so often come home. 806
His hardship after leaving the house of John Allan, and the
opportunity for considerable contemplation which the stay at
805 In 1745, the ship " Cid Compeador," commanded by one Julian de Vega,
was wrecked off the coast of South Carolina. Some of the affidavits preserved in
the Probate Court Records at Charleston when compared with The Gold Bug
suggest that Poe may have seen them (sic).
SOB 5^ note 35o> Chapter XII, referring to Al Aaraaf.
ISRAFEL IN CAROLINA 223
Fort Moultrie afforded, seems to have confirmed Poe in his ambi-
tions for a literary career. He felt, he says, that the prime of his
life was passing, yet three years of his five year term of enlistment
remained to be served, with no prospects but barrack life beyond
that. Sometime during the close of the year 1828 307 he seems to
have gotten into communication with his foster-father, either by
letter or through the good offices of friends, and expressed a de-
sire to obtain his guardian's help in leaving the army. Mr. Allan's
permission it seems was required, for Poe's company commander,
Lieutenant J. Howard, had become much interested in the bril-
liant young soldier and had promised to discharge him, if a recon-
ciliation between John Allan and Poe could be confirmed. The
communications between Richmond and Fort Moultrie were made
through the medium of a Mr. John O. Lay who seems to have
been a friend of the Allan family. 808
Although aware now of the whereabouts of his foster-son, John
Allan did not write him directly, but wrote Mr. Lay that he
thought a military life was a good one for Poe, and evidently indi-
cated that he was quite content to allow him to remain where he
was. Nothing is more indicative of John Allan's utter coldness
of heart than this. The letter was inclosed by Mr. Lay to Lieu-
tenant Howard, and must have brought a sinking sense of dis-
appointment to the home-sick and ambitious young soldier. For
the time being, his hopes were dashed to the ground and doubt
cast upon all his statements to Lieutenant Howard.
With the resumption of intercourse between father and son, a
new factor begins to creep into John Allan's attitude to " the son
of actors " snobbishness. After inheriting his uncle's ample for-
tune, the older man developed social aspirations in conformity
with the large mansion in Richmond, and these, it would appear,
he felt were somewhat threatened by the fact that his " son " had
enlisted as a private soldier. The descendant of Scotch smugglers,
to judge from expressions in the correspondence which took place,
felt that to have Poe return in the uniform of anything less than
7 The facts related here which conflict with certain " standard " biographies
come from the new published letters of the Valentine Museum, Richmond. See
particularly letter 6, page 7$.
808 Some authorities say, " a relative of Mrs. Allan."
224 ISRAFEL
an officer would be to have entailed upon him a portion of Poe's
"infamy"; nevertheless, he feels a military career is the thing
for Poe. " He had better remain where he is until the end of his
enlistment."
In a letter written by Poe to John Allan from Fort Moultrie on
December i, 1828, Poe protests against this, tells of his concern
at learning that John Allan had been ill, and speaks with par-
donable pride of his own satisfaction at his rapid promotion.
He stresses his determination to leave the army unless absolutely
forbidden to do so by his " father," and states that army regu-
lations do not permit of promotion from the ranks, and that his
age precludes West Point. It is now that the first mention of
West Point occurs.
This letter shows Poe's character to have considerably har-
dened during his army career. His promotions seem to have given
him self-confidence and poise, and he says that he is no longer
a wayward boy but a man with a work to do in the world. His
future greatness he successfully predicts, for " he feels that within
him" which will make him fulfil John Allan's wishes, and he
excuses his self-confidence by saying that conviction of success
is the only thing that can make ambitions and talent prosper.
" I have thrown myself on the world like the Norman conqueror
on the shores of Britain and, by my avowed assurance of victory,
have destroyed the fleet which could alone cover my retreat I
must either conquer or die succeed or be disgraced." Poe makes
plain that he is not asking for money a letter to Lieutenant
Howard assuring that officer of the reconciliation that would
procure his release is all he asks and "my dearest love to
Ma it is only when absent that we can tell the value of such
a friend " yours respectfully and affectionately.
This cry from the high heart of ambitious and fiery youth in
the agony of frustration, and the prison-house of military bar-
racks received as a reply a complete silence. In the arctic laby-
rinth of John Allan's brain it was locked away as utterly and se-
curely as some pathetic secret in a vault of cold marble.
One ponders wearily such facts, startled by the amazing pos-
sibilities of human nature, wondering a little about the wet eyes
ISRAFEL IN CAROLINA 225
of the fragile, failing wife in the great house at Richmond, of what
her husband thought when he found his prediction about the
boy's starving in the streets had not been fulfilled not com-
pletely that is whether he was glad or sorry, annoyed, or
simply surprised. Was there not some sorrow and yearning left
in the man or was he, after all, this strong prophet of lean
years, who saw to it that his predictions were fulfilled disap-
pointed? Who knows even Fate must have been astonished
John Allan had raised a poet!
In the meantime, Edgar Poe had sailed northward. 309 On
December the first, he writes that his regiment was under
orders to sail for Old Point Comfort. The low coasts of Carolina
faded away forever under the eyes of " Edgar A. Perry," First
United States Artillery; the army transport lumbered heavily up
the coast with the warm current of the Gulf Stream; the hours
passed slowly while the men played cards in their bunks under the
light of whale-oil lanterns. Fortress Monroe drew slowly nearer.
Certainly a letter would be there to release him from all this!
Only a few lines would do the trick would save three years of
youth from being wasted. Even " Pa " would not fail him there.
What had he done anyway to be thought so " degraded " ? Played
cards for money and read novels, drunk a little heady peach-and-
honey, insisted upon being a poet. For that he had done penance
in uniform and barracks for two long, lost years. Surely that was
enough! It was getting near Christmas time. Perhaps, they would
let him come home? Home! he could anticipate old black
" Dab " crying out over him as he opened the big door; " Ma"
coming weakly down the steps half blind with joy, "Aunty
Nancy's " hearty rapture, even John Allan's amused ironical smile
so9 p oe s regiment almost certainly left Fort Moultrie the first week in De-
cember, 1828, for on the first of December he writes John Allan that they are
then under orders to sail and that mail must be sent to him at Fortress Monroe.
See letter 6, The Valentine Museum Letters. Poe, therefore, spent the time be-
tween the middle of November, 1827, and the first week in December, 1828, on
Sullivan's Island, South Carolina. A considerable slice out of his short life. The
statement that Poe left Fort Moultrie in October, 1828, (Woodberry, etc.) is thus
corrected and the remaining months accounted for. The voyage to Hampton
Roads could not have been under four days in length. This was Poe's last " long"
voyage by sea.
226 ISRAFEL
and, " Weel, weel, my ain proud cockerel, fluttered back, eh! "
Then the glow of the agate lamp in his own quiet room and the
books. . . . The ship, whose name has been forgotten, lurched
another wave-length northward. To Israfel it seemed to be making
no perceptible progress. He was already a little, just a little weary
of another voyage which was now half over. Within a few weeks of
reaching Fortress Monroe he was twenty years old. Tamerlane
had probably been destroyed in Boston, almost the whole edition.
There had not been even a flash in the pan.
CHAPTER XII
Cold Marble
POE'S regiment would have been completely disembarked
and in quarters at Fortress Monroe, Virginia, before the
middle of December, 1828. By the transfer from Fort
Moultrie, only the scene of his monotony had been shifted. Old
Point Comfort at that time was scarcely a village. What little
gaiety it offered centered largely about a hotel where the officers
occasionally held dances, sometimes attended by ladies from
Washington, Baltimore, or Richmond. For the enlisted men, the
fort, cut off by water as it was, could have offered almost nothing,
beyond the squabbles of the married quarters, to relieve the
tedium of artillery practice and guard duty. Poe seems to have
made friends with the non-commissioned officers of his old com-
pany; he specifically mentions Sergeants Benton, Griffith, and
Hooper in a letter written later to Sergeant Graves, more fa-
miliarly known as "Bully," whose wife, and one "Duke" are
also included in his salutations. 810 Occasional leave to Norfolk,
nearby, was probably the most abandoned form of entertainment
known to the post.
It is no wonder, then, that the young soldier with Al Aaraaf in
his pocket, and Tamerlane completely revised and ready for
print, under the urge of literary ambition, became impatient
and felt that the prime of his life was being wasted. Three more
years of military office routine would be fatal. He had already
written Mr. Allan from Fort Moultrie that it was now high time
that he should leave the army. To find no letter awaiting him at
Fortress Monroe, filled him with a growing despair as day after
day slipped by and the silence in Richmond continued. A week
or so after arriving at Fortress Monroe, Poe again wrote his
810 Poe to Sergeant Samuel Graves from Richmond, May 3, 1830, Valentine
Museum Letters, No. ax.
228 ISRAFEL
guardian expressing his sorrow at not hearing from him, and his
fixed determination to leave the service. 811
This letter is remarkable. It shows how thoroughly Poe's per-
sonality had become integrated by his army experience, and
throws a vivid emphasis upon his literary aspirations. Despite
the fact, says Poe, that his ambition has not taken the direction
which his guardian desired, he is determined to follow his own
bent. Richmond and the United States are all too narrow a sphere
for him, and the world will be his theater. As for the army, he
wishes to be gone. The undoubted conviction of genius rests
heavily upon him. The letter is one of the most prophetic. In it
he emphatically, but with great dignity, denies the imputation
that he is degraded. / have in my heart what has no connection
with degradation and can walk amidst injection and be uncon-
taminated, is a close paraphase of his words. How heavily the
sights and sounds of barrack life, the crassness, the coarseness,
the association with those who were personally repulsive, together
with the utter lack of all touch with the subleties of another world
in which he lived how heavily these weighed upon him, leaps
forth at us from the fevered writing on the yellowed page. If
John Allan is determined to abandon him, Poe warns him,
although neglected, he will be doubly ambitious, and the world
will undoubtedly hear of the son whom the older man thought
beneath his notice. With this letter the relations of " father " and
" son " begin to enter upon their final phase.
Lieutenant Howard, Poe tells us, had already introduced him
to Colonel James House who had known " General " David Poe,
the poef s grandfather. The Colonel and the other officers all felt
that Poe might be gotten into West Point, despite his age, if John
Allan will only aid him . . . etc., etc., but to this there was no
reply. John Allan was probably too much absorbed in the im-
portant affairs of the world of reality to be moved by the prayers
of a " son " whose avowed ambition was to be a poet. Whether he
conveyed Poe's oft-repeated messages of affection to his " dear
an Poe to John Allan from Fortress Monroe, December 22, 1828, Valentine
Museum Letters, No. 27. Poe indicates in this letter that unless he receives help, he
contemplates going abroad, probably to London (sic).
COLD MARBLE 229
Ma " is not known. At least he payed no attention to her constant
appeals to be allowed to see her " dear boy/' now only a few miles
away from Richmond. And this plea was refused with a more than
Spartan fortitude on the part of her husband, for Frances Allan
was dying. In the big house at Richmond, the long physical and
spiritual agony of the childless woman was about to receive its
final anodyne. Worry over her mortal illness might be accepted
as a sufficient reason for John Allan's disregard of his trouble-
some " son," if it was not definitely known that it was the constant
prayer of his fast sinking wife that she might be allowed to see
" Eddie " 812 before she died.
Shortly after Poe's arrival at Fortress Monroe, his own asser-
tions as to the good opinion in which he was held by his officers
were confirmed by his promotion to the highest rank which an
enlisted man can attain, short of a commission. We have already
seen that Lieutenant Howard had introduced the young soldier
to the Colonel of the Regiment. This, and the fact that he had
long been employed upon military clerical work by his other
officers, apparently to their complete satisfaction, probably pro-
cured his final promotion. A few days after disembarking at Old
Point Comfort, probably about December 20, 1828, Poe was de-
tailed to Regimental Headquarters.
" Private Perry's " performance of duty at regimental head-
quarters was evidently eminently satisfactory, for ten days later,
on January i, 1829, he was appointed regimental sergeant major
and is so carried on the morning report of the day following.
Poe's appointment to be regimental sergeant major is un-
doubtedly a compliment to his trustworthiness and executive
ability. The entire correspondence of a command passes through
the hands of that non-commissioned officer. He is often in a posi-
tion to cause serious trouble even for commissioned officers, and
must perforce, possess the confidence and trust of the regimental
staff. The regiment, of which Poe was the senior enlisted member
si2 Testimony of James Gait which Mr. J. H. WMtty prints in Ms Memoir:
This is to the effect that Mrs. Allan's dying desire was to hold Poe in her arms
before she died. In case she passed away before Edgar arrived home, she asked not
to be buried until her foster-son should see her. The Gaits, it will be remembered,
were cousins of John Allan.
230
ISRAFEL
at Fortress Monroe in January, 1829, was a composite one, being
composed of companies detailed from various commands to make
up an " artillery practice school; " a use to which the old fort has
frequently been put. Among the officers present at that time, was
one Lieutenant Joseph Locke with whom Poe came in touch, not
altogether affably, later on at West Point. The fact that he had
reached the top of the ladder as a private soldier, with peculiar
opportunities to learn the mystery of artillery, undoubtedly
helped him greatly in obtaining letters to the War Department.
Sometime during January, 1829, Poe was ill in the military
hospital at Fortress Monroe where he was attended by the Post
Surgeon, a Dr. Robert Archer, with close relatives in Rich-
mond. 818 The young soldier seems to have been prostrated by
some sort of fever. No doubt his uneasiness and anxiety was a
contributing cause. Dr. Archer was greatly attracted by the bril-
liant young soldier whose manners were so evidently that of a
gentleman. After some little time, Poe confessed to the surgeon,
who seemed to be his friend, that he was the " son " of John
Allan of Richmond and serving in the army under an alias. Dr.
Archer, who must have known Poe's story through his Richmond
connections, interested himself in the young man's behalf. It may
have been in this way that Frances Allan first heard that her
foster-son was at Fortress Monroe.
By this time Poe was thoroughly aware of the fact that his
guardian would not help him to a discharge, with a literary career
in view. The West Point idea seems to have been the only form
of compromise, so letters were again written to John Allan sug-
gesting aid in procuring a substitute, and his influence for a
cadet's appointment. Dr. Archer enlisted the aid and aroused the
interest of the officers. What, if anything, was Mr. Allan's reply
818 Dr. Archer was an uncle of Mrs. Susan Archer Weiss, one of Poe's minor
biographers. Under the circumstances of this close relationship I have followed
her account of Foe's contact with this army surgeon which is somewhat more
complete and convincing, in this particular, than Prof. Woodberry's. It is now
certain, from letters unknown to either Prof. Woodberry or Mrs. Weiss, that Dr.
Archer did not suggest to Poe the West Point scheme which he (Poe) had
already conceived at Fort Moultrie some months before. Dr. Archer was ap-
pointed to the United States Medical Corps, August 5, 1826, and stationed at
Fortress Monroe, National Calendar, vol. IV, page 158.
COLD MARBLE 231
is not known. The first direct message from Richmond which Poe
received from his guardian was a summons to the death bed of
" mother."
Frances Allan's frantic requests had at last prevailed. Realizing
that she was indeed in her last agony, even the cold marble seems
to have been touched. But it was too late. On Saturday February
28, 1829, Sergeant-Major " Edgar A. Perry " is carried as present
on the muster roll of his regiment, and on the same day, a few
miles away in Richmond, Mrs. Allan died. 314 Knowing full well
the mettle of the man with whom she was having her last dealings,
with her dying breath she extorted from him a solemn promise
that he would not abandon Poe. 815 It was her last wish that she
might not be buried until he saw her. It is impossible to contem-
plate this gentle woman, waiting in vain for the beloved and
eagerly expected footstep of her " dear boy," while the darkness
closed in upon her; or the stern heart that sat beside her, only
melting at the last, without a solemn wonder at the different
capabilities of human nature. With her had departed the sweetest
and truest friend that a certain poet ever knew. " If only she
hadn't died," said Poe afterward.
On the afternoon of Sunday March i, 1829, by far the most
conspicious passenger on the Norfolk stage bound for Richmond
must have been a young sergeant major in the uniform of the
First Artillery, with a hospital pallor under his sunburn, and ob-
viously nervous and excited by every delay. Frances Allan had
died on the morning of the twenty-eighth of February, she must
had been sinking for two days before, yet it was only at the last
that she had prevailed on her husband to send for Poe. Some hours
would have been consumed in getting a leave granted, if the mes-
81 * Richmond Whig, Monday, March 2, 1829. " Died on Saturday morning
last, after a lingering and painful illness, Mrs. Frances K. Allan, consort of Mr.
John Allan, aged 47 years. The friends and acquaintances of the family are re*
spectfully invited to attend the funeral from the late residence on this day at
12 o'clock." Clipping by courtesy of Edward V. Valentine, Esq.
316 Mrs. Allan had a small income of her own from certain parcels of real
estate which, it appears from transactions of assignment in 1822, were held in
her name. It may be that she suggested to her husband that some of the proceeds
from this property might be devoted to Poe. There is no direct evidence that she
did so, however.
232 ISRAFEL
sage was received the next day, and Poe could hardly have started
till the afternoon of March i. 316 While he was engaged in making
the journey between Fortress Monroe and Richmond, Mrs. Allan
was being buried. Perhaps there were good reasons for this; in
any event, her last request was not carried out.
The return of a young soldier to his home town after an ab-
sence of two years, cannot fail to awaken in him a flood of mem-
ories. One can imagine Poe's impatience at the stages where the
negro horse boys slowly unhitched and hitched the relays of
horses, and the thousand recollections that thronged upon him as,
towards the close of a gloomy March evening, 317 the conveyance
rattled, all too slowly, into the dimly lit streets of Richmond.
Once arrived, he must have dashed up Main Street to the corner
of Fifth, through the gate leading into the circular drive before
the familiar house, and run with all his might up the steps. The
crepe was not there, perhaps he was not too late after all?
A hundred things that he had been saving up to say to his
" mother " for the past two years crowded to his lips. The door
swung open, and in a few instants he knew that, it was all over.
The scene of Poe's tragic home-coming was said to have been
so harrowing as to be unbearable to those who witnessed it.
Frances Allan had been greatly loved by her whole household,
the demonstrative negro servants were in tears. Miss Valentine,
inconsolable and worn out by her long vigil by the bedside, could
not have met Poe with much fortitude. Even John Allan was pro-
foundly moved; he stayed away from the office next day, and he
was so agitated as to misdate a document. Be it set down to his
credit that it was an order for some mourning clothes for Poe. 818
816 In his letter to John Allan from Fortress Monroe of March 10, 1829, Poe
showed that the journey from Richmond to Norfolk took a day and a night.
As he arrived home " the evening after the funeral," March 2, he must have left
Old Point Comfort sometime the day before, probably on the afternoon stage
unless he went by water. The latter method was slower, and therefore probably
not employed in this race with death.
817 It must be remembered that in Poe's day the term " evening " meant any
time after three o'clock P,M. until darkness. In some parts of the South the word
is still used that way by the older generation.
818 Ellis & Allan Papers " MX. Ellis, please to furnish Edgar A. Poe with a
suit of clothes, 3 pairs of socks or thread hose. McCrery will make them. Also a
pair of suspenders, and hat and knife, pair of gloves." This is in the handwriting
COLD MARBLE 233
The dying whispers of his wife not to forget "her dear boy
Edgar " were too near a thing for him to utterly disregard, and a
flood of old tender memories of the dead woman in front of the
fire, with the boy upon her knee, many and many an evening,
must have revived in him some of the old affection.
Soon after his return, probably the next day, Poe visited
Shockoe cemetery where Mrs. Allan had been buried. The empty
room had been bad enough; close to the actual presence of death
in the graveyard, now for the second time, Poe must have sounded
the last fathom of despair. The future author of the Conqueror
Worm and the philosophy of Eureka could not have been, even at
that time, under any comforting illusions about the hereafter of
death. On the way to the new grave they passed the tomb of Mrs.
Stanard, just to the left of the road, a combination of sorrow
that in Poe's state must have been well-nigh unbearable. It seems
to have been so, for he is said to have cast himself down ex-
hausted by the last resting place of Frances Allan. The servants
remembered helping him into the carriage which bore him away.
Perhaps it may have occurred to his " strong-minded guard-
ian," while his wife was being buried and his " son's " heart had
almost stopped beating at her grave, that there were a good many
things in heaven and earth that had hitherto not been thought of
in his philosophy. The wife, who had, at least, been allowed to
share his bosom, later received a "fitting marble monument."
Even in that, however, she was not alone. For the time being,
though, John Allan was shaken. It was some weeks before another
piece of marble that had originally been quarried in Scotland re-
sumed its normal mean temperature.
Of the details of this Richmond visit in the Winter of 1829,
not very much is known. Poe probably saw most of his old friends
who were not away at the University. The Gaits seem also to
have been most kind, and the young sergeant major undoubtedly
visited his sister Rosalie at the Mackenzies'. Probably the most
important of his visits was at the Roysters'. Poe is said to have
of John Allan, but dated March 3, 1828, probably due to Mr. Allan's troubled
state of mind at his wife's death, as the slip belongs in the records of 1829. Poe
was not in Richmond in 1828.
234
ISRAFEL
called upon the parents of his sweetheart and to have created a
scene when he learned that during his absence Elmira had been
married to Mr. Shelton. This was contrary to the assurances he
had received from them upon his return from the University in
i827. 819 The young poet undoubtedly felt that both he and Elmira
had been tricked, and every advantage taken of his absence to
influence her. He is said to have reproached Mr. and Mrs. Roy-
ster bitterly, and to have demanded an interview with Elmira.
This, of course, was refused, and Mr. Shelton was warned. It
appears that one of Poe's letters to Elmira from the University
had fallen into her hands after her marriage, and that as a conse-
quence she had made things unpleasant for her husband and
parents. The marriage was a fact, however; Poe had lost his
" Lenore," and this grief was added to his already overwhelming
sorrow over the death of Mrs. Allan. From later developments,
it is known that he was by no means satisfied as to the state of
Elmira's feelings, and there can be no doubt that he cherished
her memory, was haunted by dreams of her as long as he lived,
and felt determined to have an interview at the first opportunity.
This, however, did not occur while he was in Richmond in 1829.
No doubt there were precautions taken to prevent it.
Poe's leave of absence was the usual ten day furlough granted
for such emergencies in the army. During the few days that he
was in Richmond, the West Point scheme was talked over with
John Allan, who was probably willing to listen to it because it
seemed to offer a final solution as to his ward's future and defi-
nitely removed him from the household. 820 A complete reconcilia-
tion was impossible under the circumstances, but a more amicable
feeling undoubtedly existed between them when Poe left for
Fortress Monroe, than had been the case for a long time.
The young soldier left Richmond early on the morning of the
319 The Roysters had talked to Poe after his return from the University and it
had been agreed to defer the marriage for a year. At any rate, Elmira then married
Mr. Shelton while Poe was away and not just before his return from the University,
as several biographers aver.
820 Definite moves to obtain letters of influence to the War Department for
a cadet's appointment all follow this time, and Poe's proceedings to get dear of
the army from the time of this visit shows that the understanding with his
guardian was reached at this time, and not before by previous correspondence.
COLD MARBLE 235
ninth of March, 1829. He went to his " father's " room to bid
him good-bye, but finding him asleep, he did not awaken him to
the consciousness of grief. Immediately on arriving at Old Point
Comfort, on the morning of the tenth, he wrote back home. 821
He says he is well, and there is a note of joy in the letter at the
reconciliation with his guardian, for he tells us, that if it were
not for Mrs. Allan's death, he would now be happier than he has
been for a long time. The rest of the letter is given up to saying
how anxious he is to retrieve his good name and reestablish him-
self in the good opinion of his guardian, and to suggestions as to
those who might aid in obtaining an appointment to West Point,
now taken for granted. Evidently, during the visit home, the mat-
ter had been talked over, and John Allan's consent obtained.
From many indications, it is certain that, from the first, the
whole West Point plan was on Poe's part, merely a concession to
his guardian's idea of what his future career should be. The young
soldier himself would have liked to free himself entirely from the
army to give himself up to writing. On this point, however, as
upon his " son's " returning to Charlottesville, John Allan was
adamant. Poe was himself a little wiser now. He had learned how
futile it was to woo the muse with no bread in his stomach, and
no oil in the lamp; and he was prepared to compromise, rather
than to walk out of the house again to starve. Frances Allan's
promise, that she had extorted from her husband, had paved the
way for a reconciliation. With temporary acquiescence to his
guardian's wishes, and a repetition at West Point of his success
in the ranks, Poe felt that there was a real hope of being reen-
stated in Mr. Allan's good opinion if not in his affection. In the
meantime, the Military Academy offered board, bed and educa-
tion; a specious combination that has appealed to a great many
poor but ambitious youths. To share, even partially, in John
Allan's large fortune was also highly desirable. Even a modest
legacy would bring Poe the possibility of the leisure for his writ-
ing which he so much desired desired, indeed, above all things
and relief from the haunting fear of poverty. This choice there-
321 p oe to John Allan, March 10, 1829. Letter No. 9, Valentine Museum Col-
lection.
23 6 ISRAFEL
fore, which circumstances had so largely thrust upon him, was the
lesser horn of a dilemma rather than a thirst for the glory of
arms. The result of it was to be the almost utter waste of two
years out of a short life.
From the standpoint of literature, it is unfortunate that John
Allan could not change his mind. A little concession, on his part,
to the darling wish of his " son's " heart would have allowed the
world to have heard from Poe oftener and sooner. It might have
saved him, even then, from the nerve-shattering effects of the
poverty and deprivations to follow. But to the potentialities of his
ward, John Allan was blind. West Point, to the good merchant,
seemed an ideal solution. Edgar would there be under that dis-
cipline of which the Scotchman felt he was in such need; it re-
lieved Mr. Allan of personal expense by casting him on the public
charge; and it removed Poe from the household and assured him
a future. By such an arrangement the older man could at once
assoil himself of his promise to his dead wife, and be honorably
rid of the young genius who had become a spiritual, an intel-
lectual, and a physical nuisance. There comes a time in every
man's life when he feels that he is entitled to what he calfe
"peace." Death had removed John Allan's wife. He was now
looking forward to a new era of existence, and in the scheme of
that life there was no place for a reminder, a painful reminder,
of the old order of things.
No one can blame Mr. Allan for this. A lack of psychic insight
and artistic prevision, however desirable, must be forgiven a
man cannot be reproached for the lack of qualities with which
he has not been endowed but there was something more than
this. When John Allan " adopted " the helpless child whom he
took into his house, whether willingly or not, he assumed certain
responsibilities. It is the ruthlessness of his shaking these off, from
the time of Poe's sojourn at Charlottesville until after the West
Point interlude, of which posterity has a right to complain. The
dying prayers of his wife seemed to temporarily arouse in him a
sense of the fact that fatherhood does not consist simply in
cramming a child's stomach, and then throwing it out of the nest.
As the days slipped by, however, the repugnance to having Poe
COLD MARBLE 237
in the house returned, and the memory of the promise waned. It
is this process that the correspondence between the years 1829
and 1833 shadows forth. The beginning, as might be expected,
was more favorable than the end.
Most of Poe's time when he got back to the Fort was taken up
in making arrangements for his discharge, getting letters from his
officers to the War Department, and finding a substitute willing
to serve out the remainder of his enlistment, about three years.
A few weeks after his arrival, arrangements were complete, and
the Colonel of the Regiment wrote the following letter to the Gen-
eral commanding the Department of the East. As usual in Poe's
case, most of the biographical data is inexact. The story which
Poe told his commanding officer can be read between the lines.
Fortress Monroe,
March 30, '29.
GENERAL, I request your permission to discharge from the service
Edgar A. Perry, 822 at present the Sergeant-Major of the ist Reg't of
Artillery, on his procuring a substitute.
The said Perry is one of a family of orphans whose unfortunate par-
ents were the victims of the conflagration of the Richmond Theatre in
iSoQ. 828 The subject of this letter was taken under the protection of
a Mr. Allan, a gentleman of wealth and respectability, of that city,
who, as I understand, adopted his protegS as his son and heir; with the
intention of giving him a liberal education, he had placed him at the
University of Virginia from which, after considerable progress in his
studies, in a moment of youthful indiscretion he absconded, 824 and was
not heard from by his Patron for several years; in the meantime he
became reduced to the necessity of enlisting into the service, 825 and
accordingly entered as a soldier in my Regiment, at Fort Independence,
322 xhe request for discharge of course had to be in the same name as that
under which the soldier was enlisted.
28 The Colonel evidently had the story from Poe and from John Allan's
letter to him, but he is somewhat mixed as to dates and precise facts. The theater
burned in 1811. That Poe used it as a convenient method of explaining his adop-
tion seems likely. It is also a more romantic reason, the kind that Poe liked to
fill into his " autobiography."
824 The use of the word " absconded," carrying with it the idea of financial
defaulting, may indicate that, in his letter to the Colonel, John Allan made men-
tion of Poe's running away on account of debts.
325 "Reduced to the necessity," etc. this is an interesting comment on the
Colonel's own opinion of the enlisted personnel of that day, and Poe's desperate
straits in Boston in 1827. Evidently " enlisting " was one step short of suicide.
238 ISRAFEL
in 1827. Since the arrival of his company at this place he has made
his situation known to his Patron, at whose request the young man
has been permitted to visit him; the result, is an entire reconciliation
on the part of Mr. Allan, who reinstates him into his family and favor,
and who in a letter I have received from him requests that his son may
be discharged on procuring a substitute, an experienced soldier and ap-
proved sergeant is ready to take the place of Perry as soon as his dis-
charge can be obtained. 826 The good of the service, therefore, cannot
be materially injured by the discharge.
I have the honor to be,
With great respect, your obedient servant,
JAS. HOUSE,
Col. ist Art'y.
To the General Commanding the
E. Dept. U. S. A., New York.
Permission was granted by General E. P. Gaines commanding
the Eastern Department, from New York headquarters in an
order dated April 4, and in compliance with this, " Edgar A.
Perry " was discharged from the service of the United States on
April 15, 1829, a sergeant as the Colonel notes then being
ready to take his place as substitute. As this transaction was
later used as the basis of a serious charge against Poe by the
second Mrs. Allan, it is important to note that Poe was dis-
charged from the army in a little over a month from the time that
he returned from furlough to Richmond. Apparently, the whole
matter was easily arranged. Allowing for the time which the mail
then required between New York and Fortress Monroe, 827 and
for the usual delays of official correspondence, it is hard to see
how it could have been done more speedily.
Poe's own description of the transactions involved in his dis-
826 The wording here strongly suggests that the approved sergeant was ready
to fill the post of sergeant-major to which he would at the same time have to
be promoted by regimental order. The point should be noted.
82 * Then at least three or four days each way. The orders would also be a
day or so in being approved, written, and transmitted. It evidently took the
Colonel's letter three days to get to New York and the confirming order at head-
quarters was issued on the fourth. The order for discharge is dated ahead to the
fifteenth of April because it allows a month's half pay and is convenient to com-
pute. This completely does away with the second Mrs. Allan's story of delay
during which the aggrieved substitute " grew tired waiting and wrote to Mr.
Allan."
COLD MARBLE 239
charge is now available. 828 On the date of his discharge it appears
that both Colonel House and Lieutenant Howard, his regimental,
and company commanders were absent. Had they been present,
either one, it would have been possible to have mustered in the
first recruit who offered as a substitute, which would have cost
Poe only the usual bounty of $12. Poe had told John Allan that
it would only cost that much, when he was in Richmond, it ap-
pears. With the officers absent who were competent to. enlist a new
recruit in his place, Poe was forced to pay $75 to the sergeant who
took his place. This he did by giving the substitute $25 cash
and a note for $50, which he afterwards took up out of $100 sent
him from home. As Poe's explanation agrees with the army regu-
lations in force at the time, both John Allan's suspicions, and the
charge of embezzlement made against Poe by the second Mrs.
Allan in her only known printed statement about him, published
long after his death, are both shown to be wrong.
Years after the events just described, when every move of
Poe had become a matter of public interest, the second Mrs.
Allan, then a widow, wrote to Colonel Thomas H. Ellis at that
time living in Baltimore, an " explanation " of the estrangement
between Edgar Poe and John Allan. The letter is quoted in part:
Mr. Poe had not lived under Mr. Allan's roof for two years before my
marriage, and no one knew his whereabouts; his letters were very
scarce and were dated from St. Petersburg, Russia, although he had
enlisted in the army at Boston. After he became tired of army life, he
wrote to his benefactor, expressing a desire to have a substitute if the
money could be sent to him. Mr. Allan sent it, Poe spent it; and after
the substitute was tired out, waiting and getting letters and excuses,
he (the substitute) enclosed one of Poe's letters to Mr. Allan, which
was too black to be credited if it had not contained the author's signa-
ture. Mr. Allan sent the money to the man, and banished Poe from his
affections; and he never lived here again. 829
An examination of the statements in this letter, together with
828 From various letters from Poe in the Valentine Museum Collection dated
from Baltimore in the Summer of 1829, written to John Allan in Richmond.
329 This letter was afterward published hy Colonel Thomas H. Ellis, the son
of Charles Ellis, in the Richmond Standard for April 22, 1880. Louise Allan Mayo
also gave further publicity to this unfortunate epistle in Historic Homes of Rich-
mond. The Richmond News, Illustrated Saturday Magazine, July 28, 1900.
24 o ISRAFEL
the known facts and movements of Poe and John Allan, and other
letters dealing with the young poet's period of army service and
discharge, prove that Mrs. Allan's letter is incorrect, not only in
its charge of the misuse of funds, but in nearly every other item.
Poe did, it is now known, still owe money to some of the non-
commissioned officers in his regiment when he left Fortress Mon-
roe. A letter of Poe's written to one of these men later on fell
into the second Mrs. Allan's hands. This, together with her hus-
band's suspicions, and the nature of Poe's statements about his
guardian in the epistle itself, perhaps led Mrs. Allan to make the
statement that she did make.
The absence of Lieutenant Howard, on the date of Poe's dis-
charge, April 15, probably accounts for the fact that Poe did not,
although anxious to secure his cadet appointment, leave Fortress
Monroe until almost a week after his release. He was waiting to
obtain letters from Lieutenant Howard and the other officers to
aid him in his application. These letters were given gladly, and
show clearly the high estimation in which Poe was held by his
superiors. The blamelessness of his conduct during his two years
in the army is clear. His company and battalion commanders
write:
Fortress Monroe, Va. 2oth April, 1829.
Edgar Poe, late Sergt-Major in the ist Arty, served under my com-
mand in "H," company ist Reg't of Artillery, from June 1827, to
January 1829, during which time his conduct was unexceptionable. He
at once performed the duties of clerk and assistant in the Subsistent
Department, both of which duties were promptly and faithfully done.
His habits are good and entirely free from drinking.
J. HOWARD,
Lieut, ist Artillery
In addition to the above, I have to say that Edgar Poe (erased Perry)
was appointed Sergeant-Major of the ist art'y; on the ist of January,
1829, and up to this date, has been exemplary in his department,
prompt and faithful in the discharge of his duties and is highly
worthy of confidence.
H. W. GRISWOLD,
Bt. Capt. and Adjut. ist. Arfy
To this is 3, tfunj endorsement by the Lieutenant Colonel of the
COLD MARBLE 241
regiment, W. J. Worth, 380 who joins most heartily adding some
further praise of his own. The letter, in short, covers the entire
period of Poe's service in the army under all three officers.
With these letters in his pocket, young Poe left Old Point Com-
fort and set out for Richmond where he seems to have been oc-
cupied during the latter part of April, 1829, and the first week
of May in obtaining political influence for his appointment. John
Allan bestirred himself in the matter and obtained a letter from
Andrew Stevenson, the Speaker of the House, and a Major John
Campbell, who remembered having seen Edgar Poe as a boy at
"The Springs" in i8i2. 331 While Poe was still in Richmond,
Colonel Worth, the Representative in Congress from the district,
was also prevailed upon to write the Secretary of War in the
young man's behalf, and to these letters and the eulogies of Poe's
former officers, John Allan added his own. Pen in hand, the nature
of the older man's feelings toward his ward, could not be forced
beyond the following arctic "recommendation":
Richmond, May 6, 1829.
DR. SIR, The youth who presents this, is the same alluded to by
Lt. Howard, Capt. Griswold, Colo. Worth, our representative, and the
speaker, HonT^le Andrew Stevenson, and my friend Major Jno.
Campbell.
He left me in consequence of some gambling at the University at
Charlottesville, because (I presume) I refused to sanction a rule that
the shop-keepers and others had adopted there, making Debts of
Honour of all indiscretions. I have much pleasure in asserting that he
stood his examination at the close of the year with great credit to him-
self. His history is short. He is the grandson of Quartermaster-General
Poe, of Maryland, whose widow as I understand still receives a pen-
sion for the services or disabilities of her husband. Frankly, sir, do I
declare that he is no relation to me whatever; that I have many whom
I have taken an active interest to promote theirs, 882 with no other feel-
ing than that, every man is my care, if he be in distress. For myself I
ask nothing, but I do request your kindness to aid this youth in the
promotion of his future prospects. And it will afford me great pleasure
880 The endorsement of this letter by the Lieutenant Colonel of the Regiment
shows that the Colonel was absent as Poe states.
881 See Chapter HI, page 45.
882 This may refer to the " children," probably not to anyone in Scotland as
William Gait had cared for them in his will.
242 ISRAFEL
to reciprocate any kindness you can show him. Pardon my frankness;
but I address a soldier. 888
Your Ob'd't se Vt,
JOHN ALLAN
The Hon'ble John H. Eaton, Sec'y of War, Washington City.
With this gloomy document from the frank altruist who felt
that " every man is my care, if he be in distress " to fire the
enthusiasm of the Secretary of War in his behalf, Poe left Rich-
mond on or about May 7, 1829, and went to Washington to
present the letters to the Secretary of War in person.
John Allan's letter must have been meant for the eyes of Poe
himself as much as for the Secretary of War. 834 It was plain notice
to the young poet that his guardian considered him as merely an
object of charity, and that beyond his efforts to get him off his
hands and into West Point, he had no further interest. " Frankly,
sir, do I declare that he is no relation to me whatever," did not
mean that he was about to make Poe his heir, or at home any
more in his house. In formally carrying out his promise to his
dead wife, only John Allan's honor, and not his affection, was
involved. The result of Poe's application was the usual one. The
letters were put on file in the War Department and nothing hap-
pened for months.
Mr. Allan had given Poe $50 when he left Richmond. Poe ap-
parently merely stopped off in Washington to present his letters
at the War Department and then went on to Baltimore, where we
find him before the middle of May, 1829. Poe, immediately pro-
ceeded to look up his own relatives, and, on May 20, he writes
John Allan that he has succeeded in finding his aged grandmother,
Mrs. (General) David Poe and his other relations. In the mean-
time he had drawn on Richmond for an additional $50, a draft
which his guardian honored. On May 18, John Allan writes from
Richmond telling Poe that Colonel Preston had written a warm
883 Hon. John H. Eaton, then Secretary of War, also bore the title of " Major."
In the South this would not he forgotten. See also James Preston's letter.
88 * Hon. John H. Eaton of Tennessee, was Secretary of War in Jackson's
cabinet 1829-1837. He was a politician of great influence in the Jackson " democ-
racy" and did not escape without grave scandals being connected with his
name. John Allan was evidently not anxious to be beholden to him "For my-
self I ask nothing."
COLD MARBLE 243
letter of recommendation in his behalf, and at the same time en-
closing a check for $100 with the admonition to be prudent and
be careful. Colonel Preston's letter which John Allan is evidently
somewhat astonished to find so " warm," was as follows:
Richmond, Va., May 13, 1829.
Sot, _ Some of the friends of young Mr. Edgar Poe have solicited me
to address a letter to you in his favor, believing that it may be useful
to him in his application to the Government for military service. I
know Mr. Poe and am acquainted with the fact of his having been
born under circumstances of great adversity. I also know from his own
productions and other undoubted proofs that he is a young gentleman
of genius and taleants. I believe he is destined to be distinguished, since
he has already gained reputation for taleants and attainements at the
University of Virginia. I think him possessed of feeling and character
peculiarly intitling him to public patronage.
Very respectfully your obt. serv't,
JAMES P. PKESTON
Major John Eaton, Sec*y of War, Washington.
This letter is more than a formal recommendation obtained by
political influence; it is the warm recognition of Poe's " taleants "
by a friend and neighbor who had known him from childhood. 885
Despite his unusual spelling, James Preston had sufficient liter-
ary foresight to be distinguished as the first person who linked
the word genius with the name of Poe.
Poe had several good reasons for going to Baltimore from
Washington. In the first place, he must have been thoroughly
advertised of the fact that by this time he was no longer welcome
" at home." With the waning of John Allan's " affection," he also
felt the desirability of establishing more firmly the family ties
with his blood relations in Baltimore, and the importance of ob-
taining from them whatever influence the name of his grand-
father, who had been Quartermaster in the Revolutionary War,
ass The Hon. James P. Preston "Mr. Preston," was the father of young
Preston who had been one of Poe's rather intimate playmates at Mr. Clarke's
school; they sat on the same bench together there, and young Preston had at one
time been in the habit of taking home some of Poe's schoolboy verses for his
mother's criticism. In the letter which Mr. Preston gave Poe to the Secretary of
War there is a patent reference to this.
244 ISRAFEL
might have with the War Department. 888 Poe's ignorance about
his own family up until this time seems to have been almost com-
plete. Grandfather Poe's exploits in the Revolution had taken on
an importance by family recital and the lapse of time which had
already breveted him " General." Edgar was delighted. He was,
in short, only now beginning to find out who he really was.
" Edgar Allan " was about to become completely metamorphosed
into " Edgar Poe." There was also another reason why Poe de-
sired to be in Baltimore, one which he had not so far dared to
reveal to his guardian. His real interest in life was now centered
upon getting out another volume of poems. With May, 1829, the
long and indomitable struggle for literary recognition really be-
gins.
Once in Baltimore, Poe lost no time in pushing the publication
of Al Aaraaf and the new and revised poems which he now had on
hand. His experience with Tamerlane and Other Poems had
taught him the futility of merely printing his own work with no
means of publication or public notice, and he now set about pre-
paring the way for his next book in the manner which he followed
for the rest of his life. This was to send his work to some well-
known writer or influential person, and, under the guise of solicit-
ing their criticism, to obtain a hold on their interest and influence.
A day or so after his arrival in Baltimore, May n, 1829, he
called upon William Wirt, 887 the author of the then well-known
Letters of a British Spy. Poe had met Mr. Wirt previously in
Richmond, and he now left with him the manuscripts of Al
Aaraaf, telling him that he was submitting it immediately to a
Philadelphia publisher. He also asked for Mr. Wirt's comment,
doubtless hoping for a letter that would have influence with pub-
lishers. Wirt, who was a semi-literary person, was completely
ass Preference of appointment was given to the descendants of Revolutionary
officers.
M William Wirt had just retired to Baltimore as ex U. S. Attorney General.
In 1831 he represented the Cherokee Indians in their famous suit before the
Supreme Court of the United States, to retain their lands (the Cherokee Nation
vs. the State of Georgia). The court held that it had no jurisdiction in the case.
An important constitutional principle was involved, and Wirt's arguments were
most able (Niles XXXVI. 231, 258.9; Stat. Man., II, 709). See also (Wooster vs.
the State of Georgia), 1832, for an interesting side light on this case.
COLD MARBLE 245
mystified by the imagery of Al Aaraaf 9 a poem that still continues
to trouble the " well ordered " and academic mind. He, however,
replied the same evening having evidently put in the day some-
what badly with " Nesace " in the limbo of Al Aaraaf yet with
kindly feelings withal for the young author to whom he writes:
Baltimore, May n, 1829*
... I am sensible of the compliment you pay me in submitting it to
my judgment and only regret that you have not a better counsellor.
But the truth is that having never written poetry myself, nor read
much poetry for many years, I consider myself as by no means a com-
petent judge. . . . This is no doubt an old-fashioned idea resulting
from the causes I have mentioned, my ignorance of modern poetry and
modern taste. You perceive therefore that I am not qualified to judge
of the merits of your poem. It will, I know, please modern readers
the notes contain a good deal of curious and useful information, but
to deal candidly with you (as I am bound to do) I should doubt
whether the poem will take with old-fashioned readers like myself.
... I would advise you, therefore, as a friend to get an introduction
to Mr. Walsh or Mr. Hopkinson or some other critic in Philadelphia,
versed in modern. . . . 8SS
Armed or disarmed with this letter from a legal critic who
thought that, " the notes contain a good deal of curious and useful
information," Poe set out at six o'clock the next morning on the
steam boat for Philadelphia with his manuscript in his pocket.
In Philadelphia, Poe submitted his poems to Messrs. Carey,
Lea & Carey, and had a short interview with Mr. Lea at the
firm's office on Chestnut Street, in which Mr. Lea suggested that
the "author" might contribute some poems to the Atlantic
Souvenir. Meanwhile, he took the manuscript of Al Aaraaf under
advisement while Poe returned to Baltimore.
Before the end of the month, Poe probably received from the
Philadelphia firm the usual reply of publishers to a young poet,
saying that if they could be guaranteed from all loss, they would
undertake publication. Hence on May 29, 1829, we find Poe writ-
ing to John Allan inclosing him William Wirt's letter, enlarging
on the importance of a young poet's being brought before the eye
sss From the mutilated manuscript in William Wirt's handwriting, with the
conclusion of the letter and the signature missing, now hi the Boston Public
Library. Dr. Thomas Ollive Mabbott is to be credited for making public this letter.
24 6 ISRAFEL
of the world early, and asking his guardian to write the publishers,
guaranteeing the book to the extent of $100. In making this re-
quest, Poe assures Mr. Allan that he has long ago given up Byron
as a model. 839 The merchant's reply, which was unusually prompt,
was to sternly refuse all aid, and " strongly censure " Poe for
his "conduct."
More correspondence about Al Aaraaf followed between
" father and son," 8 * but although Poe grew humbler, Mr. Allan
remained as always firm. The incident seems to have affected
their relations seriously. John Allan was both disgusted and
alarmed at this token that Poe's literary ambitions were un-
changed, and he seems to have felt that his ward was not very
much in earnest about West Point. Although it was obviously not
Poe's fault that the appointment was not forthcoming, and
equally patent that he would have to exist in the meantime, John
Allan, while he retired to his plantation during the summer days,
seems to have left his " son " to shift largely for himself. Poe
would have liked to come home he tells his guardian, but
the latter replied that he was not especially anxious to see him,
and let it go at that. By the end of July, 1829, the young poet
was in precarious circumstances. Finally, on July 26, John Allan
sent him a little money with the suggestion that a man of genius
ought not to have to apply for aid; to which taunt Poe replied,
that a little more timely assistance would prevent the application.
As John Allan's suspicions of Poe's honesty and ability in
money matters have to a certain extent been handed down as
part of the Poe tradition, a brief examination of Poe's financial
transactions at this time may be of value in making plain his
typical difficulties.
By John Allan's own accounting on the back of one of Poe's
889 This remark arouses interesting speculations. Byron, and the influence of
the Byron cult on young Poe was doubtless something which John Allan abhorred
and had held responsible for many of his ward's " immoral " flirtings with litera-
ture. The reader will remember that Don Quixote and GU Bias were also on the
Scotchman's index expurgatorius.
8*0 p e seems to have replied at the same time to Carey, Lea & Carey asking
them to hold his poems until they heard further. The manuscript of Al Aaraaf re-
mained with them up until the end of July, 1829, by which time all hope of Mr.
Allan's help was at an end and Poe wrote them withdrawing it.
COLD MARBLE 247
letters, it appears that from about the middle of May to the
nineteenth of July, 1829, the merchant provided Poe in all with
$200* On this amount the youth was expected to board and
clothe himself for a period of ten weeks, pay his traveling ex-
penses from Richmond to Washington, and from Washington to
Baltimore then a matter of about a day each way and take
care of all contingent expenses, in short, as John Allan recom-
mended, " be prudent and be careful." The young man was just
out of the army, and except for the suit of mourning which was
given to him in Richmond, he was without civilian clothes. Allow-
ing for the value of money at that time, $200 might have covered
this, had there been no extra expenses. But Poe tells his guardian
that he had to take up the note of $so which he had given to his
substitute, and we know also that he had gone to Philadelphia
and returned to Baltimore in May. Allowing for the money he
sent the substitute, we now learn that Poe had spent $104 between
early May and June 22, 1829, when he tells his guardian that he
was robbed of $46, " all I had," while sharing a room with Mosher
Poe in the Beltzhoover Hotel in Baltimore. By searching the
pockets of his cousin, who thus immortalized himself, Poe was
able the next night to recover $10. The man begged not to be ex-
posed on account of his wife, although Poe gives his name in the
letter to John Allan. 841 The next remittance which Poe received
from Mr. Allan, was on July 26.
It would therefore appear that during the Summer of 1829, for
a period of one month at least, Edgar Allan Poe managed to exist
on $10, probably with the connivance of his landlady and his
relations. The exact form of dissipation in which the young poet
indulged at 33 cents a day does not appear at this writing to be
clear. Nor was this all, John Allan's censure of his extravagance
was bitter and his expression of his suspicions extreme. For even
suggesting the publication of the poems, Poe is now full of apol-
ogies. Nevertheless the manuscript was still left with Carey, Lea
& Carey, and Poe, meanwhile, had succeeded in getting an intro-
34i This name has been deleted from the Valentine Museum Letters, letter
No. 13. Mosher Foe was a second cousin of Edgar's. There is no doubt the story is
true or Poe would not have dared to give his cousin's name to John Allan. In one
facsimile reproduced in the Valentine Letters the name " Mosher " occurs.
24 8 ISRAFEL
duction to Mr. Walsh, the editor of the American Quarterly Re-
view, and obtained the promise of his help. In the interim there
was no w&rd from the War Department about the appointment.
During the entire period of young Poe's stay in Baltimore from
May, 1829, until the end of that year, the letters he received from
John Allan were filled with sarcasms, suspicions, and reproaches.
An occasional remittance generally came in time to save him
from being thrown into the street, but the anxiety with which
he accounts to his guardian for every penny gives indubitable evi-
dence of the spirit in which the help was conferred. Aside from
" blowing the boy up " for thinking of wasting money on poems,
the chief bones of contention were the older man's suspicion
about the amount of money given to the substitute which no
end of obvious facts and explanation served to allay and the
constant doubts expressed to Poe about his zeal in the matter of
obtaining the appointment. A letter from Poe in which he told his
guardian that he had just found out that he was a grandson of
General Benedict Arnold, 8 * 2 must have caused Mr. Allan to ex-
claim " I might have known it," for such were his sentiments. It
seems probable that at the time Poe himself may have thought
this to be true. The story, of course, came from the fact that his
maternal grandmother's name had been Arnold. Aside from this,
there was nothing in it. Perhaps, after all, it was only a sly little
hoax on the part of Poe who enjoyed a well fabricated fib, and
knew the exact expression that it would summon upon John
Allan's countenance the grim mouth relaxing for a moment into
a sardonic but withal annoyed smile. Whatever may have been
his motive, however, in conveying to Richmond this devastating
piece of information, which certainly would not have aided him
with the War Department, 843 he lost no opportunity of proving to
his guardian his earnestness about West Point. Poverty spurred
him to it, an effect that may have been calculated by his guardian,
and on July 23 he set out on foot for Washington, the payment of
342 Poe to John Allan, June 25, 1829, Letter No. 13, Valentine Museum Col-
lection.
8* 8 Had Poe not succeeded in getting the appointment, this story would have
been an excellent excuse. See note 304.
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Scenes in Early Baltimore familiar to Poe
From two old illustrations
Courtesy of the Maryland Historical Society
COLD MARBLE 249
a board bill of $40 having exhausted the larger part of a
long expected remittance from Richmond 'received the day
before.
After walking to Washington, Poe had a personal interview
with the Secretary of War who told him there was a surplus of
ten cadets then on the roll at West Point. But he advised him
not to withdraw his letters of recommendation " for use else-
where," as Poe says, because of the numerous resignations at
West Point which usually took place during the summer encamp-
ment. If these resignations should exceed ten, Poe would be sure
of his appointment in September; if not, Mr. Eaton assured him
he would be among the first appointed for the following year. Poe
was afraid that his age might interfere, but he was assured by the
Secretary of War that he might call himself twenty-one until he
was twenty-two. The interview ended with a remark from Mr.
Eaton that the trip to Washington had been unnecessary. After
which the young man had the pleasure of walking back to Balti-
more. From Baltimore he writes John Allan on July 26, that he
has explained everything to him that needed explanation and left
no stone unturned in the pursuit of his object. In great perplexity
he adds that he wishes Mr. Allan would give him directions as
to what course he is to pursue. He says that he would have re-
turned home to Richmond but for the fact that his guardian had
said he was not especially anxious to see him.
Poe's position was in fact at this time most trying. His guardian
had told him that he was " forgiven," yet the tone of his letters,
and his continuing to keep him at arms' length, and on starvation
allowance, were proofs of how he really felt. If this were not
enough, there was the letter to the Secretary of War which Poe
must have seen, as it was given to him as a personal introduction
to Major Eaton. All this was puzzling and painful to the young
man, again and again he begs his " father " to come out in the
open, assuring him pathetically that since Charlottesville he has
done nothing to offend him.
... I thought that had been forgiven, at least you told me so I
know that I have done nothing since to deserve your displeasure . As
regards the poem, I have offended oaly in asking your approbation*
2S o ISRAFEL
I can publish it upon the terms you mentioned but will have no
more to do with it without your entire approbation I will wait with
great anxiety for your answer. You must be aware how important it is
that I should hear from you soon as I do not know how to act.
But his anxiety was not relieved for a fortnight. In the mean-
time under date of August 4, Poe writes again saying how anxious
he is to return home. With almost nothing to live on in Baltimore,
and no assurance of more, the " anxiety " is not hard to under-
stand. No reply having come from Richmond, on July 28, Poe
had written Carey, Lea & Carey, asking for the return of his
manuscript, for which he bravely says he has made a better dis-
position than he could have hoped for. Whether he had really
done so is doubtful. The expression was probably meant to cover
his own disappointment while leaving the best of impressions
upon the Philadelphia publishers.
Baltimore
July 28th 1829
Messrs. CAREY, LEA & CAREY Rec'd July 30"
Ans" Aug. 3"
GENTLEMEN
Having made a better disposition of my poems than I had any right
to expect, (inducing me to decline publication on my own account) I
would thank you to return me the MSS: by the gontloman who hands
you thia mail.
I should have been proud of having your firm for my publishers &
would have preferred publishing, with your name, even at a disad-
vantage had my circumstances admitted of so doing.
Perhaps, at some future day, I may have the honor of your press,
which I most sincerely desire
Mr. Lea, during our short interview, at your store, mentioned The
Atlantic Souvenir and spoke of my attempting something for that work.
I know nothing which could give me greater pleasure than to see any
of my productions, in so becoming a dress & in such good society as
"The Souvenir" would ensure them notwithstanding the assertions
of M r . J n Neal to the contrary, who now & then hitting, thro' sheer
impudence, upon a correct judgment in matters of authorship, is most
unenviably rediculous whenever he touches the fine arts
As I am unacquainted with the method of proceeding in offering any
piece for acceptance (having been sometime absent from this coun-
COLD MARBLE 251
try) 344 would you, Gentlemen, have the kindness to set me in the right
way
Nothing could give me greater pleasure than any communication
from Mess rs Carey Lea & Carey
With the greatest respect
& best wishes
I am Gentlemen
Your most ob d Serv*.
EDGAR A. POE
On August 10, Mr. Allan again sent his ward a remittance, ap-
parently accompanied by bitter complaints about the money
spent on the substitute, despite the fact that the necessity for the
expenditure had been amply explained several times before. Poe
says that he can live on $8 or $10 a month, "anything with
which you think it is possible to exist/' and ends with a request
to have his trunk sent to Baltimore in care of H. W. Boal, Jr.
This trunk contained some books and papers. On August 19,
Mr. Allan sent Poe $50 on which he existed for three months.
During that time Mr. Allan went to the Hot Springs, a visit that
marks the second attack of a complaint that finally proved fatal
some five years later. In the meantime Carey, Lea & Carey had
returned AlAaraaf and Poe was trying to place it in Baltimore.
August, 1829, marks the beginning of an association that was
a vital one in Poe's life. He had gone to live with the Clemms. At
that time Mrs. Maria Clemm, Poe's aunt, was living in a two
story house with an attic in Mechanic's Row, Milk Street. She
seems to have occupied the upper part of the house together with
her little daughter Virginia, her son Henry, old Mrs. David Poe
(the poet' s grandmother), and William Henry Leonard Poe. The
addition of Edgar was undoubtedly a heavy burden on her
already overcrowded household. Poe tells his guardian that old
Mrs. Poe was a paralytic, that Mrs. Clemm was, if possible, in
a still worse case, and that his brother Henry was so far gone
in drink as to be unable to help himself.
344 poe's seeming allusion here to a trip abroad is the first evidence of his
intentions to cover up the period of his army service by claiming for himself the
prestige of foreign travel: John Allan had impressed upon him the social disgrace
of enlistment.
ISRAFEL
The poverty-stricken Clemm-Poe household seems to have ex-
isted, and they could have done little more than that, on a small
pension received by Mrs. Poe, the wife of the " General," on
the wages of Henry Clemm, a stone cutter, the driblets of money
received by Edgar from Richmond, and the sewing which Mrs.
Clemm worked on, when she was able. Henry Poe was for a time
after his return from sea employed as a clerk in the law offices
of one Mr. Henry Didier, but he was dying of tuberculosis and
given up as Poe says to drink.
Edgar apparently shared a back attic room with his elder
brother, and probably helped to nurse him even at this time. In
this house the poet first met his cousin, Virginia Maria Clemm,
then a little girl seven years old who later became his wife/
Virginia seems at that time to have been a merry little school
girl, rather plump, with brown hair, violet eyes, and a disposition
that was her chief charm. Doubtless she romped about the house
with big Cousin Eddie, who called her " Siss " or " Sissie," and
the childlike and helpless affection, one of complete trust on her
part, and of protection and solicitude on Poe's, now began. De-
spite the fond assertions of innumerable romantic biographers, it
is extremely unlikely that it ever amounted to much more. Mrs.
Clemm was a woman whose maternal instinct was tremendously
accentuated. She appears to have taken her young nephew to her
heart from the first. A paralytic mother, a troublesome son, a
dying nephew, and an utterly dependent daughter were not
sufficient to satisfy her all inclusive motherliness. To these she
now added the sore pressed Edgar Allan Poe. For him it was the
beginning of one of the most benign and, at the same time, de-
vastating influences of his career.
Warned by the complete demise of his first book owing to
the lack of any adequate public notice from the rear garret
of Mrs. Clemm's house in Baltimore, Poe now began to send out
through the Autumn and early Winter of 1829 letters and poems
to editors and critics in order to prepare the way for the volume
containing Al Aaraaf, which he was determined to publish in
spite of John Allan, West Point, poverty, and the interruptions of
a closely packed household.
COLD MARBLE 253
To this career of literary ambition he was driven by the double
necessity of expressing the intense desires of his nature, even by
this time thwarted in many ways, and that vivid sense of the
reality and all importance of the ego known as pride, a pride
that Poe identified with the archangel Israf el, but which, in some
of its aspects, belonged equally to Lucifer. It was no accident
that the young poet had already years before taken Byron for
his master, not only in attitude and verse, but in spirit. From
Baltimore, Poe, as we have seen, had written Mr. Allan that he
had given up Byron as a model, and in a certain sense he had,
for he was now mature enough to realize that no mere follower
can ever achieve. The necessity for originality, even in adaptation
from others, was firmly fixed in his mind. But the pride was not
gone. Above all obstacles it rose supreme, the inward sense of
power, the necessity for justification, the sense of the importance
of his utterance, was now more than ever fixed upon him. Hence
his unequivocal prophecies of ensuing greatness which so dis-
gusted John Allan, the force which insulated him to a great ex-
tent from all outward circumstances always in the end unim-
portant to those who live within themselves and such lines as
these in Tamerlane:
There is a power in the high spirit
To know the fate it will inherit:
The soul which knows such power, will still
Find Pride the ruler of its will. . . . 345
Thus, despite all untoward and often degrading circumstances,
the great work went on in the back garret of Mrs. Clemm where
Henry lay coughing himself to death, in the same room witH
Edgar, or stumbled in late at night in his cups to boast drunkenly
of his exploits in South America and other romantic lands beyond
the seas he had traversed some years before, exploits to which
Edgar listened eagerly, and made his own.
In the room downstairs Mrs. Clemm sewed while Virginia ran
back and forth carrying things to the helpless grandmother. She,
poor lady, doubtless reminisced, as old people will, of the time
845 The italics axe Foe's.
254
ISRAFEL
when in her youth, as the wife of a Quartermaster of the Con-
tinental Armies, her husband had provided money and forage for
La Fayette and his soldiers, while she and the girls of Baltimore
with their own hands cut out five hundred pairs of trousers for
the breechless troops of Washington "and now, how small
her pension wasl " Towards evening, Henry Clemm would come
home covered with stone dust; Edgar from wandering about the
docks or haunting the office of the Federal Gazette and Baltimore
Daily Advertiser on the corner of St. Paul and Bank Streets, per-
haps with the manuscript of Al Aaraaf in his pocket which he had
shown to William Gwynn, the editor, and gotten small encourage-
ment. David Poe had once worked for Gwynn when he kept a
law office, and knowing the family traits, Mr. Gwynn had re-
marked, when he saw the poetry of the runaway actor's son, that
it " was indicative of a tendency to anything but the business of
matter-of-fact life. 5 ' A remark which time has shown to be true,
but, as so often happens, irrelevant.
After nightfall, with the sewing laid aside, the family would
gather about the table by the feeble light of a few tallow dips to
sup on the single dish which Mrs. Clemm had cooked, and some-
times by her importunity with friends or relatives, provided.
Grandma Poe would be drawn up close to the small coal fire, and
tihey would discuss the last depressing letter from " Pa " in Rich-
mond, while Virginia chattered, or did her sums with " Cousin
Eddie " to help. Then bed-time, for bed-time came early in those
days to folk with a scant stock of candles, only one for Henry
and Edgar as they climbed to their attic, Henry complaining, and
coughing himself into a restless slumber, while Edgar, as long
as the candle lasted, bent over his papers, driving the pen on and
on toward that far-off shining goal. He was arrested at last by the
midnight ghosts of " Helen " and Elmira, or his dear " Ma " with
the agate lamp in her hand in the old house on Tobacco Alley.
There the air from the docks used to blow in, waving the curtain
fitfully as it did here reminding him exquisitely, but ex-
quisitely painfully, of the vanished home in Richmond. The
clothes that he took off were a little more ragged every night, de-
spite the obstinate needle of Mrs. Clemm. Undressing under the
COLD MARBLE 255
eaves of the low-ceilinged room, Poe brushed them and folded
them carefully, before he lay down by the side of the brother
whose face was flushed, but whose hands and feet had already
begun to take on an eternal cold.
September, 1829, passed and there was no cadet's appointment
from the War Department. The few letters from Richmond be-
came more urgent and severe. Mr. Allan was greatly alarmed.
Suppose, after all, that his convenient plan for providing for
Edgar at the public cost had failed! He accused Poe of having
deceived him in regard to Mr. Eaton's promise for September ap-
pointments. In reply Poe refers him to his former letters giving
the Secretary of War's exact words, pointing out that his guardian
is " mistaken." He will, he says, go to Washington, however, and
get the Secretary to give him his appointment in advance together
with an order to repair to West Point for examination the follow-
ing June. These letters he will ask the Secretary of War to
forward to Mr. Allan "so that all doubts will be removed"
and he adds with a touch of irony, " I will tell him (the Secretary
of War) why I want it at present and I think he will give it."
But Poe did not do this. He was without sufficient funds when
he wrote this letter (October 30) even to walk to Washington
again. The offer, however, seems to have quieted John Allan, who
probably did not care to be put into the position of doubting the
good faith of the Secretary of War. Nevertheless, he did not reply,
and two weeks later Poe is forced to write him again telling his
guardian that (November 12) he is almost without clothes and
about to be ejected by his landlady, 846 as he has received nothing
from home since the middle of August. John Allan at last replied
and sent him $80. Nearly all of this was already due for board
and in the next letter Poe was forced to beg his " father " to get
half a strip of linen from Mr. Gait, which Aunt Maria Clemm
would make up into sheets " without charge."
846 This would seem to indicate that Poe did not live continuously with the
Clemms. His places of abode were no doubt largely contingent upon the state of
the supplies from Richmond, and both the Herring and Poe cousins doubtless
gave him shelter from time to time. Mrs. Clemm, however, says that Poe lived
with her while in Baltimore in 1820. The statement does not necessarily mean
"all the time." Prof. Woodberry doubted Mrs. Clemm's statement, but the Valen-
tine Letters now confirm it.
2 S 6 ISRAFEL
It must be remembered that in making these appeals, Poe was
carrying out Mr. Allan's own desire of waiting for the cadet's
appointment, and that while so waiting he could not obtain em-
ployment when it was known that, at any moment, he might have
to leave his job and be ordered off to West Point. Furthermore,
the youth who was without clothes in Baltimore in November,
1829, was the ward of a rich man whose prosperous warehouse
was piled high with goods. Yet, says Poe, " if you could me a
piece of linen, or a half piece at Mr. Gait's . . . I could get it
made up gratis by Aunt Maria. . . . One wonders if " dear Pa "
actually loosened up and did send the linen on by the boat, or
whether Aunt Maria provided that gratis, too. The letter contain-
ing this modest request is the last on record that Poe wrote to
his " father" from Baltimore in 1829. Something had happened
which mollified even John Allan, and the world now first began
to take a faint notice of Edgar Allan Poe.
Not very far from Mrs. Clemm, on Exeter near State Street,
lived Mr. Henry Herring who had married Poe's Aunt Eliza, the
same who had written the touching letter to Frances Allan many
years before. 847 There were five children in the Herring house,
cousins with whom young Poe was soon on intimate terms, writ-
ing poetry in his Cousin Mary's album, and being much about
the place. Aunt Eliza had died some years before, but Mr.
Herring, who seems to have been acquainted with a number of
literary men and editors about Baltimore, succeeded in interest-
ing them and some other of the Poe cousins in Edgar's work.
Both Mr. Herring and George Poe had known a Mr. John Neal
when he had been in Baltimore as an editor a short while before.
They had all belonged to the Delphian Club on Bank Lane, bet-
ter known as " The Tusculum." Mr. Gwynn, to whom Poe had
lately shown Al Aaraaf, was also a member.
John Neal who wrote under .the pen name of " Jehu O'Cata-
ract," had gone North to start a paper in Portland, Maine. This,
he afterwards continued as the Yankee and Boston Literary
Gazette, in whose columns his literary criticisms were received as
oracles. George Poe, the father of Neilson Poe, seems to have
347 5^ Chapter in, page 45.
COLD MARBLE 257
used his influence with his old friend John Neal, and to have
suggested to his literary cousin Edgar that he send Neal some
poetry for editorial comment. This Poe did and was rewarded
soon after by the following notice in the columns of the Yankee
for September, 1829:
If E. A. P. of Baltimore whose lines about "Heaven" though he
professes to regard them as altogether superior to anything in the whole
range of American poetry, save two or three trifles referred to, are,
though nonsense, rather exquisite nonsense would but do himself
justice might (sic) make a beautiful and perhaps a magnificent poem.
There is a good deal here to justify such a hope.
These words, said Poe, were, "The very first words of En-
couragement I ever remember to have heard! 9 848 But Neal ends
the little critique with, " He should have signed it Bah! We have
no room for others."
Nevertheless, Poe took the criticism in good part and in the
December issue of the Yankee he was allowed to print a letter
covering four pages containing copious selections from the forth*
coming volume. Among other things Poe says of himself:
I would give the world to embody one half the ideas afloat in my
imagination. ... I appeal to you as a man who loves the same beauty
which I adore the beauty of the natural blue sky and the sunshiny
earth. ... I am and have been from childhood, an idler. It cannot
therefore be said that
' I left a calling for this idle trade,
A duty broke a father disobeyed.'
for I have no father nor mother.
John Allan's reproaches were evidently in his mind, and as he
was often without resources in Baltimore, the censure of his
relatives for writing poetry instead of " going to work " may pos-
sibly be reflected here.
The whole letter is typical of Poe's method of puffing his own
work. It amounted, in short, to a long announcement of his forth-
coming volume. John Neal prefaced it with these editorial re-
marks:
3*8 p oe m eans by an editor in the public prints. It must be remembered that
Poe's " attack " on Neal in the letter to Carey, Lea & Carey was made two months
before Neal's remarks in the Yankee. See " Poe and John Neal " in the Appendix.
258 ISRAFEL
The following passages are from the manuscript works of a young
author, about to be published in Baltimore. He is entirely a stranger
to us, but with all their faults, if the remainder of Al Aaraaf and Tamer*
lane are as good as the body of the extracts here given, to say nothing
of the more extraordinary parts, he will deserve to stand high very
high, in the estimation of the shining brotherhood, etc.
This editorial prelude concludes with some highly moral and
patronizing advice to the poet's extreme youth, quite typical of
the time.
The notice in the September Yankee by the famous John Neal
was probably of direct service to Poe in two ways. It must have
been drawn to John Allan's attention by the admiring Nancy
Valentine, or Poe's good friends the Gaits, and caused Mr. Allan
to reflect a little. At any rate, about the middle of December, Poe
received $80 from his guardian, and then or later, permission to
return home. With NeaPs puff in hand Poe was also enabled to
approach the publishers in Baltimore, the favorable notice of a
Northern critic of note being then, as now, impressive in the
South, which pays no serious attention to its own writers until
they are praised elsewhere. The result, in Poe's case, seems to
have been that his book was accepted. On November 1 8, in the
" linen " letter, he writes John Allan that his poems have been
accepted upon advantageous terms by Hatch & Dunning of
Baltimore, "they to print, and give the author 250 copies of the
book." Mr. Dunning, Poe adds, well knowing that his guardian
might suspect that some expense was involved, would confirm the
terms himself upon an immediate visit to Richmond.
Heralded thus somewhat dubiously, but on the whole in a not
unkindly way, Poe's second volume, Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane, and
Minor Poems, appeared in Baltimore in December, 1829, pub-
lished by Hatch & Dunning, and printed by Matchett & Woods,
the same firm which then printed the Baltimore Directory. It was
a thin octavo volume bound in blue boards, containing seventy-
one pages padded out with a considerable number of extra fly-
leaves upon which appeared mottoes quoted from English and
Spanish poets. The margins were more than ample. The dedica-
tion, a line from Cleveland, reads,
TAMERLAIVE,
AND
MI1TOE, POSHES.
BJULTIMOB.B:
HATCH
1829.
Title Page of ^4.1 ^4araaf y Tamerlane , and Minor
Poems, Baltimore 1829
Edgar Allan Poe's second published volume
NOTE: A title page with the imprint "1820" is known to exist. This was
COLD MARBLE 259
Who drinks the deepest? here's to Mm.
In this book, Al Aaraaf, and Tamerlane were the principal
offerings. The latter was dedicated to John Neal, " respectfully,"
with the advertisement,
This poem was printed for publication in Boston, in the year 1827,
but suppressed through circumstances of a private nature. 849
As a matter of fact, it was completely rewritten in conformity
with the outcome of the adventure with Elmira, and, from a lit-
erary standpoint, greatly improved. The two main long poems
were followed by a brief preface, and nine miscellaneous short
poems of which three are revised reprints from the Boston volume.
The second of the nine, beginning " I saw thee on thy bridal day,"
obviously refers to Elmira Royster, by this time Mrs. Shelton.
Al Aaraaf is an attempt on the part of the youthful poet to put
in the form of an allegory his philosophy of beauty. 850 The al-
legory is obscure, but the poem contains many exquisite lines.
In general it may be said that Poe's second book with all of
its juvenile faults was his first real approach to a contribution to
American poetry. It marked a distinct advance over his first
volume of two years before, and embodied in its lines some of his
characteristic landscapes tinged with his mystical melancholy and
the autobiographical records of his love affairs. The gain in his
handling of rhythms is marked. Certainly the landscapes bear in-
dubitable marks of his South Carolina sojourn. 851
3 *9 See Chapter X, page 202.
3o Al Aaraaf is the region placed by the Arabian poets between the upper and
nether regions, neither hell nor heaven, where those spirits who deserve to enter
neither, dwell. Poe has personified his ideal of beauty in a beautiful maiden by the
name of "Nesace" who dwells in a distant star
" for there
Her world lay lolling on the golden air
Near four bright suns "
Poe has caught some of the tremendous sweep of space from Milton, and there
are reminiscences of Queen Mob, with a strange admixture of Moore and Byron and
perhaps a trace of Pinkney. Despite this, the fault of a young poet, it is peculiarly
his own. The universe is ransacked for beautiful things to make up its lines, with
notes, in which the young poet takes a pardonable pride. _
S5i This is the "foreign influence" pointed out by numerous critics in Foes
second volume, due to his trip abroad in 1827, now known to be a pure myth.
2 6o ISRAFEL
Poe remained in Baltimore until the end of 1829 seeing his
book off the press and dispatching copies to editors for review
and notice. On December 29, 1829, he sent a copy to his friend
John Neal, the editor of the Yankee in Boston, with this char-
acteristic letter:
I thank you, sir, for the kind interest you express for my worldly
as well as poetical welfare a sermon of prosing would have met with
much less attention.
You will see that I have made the alterations you suggest ... and
and some other corrections of the same kind there is much, however,
(in metre) to be corrected for I did not observe it till too late.
I wait consciously for your notice of the book I think the best
lines for sound are those in Al A&raaf
There Nature speaks and even ideal things,
Flap shadowy sounds from visionary wings.
I am certain that these lines have never been surpassed.
Of late eternal condor years
So shake the very air on high,
With tumult as they thunder by
I hardly have had time for cares
Through gazing on the unquiet sky.
' It is well to think well of one's self ' so says somebody. You will do
me justice, however.
Most truly yours,
EDGAR A. POE
After which Poe said good-bye to the Clemms, and the Herring
and Poe cousins, packed up what little belongings he had, and
taking advantage of John Allan's permission to return home in
the luster of his new laurels, went to Richmond before the holi-
days were over, taking along a generous supply of the copies of
the new book for distribution among his friends.
Upon his return to Richmond, Poe found his old room ready
for him at the Allan house. It was then and long afterwards
known as " Edgar's Room " to all the servants and the friends
of the family. During the second Mrs. Allan's regime the name
was probably suppressed. After Mrs. Clemm's crowded and
humble quarters, the spaciousness, the luxury, and the gardens
COLD MARBLE 261
of the big house must have been delightful. The kindly black faces
of Jim and Dabney were there to welcome him, and their hands
to serve him, while " Aunt Nancy's " affection was as loyal as
ever. But with what memories must he have wandered about the
house! Frances Allan was gone, her room was empty, and there
was no Elmira to come and sit in the swing or look through the
telescope. That Poe was in Richmond by the first week in Janu-
ary, 1830, is certain, as he was supplied with clothes at that time
by orders upon Ellis & Allan, among other things, a fine " London
hat." Probably, despite the darning needle of Mrs. Clemm, his
wardrobe was in a sad condition after the period of poverty in
Baltimore.
The second night after his return, Poe met Thomas Boiling, his
old University of Virginia acquaintance (altogether, as his letters
show, a charming fellow), at Sanxey's Book Store then at 120
Main Street, Richmond. Tom Boiling was home for the holidays
from Charlottesville, and the two boys had many reminiscences
to exchange, not having seen each other for two years. Poe gave
Boiling a copy of Al Aaraaf and regaled him with an apocryphal
account of his " trip abroad," since the real facts of his rather
uneventful life in the army as an enlisted man did not supply the
adventurous background which the author of two volumes of
poetry required. Boiling was much impressed, and we may be
sure carried back to the University the news of the brilliant and
interesting career of " Gaffy," news which no doubt helped to
clear the atmosphere there of the cloud which rested upon the
erstwhife young gambler on account of unpaid debts.
Thus the " Poe legend " was already beginning to take shape
with Poe himself as the prime source. 84 * All of this was at that
time due to his desire to appear a man set apart, an adventurous
fellow, who had left the University to see the world, and had
succeeded. 852 In these stories he seems always to have embodied
some of the actual experiences of his brother Henry. 858
852 A Richmond newspaper for January 19, 1830, Poe's twenty-first birthday,
prints the acknowledgment of the receipt of Al Aaraaf, etc.
858 The persistence of the story about Poe's " trip abroad " is incredible. Rus-
sian encyclopaedias give detailed accounts of his "arrest in St. Petersburg/ 1 and,
confusing the title of Henry Middleton, the American Consul, with that of
262 ISRAFEL
For the rest, Poe was much about town, seeing his old friends
and distributing to them in person, or by orders on the Richmond
book store, copies of Al Aaraaf. As few were capable of under-
standing the poems, an attitude of amusement, always a con-
venient mask for ignorance, was the general result. In this the
wiseacres of the town were confirmed by a review J. H. Hewitt is
supposed to have written for the Baltimore Minerva and Emerald,
poking fun unmercifully at the new poet. The paper's editor was
Rufus Dawes, and Poe may have been mindful of this when he
skinned the man alive in Graham 9 s Magazine.
Not a great deal is known of this, Poe's last sojourn, in the
Allan house at Richmond, in the Spring of 1830. He was still
waiting for his appointment to West Point and for that reason
was tolerated as a temporary inmate of the establishment, rather
than the " son " of the house. John Allan had not long before re-
turned from " The Springs." He was not in very good health, was
still troubled over his wife's death and revolving in his mind the
fact that he had no heir nor wife to preside over his household,
although Miss Valentine remained and took her sister's place
most acceptably as later events show. Poe probably came and
went as he pleased, being left to his own desires and his room
with the beloved books, where the further revision of his poems
with new ones was already under way. He probably saw a good
deal of the Mackenzies at the Hermitage where Rosalie still lived
in the atmosphere of affection which her brother so lacked. Mr.
Allan may have tried at times to drown his memories after a not
unusual method, although he was by no means given to drink.
There is good reason to believe, however, that with the first
signs of advancing age and ill health and the loss of his life part- 1
tier of many years standing, at this particular time he sometimes
"minister," have translated the word "priest." So we have Poe, drunken, of
course, being rescued from prison and Siberia by the " Rev. Middleton," Bible in
hand. Absurdity can go no farther! Henry Poe, Edgar's brother, may have been
to St. Petersburg while in the Navy or merchant marine. There is no proof.
Poe probably "annexed" some of his brother's adventures. Henry died soon
after, so that the rest is silence.
354 We now hesitate not to say, that no man in America has been more
shamefully over-estimated," etc. Poe's article on Rufus Dawes. See Chapter XXI,
page 547-
COLD MARBLE 263
indulged too freely. If so the results were not such as to make
things happier for the members of his household. Shortly after
the beginning of the year he began to find solace for his sorrows in
the companionship of one who had already borne him a daughter.
The natural result proved doubly disturbing to his peace of mind.
On May 3, 1830, he had a violent quarrel with Poe. 855 Probably
a recurrence of the old charges of idleness and living upon his
bounty, in which he heaped reproaches upon his ward, and ended
by roundly insulting the young poet about his family, at a time,
says Poe, " When you knew my heart was almost breaking." The
uncertainty of living in Richmond waiting for the appointment,
while the carping and fault-finding tongue of his guardian let
no old fault rest, when, too, Frances Allan and Elmira were
haunting him like ghosts, all this made such scenes doubly hard
to bear, sometimes almost insufferable. The alternative was starv-
ing, nakedness, and the loss of opportunity,
A few minutes after this scene Poe wrote to an old army ac-
quaintance at Fortress Monroe, apparently a sergeant in his old
company to whom he owed money. Poe addressed him as
" Bully," and says that the reason he had not paid the debt
was because he could not get the money out of his guardian,
although he had tried dozens of times. Poe, it seems, owed sums
to several other non-commissioned officers in the old regiment,
amounts which he had probably borrowed in the Spring of 1829
on the prospects of the " reconciliation " with Mr. Allan after
Frances Allan's death. The small sums he had received from home
had not permitted a settlement. From other statements in this
letter, it appears that he could not be frank with his guardian
about the matter. The trouble John Allan had raised over the
extra amount necessary to procure a substitute was probably a
sufficient warning that any further revelations about expenditures
would be met with a burst of wrath. One Downey from Fortress
Monroe had already called upon John Allan and received an
355 Valentine Museum Letters, letter No. 24, page 257. If the young Poe had
any knowledge of his guardian's mode of life at this time, and it is quite probable
that he had, in view of his great reverence for the memory of his foster-mother,
his indignation over his guardian's actions becomes only too dear. The situation
does not need to be elaborated.
264 ISRAFEL
answer not satisfactory to Poe's " creditors," and this reply Poe
is at haste to explain away by saying that Mr. Attan was not very
often sober and his words could be discounted.
This statement about John Allan is one of the most discredit-
able and unfortunate that Poe ever made. Whatever the provoca-
tion, it was unwise, defamatory to his " father," and eventually
the final cause and plausible excuse for his being " disinherited."
On this letter the second Mrs. Allan also based her charge that
Poe had spent the money provided for the substitute. Sergeant
Graves, or " Bully," to whom Poe wrote was not the substitute,
however, but simply one of several soldiers about Fort Moul-
trie to whom the ex-sergeant major -owed various small sums. Poe
promises payment, and in a most familiar tone, ends by informing
" Bully " that the writer is now a cadet. This looks very much
as if the Secretary of War had already given Poe the letters to
report to West Point for examination, as the latter had sug-
gested that he would in an earlier letter to Mr. Allan while in
Baltimore. Only the official confirming letters were now needed;
perhaps the exact weight of political influence was still lacking,
and events now shaped themselves in such a way as to cause Mr.
Allan to secure this and get Poe finally off his hands.
John Allan was now a widower, and a very eligible one in
point of fortune, at least. His former wife's sister, Miss Valentine,
was running his establishment, and it seems to have occurred to
the thrifty merchant that the arrangement already in force might
as well be made permanent. About a year before Frances Allan's
death he remarked in a letter that Miss Valentine was " as fat
and hearty as ever." Doubtless her figure had lost nothing in
attractiveness during the interim; she was acquainted with how
much sugar he liked in his coffee, she was near at hand, and they
were intimately " at home." The result was that he began to pay
her marked attentions. What the lady's sentiments were, we do
not know. To remain in the same household where she had already
lived for twenty-five years, and to become the presiding mistress
of one of the finest establishments in Richmond, may not have
been without its attractions. Poe, however, seems to have been
outraged. Frances Allan was scarcely dead a year, and he was
COLD MARBLE 265
under no hallucinations as to the delicacy of his guardian's tender
emotions. He seems to have protested and to have reminded his
" Aunt Nancy " of her dead sister's wrongs* Perhaps he even
intruded upon some sentimental scenes. At any rate Miss Valen-
tine refused John Allan's offer, probably influenced by Poe's ad-
vice, and the effect was devastating upon what remained of
Frances Allan's household. John Allan's indignation must have
been implacable. Was he never to be quit of this young upstart,
or the household rid of his interference in his perfectly logical and
natural plans? He seems to have forthwith determined to put an
end to it once and for all. Poe has been accused of trying to pre-
vent his foster-father from having a legitimate heir, but the " other
reasons " seem to be sufficient and much more probable. What-
ever the reasons may have been, the results are not in doubt.
Poe was packed off forthwith to West Point. General Scott's in-
fluence seems to have been obtained, 856 and through John Allan's
partner, Mr. Charles Ellis, a letter was secured from the latter's
younger brother, Powhatan Ellis, then United States Senator from
Mississippi, recommending Poe to the Secretary of War. As usual,
a senator's letter turned the trick with the War Department, and
on March 31, 1830, we find Poe's guardian signing this document
at Richmond, probably not without extreme satisfaction:
SIR as the guardian of Edgar Allan Poe I hereby signify my assent
to his signing articles by which he shall bind himself to serve the United
States for Five years, unless sooner discharged, as stipulated in your
official letter appointing him cadet.
Respectfully,
Your obt. servant.
JOHN ALLAN
The Hon. Sec'y of War
Washington
The state of affairs at home may be inferred from the fact,
that once in the possession of his appointment the new cadet did
386 This is not certain but probable. General Scott had known Poe as a boy;
John Allan knew hfm ; a volume of Poe's early poems was afterward found in the
General's library; several of Poe's West Point classmates assert that General
Scott helped Poe. At a much later date General Scott gave money to a collection
taken up to help Poe, etc., etc. Also see letter No. 23, Valentine Museum Letters
(November 6, 1830).
2 66 ISRAFEL
not linger any longer than he had to. From Mr. Allan's letter it
seems clear that Poe received his cadet's warrant at the end of
March, 1830. Examinations at West Point were in June, yet by
May 12 he was preparing to depart, for on that date John Allan
is charged on the books of his firm with a pair of blankets for
Poe's outfit, and it seems likely that, about the same time, the
young man left Richmond for the United States Military
Academy. Mr. Allan accompanied him to the steamboat leaving
for Baltimore, and shook hands with him. Poe says that he knew
it was meant for a final farewell. 857
Poe must have arrived in Baltimore about the middle of May,
1830, where he seems to have gone to live temporarily with his
Aunt Maria Clemm, as letters from Richmond were afterward
addressed to him in care of his brother Henry, who also resided
with her. The affection of Mrs. Clemm, and the doubtless spon-
taneous welcome of little Virginia, no doubt formed a warm con-
trast to the atmosphere he had just left. The fact that he was
about to enter the military profession, presumably for life, did
not interfere with his literary aspirations. Poe doubtless had his
reservations about the permanence of his career in the army,
even then. He must already have been at work on some of the
poems which appeared the year following, and he doubtless hoped
that by pleasing his guardian and becoming an officer he would
solve the problem of existing, and later on be in a position to
rely on Mr. Allan's patronage in the work which lay nearest to
his heart.
Indeed it is safe to say that from the first, " Cadet Poe " had
no enthusiasm for West Point. His two years of army service
could leave him no illusions as to what was to come afterward.
Arid the outward glitter, the uniforms, and the parades did
not have the attraction for him by this time that they do for the
average youngster who first encounters them. A long experience
on the inside of a military tunic had already proved to him how
tight and narrow was the fit. He was now twenty-one years old
and capable of estimating his chances for the future. 358 With his
8 " Valentine Museum Letters, letter No. 24, page 257.
858 Some of Poe's biographers make capital of Poe's being over twenty-one
COLD MARBLE 267
temperament, his literary propensities, and the circumstances
under which he entered the Military Academy, it was almost a
foregone conclusion that he would not stay long in a place where
even determination and military ambition are often not sufficient
to produce a diploma. Two years in barracks had already in-
formed him as to the amount of freedom that he could expect,
and the discipline at West Point was even stricter. Nevertheless,
there was no alternative. John Allan's help was contingent upon
his making the most of the opportunity, and there was nothing
else to do but to starve. Up until the last, however, Poe continued
to further his literary plans, for while in Baltimore on his way
to West Point he took the occasion to call on Mr. Nathan C.
Brooks of semi-literary character, to whom he read some of his
manuscripts and promised to send a poem for an annual that
Brooks then had underway. This Poe never did. It seems also
that he borrowed some money from a former schoolmate to
whom he imparted another version of his legendary adventures
abroad. 359
Poe probably went by way of Philadelphia to New York, and
thence to West Point, 860 where he arrived in time to take the
examinations for admission during the last week of June, 1829.
On June 28, he writes John Allan that the examinations for admis-
sion are just over, and adds with a true Virginian naivetS that
a great many cadets of " good family " have been rejected. Even
the son of a governor was found deficient! Mr. Allan's remarks
at the time of his entrance at West Point, and to accuse him of " duplicity." As
a matter of fact to this day both at Annapolis and West Point various " dodges
are worked" by candidates to circumvent the letter of the law about appoint-
ments: mail is sent to establish "legal residence " in other districts than that from
where the candidate hails, etc. Poe's age was afterward a joke at West Point. See
Chapter Xin, page 274. It is now known that the Secretary of War himself gave
Poe assurance that he could call himself twenty-one until his twenty-second birth-
day. See this chapter, page 249, also Valentine Museum Letters, letter No. 15, page
159-
359 Woodberry, vol. 1, 1909, page 67.
seo This is not certain. It is thought that Poe took the opportunity to call on
some literary friends in Philadelphia, as well as upon Carey, Lea & Carey. It
may be that he arranged to publish the sonnet To Science in the Casket while in
Philadelphia at this time. The poem appeared a few months later, October, 1830,
and L. A. Wilmer is thought to have been connected with the Casket and the
Saturday Evening Post about this time.
2 68 ISRAFEL
upon the Poe family were probably remembered. Doubtless, to
the aspirant for social honors in Richmond, the shot went home.
Evidently young Poe was somewhat taken aback by the business-
like air of the Military Academy for he is careful to impress his
guardian, as if in preparation for possible snags ahead, that less
than a quarter of those who enter ever graduate. " I will be much
pleased," he adds, " if you will answer this letter." He was not
quite sure how the wind blew in Richmond, then, too, during
the first few days in uniform, it is strangely comforting to hear
from home. On July i, 1830, Poe took the oath at West Point
" to preserve the Constitution of the United States and serve them
against all their enemies whomsoever." The next morning, with a
veteran's disgust, he found himself being awakened in a tent by
the familiar sound of reveille, and donning a cadet's uniform.
About the same time that Cadet Edgar Allan Poe was going
through the manual of arms, with astonishing facility for a plebe,
on the summer parade ground at the United States Military
Academy, Mr. Allan was enjoying the hospitality of his friend
John Mayo at Belleville Plantation near Richmond, despite a
very annoying complication in his private affairs at home. Among
the house guests was Miss Louisa Gabriella Patterson (the niece
of Mrs. Mayo), a strong-minded lady from New York, about
thirty years of age. Mr. Allan was attracted by her; -the attentions
of the rich widower were well received, and they shortly after-
wards became engaged. It was the stroke which severed Poe for-
ever from the home of his youth. He was now finally and ir-
retrievably an exile in a world hostile to dreamers. For a while he
tarried as a stranger in the tents of the Military.
CHAPTER XIII
The West Point Interlude
THE not inconsiderable period of his short life which Poe
spent at West Point, trying to carry out John Allan's
idea of what his career should be, may be considered,
for the most part, as a spiritual and mental interlude. It lasted
from June 25, 1830, to February 19, i83i, 861 and marked the
passing of the days when he made his final decision to cast off all
outside dictation and to follow, without further delay or indirec-
tion, a literary career. During the periods of drill and recitation
his body, and the secondary part of his mind, was marched back
and forth on the parade ground or to the classroom, but his spirit
and desire were elsewhere.
Upon arrival, in the last week of June, 1830, he seems to have
passed the entrance examinations without difficulty, and to have
been received by a Captain Hitchcock and a Mr. Ross, to whom
he was previously known or bore letters of introduction. On July
i, as we have already seen, he took the oath, and as the custom
then was and still is, he immediately went to live under canvas
in the annual summer encampment of the cadets. His tent mates
were Cadets Read, Stockton from Philadelphia, and Henderson,
the last a nephew of the Secretary of War. 362
Upon arrival at " The Point," Poe had found waiting for him a
letter from his guardian which had been forwarded by his brother
861 These dates are deduced from the Valentine Museum Letters. Poe arrived
at West Point in time to take the entrance examinations, which lasted two days.
He probably arrived the day or the afternoon before. On June 28, 1830, he writes
John Allan saying the examinations are over. The date of his leaving is from the
letter written to John Allan from New York, February 21, 1831, in which he
says he left West Point two days before. This for the first time gives Poe's stay at
West Point its proper duration.
862 This, and some of the other material not hitherto included in Poe's
biographies, has been taken from the Valentine Museum Letters, Nos. 22, 23,. 24,
and 25, all but the last written by Poe from West Point, and all covering the
period with interesting new data.
270
ISRAFEL
Henry from Baltimore, containing a $20 bill, and a com-
plaint that he had taken some articles from home which did not
belong to him. These it appears from his reply were some books
from his own room and probably a brass inkstand, sand caster,
and pen holder marked with John Allan's name and the year
> I3 BOS These articles must have been in Poe's possession for
years in his own room, some of the books were doubtless the
gift of Frances Allan, or his own scant little library. Nothing
shows the strong sense of Mr. Allan's overpowering sense of prop-
erty, and his petty parsimony more than this incident.
Financially Poe's experience at West Point was largely that of
the fiasco at Charlottesville. The $20 was evidently to see him
through the Military Academy. It, and the pair of blankets which
he drew from Ellis & Allan in May, were the last evidences of
any warmth which he received from his guardian, who now felt
that on the generous cadet's salary of $28 a month, and rations,
Poe was amply upon his own. It was customary for the parents
of cadets to make a deposit for the boys to draw upon, for their
instruments, books, clothes, and other incidentals. But this was
not done for Poe, although he writes later asking for " instru-
ments and a Cambridge Mathematics' 9 but the letter received no
reply. Indeed, his guardian did not communicate with him at all
between June, 1830, and January, 1831. From the day Poe took
the oath, it is quite obvious that John Allan considered and hoped
that their intimate association was at an end.
About the year 1830, the Military Academy at West Point con-
sisted of five fairly large stone buildings for administrative pur-
poses, classrooms, and dormitories scattered about the " parade,"
the heights above the Hudson. There were, in addition, six brick
buildings for the officers and professors near the river, and some
old military store houses of Revolutionary date for arms and
equipment. The original barracks had been burnt some years
before Poe's arrival.
In 1830, the Academy was twenty-eight years old and there
s*3 As Poe had these with him for years, and at no time after the Spring of
1830 had an opportunity of taking any " souvenirs " from the Allan house, it is
reasonably certain he brought them from Richmond when he left for West Point.
See also Chapter IX, page 130, note 182.
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THE WEST POINT INTERLUDE 271
were some thirty odd professors, instructors, and assistants for a
corps of about 250 cadets. First preference in appointment was
given by law to the descendants of Revolutionary officers, which
accounts for Poe's anxiety in looking up his grandfather's record
in Baltimore, the sons of the officers of 1812 coming next.
The legal age for appointees was between fourteen and twenty-
one, most of the boys being admitted in the early 'teens, so that
Poe was far more mature than the average cadet of his time,
both in years and experience.
The course lasted four years, but was by no means so rigidly
organized as at present. Under the conditions, Poe's hope of re-
ceiving advanced standing owing to his previous military expe-
rience and attendance at the University of Virginia, might have
possibly have been accorded him had he consistantly distinguished
himself. Some of the more advanced cadets were allowed to take
part as instructors, for which they received additional pay. A
cadet's salary was fixed by law at $330, with certain allowances
for rations and permission to purchase equipment at army rates.
Text books, and articles of personal use were not provided, how-
ever, and Poe soon found himself in debt for necessaries which
the parents of the other students either furnished, or provided by
deposit. In his final letter from West Point, he complains bitterly
of this and of the similar lack of the small necessities of life
which John Allan's parsimony had also inflicted upon him at the
University of Virginia. To be without soap, candles, writing mate-
rials, room furniture, fuel, and clothing; to be forced to borrow
even the minor articles for personal cleanliness and comfort, is
a situation which is essentially exasperating and degrading. Poe
took a peculiar pride in the neatness and care of his person and
complains justly of the unnecessary " fatigues and degradations "
which he was forced to undergo. The household economy of the
time, particularly the Virginia plantation, supplied many of the
articles, which are now purchased as a matter of course. In Poe's
day it was difficult, sometimes even impossible to buy them at
all. 864 Such a situation does not need to be enlarged upon,
364 Soap, candles, toilet preparations, minor articles of clothing, mattresses,
towels, linen of all kinds, and articles of knit and woven ware were made at home
272 ISRAFEL
At Charlottesville the story of his birth had undoubtedly some-
what compromised his social position with the sons of Virginia
aristocrats. At West Point this condition did not exist, Poe, in-
deed, seems to have definitely allied himself there with Virginians,
who, up until the Civil War, constituted themselves a group apart,
yet the Military Academy was by no means democratic. It
had its own peculiar snobbery. This consisted in affecting to look
down on one who had served in the ranks. Future officers, and
the sons of officers had their own opinion about one who had so
far erred as to have been a common soldier. He did not " belong,"
and his mannerisms, especially since they were marked, were
doubly open to suspicion. In Poe's history at West Point this
played its part, and helped to make the already bitter, a little
salt. To offset this, Poe gave himself out as a young man of
many adventures, one who could tell much of strange places if
he cared to. Thus the " mystery " was continued.
As for the rest, there was certainly something to be gained:
The Course of Study is completed in four years, each being devoted
to a class; and includes the French language, drawing, natural and ex-
perimental philosophy, chemistry, and mineralogy, geography, history,
ethics, and national law, mathematics in the highest branches, and lastly
artillery and engineering. 865
The country about the Academy was not without its attractions,
had there been any time to enjoy them. The view from West
Point down the gorge of the Hudson as far as Horse Race and
Anthony's Nose is peculiarly beautiful and was impressed firmly
on the young poet's memory. Old Fort Putnam on the hill behind
the barracks had at that time the remains of various subter-
ranean chambers, the Catskills, which had already been cele-
brated by Irving, were nearby, and in the neighborhood of the
for the most part. Not to have these, argued oneself homeless, and a nobody.
With no cash to buy these, Poe's condition at Charlottesville and West Point can
be imagined. It was one of the things that not only made life unbearable but com-
promised his social position. A borrower is always a nuisance. Poe had been sent
to West Point with a handshake and $20, the rest was silence. He was right in
resenting this bitterly.
365 xhe Northern Traveler, third edition, revised and extended, published by
G. & C. Carvill, New York, 1828 (and after). "A reliable guide book and com-
pilation of information for travelers from official sources."
THE WEST POINT INTERLUDE 273
post was Stony Point, the scene of Major Andre's sad adventure
and the treason of General Arnold, in which, as we have seen,
Poe might feel himself entitled to take a peculiar interest. But
there was no time to wander among the hills as there had been at
Charlottesville. A paternal government claimed his time and the
intervals of leisure were few. Nevertheless, West Point left its
mark, and later appears vaguely in some of Poe's descriptions of
New York scenery.
The cadets rose early; breakfasted, we may be sure, frugally;
attended lectures; dined; and about four P.M. returned to the bar-
racks to get into uniform for the " parade " or drills which occu-
pied the bulk of the remaining hours of daylight. After supper
there was a study period, with call to quarters about nine o'clock
and early taps. Leaves were few and far between, with holidays
even rarer. Here was scant time for dreaming.
From the West Point period, the beginning of Poe's physical
troubles definitely dates. 866 It is reasonably certain that he was of
a type which matured early; he probably reached the prime of
life before the full strength of manhood in many others began.
Despite his early prowess as a swimmer, it is known that he was
generally averse to physical exercise and easily fatigued. 867 He
had a weak heart and little energy. Any long continued regimen
of drill and exercise must have left him morose and unstrung.
The conditions at West Point were precisely the worst that he
could be called upon to undergo, because the most vigorous, and
there was no time at all for escape and solitude. Every incident of
his daily routine, and the forced intimacy of tent and barrack life,
was an interruption to that stream of consciousness which, to a
man of Poe's type, was all in all the reverie from which he
hoped from time to time to snatch something worth preserving.
The ordinarily constituted man, certainly the cadets who sur-
rounded Poe, could never have an inkling of the sense of hope-
lessness, nervous irritability, and spiritual frustration which
comes to the artist as he feels those rare periods when conscious-
ness becomes creative being interrupted by the trivialities of
see See Poe's own statement, Valentine Museum Letters, letter No. 24.
**7 Testimony of classmates at the University of Virginia*
274 ISRAFEL
petty conversation, the necessity to appear polite, or the call of
duty to some ultimately useless task. The result is like losing
something out of the mouth while dining. No matter how much is
eaten afterward the sense of loss is still there. Six months of this
seems to have been sufficient to prostrate Poe and send him into a
nervous collapse. 868 A boyhood in the same house with John Allan,
followed by a period of wild anxiety, starvation, the loss of his
sweetheart, and the death of his "mother" was an excellent
preparation. Whether this entitled Poe to sympathy is not the
question to be raised, the facts, and their result on tide man who
was subjected to them, are, however, pertinent matter of inquiry.
The drills, during the summer encampment at West Point, are
notoriously severe. It is then that the raw plebes are knocked into
some kind of form for the coming academic year by the combined
efforts of the military instructors, and the officious attentions of
the upper classmen known as " hazing," which is as much, and as
important a part of the character and life-forming aim of the
Military Academy as the text books or the sermons in Chapel.
Poe seems to have escaped some of the attention of the upper
classmen by the fact that he had already passed two years in the
army, and bore somewhat the character of a veteran. His age,
which was several years greater than most of the others, and
his evident maturity, seem also to have distinguished him from
the rest and to have aided in building up a certain glamor and
curiosity about his name and antecedents. He became known for
his aloofness and pride, and the joke was circulated that having
obtained an appointment for his son who had died, Poe had him-
self taken the boy's place and entered West Point. It was the
dignified " father " whom they now beheld. All this the ex-ser-
geant major seems to have taken not too good-naturedly while he
added to his prestige by indicating that he was a youth with a
romantic and thrilling past. Brother Henry's adventures were
now liberally drawn upon again for his own account, and to them
Poe added certain other items about voyages to the Mediter-
ranean, and experiences while penetrating the mysterious interior
868 Valentine Museum Letters, letter No. 25. Poe from New York to John
Allan just after leaving West Point.
THE WEST POINT INTERLUDE 275
of Arabia that probably reflect the sources of his reading for
Israfel, and the secondary oriental literature which engaged his
attention about this time. That anyone could imagine such vivid
experiences was probably beyond the literal horizon of his fellow
cadets. The aura of the legend which Poe undoubtedly began to
build up about himself, even at the University of Virginia, now
took on a more definite form, and the stories of his "foreign
voyages " were long remembered by his West Point classmates,
stories that come to life years later in their reminiscences to con-
firm the myth for biographers. 369 Even the cold records of the
War Department have scarcely been able to destroy their effect
Someone at West Point also heard the story (which Poe had a
year before written to John Allan) that tie romantic looking
cadet was a grandson of Benedict Arnold, and this tale began to
be whispered about the corridors of South Barracks. A friend at
last made bold to ask Poe himself, and there is good authority for
the statement that he would neither deny or affirm it. The truth
seems to be that Poe really knew so little about his mother and
her antecedents that he was not sure himself. Her maiden name,
he knew, had been Arnold, and he knew little more, in addition
the tale undoubtedly added a strange, and to him a delightfully
diabolic color to his reputation.
Part of this desire for a mysterious notoriety was undoubtedly
due to Poe's own feeling of the necessity for padding out his
personality in certain directions in which it lacked or had been
frustrated, and for making a frame for the strange face in the
portrait of himself, that he early set about painting. Both the
frame and the countenance that looked out from it were largely
artificial, but they were nevertheless works of art. A delight in
gulling the simplicity of those about him, a belief in their sim-
plicity which begot in him a dangerous sense of superiority and
contempt, was also present. As he grew older this sense of su-
periority became more and more necessary to his own thought to
offset the sense of weakness that came to afflict him, as he began
to disintegrate physically and psychically. The romantic hero
369 Allan B. Magruder, a classmate of Poe, to Prof. George E. Woodberry
April 23, 1884. See Woodberry, 1909, vol. I, page 70.
27 6 ISRAFEL
was the first to appear, only to be replaced later by the perfect
logician.
It would have been an excellent thing for the young gentleman
adventurer known as Cadet Edgar Allan Poe, whose critical in-
tellect had already freed him from the narrow enthusiasm of
patriotism, and unmasked for him the empty banality behind the
brassy glitter of military life, if, at this period of his existence, he
could have been removed by some miracle to an environment
where he might have listened to and taken part in the debates and
conversation of his superiors and equals. As it was, there was no
one about him with whom he could talk. The personnel at the
Academy, while he was there, seems to have been without ex-
ception of the completely usual stamp. No one of his classmates
had any mental ambitions, and none of them ever achieved any
distinction beyond that of brevet-general or pastor emeritus of an
evangelical church. To them, Poe's babel of critical remarks
about poets and philosophers of whom they had never heard
before, and seldom heard mentioned again in the warlike or
peaceful events of their hide-bound lives, must have been incom-
prehensible and suspect.
The truth is that, even at the age of twenty-two, Poe had few
contemporaries in the United States. 370 There were a few circles
in Boston, New York or Philadelphia where his remarks might
have found an audience. Baltimore was later on to provide an-
other. For the rest, the old tradition of classical culture was fast
disappearing along with the old generation which had founded the
"Republic." The new Jacksonian "Democracy" was already
climbing into the saddle, the frontier democracy, which the fol-
lowers of Jefferson mistakenly took for their own. It was no
longer fashionable to be a " gentleman," or to know anything.
The tide of romanticism and secondary German philosophy, which
Longfellow and Emerson were later on to introduce in America,
had not yet begun to be mentioned. So far Poe had spoken in an
370 It must be remembered that Poe's environment, even in Richmond, was
largely Scotch; his primary education was founded in English schools, and his
reading had been largely in the English periodicals found at Ettis & Allan. At
the University of Virginia he had come across the rare Germanic influence then
scarcely known in this country. Poe read French, Italian, and Latin.
THE WEST POINT INTERLUDE 277
atmosphere so ratified that it could not produce even an echo. At
West Point the vacuum was complete.
American history has produced no more ludicrous paradox than
this young literary genius shut up in an institution which was
then, and for some years later, partly given up to educating and
providing the military technique for many of those who were
later on to use the knowledge they had so gained in trying to de-
stroy the nation which provided the means for so doing.' The world
in which Poe moved had nothing to do with all this. The section-
alism which was even then beginning to divide the nation, the
controversy over slavery, the awakening of industrialism, and the
muling and pe'wking of the young democracy, even then beginning
to strike out against all those who raised their heads above its
level of thought or morals, did not exist for him. His world lay
in the realms of thought, criticism, and the philosophy of Eu-
ropean molding which he had first found in the pages of the
English reviews upon the counters in the book loft at ElUs &
Allan. Here he had met the young Macaulay, and " Christopher
North," become interested in Shelley, Keats, and Byron, Words-
worth, and the giant Coleridge, and it was with them that he
thought, and out of them that he moved forth armed with a
genuine comment on the philosophy of the time and the only last-
ing creative urge in romantic poetry that the United States pro-
duced. Longfellow and Emerson translated, remolded, and ex-
plained, but Poe took the data of romanticism and out of it
created something new, a unique utterance in poetry, and a criti-
cal comment and application of philosophy to his time and en-
vironment that is only now beginning to become appreciated. 871
His art in prose and verse has already won its cloud-streaked place
in the sun. In the scattered leaves of his critical and philosophical
comments lie some of the earliest suggestions of the possible re-
sults of science upon the world and the spirit of man, doubts as
871 This " comment " is scattered and sometimes dulled by Poe's aping of
greater knowledge than he possessed, and carelessness about facts, but it is
there, nevertheless, in his (criticism, his stories, and in Eureka. Lowell said, " As it
is, he has squared out blocks enough to bufld an enduring pyramid, but left them
lying careless and unclaimed in many different quarries." J. R. Lowell in Graham's
Magazine, 1845, vol. XXVH, no. 2, page 50.
27 8 ISRAFEL
to the ultimate self-sufficiency of democracy, queries as to the
human value of a society which made physical comfort its goal,
strange philanderings in psychology, and in the mathematics of
astronomy.
As yet it was all very vague and youthfully crude, yet it was
there, in embryo, in the young man in a swallow tail coat and
bowler shako, who was being marched back and forth on the hot
August parade ground at West Point, learning the precise angle
at which the rifle must be held at "-port arms," and how to
salute the flag which did not represent anything that he really
cared very much about, and a great deal that was positively dis-
tasteful to him. For this performance he received three meals and
about ninety cents a day. The strange result was that, in spite of
it, he evolved from Coleridge and others his own critical theory
of poetry and somehow, somewhere, continued to write poetry,
poetry which did not view the change which even then he saw
creeping across the machineless world into which he had been
born with the undivided enthusiasm of most of his contempo-
raries. 372 In the Philadelphia Casket for October, 1830, appeared
reprinted from the 1829 volume the young West Point cadet's
SONNET TO SCIENCE
Science! true daughter of Old Time thou art!
Who alterest all things with thy peering eyes.
Why preyest thou thus upon the poet's heart,
Vulture, whose wings are dull realities?
How should he love thee? or how deem thee wise,
Who wouldst not leave him in his wandering
To seek for treasure in the jewelled skies,
Albeit he soared with an undaunted wing?
Hast thou not dragged Diana from her car?
And driven the Hamadryad from the wood
To seek a shelter in some happier star?
Hast thou not torn the Naiad from her flood,
The Elfin from the green grass, and from me
The summer dream beneath the tamarind tree?
872 The cocksure optimism of Victorianism is utterly lacking in Poe. He was
one of the few to see the implications of harm in the age of machinery just
THE WEST POINT INTERLUDE 279
In the meantime, General Scott had visited West Point on a
tour of inspection, probably, about the end of the summer en-
campment, and was, so Poe tells his guardian in a letter written
home that Fall, most cordial in his attentions to the young Vir-
ginian. 373 General Scott was probably more than casually inter-
ested, for John Allan was by that time engaged to a lady who
was one of his relations.
The Summer of 1830, indeed, had been a crucial one in the
changes which it brought about in Poe's relations with John
Allan, and any projects which he may have had for the future fa-
vors of his guardian. None of Poe's letters home had been an-
swered. Mr. Allan was summering on his Lower Byrd Planta-
tion in Goochland, and passing the time most pleasantly in
courting the lady of his choice at Mr. Mayo's on Belvedere. Poe
no doubt heard of the turn which affairs had taken through the
visit of some Virginian friends to West Point, Mr. Chevalier and
Mr. Cunningham. 373 He could not help being much interested
for he must have realized that in a very real sense he had in-
terests at stake. The possibility of a legitimate heir would un-
doubtedly greatly weaken the already slender claim which he
might still feel he had upon the favor and affection of John Allan.
On October 5, 1830, Mr. Allan was married in the Patterson
house in New York to his second wife, the wedding being at-
tended by the Gaits and other Richmond friends and relatives.
The happy pair returned to live in Richmond. Poe tells his
" father " that he had hoped to have a visit from him at " The
Point," as the other boys were visited by their relatives, but such
an event was probably the last idea in John Allan's mind. 373 With
the new wife, both the dark and the bright memories of the first
were swept away. John Allan had confessed the faults and the
results of former indiscretions to his new partner before his mar-
riage, 374 he had been accepted in spite of them, and naturally
coming into its own. His chief quarrel with it, was that it destroyed beauty and
leisure. As a Virginian and an egoist Poe despised mobocracy and a Santa Claus
view of science; as an artist he depicted the ugliness of industrialism. See The Elk.
878 Valentine Museum Letters, letter No. 23.
874 John Allan in his will made at Richmond, Virginia, April 17, 1832. See
the copy of John Allan's will, Appendix HI.
2 8o ISRAFEL
enough he did not care to renew the past, or the possibility of
future complications by even a mention of Poe. He belonged to
the realm of Frances Allan, and that world, for the good mer-
chant, now enjoying an Indian Summer of youth, had completely
passed away. To the new wife, Edgar Allan Poe was a name, the
son of actors and a scribbler; to her husband a troublesome mem-
ory. It was hard, almost impossible for Poe to believe this. He
still continued to write " affectionately " to " Dear Pa." But there
was no answer.
At the end of the Summer the battalion of cadets moved into
their winter quarters. Poe's room, which he shared with two
others, was Number 28 of the old South Barracks, and here the
final phase of Israfel in brass buttons dragged its way to an
abrupt end through the Fall and Winter of 1830-31.
Number 28 was furnished, as were all the rooms in the bar-
racks, with a more than Spartan simplicity. There were three
beds, perhaps as many chairs, and a table shared in common by
the inmates. A wardrobe for each, contained their equipment and
clothes, for which a precise position was indicated by the regu-
lations. No ornaments or pictures were tolerated, but as a special
concession, certain lares might be " displayed," upon the upper
shelf of the cupboard. A broom, a few basins, slop tubs, and pitch-
ers completed the domestic scene of a cadet's background, to
which an open fire, if the room was fortunate enough to abut on
a chimney flue, and a few candlesticks, contributed the sole
touches of warmth and light. Compared with this, Number 13
" Rowdy Row " at the University of Virginia had been a luxurious
apartment and a haven of private refuge. To the usual assortment
of textbooks, Poe somehow or other had contrived to add some
genuine literature. These works of imagination consumed by far
the larger portion of his study hours as well as his spare time.
Even a drill or formation was insufficient at times to interrupt
a favorite passage, yet, despite this, until he deliberately set out
to neglect his studies, he stood high in his classes at the end of
the semi-annual examination: third in French, and seventeenth in
mathematics, in a class of eighty-seven.
There is a studied confusion about the incessant routine of a
THE WEST POINT INTERLUDE 281
military academy that no haphazard method of existence can hope
to equal. The method itself is beyond approach for producing a
continuous series of events that perpetually threaten to make
everyone late to something. As a consequence, the unfortunate
young gentlemen subjected to the process are forever rushing
about changing clothes or books, dashing up and down stairs,
arising, going to bed, winding themselves in long sashes, buckling
on swords, answering oral orders bawled through the long corri-
dors, or stampeding off to formations and yelping " here " to their
names at roll call thousands of times. The method of existence is
so complicated that living is impossible.
The life of the inmates of Number 28 was further made more
interesting, if less tolerable, by the visits at both stated and un-
expected hours of the various officers of military and academic
discipline who were charged with enforcing the list of thirty-three
disciplinary " don'ts," each with its ingenious penalty; or by the
intrusions of upper classmen who were tacitly licensed by the tra-
ditions of the place to inflict the peculiarly exasperating personal
annoyances of the code of hazing at any hour of the day or night.
The blare of bugles and the crash of drums announced the begin-
ning and close of the various and numerous periods into which
the day was divided, a schedule which took no account of the
value of leisure. There was literally no provision at all for privacy
in barracks, and the cadets ate together in a large mess hall
under the eyes of the officers. The hours of leave were so short
as to preclude any trips into the country about, and if they had
not been, there would have been no place to go. The observances
of the ritual of rank and military restrictions, made visits to the
married quarters of the officers uncomfortable when they were
possible.
West Point was, at that time, remote from all places of any
size and the visits of relatives and parents were perforce labori-
ous, brief, and far between. In short, there was no social life at all.
The only relief to the bareness and monotony of the place seems
to have been a combination store and illicit groggery run by
" Old Benny Haven," who exchanged various petty, luxurious
tidbits, and bottles of brandy for the small change of the cadets,
ISRAFEL
when they had any, and lacking that, conducted a usurious form
of barter in the clothes, blankets, equipment, and even the soap
and candles of the young gentlemen. His place just off the post,
was, of course, out of bounds, and, although frequently visited by
the officers for convivial refreshment, was at once the only solace
and the main cause of trouble for the cadets. In addition to Old
Benny's place, as often happens about military posts, the Com-
missary seems to have provided a loafing place at odd times.
Here Poe became acquainted with the Commissary Clerk, at
that time one J. Augustus Shea, who it seems had some literary
propensities as he afterward published poems. Little George Shea,
the clerk's son, then a small child running about the grounds,
was afterward recalled by Poe. Both father and son heard the
poet deliver The Raven in New York fifteen years later when he
was at the crest of his fame, and had renewed the old West
Point intimacy. 669 In such surroundings the young Poe, who loved
to imagine himself in luxurious and semi-oriental apartments, sur-
rounded by sweeping draperies, a gloomy, religious light, and tri-
pods of incense, found himself " at home."
Number 28 South Barracks early attained the reputation of
being a " hard " room. Those who aspired to a minimum of ap-
pearances on the rolls of discipline soon learned to avoid its
precincts. From it, from time to time, issued pasquinades and dia-
tribes in rhyme upon the officers and faculty which were clever
enough both to amuse and to annoy. Lieutenant Joseph Locke
of Savannah appears to have distinguished himself as a merciless
enforcer of discipline, and his doubtless too frequent visits to
Number 28 were soon celebrated by the pen which has alone pre-
served him to fame:
As for Locke, he is all in my eye,
May the devil right soon for his soul call,
He never was known to lie
In bed at a reveilte " roll call."
John Locke was a notable name;
Joe Locke is a greater; in short,
The former was well known to fame,
But the latter's well known " to report"
THE WEST POINT INTERLUDE 283
Even Colonel Thayer, the Superintendent did not escape, al-
though Poe seems to have found in him one of the few men he
could admire while at the Military Academy.
Cadet T. H. Gibson was Poe's roommate, and from him, al-
though he set down his memories many years later, we are in-
debted for what is probably the most authentic picture of " Cadet
Poe": 876
. . . The first conversation I had with Poe after we became installed
as room-mates was characteristic of the man. A volume of Campbell's
Poems was lying upon our table, and he tossed it contemptuously aside
with the curt remark: c Campbell is a plagiarist'; then without wait-
ing for a reply he picked up the book, and turned the leaves over
rapidly until he found the passage he was looking for.
' There/ he said, is a line more often quoted than any other passage
of his: " Like angel visits few and far between," and he stole it bodily
from Blair's Grave. Not satisfied with the theft he has spoiled it in the
effort to disguise it. Blair wrote: " Like angel visits short and far be-
tween," Campbell's " Few and far between " is mere tautology.'
Poe at that time, though only twenty years of age, 376 had the ap-
pearance of being much older. He had a worn, weary discontented look,
not easily forgotten by those who were intimate with him. Poe was
easily fretted by any jest at his expense. . . . Very early in his brief
career at the Point he established a high reputation for genius, and
poems and squibs of local interest were daily issued from Number 28
and went the round of the classes. . . .
The studies of the Academy, Poe utterly ignored. I doubt if he ever
studied a page of Lacroix, unless it was to glance hastily over it in the
lecture room, while others of his section were reciting. It was evident
from the first that he had no intention of going through with the course,
and both Professors and Cadets of the older classes had him set down
for a January Colt before the corps had been in barracks a week.
From a letter written to John Allan before he entered the
Military Academy, it is evident that Poe counted confidently
upon his former army experience and his preparation at the
University of Virginia to get him through the course at West
Point in short order. He tells his guardian that he hoped to com-
plete it in six months. It is probable that he found it, from the
875 Harper's New Monthly Magazine, November, 1867.
876 He was actually twenty-two, but had given his age in the records at West
Point as nineteen years and some months.
284 ISRAFEL
nature of the arrangement of the curriculum, rather than from the
difficulty of the subjects themselves, impossible to carry out the
prediction. This miscalculation of the results of his abilities, com-
bined with the prospect of the increased length of stay at West
Point which it involved, and the growing distaste for the bare
existence he found there, probably accounts for the discontented
and haggard look which his roommate recalled over thirty years
later. In the army itself Poe had found means to escape much of
the physical drudgery of drills, and the way to considerable leisure
for his dreams and composition by engaging in the clerical work
which conferred such privileges. At West Point there was no way
of avoiding the ironclad routine, and the young poet found him-
self bound, and turning ceaselessly upon a wheel where the tor-
ture became more irksome with each revolution. To look forward
to an endless life of that kind of thing was not to be contemplated
without despair. Indeed, it is probable that even the unexpected
lengthening of its temporary continuance was more than he cared
to face, and that he had, as his roommate seems to think, made
up his mind to shake the dust of the place from his feet as early
as the Fall of 1830. In addition there was the change in the affairs
of John Allan which probably removed from Poe the last incen-
tive to continue the situation.
Mr. Allan's marriage had interfered sadly with these hopes.
That it made Poe uneasy there can be no doubt. It was for that
reason that he wrote John Allan in November that he regretted
that his guardian had not felt it worth while to come up from
New York to pay him a visit, although a sight of the man who
had so often reviled and reproached him, could have brought little
satisfaction. Doubtless there was some element of affection due
to memories of old and happier times, but these were now remote*
Nevertheless, Mr. Allan's indifference, and the fact that he had
ignored Poe, was alarming, so the November letter to Richmond
may be regarded as a " feeler-out." Poe tells his guardian that he
has found West Point not unpleasant and that he is at that time
(November 6, 1830) standing first in all his sections.
The roommate's inference and recollection that Poe neglected
his classes, probably arises from composite memories set down
THE WEST POINT INTERLUDE 285
years later. That Poe was on the whole discontented and nervous,
there is every reason to believe to be correct.
Poe's standing academically, however, was not much affected.
He probably did not have to study much; he was brilliant; had
an excellent preparation, and seems to have found no difficulty in
distinguishing himself in languages and mathematics. When he
did decide to go, as he did, it was not by the route of failure
in the classroom, but by disregarding the rules of discipline. For
a little while he was not sure enough of the actual state of affairs
in Richmond to cut the last tie which bound him to his past
without some further thought.
This was probably the condition of his affairs, an uneasy con-
dition, through the Fall and early Winter of 1830. It was a state
of spiritual limbo that must have been particularly trying. Never-
theless, he was not quite ready to take so irrevocable a step on his
own initiative. Nor can we blame him, for by this time he knew
full well what it meant to starve. Even he could not afford to be
independent on nothing at all. Byron, and not Chatterton was his
model.
During this interlude he again began to drink. As nearly al-
ways just a little; but that little for him was a great deal too
much. It probably helped to deplete his nerves already badly
strained. Having experienced the effects of gulping, he now took
to sipping. The stories as to his being raving drunk in the guard
house are not true. Had they been so, he would not have been
under the necessity of deliberately neglecting his duty to procure
his release. There was, however, it seems often enough a bottle
of brandy present in Number 28, occasionally resorted to in com-
pany with such friends as its contents and the inspired conversa-
tion of the owner might attract. About the time of the letter home,
Poe's roommate again pulls aside the curtain for a brief glimpse
at Number 28:
It was a dark, cold, drizzling night, in the last days of November,
when this event came off. The brandy bottle had been empty for two
days, and just at dusk Poe proposed that we should draw straws the
one who drew the shortest to go down to Old Benny's and replenish our
stock. The straws were drawn, and the lot fell on me.
286 ISRAFEL
Provided with four pounds of candles, and Poe's last blanket, for
traffic (silver and gold had we none, but such as we had we gave unto
Benny), I started just as the bugle sounded 'to quarters.' It was a
rough road to travel, but I knew every foot of it by night or day, and
reached my place of destination in safety, but drenched to the skin.
Old Benny was not in the best of humors that evening. Candles and
blankets and regulation shoes, and similar articles of traffic, had accu-
mulated largely on his hands, and the market for them was dull in that
neighborhood. His chicken suppers and bottles of brandy had disap-
peared very rapidly of late, and he had received little, or no money in
return.
At last, however, I succeeded in exchanging the candles and blankets
for a bottle of brandy, and the hardest-featured, loudest-voiced old
gander that it has been my lot to encounter. To chop the bird's head
off before venturing into barracks with him was a matter of pure neces-
sity; and thus, in fact, Old Benny rendered him before delivery. I
reached the suburbs of the barracks about nine o'clock. The bottle had
not as much brandy in it as when I left Old Benny's, but I was very
confident I had not spilled any. I had carried the gander first over one
shoulder and then over the other, and the consequence was that not
only my shirt front, but my face and hands were as bloody as the
entire contents of the old gander's veins and arteries could make them.
Poe was on the lookout and met me some distance from the barracks,
and my appearance at once inspired him with the idea of a grand
hoax. 377 Our plans were perfected in an instant. The gander was tied,
neck and feet and wings together, and the bloody feathers bristling in
every direction gave it a nondescript appearance that would have defied
recognition as a gander by the most astute naturalist on the continent.
Poe took charge of the bottle, and preceded me to the room. c Old P. J
was puzzling his brains over the binomial theorem, and a visitor from
the North Barracks was in the room awaiting the result of my expedi-
tion.
Poe had taken his seat, and pretended to be absorbed in the mysteries
of Legons Frangaises. Laying the gander down outside the door, I
walked or rather staggered into the room, pretending to be very drunk,
and exhibiting in clothes and face a spectacle not often seen off the
stage. ' My God! what has happened? ' exclaimed Poe, with well-acted
horror.
* Old K old K. ! ' I repeated several times, and with gestures
intended to be frantically savage.
877 Poe's ceaseless desire to perpetrate hoaxes was not due solely to a sense
of humor. The feeling of superiority which it conferred on him as the person who
stood behind the curtain, was the main motive. This is frequently one of the minor
manifestations of an exaggerated ego.
THE WEST POINT INTERLUDE 287
' Well, what of him? > asked Poe.
c He won't stop me on the road any more ' and I produced a large
knife that we had stained with the few drops of blood, that remained
in the old gander. ' I have killed him! '
' Nonsense! y said Poe, c you are only trying one of your tricks on us.'
* I didn't suppose you would believe me,' I replied, * so I cut off his
head and brought it into barracks. Here it is! ' and walking out of
the door I caught the gander by the legs, and giving it one fearful
swing around my head dashed it at the only candle in the room, and
left them all in darkness with what two of them believed to be the head
of one of the professors. The visitor leaped through the window and
alighted in the slop tub, and made fast time for his own room in the
North Barracks, spreading, as he went, the report that I had killed old
K , and that his head was there in number 28. The story gained
credence, and for a time the excitement in barracks ran high. When
we lit the candle again, " Old P." was sitting in one corner, a blank pic-
ture 87S of horror, and it was some time before we could restore him to
reason.
So the barracks were able to credit even murder to the dis-
contented occupant of Number 28. A strange fellow after all!
There was something about him one could not understand. Al-
most anything might be suspected of one who actually dared to
be different and was proud of it. " Benedict Arnold's grand-
son! " Interesting no doubt, but dangerous. And so he continued
here, as elsewhere, lonely; sad that he was set apart, and yet
proud of it. It was this combination of pride, loneliness, and home-
sickness the necessity of expressing his sense of malaise, and
the desire for the comfort that nothing but dreams could bring
him, which seems to have memorably combined at West Point and
to have projected itself for the first time into great poems.
One can imagine him, after taps, waiting for the roommates
to drift off into the dreamless sleep which was so often denied
him by their mutterings, and by the beating at the bars of the
restless wings of his own spirit, one can imagine him getting up
in the bare, cold room, and by the light of a carefully shaded
candle, setting down the proud words of Israfel. How could
they know, these heavy sleepers, those solemn memorizers of the
378 oid P." was the other roommatertt-appears. See the apocryphal, for
the most part reminiscences of Timothy Pickering Jones, " Poe and I were class-
mates, roommates, and tent mates." New York Sun, May 10, 1903.
288 ISRAFEL
banalities of textbooks that in their midst, brooding over them
in the long hours of the night, sat a spirit whose song was sweeter
and clearer than that of the archangels of God! How human and
earthy, and how comforting to his own feelings it was, to imagine
that even in heaven his voice would be heard above all others, and
be found more acceptable. Out of this gigantic and almost insane
pride of heart welled up the lines of the poem ending at last in
the majestic paean:
If I could dwell
Where Israf el
Hath dwelt, and he where I,
He might not sing so wildly well
A mortal melody
While a bolder note than this might swell
From my lyre within the sky. 879
It was to Richmond, and the happier early days with Frances
Allan and the friends of childhood, that he returned in homesick
reveries, for homesick he was. Poe was one of those sensitive
natures to which the incidents of existence were often painful.
Ensconced in the old and familiar, this feeling was lulled; bleak
and new surroundings became, by contrast, unbearable and
served to make the past a heaven by contrast. Besides, his own
intense consciousness of self, a consciousness so supreme as to
render the outside world pale and remote, was of the type which
tends to extend much of its self-love to the places where it has
dwelt, so that a town, a room, or even a tree that has been a
refuge becomes romantic and important, as do all things that have
been pleasantly familiar in the past.
All this seemed true now of Richmond; the houses, the fields,
the river, the ghostly figures that walked in the past of his boy-
hood, moved in a golden and vernal landscape, with something
sacred about it, a shrine, a green isle in the sea. Oh, the lost
loved faces! the silent tones of voices! the dear, dear past for-
ever wild with all regret! It was the only time when he had been
happy, at one with himself, and beloved. This is the grand nos-
879 The last verse of Israjel is quoted here as given in the 1845 version. The
1831 text shows numerous variations.
THE WEST POINT INTERLUDE 289
talgia, the immortal regret, the famished yearning out of which
so often springs great poetry. It was the only thing that comforted
him, the idealized images of the past, witness:
Helen, thy beauty is to me
Like those Nicean banks of yore
That gently, o'er a perfumed sea,
The weary, way-worn wanderer bore
To his own native shore . . .
and the lines written some years later to Sarah
When melancholy and alone,
I sit on some moss-covered stone
Beside a munn'ring stream;
I think I hear thy voice's sound
In every tuneful thing around,
Oh! what a pleasant dream
and Poe's dreams of the past were so vivid that he heard voices
of the dead and lost speaking; not only the eye but the ear also
had its memories:
The bowers whereat, in dreams, I see
The wantonest singing birds,
Are lips and all thy melody
Of lip-begotten words.
Amid this longing for the past, in the presence of an always
unbearable present, his spirit constantly stood
A voice from out the Future cries,
"On! on! " but o'er the Past
(Dim gulf) my spirit lies
Mute, motionless, aghast!
And it was into this gulf, which he so brooded upon during the
long hours of the night, while the rest of the inmates of the
barracks slumbered around him, that Poe let down the leaky
bucket of inspiration and drew forth To Helen, The Sleeper, The
Pcean, Fairy Land, and The Valley of Unrest, that most beautiful
of all his reveries. These poems are rich with the dark jewels of
2 9 o ISRAFEL
sorrow, the dim northern twilight of Scotland and the Celtic folk
tales he heard from the old people at Irvine, the mystic land-
scapes of Carolina, and the exotic compound of his " oriental "
readings best exemplified, perhaps, by The City in the Sea. These
he felt were worth preserving and adding to his already published
verses. Before he left West Point he had made arrangements to
do so.
The new manuscript collection, which included the poems pub-
lished in Baltimore, and the new ones written at Mrs. Clemm's,
in Richmond, or at the Military Academy, he seems to have sub-
mitted to Colonel Thayer, who approved of them, and granted
permission to allow the members of the cadet corps to subscribe
towards their publication at seventy-five cents a copy (sic), the
amount to be deducted from their pay. This permission, and Colo-
nel Thayer's probable appreciation of Poe's work, expressed per-
haps in some personal interview, seem to account for the young
man's admiration for that officer, the only personal enthusiasm of
which we have any mention during the West Point interlude.
Possessed of a guaranteed sale in advance of several hundred
copies nearly everyone seems to have subscribed Poe wrote
to Elam Bliss, a New York publisher, who, it seems, came per-
sonally to West Point, sometime about the end of 1830, and made
arrangements with the young author to bring out the volume.
The enthusiasm for it among the cadets was by no means liter-
ary. They had no idea of the real nature of the book to which
they subscribed, but undoubtedly thought it would contain a col-
lection of the humorous verse satirizing the officers and the
faculty, which had from time to time proceeded from the strange
but clever fellow who inhabited Number 28. Poe on his part un-
doubtedly knew this, but he used the opportunity to get out his
book, probably knowing full well that he would not be present
to receive the personal expressions of disgust and disappointment,
when its real nature became known. Some of the pearls, as the
preface to the book shows, were intended to be cast where they
might be audibly appreciated, as for the grunts of disapproval
from the ostensible audience, Poe would neither hear nor care,
The important thing was, that a new book was underway. Mr.
THE WEST POINT INTERLUDE 291
Bliss, or his agent, returned to New York with the manuscript
ready for the printer, and with little or no effort the cost of the
forthcoming volume was guaranteed.
How long Poe would have lingered at West Point doing " fours
right " and " shoulder arms," it is hard to tell. His decision to
depart was undoubtedly hastened by an event in Richmond that,
as the future proved, removed him from all prospects of any
immediate or death-bed generosity which John Allan might
fondly be hoped to display. The event was unexpected and un-
comfortably disconcerting.
Sergeant Graves, " Bully," had evidently waited up until about
the end of the year (1830) in hopes that the money owed him,
about which Poe had written so reassuringly the previous May,
might be forthcoming. By that time the patience of the soldier
who was still at Fortress Monroe, was exhausted, and he wrote
to John Allan himself in no uncertain terms, demanding that the
matter should be settled at once. As Poe had informed this soldier
that Mr. Allan was seldom sober, the nature of the information
which he possessed must have insured the prompt payment of his
demand. It would never do, for a newly married man in Mr.
Allan's situation, to have allowed a common soldier to go about
with a letter from his adopted " son " which plainly made such
damaging assertions. In the concise words of the second wife
" Mr. Allan sent him the money . . . and banished Poe from his
affections." That much, at least, of the good lady's explanation
seems to be literally true. The rest of her statements may well
have been the convenient interpretation which, out of self-de-
fense, her husband was forced to put upon it. No one can blame
John Allan, in this instance, at least, for being outraged. The fact
that Poe had never meant the letter to come home to roost, does
not excuse his lack of loyalty in writing it. It is impossible to at
once claim the benefits of intimate association, and to violate its
confidences. Sergeant " Bully " Graves of the First United States
Artillery had, by reason of the writings which he possessed, fallen
heir to the only financial " legacy " that the Gait-Allan fortune
was to contribute to tEe name of Edgar Allan Poe! An unfortu-
nately flourishing signature of that young gentleman adorned the
292 ISRAFEL
bottom of the fatal letter. Not only the cat, but all expectation of
kittens, was now let out of the well-known bag.
Mr. Allan wrote Poe a furious letter, which must have been a
masterpiece of invective. It reached Poe just in time to wish him
a happy New Year for 1830. He was informed that he was dis-
owned and that no further communications from him were de-
sired. On January 3, 1830, Poe replied in what is probably the
most literally autobiographical letter that he ever wrote. 880
The mask that the sense of favors to come, or the lingering
traces of real affection which Poe may have still retained the
necesssity for patience and dissimulation that these had enforced
in previous letters to his guardian, were now removed. With noth-
ing to be lost by open defiance, he spits back the bitter truth.
The letter to " Bully " is acknowledged and the charge of Mr.
Allan's drinking reaffirmed. The truth, he says, he leaves to God,
and John Allan's conscience. The rest of the letter is given up to
a multitude of reproaches, which, even when every allowance is
made, still remain as a tremendous indictment of the character
of John Allan. The parsimony so fatal at Charlottesville had also
done its sharp work at West Point, but, above all, Poe in effect
reproaches his guardian for his lack of affection and tells him
that it was only Frances Allan who cared for him as for her own
child. " If she had not died while I was away, there would have
been nothing to regret."
Perhaps, the most significant sentences of all, in this burning
letter, are those in which Poe speaks of his own health. Despite
the undoubted presence of some self pity, there is a hopeless
truth in his statements that he knows he will not live long
" Thank God! " and that his future will be one of indigence and
sickness. He says, and this statement seems to be especially sig-
nificant, that he has no energy nor health left, and he complains
of the fatigues of "this place" 'fatigues which his absolute
want of necessities had subjected him to. The letter concludes
with the announcement that he intends to resign. If the permis-
sion is not granted from home, he curtly informs John Allan that
380 Valentine Museum Letters, letter No. 24. The AUan-Poe controversy can-
not be understood thoroughly without a knowledge of this letter.
THE WEST POINT INTERLUDE 293
from the date of the letter he will neglect his studies and duties.
Should the permission not be forthcoming he will leave West
Point in ten days. Otherwise says he, " I should subject myself to
being dismissed. 37 Poe's resolution was evidently made while he
was reading John Allan's letter. The careful phrasing of the
indignant reply evidently occupied a day or so in which the exact
course to be pursued was turned over in Poe's mind most care-
fully. This letter to John Allan begun on the third of January,
1831, was not mailed till the fifth. A few days later in Richmond
John Allan himself endorsed upon it:
I rec'd this on the loth and did not from its conclusion deem it
necessary to reply. I made this note on the i3th and can see no good
Reason to alter my opinion. I do not think the boy has one good
quality. He may do or act as he pleases tho' I would have saved him
but on his own terms and conditions since I cannot believe a word he
writes. His letter is the most bare-faced one-sided statement.
A careful comparison of dates in the case of this letter may serve
to make clear exactly what happened. Poe's last letter from West
Point was begun on the third, mailed on the fifth (postmark),
and received by Mr. Allan on the tenth of January. John Allan
then considered his decision about it for three days before making
his endorsement on the thirteenth. But the court-martial records
show that after January seventh Edgar Attan Poe ceased to func-
tion as a cadet at West Point. In other words, he did not wait
to hear from Mr. Allan, for, before the letter got to Richmond,
Poe was already " on strike."
There were, in reality, only two parties in this passage at
arms. Between the granite-like obstinacy of John Allan and the
final, nervous explosion of Poe's indignation, West Point was a
mere incident. If Mr. Allan's consent to a resignation had been
obtained, Poe would have profited to the extent of the traveling
expenses which he needed and that would have been all. Mr.
Allan's guardianship was at an end. The letter of January 3,
1831, to Richmond was the young poet's moral Declaration of
Independence.
There was, indeed, a much deeper cause for the declaration
than has heretofore been suspected. A comparison of certain pas-
294
ISRAFEL
sages in John Allan's will with the date of Poe's letter to Sergeant
Graves ("Bully")? and the mention of the quarrel between
" father " and " son " on the same date (" . . . The time was
within half an hour after you had embittered every feeling of
my heart against you by your abuse of my family, and myself,
under your own roof and at a time when you knew that my
heart was almost breaking . . .") gives, rise to some pertinent
speculations.
Why had Mr. Allan been drinking about this time; why did he
quarrel with Poe; and above all, why did he abuse Edgar's
family? Poe underscores the word family, and it can scarcely
refer to anything else but the sore point about Mrs. Poe and
Rosalie. 881 Nothing would be more likely to drive the foster-son
out of the house immediately. But why drive him out, why!
What was the motive? One sentence from John Allan's will illu-
minates all these old letters, like switching on a light in a dark
room full of musty documents:
The twins were born some time about the first of July 1830.
They were illegitimate. No wonder Mr. Allan was then " seldom
sober." That was why he was frantic with anxiety to get Edgar
out of the house when he did return to Richmond in 1830, and
why he kept urging and urging Poe to get his appointment and
even tried to hurry the War Department. The appointment came
in March; but Poe did not leave. On May 6 Mr. Allan picked a
violent quarrel with his ward, the old calumny against Edgar's
mother was revived as a desperate but sure expedient to get rid
of him " under your own roof at a time when you knew my
heart was almost breaking." 355 A few days later Poe drew the
blankets from Ellis & Allan, and left via Baltimore. " When I
parted from you at the steamboat, I knew that I should never
see you again." The same day that Poe took the oath at West
Point, the twins were born in Richmond.
881 Mr. Allan would scarcely " abuse " Mrs. Clemm or Edgar's paralyzed
grandmother. The Poe cousins were not known to him personally. Henry might
have come in for a tongue lashing, but all the probability here points to Edgar's
parents, "my family, and myself." He may have included Mosher Poe in his
remarks.
THE WEST POINT INTERLUDE 295
So it was not so very simple after all! Like all important and
long enduring human relationships it was very, very complex.
John Allan and Edgar Poe loved each other. In the inmost realm
of the spirit they were father and son. Time and fate had made
them so. That is the only satisfactory explanation of the enor-
mous agitation behind their correspondence; the reason, why, in
spite of all, they could never quite break it off. Even on the last
West Point letter, the older man endorses: " He may do or act as
he pleases tho' I would have saved him but on Ms own terms. . . ."
In the last analysis it was John Allan's sensuousness and obstinacy
that ruined the two finest associations of his remarkable life. It
killed Frances Allan, and it blasted Poe. The strange, Scotch
parsimony was only a concomitant. Even after his second mar-
riage the revelation of " Bully's " letter was a sore blow. The
raveled thread was snapped; Poe left West Point, and went into
a nervous collapse. If this was not tragedy, the word to describe
it has not been coined.
The process of cutting the bonds of military discipline was
more protracted than Poe surmised. Mr. Allan's consent was not
forthcoming, so the young man had to set about it the next
way. The manner was simple enough; it consisted in taking the
path of least resistance. After the receipt of the letter from
Richmond, Poe simply gave up. Although the plan was deliberate,
it also bears out his own testimony that he was too physically
ill to go on. From January 7, 1831, he absented himself from all
military formations, recitations, and from church, and he dis-
obeyed the orders of his superiors when he was directed to take
part. The prime military virtue of obedience was thus hopelessly
insulted, beyond that there was no "moral offence" involved.
The story that he deserted either from the Army proper or from
the Military Academy, is a legend which it is scarcely necessary
to deny.
On January 5, 1831, it appears that a court-martial under the
presidency of Lieutenant Leslie of the Engineers was convened at
West Point to try several cadets for offences against discipline.
For some reason the sittings of the court were postponed until
January 28. During the two weeks prior to that event there were
296 ISRAFEL
scarcely any duties which Cadet Poe did not ingeniously manage
to neglect. As a consequence after disposing of some other
cases 382
The Court next proceeded to the trial of Cadet E. A. Poe of the
U. S. Military Academy on the following charges and specifications:
CHARGE ist GROSS NEGLECT OF DUTY
Specification ist In this, that he, the said Cadet Poe, did absent
himself from the following parades and roll calls between the yth
January and 27th January 1831. . . .
Specification 2nd In this, that he, the said Cadet E. A. Poe, did
absent himself from all Academical duties between the isth and 2?th
January 1831. . . .
CHARGE 2nd DISOBEDIENCE OF ORDERS
Specification ist In this, that he, the said Cadet Poe, after having
been directed by the officer of the day to attend church on the 23rd
of January 1831, did fail to obey such order. . . .
Specification 2nd In this, that he, the said Cadet Poe, did fail to
attend the Academy on the 25th January 1831, after having been di-
rected to do so by the officer of the day.
Poe pleaded gwlty to all but the first specification of the first
charge, to which he pleaded not guilty. As that charge was auto-
matically proven by the rollbooks for formations, he thus put him-
self beyond all recommendations for mercy. " After mature de-
liberation on the testimony deduced," the " prisoner " was found
" Guilty on all the charges and specifications," and it was adjudged
"that he, Cadet E. A. Poe, be dismissed the service of the
United States." 882 The sentence was made effective as of March
6, 1831, in order to provide sufficient sums out of his pay to sat-
isfy his indebtedness to the Academy. On that date Poe was offi-
cially discharged with a balance to his credit of twenty-four
cents. Long before that, however, he was on his way to New York
City.
The findings of the court-martial were approved by the Secre-
tary of War on February 8, 1831, and seem to have taken a week
82 An abbreviated transcript of Military Academy Order No. 7, Engineer
Department, Washington, February 8, 1831. Prof. James H. Harrison prints this,
vol. II, pages 374-376> from Ingram.
THE WEST POINT INTERLUDE 299
or so before they were returned to West Point. Poe must have
had some qualms imagining the face of Major Eaton as he read
the record of the trial and called to mind the enthusiastic promises
of a certain Richmond youth a little over a year before, one who
had walked from Baltimore to plead his case personally. That,
however, deterred neither Mr. Secretary nor Cadet Poe, and on
February 17 or 1 8 the latter was given his release.
One can imagine him upon the evening of that eventful day
packing up his books, John Allan's inkstand, a few uniforms
which he kept to remind him of past glories, and the lares and
penates which accompanied even the poorest of waif poets in
the iron-bound trunk that John Allan had sent him by steamboat
to Baltimore. Then he made the rounds, saying good-bye, not
without a certain relish for the brief glamor that surrounds a
departing spirit at the Military Academy, who has dared to defy
the delegated authority of the United States and survived. And
we can imagine him, too, selling off for what he could get, a few
picayunes and fipenny bits at most, the scanty remains of his
outfit. Perhaps there was a shako, or a slim sword exchanged
next morning at Old Benny's for a thin second-hand suit of
citizen's clothes, a parting nip with the old rascal " on the house,"
with " here's luck." It was, we know, a cold, a very cold day.
On February 19, 1831, -the steamboat from Albany stopped at
the desolate West Point wharf to take on board a lonely figure
dressed in a nondescript costume consisting of a thin and badly
worn suit of second-hand clothes rendered somewhat grotesque
by a cadet's overcoat and a battered hat. A small iron-bound
trunk was trundled on board, and the old side-wheeler " Henry
Eckford " thrashed her way down stream toward New York. 883
The young man on the deck shivered and fingered the lonely
coins in his pocket somewhat apprehensively. No one, who saw
the nervous trembling of the bird-like fingers, would have sus-
pected that they had just relinquished the sword and were al-
883 From The Northern Traveler, a guidebook of the time, and a contemporary
steamboat schedule, it appears that the steamer "Henry Eckford,'* with two
freight barges in tow, plied between New York and Albany and made local stops.
The fare from New York to Albany was $1.00. The "Henry" called at West
Point Dock, February 19, 1831, on the down trip.
300 ISRAFEL
ready* reaching ambitiously for a mightier weapon. The fare was
at least seventy-five cents, and that was about all he had. The
two freight barges behind the " Henry " took up the slack of
the tow line with a swish and trailed on behind; the departing
wail of the steamer's whistle echoed up the gorge of the Hudson,
to be answered by the notes of a bugle from the heights above.
Future generals of the United States and the Confederacy were
on their way to recitation and the several stars that afterwards
adorned their shoulders or collars. Israfel was following his own.
CHAPTER XIV
The Weary, Wayworn Wanderer
POE arrived in New York about February 20, 1831, and
seems to have remained there until the end of March
of that year. During this sojourn, his movements and
doings are exceedingly obscure. The young man who took up
lodgings somewhere close to Madison Square can best be de-
scribed in his own words as " a weary, wayworn wanderer." He
was literally penniless, and thinly clad. There was no Ellis &
Allan to draw upon for even a mourning suit now; he was just
out of West Point and without sufficient civilian clothes. His
scheme seems to have been to obtain literary work of some sort,
probably with the newspapers, while the forthcoming volume held
out some hopes of a small return. But in the meantime he must
eat, and he was also very ill.
In the last letter from West Point, Poe had assured John Allan
that he would never trouble him again. Faced by starvation and
the prospect of a serious illness, however, he was once more forced
to eat humble pie, lacking anything more substantial. Two days
after leaving the Military Academy he writes in his New York
lodging from what he feels is probably his death-bed, asking his
" father " to send him enough to keep from starving.
The break at West Point and the severance of all home ties,
with the consequent necessity of making an immediate about face
in his plans and order of life, had undoubtedly entailed a fierce
mental and spiritual struggle. He was, in fact, in one of those
nervous emotional crises which make or mar a career. 384 This
was reflected in his physical condition. He left West Point in a
depleted and fatigued state. The trip down, we are told, was bit-
terly cold, and he had no adequate clothing, " no cloak " he
as* New light upon Poe's condition, and the date of his arrival in New York,
has been thrown on this period by the Valentine Museum Letters, letter No. 2$,
New York, February 21, 1831.
3 02 ISRAFEL
says, although it is known that he brought with him from the
Military Academy his cadet's overcoat and wore it years later
even at Fordham. 885 However that may be, he contracted an al-
most fatal " cold," complicated by ear trouble. The result seems
to have been one of those periods of complete nervous and psychic
exhaustion that occasionally overtook him from now on, in which
a weak heart played an important part. 884 In the midst of this he
wrote the despairing letter to Richmond. 884
In this letter, in addition to his desperate appeals for help,
which even the disordered and blotted writing stamps as genuine,
Poe attempts to defend himself for his course of procedure; lays
the blame for being " dismissed " on his guardian's refusal to give
him permission to resign; and expatiates on his excellent standing
in class, and the sympathy of his superiors and classmates. This
sympathy, he says, he possessed; adding that sickness was the
real cause of his dropping out, and everybody at " The Point "
knew it. In the meantime he is writing from his " death-bed,"
and a little help during his last hours would be grateful.
The letter is undoubtedly exaggerated in its self-pity, but it
was written during a time of great pain from a discharging ear,
with the horror of starvation near, alone in a strange city, and
by a terrified and delicately sensitive young man. Where else
could he appeal but to " Dear Pa " and " home." " Do not tell
my sister," he pleads "I shall send to the post office every
day." But he sent in vain. That home which he addressed was his
no longer. The letter was smugly filed away to receive over two
years later a coldly furious endorsement from a stern hand.
Somehow, doubtless to his own surprise, Poe recovered in a
week or so and found himself able to read proofs at the office of
Elam Bliss at in Broadway, where "the second edition" of
Poems was underway. Mr. Bliss, who was a kindly man, may
also have taken pity on the young poet and have invited him to
dine with him at his home at 28 Dey Street, where we may be
sure the hospitality was, to the guest at least, no empty formality.
885 This coat, and various other items of military attire, evidently relics^ of
West Point days, are mentioned by several persons who knew Poe from this time
on.
THE WEARY, WAYWORN WANDERER 303
One of the few reminiscences of Poe at this time comes from
Peter Pindar Pease, an erstwhile clerk at a Charlottesville store,
who says he had met Poe in Boston when in similar desperate cir-
cumstances and who now ran across him again in New York. 888
From him it seems that it was Poe's custom to walk under the
elm trees in Madison Square, and, that upon one occasion, Poe
dined with Peter Pindar Pease and informed him that he had at
last " struck it hard"; meaning that he was in good luck, and
probably referring to the new book. The statement is, character-
istic. Nothing could tame the young poet's pride; the possibility
of fame from the book must have filled his mind. Despite the
indications of poverty which Pease noted, he found Poe in a
confident and boastful mood. Who paid for the dinner, we do
not learn.
At this period Inman, the artist, had his studio at 48 Vesey
Street, and it was now, if at any time, that he painted the portrait
of Poe with which he has been credited. It is doubtful if he
really did so, however, as the picture does not resemble the other
known authentic likenesses of Poe in later life. All that can
be said is that it shows a well-dressed, rather slight, sensitive
featured, and delicately bred young man in his early twenties, and
that it might be Poe. If so, it is the earliest picture of the poet
known. Mr. Bliss may have arranged for it on the strength of the
forthcoming book, but it is extremely unlikely. Poe was penniless
and unknown, and there is no indication that Inman was his close
friend. The picture may be any young dandy in the costume of
the time.
It was a hard time financially, too, Jackson's fast and loose fis-
cal policy was already beginning to make money tight, and the
times were distinctly close ones for the inhabitants of the avenues
as well as Grubb Street. 887 Evidently the bulk of the money for the
sse From an untraced clipping from an article. " P. P. Pease " is alluded to else-
where as an early prohibitionist and anti-saloon man. Dr. Mabbott suggests The
Outlook. I have been unable to verify this as the source.
887 Andrew Jackson was attacking the charter of the Bank of the United
States, and the period of financial chaos, state banks, and " wild cat " money was
being ushered in. While Poe was in New York in February, 1831, the attack was
going on in Congress. (Benton, View, 1. 187-325 ; Deb., XI. 143-6*0 The effect was
alarming*
ISRAFEL
new book was not forthcoming until it was delivered at West
Point. Perhaps a few advances saved the day. So it was hard
sledding at best. Poe wrote to his brother Henry, for whom he
had already gone into debt, but his brother was now dying in
Baltimore and could not aid him. By the beginning of March it
was evident that New York would not afford a living to an un-
known pen, and we find the young poet writing to Colonel Thayer,
the Superintendent at West Point, whose favor he seems to have
over-estimated. Colonel Thayer had probably been " kind," but
he doubtless, for all that, had his reservations about young gen-
tlemen who were dismissed for not attending church, even when
directed to do so by the officer of the day! Temporarily, Poe
seems to have considered becoming a soldier of fortune.
The letter read:
New York, March 10, 1831.
SIR; _ Having no longer any ties which can bind me to my native
country no projects nor any friends I intend by the first op-
portunity to proceed to Paris with the view of obtaining through the
interest of the Marquis de La Fayette an appointment (if possible) in
the Polish Army.
In the event of the interference of France in behalf of Poland this
may easily be effected 388 at all events it will be my only feasible
plan of procedure.
The object of this letter is respectfully to request that you will give
me such assistance as may be in your power in furtherance of my views.
A certificate of ' standing ' in my class is all that I have any right to
expect.
Anything further a letter to a friend in Paris or to the Marquis
would be a kindness which I should never forget. Most respectfully,
Yr. obt. s't.,
EDGAR A. POE
Col. S. Thayer, Supt. U. S. M. A. 88 *
888 In 1830-31 the Poles rebelled against the tyranny of Tsar Nicholas I.
Patriotic secret societies drove the Russians out of Warsaw November 29, 1830.
On January 2$, 1831, the independence of Poland was proclaimed; the help of
France was hoped for. A few months later the rebellion was suppressed with
frightful cruelty on both sides. By September, 1831, it was over. Poe evidently
watched these events carefully.
389 Printed in the New York Sun for October 30, 1902, from manuscripts left
to the Association of West Point Graduates by General Cullum.
THE WEARY, WAYWORN WANDERER 305
What an impression La Fayette had made on Poe, and how
much he counted on the influence of his grandfather's friend is
plainly shadowed forth in this letter. Colonel Thayer did not
reply, it seems, and the young writer evidently soon gave up all
thought of following a military career any longer. It was the last
gesture in that direction, and a desperate one at that, but it is in-
teresting to note that, even at this date, Poe felt it might be well
for him to go abroad. Perhaps he felt instinctively that his talents
might be appreciated where he, indeed, first received the greatest
recognition. There was evidently no place for him in New York.
Assured of this, he began once more to turn his thoughts toward
Baltimore. Richmond offered nothing. In Baltimore, at least
there were family relations, and, through them, he might hope to
gain friends. If nothing else, Mrs. Clemm's house offered maternal
affection and a roof. In the meantime the poems had appeared,
and Poland had capitulated. In that, the letter to Colonel Thayer
had received a conclusive answer.
Sometime about the end of March, 1831, Elam Bliss seems to
have completed Poems by Edgar A. Poe, " second edition," and
the cadets at West Point were pondering and grumbling over the
incomprehensible lines of Israfel, To Helen, Lenore, The Sleeper 9
and The Valley of Unrest. Nor did the inscription
TO THE U. S. CORPS OF CADETS
THIS VOLUME
IS
RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED
tend to ease the sting of having been gulled. No one, of course,
suspected that it was the most enduring compliment that a cer-
tain " corps " could receive. For a few minutes, the dark figure
that had been a stranger among them was recalled. Then the busy
bugles blew again drowning out the disgruntled laughter. It
seemed as if for a third time the young poet's assault upon ob-
livion had called forth nothing but derision, and a few, a very
few coins. On these he remained some days longer in New York,
and on the remainder, a very scant remainder, set out wayworn
and weary shortly afterward for Baltimore. It was at least a move
306 ISRAFEL
towards his own native shore. The loadstone of " home," how-
ever, still fluttered the directing needle because, for Poe, Rich-
mond never lost the peculiar quality of a magnet. Elmira was still
there, and all the other invisible lines of magnetism were set
strong.
Poe's third book, Poems (second edition) New York, published
by Elam Bliss, 1831, was a duodecimo volume of 124 pages bound
in pale green boards, and rather poorly printed on ordinary rag
paper. The exact number of the edition is not known, but it cer-
tainly did not exceed five hundred. 800 The title page bore the line
from La Chausee, 301 " Tout le monde a Raison" this sentiment
being a sort of plea for a liberal attitude toward the contents of
the book and for the critical theories which it advocated in the
preface entitled, "Letter to Mr. ." This anonymous
person is addressed as "Dear B," and may have been Elam
Bliss himself. The poems were here reprinted in revised form
from the earlier Baltimore edition of 1829. In that sense only the
1831 Poems was a second edition.
The " Letter to Mr. B " is somewhat rambling, and was evi-
dently written in off-hours at West Point, whence it is dated. In
this preface, Poe informs us, amid a rather youthful parade of
erudition resounding with the names of Shakespeare and Milton,
that in his revisions of earlier work he has learned the lesson of
the shears, and that these poems now appear with " the trash
taken away from them in which they were embedded." The most
interesting thing in the epistle to " Mr. B," however, is the ap-
pearance here for the first time of Poe's theory of poetic criticism.
Literary reputation, he says, percolates the social pyramid from
" a few gifted individuals who kneel around the summit, behold-
ing, face to face, the master spirit who stands upon the pinnacle."
After a brief comment on the difficulty of an American author
being taken seriously he continues:
390 This is a liberal estimate and allows for the number distributed at West
Point, and about two hundred fifty for general distribution half and half
a not improbable arrangement.
391 Dr. Thomas Oliive Mabbott finds that this line, heretofore attributed to
Rochefoucauld, is from La Chausee, the whole quotation meaning, " When all the
world is wrong, all the world is right."
POEMS
EDGAR A. POE.
TOUT LE 9&OKD& A TiAISON.
SECOND EDITION.
Title Page of Poems Second Edition
Published in New York by Elam Bliss in 1831
EDGAR ALLAN POE'S third published Volume usually known as the "West
Point Book"
Courtesy of a New York Collector
THE WEARY, WAYWORN WANDERER 307
You are aware of the great barrier in the path of an American
writer. He is read, if at all, in preference to the combined and estab-
lished wit of the world. Our antiquaries abandon time for distance,
our very fops glance from the binding to the bottom of the title page,
where the mystic characters which spell London, Paris, or Geneva, are
precisely so many letters of recommendation. . . .
After this brief beginning of what was later to develop into one
of the favorite themes of his acrid criticism, Poe leaps rapidly
past Aristotle, taking the opportunity to shy a brick at didactic
poetry, which leads him to Wordsworth whom he handles roughly.
Coleridge he mentions next with reverence. To him indeed, he
owed most of his theory of poetry with which he ends this rather
remarkable but nevertheless jejune preface:
A poem, is in my opinion, 392 opposed to a work of science by having,
for its immediate object, pleasure not truth: to romance by having for
its object an indefinite instead of a definite pleasure, being a poem only
so far as this object is attained: romance presenting perceptible images
with definite, poetry with indefinite sensations, to which end music is
an essential, since the comprehension of sweet sound is our most indefi-
nite conception. Music, when combined with a pleasurable idea, is
poetry, music, without the idea, is simply music: the idea without the
music, is prose from its very definiteness.
This was the germ of the famous lecture of years later on The
Poetic Principle, and the source, having its roots, in the discus-
sions of Coleridge, from which he developed and elaborated his
own canons for both writing and criticizing verse. Like nearly
all poetic criticism by poets, it was, in its final analysis, a special
and ingenious plea for the kind of poetry he himself wrote* Despite
the leaven of considerable truth, it remains as an interesting ex-
ample of " rationalization."
The body of the book contained eleven poems, notably: To
Helen, Israjel, and The Doomed City, the first version of the
later a much improved City in the Sea. To Helen has, in its re-
vised form, taken its place as one of the great lyrics of the lan-
the exception of the words "in my opinion," this theory is lifted
verbatim from Coleridge's Biographic Literaria, chapter XIV. I am indebted to
Mr. Joseph Wood Krutch for this reference showing the early effect of Coleridge
on Poe.
3 o8 ISRAFEL
guage, while Israfel is undoubtedly the first, wildly clear burst
of song of the " bitter, bright, cold morning " of a winter day that
was to end, like all winter days, in early night. No more golden
notes of prideful promise have ever been uttered as a prelude. As
usual the sources of the poems betray a strange mixture of auto-
biography, with real and imaginary landscapes.
I could not love have except where Death
Was mingling his with Beauty's breath,
Or Hymen, Time and Destiny
Were stalking between her and me.
strongly recalls the experiences of the past decade with the tragic
death of Mrs. Stanard and Frances Allan, the unfortunate out-
come of the affair with Elmira Royster, and the troubles at home.
The figure of the " Lost Beloved " now first comes strongly into
its own. "Helen" is probably a combination and imaginative
synthesis of Jane Stith Stanard and Frances Allan with the ab-
stract longing for the perfect Beloved common to all young men.
Lenore seems to be more definitely applicable to Elmira. As for
Israfel it is undoubtedly about Poe himself. The City in the Sea,
and the Valley of Unrest combine the peculiar effects of brows-
ings in Oriental literature, and the memories of Scotland and the
Carolina Low Country fused with a mystical magic. Some of the
lines, and even whole poems, approach perilously near the banal,
but they are nearly always saved by a certain distinction. Many
of the selections, notably, Irene, later called The Sleeper, owed
their fame to the revisions of later years. But despite all this,
there are many great lines in the book, and it can safely be said
that it constitutes an important addition to American poetry. Al
Aaraaf again appeared together with Tamerlane, now, for the
second time, considerably revised. Israfel itself still waited the
sure and final touches of the now rapidly maturing hand. For
the first time Poe had written poems which in conception, music,
and content were wholly and peculiarly his own.
For the time being, however, the inward knowledge of this ac-
complishment had to be its own reward. The only concrete evi-
dence of public approbation was a few dollars left over from the
THE WEARY, WAYWORN WANDERER 309
subscription, which Mr. Bliss paid to the poet, several author's
copies, and the following obscure notice whose very source has
been forgotten.
The poetry of this little volume has a plausible air of imagination,
inconsistent with the general indefiniteness of the ideas. Everything in
the language betokens poetic inspiration, but it rather resembles the
leaves of the sybil when scattered by the winds. . . . 89S
Packing a few copies of his poems and his pitiably scant
" wardrobe " in what must have been a very cheap or second-
hand carpet-bag, Poe took the few dollars that remained to him,
after Mr. Elam Bliss and the printers were satisfied, and made
his way to Baltimore, probably immediately after his writing the
letter to Colonel Thayer. That seems to have been a final gesture
of sheer desperation. 894
A guidebook of the time, 865 evidently written for prudent and
conservative travelers, informs the wary voyager that in New
York " it is best to go to the steam boat ten or fifteen minutes
before the time of departure to avoid the crowd which always col-
lects at the dock. Caution, if luggage is sent by a porter, ask
him for his number, so that if he is negligent or dishonest, he may
be reported at the police office." This caution we may be sure Poe
did not have to observe upon the blustering March day in 1831,
when he set out for Baltimore via Philadelphia. If the iron-bound
trunk largely filled with Poems, second edition, accompanied him,
it must have done so upon a wheelbarrow, side by side with the
faded flowers upon a carpet-bag, and the " crowd " at the docks
just above the Battery, doubtless looked somewhat askance at
the starved and Spanish-looking young gentleman attired in a
cadet's overcoat and a beaver hat. A pair of clumsy army boots
disguised what would otherwise have been a rather neat and deli-
cate foot.
There were at that time four steamboat lines connecting with
Philadelphia, the first stage of the journey taking the traveler as
sss Woodberry prints this from some anonymous press dippings.
89* The letter to Colonel Thayer was written from New York on March
10, 1831; on May 6, 1831, he wrote in Baltimore to William Gwynn.
3io
ISRAFEL
far as Perth Amboy or New Brunswick. The boats left from
" downtown " docks, and, as they pulled out for the Jersey side
of the Hudson, the little city of New York lay spread before one.
It was a delightful old town. A dash of green along the Battery
" on summer evenings the place is supplied with music, and often
fireworks . . . and Castle Garden has a fine promenade. . . .
Broadway, the most fashionable promenade in the city, is most
crowded with passengers between one and three o'clock, or in
hot weather, after dinner." There were forty-two fire engines,
besides two hook and ladder companies! Eight (8) large brick
schoolhouses, " averaging nearly forty-two by eighty-five feet in
size/' where no less than five thousand children enjoyed the maps,
globes, and libraries, and the uniform system of the Lancasterian
Plan at $1.25 a quarter, although two of them were " given over "
to Africans. 865 The mass of low-roofed, white framed and brick
houses topped by a few flat steeples, extended in a solid mass as
far north as Washington Street. "The village of Hoboken is
seen a mile or more up the river and the hills of Weehauken, but
on the eastern shore of the river opposite the Palisades ... the
soil is inferior; and the woodland encroaches too much upon the
fields and orchards." Here, in the middle distance, glimmered the
spire and the farmhouses of Greenwich Village. "The Lunatic
Asylum, about seven miles from the city, is a large building of
hewn stone, occupying a commanding position."
The world across which the young Poe moved from New York
to Baltimore wore, as yet, an ancient face. It was the world which
had remained largely stationary from Julius Caesar to Napoleon.
Its rhythms were those of the coach horse and the water mill, and
its thoughts were secondary reflections on the sages and poets of
Palestine, Greece and Rome. Only here and there a subtle change
was beginning to come across it. Now and then white sails were
prophetically veiled by steamer smoke, here and there a factory
chimney disputed the eminence of the church steeple; the prisms
of canals cut across the landscape, or groups of surveyors began
to whisper through the yet colonial countryside the strange
syllables of "railroad." Groups of farmers would shortly be
gathering to toss up their hats as their first iron-horse roared by.
THE WEARY, WAYWORN WANDERER 311
The quiet of the landscape was, however, deceptive, for, in the
towns, the giant of an industrial democracy had already begun to
stretch himself. The unexpected surplus in the Federal Treasury
was being divided among the states for " national improvements."
Under the eager demands of the Western voters who had left the
stains of their muddy boots on John Quincy Adams' aristocratic
furniture, as Andrew Jackson entered the White House with a
whoop, canals were already stretching their arms across the
mountains, and railway routes were following fast. The making,
the carrying, and the marketing of things as an end in itself, was
about to become the be-all and the end-all here. It was the last
comprehensive glimpse at the undisturbed world into which he
had been born that Israfel was to have. In a few years a gigantic
change was to sweep across the landscape, altering the very aspect
of things, disturbing that subtle balance and blend of objects, the
eternal fitness of one thing with another, which only nature can
produce on a grand scale, and which men have called " beauty."
Nor was this process, which went on so rapidly and, in its first
crude essays, under the eyes of Poe, unseen by him or uncom-
mented upon. The young poet who had already written:
Science! true daughter of Old Time thou art!
Who alterest all things with thy peering eyes.
Why preyest thou thus upon the poet's heart,
Vulture, whose wings are dull realities?
was thoroughly aware of the secrets which the " peering eyes "
had found, secrets that were being applied to " dull realities " to
" alter all things, to drive
... the Hamadryad from the wood
To seek a shelter in some happier star. . . ."
He too sought a shelter in a happier star. It was the sphere of
his dreams, made up largely of the visions of the early more in-
tegrated world of his childhood and the reveries extracted from
the literature of other epochs. This was the world for which he
longed, and looked back upon with a heart-uneasy homesickness,
that strange longing which lends a romantic retrospect, and a
3I2 ISRAFEL
mystic delight, to the many hermitages which he evoked with
words; such as, The Valley of Grass, The Landscape Garden, and
the Domain of Arnheim. Along with this desire " to return," so
impossible of fulfillment, as he grew older, was the ever-widening
angle between himself and the world of reality around him, a pro-
gressive and cumulative advance of nervous and psychic incom-
patibility that made him less and less capable of coping with an
environment which grew more and more out of harmony with his
desires. From now on, this divergence must be reckoned with as
we watch Israfel tossed from horn to horn of an impossible
dilemma; that of a personality without a neighborhood. The re-
fuges, and anodynes, the seductive subterfuges to which he re-
sorted were often more fatal than the trouble itself. Indeed, the
very medicines which their victim prescribed, were, in a large
sense, the symptoms of the progressive disease which he sought
to allay. It was a strange acceleration of blended cause and effect
that fused into one tremendous cause, destined to finally hurl
him out of a world which he found intolerable, a cumulative
tragedy, that ended in a smash resounding through time. Fortu-
nately, for us, the spectators, both the victim and the rapidly
shifting world across which he moved were strangely, almost
grotesquely, interesting.
Poe had been born into the easy-going, sedate, and in many
ways self-sufficient world of the early Republic, its conventions
were those of a primarily agricultural society. Its methods and
means of life had culminated in attitudes which were the result
of generations of experience, and its taste was reflected in the
semi-classical costume, architecture, and furniture of the day.
That, in short, was its objective comment upon life. It was a
world of gentlemen and ladies, who regarded themselves in the
half-English, half-Roman Republic that they founded, as the
natural directors and patrons of the society which they were born
to administer. Across this quiet picture the hand of " progress "
suddenly moved an erasive sponge dipped in a solvent of the new
ideas and forces released by mechanical science, and the drab
wash of a frontier democracy without tradition. For a few decades
all the colors in the social picture, ran and blended; outlines and
THE WEARY, WAYWORN WANDERER 313
perspective were lost in the total effect of a crude smear. It was
through these decades that Poe lived; at the end of the incredible
forties, when he died. He disliked the strong solution on the
sponge, and he doubted the direction of the hand which employed
it. From this disturbed picture of running colors in the stage of
solution, the domains which he perfected in literature were his
escape. Like other men he could not climb completely out of his
own time, but the physical means which he employed to escape
out of its rococo frame, constitute the story of his own undoing.
In 1831, the first daubs of the sponge were just beginning to
be apparent. The Republic was ended and the Democracy had
begun. Andrew Jackson had introduced the spoils system. 395 It
was a political idea that had many social ramifications.
Poe had seen the port of New York in 1820, upon his return
from England. It was then scarcely more than an enlarged and
hustling colonial town enmeshed in a mass of yards and rigging
of the sail-borne argosies of the world. In 1831, a new note was
upon the water and the landscape. Here and there a factory chim-
ney raised its dark plumed head amid the steeples, and against
the snow banks of sails crossed the nervous spider web of walking-
beams driving over half a hundred side-wheel steamers that,
even at that date, threaded the harbor and rivers of Manhattan.
Their paddles ate steadily into the problem of distance with an
astonishing and prophetic speed. Characteristically enough, the
passengers did not care very much where they were going; all
that they knew was that they were going faster. For them, and
for their descendants, it has been enough. The age of marvels
had begun.
The " Philadelphia Steam Boat Line " at that time ended at
New Brunswick in New Jersey where travelers took up the second
lap of the journey on the " Forenoon Line " of stages, after stay-
ing at the hotel all night. We are assured by good contemporary
authority S65 that " the view is pretty from the hill ... whence
895 During the first year of Jackson's presidency about 690 officers were re-
moved. The subordinates removed by these swelled the number of those who lost
their positions to about 2000. The total number of removals by all former Presi-
dents was 74.
3I4 ISRAFEL
public buildings appear to good advantage, particularly the The-
ological Seminary, which is under the synod of the Dutch Re-
formed Church thence the route led to Princeton, covered be-
hind laboring post horses, with dinner at the stage-house just
opposite Nassau Hall in the center of the town. Just across the
street was the large college yard, the heavy shade trees, and the
" fashionable burying ground," where " sober " travelers could
walk off the fumes of poker-heated toddy by perusing the edify-
ing epitaphs of Aaron Burr, Jonathan Edwards, Samuel Davis,
Samuel Finley, John Witherspoon, and even Samuel S. Smith.
Then it was only ten miles by way of Lamberton and the State
Prison to Trenton, over a bridge on the Delaware, " a handsome
structure with five arches" that gave approach to "a town of
considerable size, with a great number of stores and the aspect of
business." Doubtless Poe took it all in from the less comfortable
but cheaper and more " aspect-informing " top of the " Forenoon
Line."
At Trenton, the Union Line Steamers left for Philadelphia,
" except when the water is low," paddling by Coal Haven a little
cove on the west side of the river where " arks " laden with coal
from the Lehigh mines waited to be towed to Philadelphia 896
and thence past Bordentown on a steep sandbank through which
a road cut down to the dock. Just north of the village stood the
long white house of Joseph Bonaparte, the Count de Survilliers
and one time King of Spain with the two low square towers
at the end, and a great shot tower near it on the river. Bristol was
passed next, " where a number of gentlemen's seats adorned the
river banks with much admired flower gardens along the verge
lington with a row of fine residences facing the river. Before it
ornamented with fine weeping willows." A little beyond, lay Bur-
ran a wide, grassy street with a beautiful sloping embankment.
Below Burlington, the banks of the Delaware widen and flatten
396 At Philadelphia is located the Bank of the United States, an institution,
which, while it has signally failed in its prime object of producing a stable national
currency, is heated by a furnace centrally located and fructified twice daily by
Lehigh coals." Extract from a notice evidently written by a Jackson man, in a
contemporary (1831) guide book. This sentence is peculiarly explanatory of the
times.
THE WEARY, WAYWORN WANDERER 315
out into a low and marshy country on the eighteen mile run to
Philadelphia. It is, says the Northern Traveler, " quite unfriendly
to the picturesque " but it was then the haunt of reed birds,
and wild, crimson-breasted ducks who fed sedately upon the
edible cresses of the salt marsh, riding the waves of the passing
steamers so confidently that they became the temptation of travel-
ing sportsmen, who shot at them from the decks of steamboats,
tilting their beaver hats back and discommoding their stocks to
draw a bead along the elegantly chased barrels of English fowl-
ing pieces belching forth a deal of white smoke and a loud
" bang." 80T
About here supper was ready. The captain sat at the head of
the long, white table set with a profusion of side dishes and thick,
ruddy glasses, while overhead the chain chandeliers jangled
musically at every down stroke of the simple engine; the whistle
wailed away over the marshes; the alternate jets of steam darted
upward, now to port, and now to starboard from the stand-pipes,
and the smoke rolled backward from the trim smoke-stacks
topped with the prim lace of pointed iron-cuffs.
Over this placid fertile Delaware valley, which had been the
home of Mark Woolston, Cooper's hero of the Rancocus and The
Peak stories that were familiar to Poe young Israfel gazed
from the hurricane deck of the Union Line Steamer on a March
day in the early thirties, when around a great bend in the river a
distant steeple and a high shot tower overtopping the low roofs
of the Quaker City came into sight.
Three glass-houses near the water, with white walls and black
roofs, next engaged the attention of the curious traveler, with
the shipyards behind; then the boat house in the Navy Yard
rising over a little island in the river loomed up, and the steamer
swung into the Market and Arch Street wharves. There was a
tangle of the spars of square-riggers along the waterfront, gilded
figure-heads leaping out from the arch bows of fast clippers load-
ing for London, China, and the wide world; a rumble of drays
along the cobbled quays and the crowd of gentlemen with high
397 The habit of shooting at game from public conveyances was an American
custom upon which foreign travelers of the time comment with disgust.
316 ISRAFEL
hats and gold-knobbed canes, ladies in rustling silk skirts with
bustles, poke bonnets, absurd little cloth slippers peeping in and
out under their dresses, and little girls with lace frilled pantalettes
rushed out of the dock-houses to climb high busses with eagles
and landscapes painted on their sides, or to be bustled, valises,
leather trunks and all, into high-backed carriages that rumbled
and swayed homeward over the joggling flagstones of the nar-
row streets, lit dimly here and there by a chained whale-oil
lamp.
The sanded floor of some waterfront tavern where candles
burned dimly in the small square-paned windows probably ex-
tended its humble hospitality to Poe. Like Franklin, a century
before, he had arrived in Philadelphia with only a few pennies in
his pockets. There was, of course, the United States Hotel on
Chestnut Street opposite the Great Bank, or the Mansion House
on South Third, or, for the more domestically inclined, Mrs.
Sword's on Walnut Street, whose scrapple and sausage breakfasts
were famous, or Mrs. Allen's on Sixth Street near the State
House, who went in for " sparrow-grass " and reed birds smoth-
ered in butter but all of these implied the possession of bank
notes. Besides, New York money was at a discount in Penn-
sylvania. We may be sure that a certain young man, the author
of three books of poems, lately dismissed from West Point, dried
his army overcoat before a far less pretentious fire somewhere
near the Market.
About the same time a poor youth by the name of Horace
Greeley arrived in New York with all his worldly goods bundled
in a handkerchief.
Whether Poe called on his friend, Mr. Lea, at Carey & Lea,
the publishers, or on the editor of the Philadelphia Casket during
this sojourn of a few hours in the Quaker City is not known. He
seldom missed an opportunity to cultivate an editor, but this
time he was provided with neither the clothes nor the mood to
make an impression, and it is not probable that he was advertising
the fact in influential quarters that he had been dismissed from
West Point. The state of his purse also admitted of no delay, and
the day after his arrival probably saw him on the way to Balti-
On the Philadelphia Trenton Line
From an old print
Courtesy of the Pennsylvania Historical Society
Philadelphia from the Navy Yard
/'/om aw oW ^>rtw^
Courtesy of the Pennsylvania Historical Society
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oo a
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a
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o 2i .2
s
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Q
THE WEARY, WAYWORN WANDERER 317
more on the steamboat line by which he had made the trip two
years before.
Baltimore was then the third city in the United States. Owing
to the development of ship canals between it and Philadelphia,
and the building of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, it was like
many other American towns of the time, just entering upon a
period of surprising enterprise. Along with this, there was a
considerable publishing business of newspapers and more or less
intermittent periodicals sponsored by various literary groups.
" The harbor in the Patapsco River has a narrow entrance and
is well protected by high ground. On the side opposite the city is
an abrupt elevation of considerable size, where is a fort, and
whence a commanding view is enjoyed." The city itself consisted
of broad streets with a number of public monuments and impos-
ing public buildings whose architecture was largely confined to
their facades. Above the low, black roofs, projected the dome of
the cathedral, the turreted Washington Monument, the steeple
of St. Paul's Church, and the strange round cylinder of a high
shot tower. The river front itself was a mass of red brick ware-
houses bordering long slips which gave the harbor somewhat the
appearance of the keys of a piano. Along these lay steamers with
the rakish lines of Aladdin's slippers, and crescent paddle boxes
blazoned with their names; also schooners, lumber and produce
rafts, and the rake-masted Baltimore clippers. 308 Fells Point,
about a mile below the more fashionable higher levels, was the
business section where most of the stores and shipping interests
were situated. It was in this district, in Mechanic's Row on Milk
Street (now Eastern Avenue), where Poe's aunt, Maria Clemm,
still resided.
Here it was that sometime about the end of March, 1831, Poe
came home. One can imagine the ecstatic welcome of Virginia
(" Siss " was now grown to be quite a fair sized girl) as Cousin
Eddie came into the upstairs room with his wonderful soldier
coat on, and Mrs. Clemm dropping her sewing to welcome home
398 The description of Baltimore, which provided the scene in which Poe was
to move for the next few years, has been taken from old prints and letters of
the day.
3l8 ISRAFEL
the wanderer with a somewhat perplexed but nevertheless hearty
hug from her strong motherly arms. There was also a feeble but
well-meant handshake from the pale and hollow-cheeked Henry,
and a wan smile from paralytic Grandmother Poe, now com-
pletely bed-ridden. That night " Muddie " set another place at
the table, and put another cup of water in the soup, while Eddie
unpacked his few clothes and disposed his books and papers on
the third floor. He was back in the attic room with Henry again.
Thanks to Mrs. Clemm, there was a roof over them both, and
something to eat. For Edgar it was a permanent arrangement.
Henry was dying.
CHAPTER XV
" The Mysterious Years "
SPEAKING of Poe many years later, in New York, Eliza-
beth Oakes Smith, one of the literati, remarked, " men,
such as Edgar Poe, will always have an ideal of themselves
by which they represent the chivalry of a Bayard and the heroism
of a Viking, when, in fact, they are utterly dependent and tor-
mented with womanish sensibilities." 8 " There can be little doubt
that, in this estimate, Mrs. Smith was essentially correct. Balti-
more, 1831, marks the beginning of the period, which extended
through all the rest of his life, when Poe gave himself up, in his
domestic life, to a complete dependence for sympathy and physi-
cal comfort upon his aunt, Mrs. Clemm. As time went on, his
cousin Virginia gradually took her own peculiar place in the
circle of domestic pillars upon which he leaned. All attempt to
realize objectively the Viking-military ideal had passed with
West Point the letter to Colonel Thayer, and the contemplated
trip abroad to enter the Polish Army, was the last move in that
direction. But the romantic, Bayard-chivalric idea still lingered,
and was evident to the end in the various episodes with women,
more especially in the juvenile affairs of the years in Baltimore
and Richmond.
Hence, one of the first glimpses we have of the young poet
after his arrival in Baltimore, 400 is his calling in full cadet regalia,
and in company with Brother Henry, upon a young lady by the
name of Kate Blakely who lived nearby. Miss Blakely was the
daughter of Matthew Blakely, the proprietor of the Armstead
Hotel on Short Swan Street between Jones Fields and the Market
Space. She was probably one of the elder brother's flames. They
399 Selections from the Autobiography of Elizabeth Oakes Smith, edited by
Mary Alice Wyman, Lewiston Journal Company, Lewiston, Maine, page 119.
400 Information supplied from letters by a member of the Poe family hi
Maryland.
320
ISRAFEL
sat together in the hotel parlor. Kate seems to have been con-
siderably impressed, and not a little flattered, by the attentions
of " Mr. Allan Poe," as he called himself, and by the pale, rather
willowy elder brother. Edgar enlarged upon his prospects in
Richmond, and later on addressed verses to the young woman,
who was, of course, flattered. The combination of brass buttons
and poetry is a solvent one upon the young female heart, and per-
haps Poe played the part well even in a hotel parlor. Kate's
heart was fluttered, while Edgar had merely provided for himself
a little stage upon which he might strut in costume, with a mild
glow about the heart. The incident ended there. What Henry
thought we do not know.
Edgar was tolerantly fond of his older brother who also wrote
heart-smitten lyrics, and supplied an audience for the new book.
Whether Henry was still attempting work in Mr. Didier's office
is doubtful. He was far gone in consumption and lapsed fre-
quently into drink. The two young men probably still shared
Mrs. Clemm's attic room together. A good deal of the time of the
younger brother must have been taken up nursing Henry, as the
periods of his prostration became longer and more frequent. The
nature of tuberculosis was still a mystery. It was then a " poetic,"
and a " genteel " disease. 401
As early as May, Poe was casting about for steady literary
work. On May 6, 1831, he wrote to William Gwynn of Baltimore,
editor and owner of the Federal Gazette, asking him for work on
a salary basis. 402 Mr. Allan's marriage, Poe said, had completely
changed his prospects, and his guardian was anxious that he
should remain in Baltimore. 403 Poe, it seems, had already quar-
401 The statement is nowhere directly made in any correspondence that Henry
Poe died of tuberculosis. From various indications and references to his ill health,
his early death, the long period of his illness, and the fact that no specific name
is given to his complaint, it is morally certain that consumption complicated by
alcoholic excess was the cause.
402 A Baltimore correspondent sends information of a Balloon-hoax story con-
tributed by Poe to a Baltimore newspaper about April i, 1831. It has not been
possible to verify this. Dr. Mabbott informs me he " doubts it."
403 This was pure fiction on Poe's part as there had been no communication
between him and John Allan since the letter of February 21, 1831, in New York.
The only basis for the statement is that Mr. Allan was certainly desirous of Poe's
staying away from Richmond. Poe evidently still counted on his guardian's help,
" THE MYSTERIOUS YEARS " 321
relied with Gwynn, probably over the latter's treatment of Al
Aaraaj*** For this he now apologized and asked the editor's
indulgence. Neilson Poe had only recently left Mr. Gwynn's em-
ploy, and Edgar may have had some hopes of supplying his place
in some humbler manner. But Mr. Gwynn did not see fit to reply.
Poe was unable to see him personally as he (Poe) was confined
to his room by " a severe sprain to his knee." The next move was
to write his friend Dr, Nathan C. Brooks, upon whom he had
called on his way to West Point, 405 asking him for a position as
an usher (assistant-teacher) in a boys' school which Dr. Brooks
had lately opened, at Reisterstown, Maryland. The position was
already filled. The possibility of teaching, Poe seems to have kept
in mind during most of the Baltimore sojourn. 406 It implied, at
least, the possibility of salary and some leisure for the never-for-
gotten writing.
A little later Mrs. Clemm's sore pressed household was re-
lieved of one of its helpless burdens by the prime remover of all
difficulties. The Baltimore American for Tuesday August 2, 1831,
contained this notice:
Died last evening, W. H. Poe aged 24 years. His friends and acquaint-
ances are invited to attend Ms funeral this morning at 9 from the dwell-
ing of Mrs. Clemm in Milk Street.
Henry was buried in the graveyard of the old First Presby-
terian Church.
So June and July of 1831 must have been pretty well taken up
with nursing the dying brother. As John Keats sat beside the bed-
side of his dying brother Tom, so Edgar Poe watched the pass-
ing of Henry under the spell of the same dread disease. There
could have been time for very little work, and the whole process
was enormously depressing, complicated as it was by a terrible
poverty.
and therefore hoped to seem to act according to his desires. It will be remembered
that Mr. Gwynn had been a law student with David Poe, the poet's father.
404 See Chapter XII, page 262. Also Poe to Gwynn, Baltimore, May 6, 1831.
406 See Chapter XII, page 267. Brooks continued Poe's friend for years; also
Chapter XIX, page 441.
400 See Poe to Kennedy, Baltimore, March 15, (1835).
ISRAFEL
One can recall a little group of friends and relatives gathered
upstairs at Mrs. Clemm's on a hot August morning in Baltimore.
The depressing old hymns, little Virginia's terror, and the faint
bird-like calls of the paralyzed grandmother as the shuffling feet
carried the long burden downstairs, Mrs. Clemm in her widow's
weeds, weeping. After the short journey to the churchyard,
Edgar returned to find himself the sole occupant of the attic
room. Perhaps a physical relief, but there was no one there now
to whom to read the Valley of Unrest or to help cap rhymes.
Henry's only legacy to his brother was the memory of his ad-
ventures and a debt, both of which Edgar claimed. 407 Only a dim
memorial of Henry exists in a few obscure amorous verses pub-
lished in the columns of the extinct Baltimore North American
in 1827. Save for the curiosity of antiquaries and the reflected
glory of Edgar, whose talents and vices Henry seems to have
shared, William Henry Leonard Poe is a wasted and youthful
shadow. The Poe and Herring cousins may have helped, probably
with food. Edgar is known to have contracted a debt of $80
during his stay in Baltimore in 1829, part of which, he says, was
for Henry. 407 The difficulties resulting from this debt occupy the
chief place in the story of the remainder of the year. John Allan
again figures in it largely.
For the time being, Poe evidently did not consider Henry's
debt as his own, for on October 16, 1831, he wrote John Allan
an affectionate and homesick letter in which he tells him that he
is clear of the difficulty that he spoke of in his last letter (Poe
may have been writing to Richmond after settling in Baltimore,
but these letters have been lost). This letter, 408 however, com-
pletely does away with the story that at this time the young poet
was receiving an allowance from John Allan; evidently nothing
of the kind occurred, for Poe distinctly says that he grieves that
it is so seldom he hears from John Allan or even of him. He is
now writing, he says, because he has nothing to ask; but being
by himself, and thinking over old times and " my only friends,"
407 The debt was probably a note, endorsed for Henry in 1829 to help pay
for doctors and medicines.
408 Valentine Museum Collection, letter No. 26.
" THE MYSTERIOUS YEARS " 323
his heart is full. The letter contains a note of self-reproach, and,
despite the possibility of mercenary interest a possibility
which Poe carefully counters the letter can only be taken for
a genuine expression of regret and affection. He ends with a
postscript asking if his " father " will not write one word to him.
The letter is addressed in care of William Gait.* 09 Poe hoped
that this good friend would learn of its contents when he put it
in John Allan's hands. It would thus be delivered by a messenger
in favor. The epistle is, when all is said and considered, nothing
short of the cry of an exiled soul for news from home,
Poe had now had ample opportunity to reflect and feel the
effects of his own total neglect of John Allan's advice. Despite
the enormously complicated and aggravated circumstances of
their long association, there was still an element of affection be-
tween them which cannot be denied. The very fact, that each
could forever hurt the other, shows that a tie still existed, despite
the written denials of both. Underneath the events of both their
lives, the unshed tears of a father and son lost to each other
murmured dismally in the deepest caverns of being. John Allan
could not understand how he could ever lose anything that he had
once possessed; Edgar Poe could not conceive how anyone could
be finally angry with him. Call it sentimental or what not, but,
" Dear Pa " says Edgar, " God bless you." In Richmond, John
Allan kept turning over the old letters from Poe, endorsing them
from time to time with evident emotion.
Yet all the ramifications of their long and bitter quarrel were at
work in the inevitable chain of cause and effect. The letter which
John Allan had written to Henry Poe in i824 41<) complaining of
Edgar, must inevitably have had its effect upon the Baltimore
relatives. Henry would almost surely show it to his cousins. Its
vague attack on Edgar, and the dark insinuations which it con-
tained against Mrs. Poe and Rosalie, made Mrs. Clemm forever
400 Mr. Gait was looking after the business at Ellis & Allan for Mr. Allan who
was now often absent. The address to William Gait thus insured its not being read
by the clerks, and its getting into the correct hands. Poe was evidently anxious
to reopen communication with Richmond; the long silence had greatly alarmed
him.
410 See Chapter VII, page 125.
ISRAFEL
uneasy. From time to time she hinted that there was " a great
mystery." 411 From Mrs. Poe's letters, that Edgar so carefully
guarded, she knew the truth, whatever it was, and this evidently
was troubling enough. The Poes and Herrings, on their part,
must have viewed the situation somewhat practically. Edgar, as
far as they knew, seemed to have lost a literally golden oppor-
tunity. He had cast off the care of a rich guardian, and somehow
or other managed to get disowned. The reasons for it could not
be plain. It must have been, and as a matter of fact, it was, partly
his own fault, so what he said was discounted. In the meanwhile,
here was an unknown scribbler apparently content to live on Mrs.
Clemm. One might help her, but, as for Edgar, it was well to be
a little wary, especially as he fascinated one's daughters. All this
affected Poe's attitude towards his cousins, particularly the Neil-
son Poes, and played its part shortly in his approaching clandes-
tine marriage with Virginia.
Mrs. Clemm, on the other hand, took a more "motherly"
view. With Henry dead and her own son " of not much account "
(he was drinking and later went to sea) she felt strongly the
necessity of a man in her household who was at least a protection
and a putative bread-winner. Anyone who could get money for
stringing words, she thought, must be a genius, and, above all
this, she loved Edgar Poe. His personality, appearance and blood-
relationship were enough. To a woman of her nature, the fact that
he needed help was an irresistible appeal. From the day that he
entered her door in 1831, he was at once sheltered and bound in
the strong arms of a powerful and masterful, yet completely
feminine woman, who only surrendered him at last, and then with
a supreme and touching reluctance, to death. The marriage with
Virginia was the cementing bond of the most overpowering rela-
tionship of the latter half of his life. For in the last twenty years
of Poe's existence Maria Clemm assumed the major r61e in his
affairs that John Allan had occupied during the first. Otherwise
there was no comparison. A just and clear understanding of Mrs.
411 Mary Devereaux spoke of this remark by Mrs. Clemm, see this chapter,
page 333. Mrs. Clemm was not referring to conditions in Richmond, but to a Poe
family mystery as she continued to hint of it years later after the Allan affairs
were aired in court.
" THE MYSTERIOUS YEARS " 325
Clemm's vital influence upon Edgar Allan Poe is one with the
comprehension of the man himself.
Maria Poe Clemm was born March 17, 1790, the younger
sister by some five or six years of the poet's father, David. Her
parents, " General " David, and Elizabeth Cairnes Poe were then
living in Baltimore. On July 13, 1817, at the age of twenty-seven,
she married William Clemm, Jr., a widower with five children, a
little property, and some prospects, the ceremony taking place
at St. Paul's Church, Baltimore. Mr. Clemm died February 8,
1826, leaving Mrs. Clemm penniless with two living children of
her own: Henry, born September 10, 1818, and Virginia Maria,
born August 15, i822. 412 A third child, Virginia Eliza (named for
Mrs. Herring, Poe's aunt), died in infancy. What little property
Mr. Clemm had left, had gone to the children by the first wife
or was in litigation. Henry, the son, was, as we have seen, a stone-
cutter. But he was of little real help, being an intermittent drinker.
His movements and whereabouts are as obscure and uncertain as
his character. Thus, in a double sense, Edgar Poe came into the
life of Mrs. Clemm to take the place of a son. The tragic picture
of the household was complete with Mrs. Elizabeth Poe, Vir-
ginia's and Edgar's grandmother, who had become bedridden in
1827 from paralysis, and, except for an insignificant pension, was
totally dependent upon Mrs. Clemm. Edgar was thus living with
the closest relations he had left, his aunt, and his full cousin
Virginia. In 1831, Virginia was only nine years old, yet it was
only four years later that she became Poe's wife. How important
or significant either her inclination or judgments were in the mar-
riage, can best be arrived at by a comparison of dates. A full
discussion of this must be deferred to its proper place in the cal-
endar while, in the meantime, the little girl goes to school.
During the Summer of 1831 Poe tried to alleviate the distressing
conditions at the house in Milk Street, while he was still helping
to nurse Henry, by competing for a $100 prize offered by the
412 There is some conflict about dates here, August 12, and August 22, 1822,
are also given by family tradition. The church record is followed, from St. Paul's
Parish Baltimore, see Woodberry, 1904, vol. I, page 137, note i. The thanks of
the author are also due to Mrs. Sally Bruce Kinsolving for making a search of the
St. Paul's Parish Records.
326 ISRAFEL
Philadelphia Saturday Courier, a paper like the old Saturday
Evening Post. The prize was for a short story. Poe submitted
a number of tales but the award went to a Mrs. Delia S. Bacon
for a story called Love's Martyr. Poe's effort was not entirely
unsuccessful, however, for the editor accepted his Metzenger stein
which appeared in the Philadelphia Saturday Courier , January
14, 1832. It was his first short story to be published (sic), and
shows that he was turning his attention from poetry to the more
lucrative field of prose. It is possible that without the merciless
spur of poverty he might never have done so. In verse, the dreamer
found his true dream within a dream and received only a
dreamful compensation.
The sale of a story in January, 1832, nevertheless, did not serve
to put anything on the table through the Summer of 1831. Mrs.
Clemm was probably under the necessity of going elsewhere
than to the market with her market basket, a large wicker affair,
vividly recollected by many who were repeatedly called upon to
contribute to its contents, notably the Neilson Poes and the
Herrings. Mrs. Clemm in her widow's cap and large motherly
person, her broad benign face troubled with an eleemosynary woe,
was wont to appear at irregular but disconcerting intervals, the
basket upon her arm, her fine gray eyes yearning with stark
anxiety, and a tale of dole upon her lips that would have drawn
tears from the mask of Comedy. No one was proof against her;
for what she had to say was always painfully true: Virginia was
naked; "dear Eddie" was so ill; or old Mrs. Poe was about
to die (had been about to die indeed for five years) ; she herself
was a poor widow; Henry was drinking again; the fire had gone
ou t and there was nothing to eat! What could one do in her
large, neat, appealing, and irrefutable presence? The only reply
was a contribution to the basket. Its wide and insatiable mouth
gaped darkly, engulfing a child's garment, a chicken, half a peck
of potatoes, turnips, or loaves of bread shut to the tune of her
departing blessing, and it and the incident were both temporarily
closed. But never completely so. It was impossible that the con-
junction of all the ill luck which was so generously hers could
ever end. Fortunately for a great poet, Mrs. Clemm had a knack.
" THE MYSTERIOUS YEARS " 327
a technique, indeed, which she soon acquired, of cutting under
all intelligence and stabbing straight for the heart. She belonged
in one part of her nature to that great, dark-garmented sisterhood
that her own black widow's weeds recalled, those who are forever
flitting from door to door reminding the conventionally prosper-
ous that poverty, bastardy, and suffering are mysteriously pres-
ent facts and that alms are in order. Much as, from innate
respectability, she hated her role, Mrs. Clemm played it surpass-
ingly well. She was in this respect a little half-sister of St. Francis.
Her lips, her gestures, and her own sacrifices pleaded for starving
old age, childhood, and irresponsible genius. Only editors could
resist, and even they did so with tears. On several occasions Mrs.
Clemm actually borrowed money from an anthologist. Charity
records no more signal triumph.
Yet sometimes her greatest skill was in vain. On November 7,
1831, Edgar Allan Poe was arrested in Baltimore for a debt
" which I never expected to have to pay." 418 It was the $80, prob-
ably the note which he had endorsed for Henry, who was now free
from all but celestial duns. 407 Edgar immediately wrote to John
Allan. Prison was staring the young poet directly in the face.
He was in bad health and he says he cannot undergo as much
hardship as formerly. The debt laws in Baltimore were strict.
One could then be confined for a debt of $5, and citizens of an-
other town were not allowed the relief of bankruptcy. Besides,
the debt was already two years old and it was Winter. " P. S.," he
adds, " I have made every exertion but in vain." The letter was
written on the eighteenth but it received no reply. Over two weeks
later, on December 5, Mrs. Clemm seconded the appeal to Rich-
mond in a heart rending letter to John Allan 41 * that in both style
and content does her credit. She had herself by some miracle
raised $20, but that was not sufficient. She reminds Mr. Allan
that Poe has no other place to which to appeal; says that besides
this $80 he is not in debt; and closes by stating that the young
man had been extremely kind to her as far as his opportunities
418 Valentine Museum Letters, letter No. 27, Baltimore, Maryland, November
18, 1831 (Thursday). See also note 407.
414 Valentine Museum Letters, letter No, 28.
328 ISRAFEL
would permit. There is some indication in this letter that Mr.
Allan had " refused " to help Edgar, but it probably refers only
to his long silence.
Ten days later Poe again writes to John Allan in sheer despera-
tion. The prison door is evidently yawning. The letter is one of
the most pitiable that a poet was ever forced to write to a patron.
Bait. Dec. isth, 183 1 415
DEAB PA,
I am sure you could not refuse to assist me if you were well aware
of the distress I am in. How often have you relieved the distress of a
perfect stranger in circumstances less urgent than mine, and yet when
I beg and entreat you in the name of God to send me succour you will
still refuse to aid me. I know that I have no longer any hopes of being
again received into your favour, but for the sake of Christ, do not
let me perish for a sum of money which you would never miss, and
which would relieve me from the greatest earthly misery. . . .
Poe then contrasts the blessings of wealth and happiness which
his guardian was then enjoying with his own terrible misery, and
adds:
If you wish me to humble myself before you I am humble Sick-
ness and misfortune have left me not a shadow of pride. . . .
How differently he would act, were their situations reversed, is the
burden of the letter's close. It reminds one of the last stanza of
Israfel. Alas, for a poet in a world of sweets and sours so
strangely portioned!
John Allan was not really so emotionally unassailable as this
letter would indicate, although the accidental cause of events
warranted Poe in thinking so. Mrs. Clemm, as we have seen, had
written Mr. Allan on December 5, on the seventh, Mr. Allan had
warranted John Walsh, a Baltimore correspondent of Ellis &
Allan to " procure Poe's liberation and give him $20 besides to
keep him out of further difficulties," but for some reason un-
known, the merchant neglected to mail the letter until January
12, 1832. Mr. Allan was considerably troubled by this, an unusual
* le Valentine Museum Letters, letter No. 29.
" THE MYSTERIOUS YEARS " 329
oversight on his part in a financial transaction, for he endorses
on the back of Poe's letter of December 15. " Then put it in the
(post) office myself." This letter, written two days later, was
evidently intended to answer Mrs. Clemm's letter of the fifth.
In the meantime, of course, Poe knew nothing of all this. Christ-
mas day, 1831, must have passed in an agony of suspense, and,
on December 29, he again wrote to Richmond making a final
curt appeal. 416 The letter begins " Dear Sir/ 7 and contains a re-
minder that it is from one who in old times once sat upon the
knees which the writer is now forced to embrace. Some two weeks
later Poe was probably startled by the unexpected intervention
of Mr. Walsh. It was after the crisis was over.
What had happened is not exactly clear. Poe does not seem to
have been actually imprisoned. Probably someone of the cousins
intervened to save the family name from disgrace; the importu-
nate creditors were prevented; and Edgar Poe was absolved from
the misery of hearing the New Year's bells of 1832 ring through
prison walls. For an underfed young man with a weak heart and a
tendency toward melancholy, it was more than a fortunate es-
cape it was an extension of his lease on existence. The nadir
had been reached.
The year 1832 still remains the most mysterious in the annals
of Edgar Allan Poe. In many respects it is a blank, there is no
correspondence covering the period, and his exact whereabouts
during part of the time is open to reasonable doubt. The prepon-
derance of evidence, however points to the fact that he was in
the garret of Mrs. Clemm's Milk Street house, and that the stories
which began to appear in 1833 i* 1 the Baltimore Saturday Visitor,
The Tales of the Folio Club, and the Coliseum were under way
there. 417 The short stories which appeared in the Philadelphia
41 Valentine Museum Letters, letter No. 30.
417 Several legends about Poe's going abroad in 1832, and of his being in
Baltimore unknown to the Clemm's, exist. I have assembled the bulk of the mate-
rial dealing with this year and considered all the correspondence before and after
it, and all the circumstances implied. There is no genuine evidence to imply that
Poe was not in Baltimore in 1832, and all the implications are that he was. The
Valentine Museum Letters are silent but indicate, at the last, that Poe had re-
mained in poverty in Baltimore. Mary Devereaux's story shows Poe very palpably
a year or two before John Allan's death in 1834, and must necessarily cover part
33 o ISRAFEL
Saturday Courier during 1832, of which there were five, probably
represent the work of 1831.
Although it is impossible to present the events covering this
" mysterious year " with any assurance as to the precise order
of time in which they occurred, there is a considerable mass of
evidence relating to the stay of Poe in Baltimore, some of which
undoubtedly tends to fill in what has long remained more or less
of a blank. Before touching on this, it should be stated that none
of the traditions of this time indicate that the young poet was
dissipated. The reliable facts, indeed, prove the reverse. He was,
it seems, in ill health part of the time, probably caused by the
weak heart that threatened to cease to beat altogether two years
later, after the extreme poverty and deprivations that he was
forced to undergo. It is now definitely known that absolutely no
help was received from Richmond. The aid received from John
Allan in January, 1832, was the last help he was ever to experi-
ence from that quarter. 418 Writing was Poe's sole resource.
Among other places where Poe is known to have been seen
about this time was E. J. Coale's bookstore on Calvert Street,
which he is said to have haunted, and Widow Meagle's Oyster
Parlor on Pratt Street near Hollysworth. Here he met a sailor by
the name of Tuhey who played the flute. The proprietress was a
good-natured Irish woman who made much of the " Bard," as he
of the " mysterious " period. The amount of manuscript material which Poe had
on hand a year or so later, taken together with the work that he is known to
have done in 1831, shows that he must have been writing through 1832. Had he
made all of the " voyages " and trips, been dying of fever, in jail, etc., etc., during
this time, we would have some authentic record, or some real evidence about it.
The blank simply means an unknown author hard at work on his manuscripts.
The account given here has been put together with painstaking analysis, where
surmise has been resorted to it is the result of the elimination of the impossible.
4i8 AS this statement contradicts that of all other biographers and Poe himself
to John P. Kennedy, the reader is referred to the Valentine Museum Letters cover-
ing the second Baltimore period, 1831-1833, which show beyond peradventure that
John Allan did not give Poe an " annuity." During the period, John Allan prob-
ably (sic) sent Poe a small gift in November, 1831, the $80 to save him from
prison, too late, " and $20 besides." In his last letter to John Allan (Poe from
Baltimore, April 12, 1833,) the latter says, " It is now more than two years since
you have assisted me ... three since you have spoken (written) to me." Poe
would scarcely lie to John Allan about what Mr. Allan had done himself. Prof.
Woodberry's contrary statements were made before the complete evidence was
available.
" THE MYSTERIOUS YEARS " 331
was called. Persons who went there, afterward remembered hear-
ing Poe recite his own poetry, and the flute playing of Tuhey be-
side the inn fire. 419 The Tavern was a resort of sea-faring men,
and those who gathered there were wont to exchange stories. Poe
was still forced, it appears, to wear various articles of his West
Point uniform, partly from necessity, probably, and partly from
desire. There is some tradition of his drilling the street gamins
about the neighborhood of Fells Point, and the young lads of the
vicinage were said to have been fond of him, and to have followed
him whenever he went through the streets. The Baltimore Li-
brary, then at the corner of Holiday and Fayette Streets, seems
also to have been a refuge, and to have provided the source for
the many literary and historical gleanings that appeared a few
years later in the Southern Literary Messenger as Tid-bits. There
may have been some "flying visits" to Philadelphia when the
purse permitted, probably to see the editors of the Courier* 2 *
The chief event of this period, however, was a romantic affair
with a Miss Mary Devereaux a neighbor of the Clemms. The
recollections of that young lady were not contributed until about
forty years afterward, so that the exact time which they covered
cannot be definitely ascertained, but, from numerous indications,
it appears that part of the events which she described took place
during the year 1832,*"
Mrs. Clemm's attic room looked out upon the rear of the
houses upon Essex Street, in " Old Town." Poe was much in this
attic, writing, and, as he looked out of the third story window
one day, across the fluttering clothes in the backyards between
Milk and Essex Streets, he noticed a pretty girl who wore her
auburn hair in " frizzed puffs," as the style then was. She was
sitting in the rear window of a house opposite. A handkerchief
flirtation began in which another girl Mary Newman, who lived
next door to Mary Devereaux on Essex Street, soon joined. 421
* 19 See J. H. Whitty's Memoir, large edition, page xxxv. There are also other
accounts confirming this.
420 This is conjectural, although there are some doubtful references to it by
Mary Devereaux.
421 It is said that Poe for awhile boarded at the Newmans, but Mary Dev-
ereaux's story indicates that he knew Miss Newman as a neighbor and lived at the
Clemm's, whence Virginia carried notes.
332
ISRAFEL
The white signals were alluring, and soon led to a closer acquain-
tance. Both the girls knew that Poe was a young soldier and a
poet, and their hearts as well as the handkerchiefs seemed to
have been agitated. A battledore and shuttlecock game of kisses
was soon being played with hands for rackets, until Mrs. Deve-
reaux once inquired, " What takes you upstairs so much, Mary? "
One summer afternoon when Mary Devereaux and Mary New-
man were seated talking together on their adjoining front stoop
on Essex Street, with only a balustrade between them, 422 Edgar
Poe passed " as usual " on his way home to Mrs. Clemm's. 421
The impressive Edgar stopped and bowed. Virginia it seems had
already been sent to Mary Devereaux for a lock of the bright hair
which had first attracted his attention. The favor had been
granted. One can therefore imagine the excitement of the two
Marys as the romantic figure of the Milk Street window actually
seemed about to speak. " Do you know him? " whispered Mary
Newman to Mary Devereaux. "No," replied Miss Devereaux
lying valiantly despite the burning lock of hair. " Why, that's
Edgar Poe who has recently came from West Point. He writes
poetry, too. Why I declare! There he comes across the street.
Oh! Isn't he handsome! " With a few omissions, perhaps " Poe's
Mary " can best tell the rest of the story for herself. 422
Mr. Poe, having crossed the street, came up the Newman's stoop.
As he did so, I turned my back, as I was then young and bashful. He
said * How do you do, Miss Newman? ' She then turned and introduced
him to me, and then happened to be called into the house. Mr. Poe
immediately jumped across the balustrades separating the stoops, and
sat down by me. He told me I had the most beautiful head of hair he
ever saw, the hair that poets always raved about. . . . From that time
on, he visited me every evening for a year, and during that time, until
the night of our final lover's quarrel, he never drank a drop, as far as
I know . . . Affectionate! ... he was passionate in his love. . . .
My intimacy with Mr. Poe isolated me a good deal. In fact my girl
friends were many of them afraid of him and forsook me on his account.
I knew more of his male friends. He despised ignorant people, and
didn't like trifling and small talk. He didn't like dark-skinned people.
422 The account here given, and the conversations are taken from Poe's Mary
by Augustus Van Clef, Harpers New Monthly Magazine, March 1889, pages 634-*
640. Also see note 745.
" THE MYSTERIOUS YEARS " 333
When he loved, he loved desperately. Though tender and very affec-
tionate, he had a quick, passionate temper, and was very jealous. His
feelings were intense and he had but little control of them. He was not
well balanced; he had too much brain. He scoffed at everything sacred
and never went to church. 428 If he had had religion to guide him he
would have been a better man. He said often that there was a mystery
hanging over him he never could fathom. He believed he was born to
suffer, and this embittered his whole life. Mrs. Clemm also spoke
vaguely of some family mystery, of some disgrace. . . , 411 Mr. Poe
once gave me a letter to read from Mr. Allan, in which the latter said,
referring to me, that if he married any such person he would cut him
off without a shilling.
Eddie and I never talked of his poetry then or in later years. He
would not have done that; he would have considered it conceited. We
were young, and only thought of our love. Virginia always carried his
notes to me. . . . Eddie's favorite name was * Mary/ he said. He
used often to quote Burns, for whom he had a great admiration. We
used to go out walking together in the evenings. We often walked out
of the city and sat down on the hills.
One moonlight summer night we were walking across the bridge,
which was not far from our house. At the other end of the bridge was
a minister's house. Eddie took my arm and pulled me, saying. * Come,
Mary, let us go and get married; we might as well get married now as
any other time.' We were then but two blocks from home. He followed,
and came in after me. We had no definite engagement, but we under-
stood each other. He was then not in circumstances to marry. When
my brother found that Mr. Poe was coming so often he said to me:
* You are not going to marry that man, Mary? I would rather see
you in your grave than that man's wife. He can't support himself, let
alone you.' I replied, being as romantic as Eddie was, that I would
sooner live on a crust of bread with him than in a palace with any
other man. . . . The only thing that I had against him was that he
held his head so high. He was proud and looked down on my uncle
whose business did not suit him. He always liked my father, and
talked with him a good deal. . . .
One evening a friend of my brother's, a Mr. Morris, was visiting us.
He knew that Mr. Poe's favorite song, which I often sang him, was
428 This implied a much more definite philosophy at that time than now. To
be "a free thinker" was a serious charge in 1832. The author has contemporary
letters showing that young men who took Sunday walks had to hide the wild
flowers they picked on such sinful rambles under their beaver hats on returning
to town or they would lose their jobs. See The Young Man's Sunday Book,
Philadelphia, Desilver, Thomas and Co., 1836, for some startling remarks on young
men who do not go to church. -
334
ISRAFEL
Come Rest in TUs Bosom. He asked me to sing it in order to tease Mr.
Poe. I went to the piano to sing. Mr. Morris stood by me and turned
the leaves. Mr. Poe walked with one hand behind his back, up and
down the room, biting the nails of the other hand to the quick, as he
always did when excited. He then walked over to the piano, and
snatched the music and threw it on the floor. I said that it made no
matter, and that I could sing the song without music, and did so. Mr.
Morris, knowing me well called me 'Mary/ That also made Eddie
jealous. He stayed after Mr. Morris left, and we had a little quarrel.
Our final lover's quarrel came about in this way: One night I was
waiting in the parlor for Eddie, and he didn't come. My mother came
into the room about ten o'clock and said, c Come Mary, it's bed-time/
The parlor windows were open, and I lay with my head on my arms
on one of the window sills. I had been crying. Eddie arrived shortly
after my mother spoke to me, and he had been drinking. It was the
only time during that year that I ever knew him to take anything. He
found the front door locked. He then came to the window where I was,
and opened the shutters, which were nearly closed. He raised my head,
and told me where he had been. He said he had met some cadets from
West Point when on his way across the bridge. They were old friends,
and took him to Barmtm's Hotel > 424 where they had a supper and
champagne. He had gotten away as quickly as possible, to come and
explain matters to me. A glass made him tipsy. He had more than a
glass that night. As to his being an habitual drunkard, he never was as
long as I knew him.
I went and opened the door and sat on the stoop with him in the
moonlight. We then had a quarrel, about whose cause I do not care to
speak. 425 The result was that I jumped past him off the stoop, ran
around through an alleyway to tie back of the house, and into the
room where my mother was.
She said, * Mary! Mary! what's the matter? '
Mr. Poe had followed me, and came into the room. I was much
frightened, 425 and my mother told me to go upstairs. I did so.
Mr. Poe said, c I want to talk to your daughter. If you don't tell
her to come down stairs, I will go after her. I have a right to! '
My mother was a tall woman, and she placed her back against the
door of the stairs, and said, 'You have no right to; you cannot go
upstairs.'
424 This hotel, Bamum's, was a famous Baltimore hostlery noted for its
diamond-back terrapins, and canvas-back ducks " done rare." The place was built
in 1827. The Post Office was on the ground floor. This was the end of the Phila-
delphia stage line, just then (1832) about to go out of business.
* 25 " Mr. Poe " had evidently carried matters to extremes. The reader ia
asked to note this passage for future reference.
" THE MYSTERIOUS YEARS " 335
Mr, Poe answered, ' I have a right. She is my wife now in the sight
of Heaven! '
My mother then told him he had better go home and to bed, and he
went away.
He didn't value the laws of God or man. He was an atheist. He
would just as lief have lived with a woman without being married to
her as not. ... I made a narrow escape in not marrying him. I don't
think he was a man of much principle.
After the quarrel ... I broke off all communication with Mr. Poe,
and returned his letters unopened. My mother also forbade him the
house. He sent me a letter by Virginia. I sent it back unopened. He
wrote again, and I opened the letter. He addressed me formally as
* Miss Devereaux,' and upbraided me in satiric terms for my heartless,
unforgiving disposition. I showed the letter to my mother, and she in
turn showed it to my grandmother, who was then visiting us. My grand-
mother read it, and took it to my uncle James. My uncle was very indig-
nant, and resented Mr. Poe's letter so much that he wrote him a very
severe, cutting letter, without my knowledge. Mr. Poe also published at
the same time in a Baltimore paper a poem of six or eight verses, ad-
dressed To Mary. The poem was very severe, and spoke of fickleness
and inconstancy. All my friends and his knew whom he meant. This
also added to my uncle's indignation.
Mr. Poe was so incensed at the letter he received that he bought a
cowhide, and went to my uncle's store one afternoon and cowhided
him. My uncle was a man of over fifty at the time. My aunt and her
two sons rushed into the store, and in the struggle to defend my uncle
tore his assailant's black frockcoat at the back from the skirts to the
collar. Mr. Poe then put the cowhide up his sleeve and went up the
streets to our house as he was, with his torn coat, followed by a crowd
of boys. When he arrived at our house he asked to see my father. He
told him he had been up to see his brother, pulled out my uncle's letter,
said he resented the insult, and had cowhided him. I had been called
down-stairs, and when Mr. Poe saw me, he pulled the cowhide out of
his sleeve and threw it down at my feet, saying, * There, I make you
a present of that! '
Shortly after this exciting and melodramatic scene, the Dev-
ereauxs moved away from Baltimore 42e and did not come across
Poe until many years later. There are one or two very significant
things about Mary Devereaux's account, evidently by an unedu-
cated but intelligent girl, it bears considerable weight as the direct
426 TO Phfladelphia , and afterward to Jersey City.
336
ISRAFEL
evidence of one who knew him exceedingly intimately. The ex-
treme difficulty of living with a man of Poe's nervous and excit-
able temperament needs little comment. It is a further testimony
to Mrs. Clemm's everlasting affection and patience, while the pic-
ture of Virginia as a mere child and the bearer of love notes sets
aside completely the absurd romantic rubbish that has been built
up about this little maiden at that time.
Evidently she was a nice little schoolgirl in gingham and pig-
tails, who carried and fetched for big Cousin Eddie, probably with
a mischievous thrill in the case of Mary Devereaux. This can
scarcely mean that, " from the first Edgar Poe recognized in her
the one over-powering affection of his heart." If he did so, asking
her to trot around the block to fetch him a lock of red hair from
Mary's was a passing strange way of manifesting his "soul's
worship " for Virginia. It is quite obvious to all but the senti-
mentally purblind that the only " throne in the house of the great
poet " occupied by his " spiritu-el cousin " was a chair at the
table three times a day, when the state of Mrs. Clemm's larder
permitted it. Mary says that Virginia was plump and hearty and
a nice little schoolgirl with a pleasing disposition, "her chief
charm. 3 ' Perhaps, Mrs. Clemm had her plans, but of these, like a
wise mother, she said nothing then, we may be sure.
The end of the affair with Mary was to be typical of several
to follow later. She bears testimony that Poe was passionate.
Evidently he meant to have what all men desire " He didn't
value the laws of God or man " and the cause of the quarrel on
the stoop Mary didn't care to talk about, 425 but it is also evident
that the great excitement of sex, like all other " stimulants," com-
pletely unnerved Poe. He was never capable of remaining calm
and collected, even rational enough, to overcome the normal and
proper difficulties that stood between love and the prize. Before
marriage was possible, the emotional pressure became so great
that it exploded along some other paths, anger, jealousy, exas-
peration of some kind, ending in sheer exhaustion and in later
years followed by collapse. Uncle So and So was cowhided, the
husband, or prospective mother-in-law fearful for the family real
estate, with other relatives, became alarmed, and the world al-
" THE MYSTERIOUS YEARS " 337
ways heard about it later through the secondary literary manifes-
tations of poems or tales of woe. Of course, the neighbors talked,
and in Poe's case the gossip has become immortal. 427
About the same time, when according to Mary, John Allan
was threatening to cut Poe off without a shilling, in case he mar-
ried her, that gentleman in Richmond was making his will. This
ode on the intimations of mortality was drawn April 17, 1832, due
to the fact that, since his visit to the Hot Springs in 1829, Mr.
Allan's health had been steadily failing, and the " intimations "
were now again assuming a dropsical turn. 428 Poe seems to have
gotten wind of this. A printer by the name of Askew is known to
have carried letters back and forth for Poe from Richmond. 429
The old servants in the house who had not forgotten either the
old days nor " Marse Eddie," occasionally sent him news, or he
may have heard through the Mackenzies, who were still intimate
with Miss Valentine, of the doings at the big mansion. Rosalie
Poe was still living with the Mackenzies.
There were a hundred motives to take Poe to Richmond. Aside
from going " home," and that was much, the chance of a favor-
able reception by his " father " might mean the immediate relief
of his desperate circumstances and a change in his entire future.
Undoubtedly, too^ there were other than mercenary motives.
Perhaps, they would let him rest in his old room. " Aunt Nancy "
would still be there, and after all "Pa" had saved him from
prison. He must care a little, A rumor of the making of the will, 430
of Mr. Allan's ill health, or some chance kindly expression from
John Allan may have been the deciding factor. We can be sure
his heart was beating fast as he packed his bag and said good-bye
to Mrs. Clemm. The steamboat left early.
It was sometime in June, 1832, when Poe arrived in Richmond
after an absence of over two years. 481 The return to an old scene
427 In Richmond, Baltimore, and Charlottesville Poe is still gossiped about as
though he were still alive. Some of the legends are ingenious.
428 John Allan had nearly died of dropsy in March, 1820. John Allan to
Charles Ellis, London, March, 1820. Mis 6* Allan Papers.
429 Information given to the author hi Richmond, July, 1925.
480 Robert Cabell was one of the witnesses of the will. Young Robert Cabell
was a close friend of Poe and may have been in touch with him.
481 This date has been placed a year earlier and a year later by various biog-
338 ISRAFEL
revives all the familiar attitudes and emotions that go with it.
The little Virginia capitol could scarcely have changed at all since
he had left it, the very patterns of the vines on the walls of houses
were old friends. It must have seemed impossible as he opened
the gate of the well-known walk that he was not really " going
home." All that lay about him was at the core of his dreams. Old
" Dab," the butler, opened the door, and Poe told him to take the
bag to " his room." It was not the gesture of presumption but the
motion of old habit. At the same time he asked for Miss Valen-
tine. She, it appears, must have been out, and the old butler in-
formed him that "Marse Eddie's room" was now a guest
chamber! There appears to have been some argument with old
Dandridge about this. Poe regarded the room as his peculiar do-
main. His things, he thought, were still there. 432 The old darkey
must have been in a quandary. Poe then asked for Mrs. Allan
who came down to the parlor.
Here she found a young man, a stranger, acting like a member
of the family. To her amazement, she found herself being re-
proached for having ordered her own house to suit herself. Poe
on his part, as usual under the stress of great excitement, could
not control his feelings and found himself reproaching "the
strange woman " who seemed to have usurped Frances Allan's
place. The voice of an " heir " upstairs did not tend to soothe
him. It is said that even the child came in for some acrid remarks
raphers. The making of the will, and the known movements of Poe in 1831 and
1833, place it in 1832 by elimination. The birth of young William Gait Allan,
after which, according to the Allan tradition, Poe appeared, seems to fix it about
June, Poe could not have appeared " after the birth of the first child " as he is
said to have done, as that was at a time when he is known to have been elsewhere.
482 These, it appears, had been " moved out," a fact that enraged Poe. The
story of this visit comes from two distinct angles; the legends according to the
Allan tradition, and the version derived from the Mackenzies to whom Poe went
immediately after the event. I have tried to reconstruct the incident taking into
consideration the personalities involved and the standpoints from which the stories
were afterwards told. Mrs. Susan Archer Weiss and others, afterward presented
the Mackenzie-Poe version. For the Allan version see the letters of Miss Mayo
and Colonel Ellis also see Woodberry, 1909, vol. I, pages 95-96. The Valentine
Letters show no indication of a visit in 1831. The only possible time was the
early Summer of 1832. The second visit to the Allans took place shortly before
Mr. Allan's death in 1834*. Poe's memorandum to Griswold we now know refers
to letters written and received at West Point. Valentine Museum Letters, Nos.
22-24.
" THE MYSTERIOUS YEARS " 339
on Poe's part, and that in his excitement he went so far as to hint
that Mrs. Allan had not been without mercenary motives in
marrying. The lady is said to have replied that, far from con-
sidering Poe a member of the family whose wishes were to be
consulted in the plans of the household, she knew him to be
nothing more than a mere pensioner on her husband's bounty.
The interview was undoubtedly acrimonious and, no doubt,
enormously exasperating to them both. To Mrs. Allan, Poe's
presence must have been an insufferable reminder, and an asser-
tion of the rights of the beloved foster-son of the first wife, that
struck at the very basis upon which her own existence and her
children's lives, for there were now two of them, must rest. She
sent for Mr. Allan, who was at the office, and is said to have
coupled her message with the assertion that " Edgar Poe and her-
self could not remain a day under the same roof." Poe was in-
clined for a moment to stand upon "his rights," and seems to
have remained seated in the parlor, but the emphatic sound of
the lame man's cane clicking up the walk, and the clump of a
well-known foot was sufficient to change his mind if not his feel-
ings. He crossed the hall to the front door about the same instant
that John Allan let himself in by the side entrance.
Poe went to the Mackenzies, where he told his story. They were
simple and kindly folk who understood. Rosalie was still there,
and Jack Mackenzie his staunch boyhood friend. Rosalie had
grown up, but she was still a little girl. Miss Valentine, who must
have been out when Poe " called " at the big mansion, sent him
money. The Mackenzies also probably contributed. After a short
time Poe returned to Baltimore.
Then the Richmond gossip began. It was rumored that Poe had
thrust himself past the butler and gone to Mrs. Allan's room
where she lay in bed with a new born infant in her arms. There
he had " reviled her and the child " and had been thrown out
by the servants after which he threw stones at the house. Only
the arrival of Mr. Allan had prevented goodness knows what!
Poe must, of course, have been drunk. What could one expect of
the son of actors, a mad poet, after all Mr. Allan's kindness,
too! A hundred eager Penelopes now took up the shuttle of rumor,
340 ISRAFEL
platting and unraveling the endless web of petty scandal, as the
domestic knitting needles were laid aside, in order to weave the
most delightful incident that had been suggested to designers
along the James for years.
Before the shuttles were discarded, a whole grotesque panel in
the tapestry of the adventures of Israfel was completed for the
corridors of legend. It was such an intriguing work of art that it
appeared later as a lunette in one of the side halls of history.
In the meantime, Mr. Allan's generosity had crystallized in his
will in the form of certain codicils regarding the education of
twin boys, on a side street in Richmond, who were now just two
years old. Perhaps, the once beloved foster-son's indignation and
the nervousness of the second Mrs. Allan had roots which even
the longest knitting needle could not probe. Whatever may have
been said between them that morning in the big octagon parlor,
on Poe's part, the world was never the wiser. Others were not
so reticent about him. 433
The news of the outcome of the visit to Richmond could have
brought very little cheer to the poverty-stricken hearth of Mrs.
Clemm in Baltimore. If anything, Poe had only " succeeded " in
making his alienation the more complete. John Allan never com-
municated with him (Poe) again, and Poe only attempted to do so
once with him. There was nothing left but for the pen in the
garret to scratch on and on, with only the most glimmering pros-
433 The second Mrs. Allan and her family, together with Colonel Thomas
Ellis and a certain social group in Richmond, later on became the source of much
invidious anti-Poe propaganda. They had had the advantage of living after Poe
died, when all fear of the devastating reply that he might have made was removed.
Then the world was informed of Poe's ingratitude to his " generous benefactor,"
forgery, and the embezzlement of the substitute's money. At the time that these
assertions were allowed to " emanate," the documents which disproved them were
in the hands of those who originated the stories. Only two conclusions arc pos-
sible; either these people fabricated the legends, or they were too purblind to
understand the letters which they themselves possessed. Considerable authority
was attached to their assertions as coming from persons who had personal knowl-
edge of the facts, as well as documents to which biographers were denied all
access. The impression grew that the real facts were scandalous they were
but not about Poe. The story of Poe's visits to Richmond were the beginning of
this kind of thing. It is now high time, a century later, to lift " the mysterious
veil"
THE MYSTERIOUS YEARS " 341
pects that the fine chirography of its industrious characters would
ever be translated into print. There was a whole volume of stories
at hand, the famous Tales of the Folio Club.
Meanwhile, at the Baltimore Library, the same pair of eyes
were eagerly scanning the Tales of Hoffman, German Philosophy,
largely in a denatured and secondary English form, foreign and
American newspapers and magazines.
In the Autumn of 1832, there is a legend and some evidence
that Poe made an ocean voyage as a sailor before the mast to the
coast of Wexford in Ireland. 484 But both the legend and the
evidence are uncertain. The incident remains to be proved, and
the probabilities are that Poe remained in Baltimore. Henry
Clemm may have accompanied Poe to Ireland, but Mary Dev-
ereaux says he went West, about this time. An old acquaintance
and boyhood chum also removed from Richmond into an even
vaguer beyond. In the Fall of 1832, Ebenezer Burling died of
cholera in Richmond. Whether Poe heard about it then we do
not know.
Edgar was much at his cousins' house as well as at the Clemms 7 .
At the corner of Bounty Lane and Caroline Street lived a cousin,
Mrs. Beacham, with several in her family. Here Poe was a fre-
quent visitor, as well as at Mr. George Poe's house. A good deal
of his time was spent at Mr. Henry Herring's on Asquith Street
near Pitt. Mr. Herring was a prosperous lumber dealer and was
able to afford a pleasant social background for his daughter. A
circle of young girls met frequently at her house, and Poe seems
to have been much in demand, reciting poetry, and writing in his
cousin's album, a custom of the time which was so universal as
to develop a distinct type of parlor literature. Poe seems to have
been extremely fond of this Miss Herring, if not in love. She
married a year or two later and left Baltimore to live in Virginia.
The Cairnes, family relatives of old Mrs. David Poe, were also
484 J. H. Whitty mentions this in his biographical sketch to the Complete Poems,
Houghton Mifflin. The story comes from the memories of Foe's friend, F. W.
Thomas, who said that he knew a sailor by the name of Tuhey, who played the
flute, and that the sailor told him that Poe had gone with the said Tuhey to
Ireland and back.
342 ISRAFEL
kindly and hospitable, 485 and there was a neighbor, a Mrs. Samuel
F. Simmons, who was extremely kind. In recognition of this, she
received some time later the manuscript of Morella in the neat
scribal characters that mark it as part of The Tales of the Folio
Club. About the same time, Poe was engaged in writing his only
attempt at drama, Politian.
It is noticeable that most of the houses which Poe frequented
were the homes and rendezvous of pretty young girls. In
their company, rather than in the companionship of youths
of his own age, he seems to have been most at home. With them
he doubtless found himself the object of interest and considerable
admiration, an atmosphere in which he expanded. Seated on the
Empire sofas, just then beginning to go out of fashion, in a
parlor adorned with genre pictures of the day, each conveying an
obvious but edifying moral, he wrote sentimental poems in the
red morocco, brass-bound and betasseled albums, or looked at
the incredible flounced nymphs simpering from the pages of a
genteel magazine, with the head of a living replica tantalizingly
near. Then, with a faint rustle of ruffles and the twinkle of low-
heeled, beaded cloth slippers, they would all gather about the
piano where the candles would be lit in the little brass side-
sconces, brightening white lace-covered hands that leapt along the
keys. A certain young gentleman with soulful grey eyes turned
the music, whose quaint notes as large as tadpoles wriggled
their way through the faint-ruled lines of an old song. Outside
the passerby paused to be quaveringly informed that a young
lady within was extending a contralto invitation to Come Rest in
This Bosom. Then there was currant cake and a little sweet elder-
berry wine. The conversation was in strict keeping with the re-
freshments. In winter time the black lumps of canal coal melted
slowly in the arabesqued cast iron paunch of an urn-topped stove;
parckesi draughts advanced or returned on candle lit square; the
strange designs of dominoes grew and dissolved on deal tables,
amid breathless giggles; and there was an ancient game, never
486 According to F. W. Thomas, Tuhey, the sailor, was also a guest at this
house and Poe was so much in love with one of the Cairnes girls that, when she
refused him, he went to Ireland in despair. See note 419 for the source of this.
" THE MYSTERIOUS YEARS " 343
old, played with a handkerchief or a pillow. Baltimore, after aU,
had its relaxations. Above the monotone of poverty, if one listens
carefully, can be heard the quaint grace notes of a thin piano and
the whisper of skirts over carpets where the flowers of Victoria
had not yet bloomed. Half a century later an old lady remembered
a young man: * 86
Mr. Foe was about five feet eight inches tall, and had dark, almost
black hair, which he wore long and brushed bade in student style over
his ears. It was as fine as silk. His eyes were large and full, gray and
piercing. He was entirely clean shaven. His nose was long and straight,
and his features finely cut. The expression about his mouth was beauti-
ful. He was pale, and had no color. His skin was of a clear, beautiful
olive. He had a sad, melancholy look. He was very slender . . . but
had a fine figure, an erect military carriage, and a quick step. But it
was his manner that most charmed. It was elegant.* 37 When he looked at
you it seemed as if he could read your thoughts. His voice was pleasant
and musical but not deep. He always wore a black frock-coat but-
toned up, with a cadet or military collar, a low turned-over shirt
collar, and a black cravat tied in a loose knot. He did not follow the
fashions, but had a style of his own. His was a loose way of dressing
as if he didn't care. You would know that he was very different from
the ordinary run of young men.
Thus, we get a fairly complete picture of Poe in the early
i83o's. In the Fall of 1832, Mrs. Clemm moved from Milk Street
to Number 3 Amity Street where she resided until the entire
family left for Richmond in 1835. She was accompanied to the
new dwelling by Virginia, "a handful of furniture," and her
nephew Edgar, who, although nobody knew it but himself, was
just on the threshold of fame.
436 Mary Devereaux in 1888-9. Harpers New Monthly Magazine, December,
1889. See note 422, page 332.
487 For a person born in the 1820'$ and reared in the decades that followed,
" elegant " was the last word of praise. The word has lost its glory. " Elegance "
was interred at Frogmore.
CHAPTER XVI
Bottled Fame
VERY scanty was the success that had met any of Poe's
efforts, thus far, to obtain either sale or fame for the work
of his pen. Here and there, one of his poems warmed
someone capable of feeling the divine fire, and his immediate
acquaintances spoke and thought of him as a poet. Beyond that,
the three little books seemed to have dropped into a void. Belles
lettres, it was only too painfully evident, would have led to the
garret of Chatterton if it had not been for the garret of Mrs.
Clemm. Poe, as we have seen, had therefore turned his efforts in
a more marketable direction. The journalism of his time now com-
menced to claim his attention seriously, and he began to study
the contemporary prints, both newspapers and magazines, espe-
cially the latter. The result was two-fold: he now earnestly began
to write prose during 1832, five of his tales, the first of his
published short stories were published in the Philadelphia Satur-
day Courier where he had competed unsuccessfully for a prize,
the other facet of his immediate interest was the beginning of his
theories about American magazines and literary criticism. In the
meanwhile, the muse did not entirely languish, The Coliseum, at
least, was underway and even an attempt at drama, Politian.
What he lacked was some point of publishing contact. So far, he
had not been able to accomplish that in Baltimore. 438 The stories,
and the first three books of poems, together with the cruder at-
tempts at short stories which Poe is said to have written at the
University of Virginia and to have destroyed there, represented
the results of the longings of his youth, and the later and riper
harvest of his first creative urge. But for awhile, especially in the
Winter of 1833, it looked as if the stories were to die as unnoted
and as unlamented as the poems.
438 It is said that he had published verses in Baltimore newspapers, but the
evidence is doubtful.
BOTTLED FAME 345
It was remarkable that Poe had been able to complete this con-
siderable volume of literary output during the harassed years be-
tween 1827 and 1833* It was more than remarkable, and speaks
plainly for his overmastering desire to create, that he had been
able to do anything at all. The Winter of 1833, in particular,
must have been a starving time. There are many indications that
the period of collapse and illness in New York was indicative of
the too heavy drafts upon his physical capital. A disintegration
seems to have followed, partly perhaps upon the lines which hered-
ity dictated. A weak heart, which sometimes completely prostrated
him, shattered nerves, and the beginnings of the conditions which
afterward led to disturbed mental conditions, all played their
several parts from now on. For, from the time of his escape from
West Point, it is safe to say that he was never a completely well
man. 489 There were, from now on, periods of vigor and creation;
but there were also recurring and accentuated periods of collapse.
Starvation, anxiety, disappointment, and dissipation all con-
tributed to the final tragic result, only sixteen years later, in the
same city where he had first found shelter with Mrs. Clemm.
During the Winter of 1833, Poe must have been much about
the streets of Baltimore trying to pick up odd jobs. The news-
papers, despite the efforts of Neilson Poe, had failed to take him
on.
In all this year, there is only one letter to break the silence,
and it speaks in the tones of despair. On April 12, 1833, Poe wrote
his last letter to John Allan. 440 He says in it that Mr. Allan has
not assisted him for over two years, nor " spoken " (written) to
439 Prof. George E. Woodberry also dates the failure of Poe's health from
about this time. See his Life of Edgar Allan Poe, 1909, vol. I, pages 122-123: " He
had begun normal, healthy and well; at twenty-five he was no longer so, nor was
he ever to regain sound health," etc.
440 One of the most remarkable coincidences in the annals of literary cor-
respondence is connected with this letter. On the very same day that Poe wrote
this letter in Baltimore, April 12, 1833, perhaps at the same hour, John Allan in
Richmond was endorsing on the back of another letter of Poe's, written from
New York, February 21, 1831, the following: "April 12, 1833, it is now upwards
of two years since I received the above precious relict of the Blackest Heart and
deepest ingratitude, alike destitute of honor and principle every day*' . . . etc.,
etc. The reader should compare letter No. 25 with letter No. 31 of the Valentine
Museum Letters, a comparison that provides a strangely intimate glimpse into
the past.
346 ISRAFEL
him for three, and that, although he has little hope of any answer,
he cannot refrain from attempting to make one more attempt to
interest his guardian. Poe says that he is utterly without friends
and therefore without the means of obtaining employment, and
that he is perishing, literally perishing for want of help. Yet, he
adds pathetically, he is not idle, nor addicted to any vice, nor has
he offended society in any way which should bring the fate of
starvation upon him. " For God's sake pity me, and save me from
destruction," was the last line that he ever wrote to his guardian.
It reveals a soul in a waking nightmare and it received no reply.
John Allan, indeed, was on the verge of a country where no
postman could follow him. His dropsy was fast gaining upon him.
During the Winter and Spring of 1833, he was, from time to time,
engaged in writing various codicils in his will, the nature of which
were so intimate that he employed his own handwriting in order
to avoid the necessity of witnesses. In March, one of the illegiti-
mate twins had died 441 which required further alteration in his
will, but the removal of this claim on " charity " did not induce
him to extend it to another claimant in Baltimore who had at least
a moral hold on his interest.
Towards the end of July, Mr. and Mrs. Allan, Miss Valentine,
two baby boys, two nurses, two drivers, five horses, and two car-
riages, all set out for Virginia Hot Springs in considerable style.
One of the babies, Willie Gait, was teething; and Mr. Allan him-
self was almost helpless from dropsy, yet not too weak to take a
considerable pleasure in the important figure which he cut. " In
fact," said he, " we made quite a little cavalcade." 442 He had at-
tained all that the world could give him, wives, concubines, chil-
dren, slaves, horses and the envy of his neighbors. 443 The note of
441 See the statements in the will of John Allan, Appendix, or page 359 this
chapter.
442 Information gleaned from various items and letters in the Ellis 6* Allan
Papers.
443 Despite the " swank " attached to " The Springs," an English traveler a
year later, 1834, informs us that " The Springs " were incredibly crude and un-
comfortable. A Mr. Fry and his son, both great dancers kept the place. The food
was disgusting, the meat was carved by Mr. Fry himself, dressed in a dirty blue
smock, who made a point of dropping the knife to escort ladies to their seats
on his arm. There were not enough "servants,' 1 i.e., slaves, and guests were
awakened early in the morning by throat-clearing, shouts for hot water, and
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BOTTLED FAME 347
satisfaction is strong, but the cavalcade was nearing the end of
the journey. In the meantime, a young man in Baltimore, who
had refused at a great price to become an appendage of the cara-
van had definitely started on the career which has caused the
little domestic procession over the Virginia hills to be remem-
bered.
In July, 1833, the Baltimore Saturday Visitor, an ephemeral
weekly newspaper then edited by a Mr. L. A. Wilmer with con-
siderable local success, offered a prize of $50 for the best short
story and $25 for the best poem to be submitted within a given
time.*** The judges appointed by the editor were John P. Ken-
nedy, Dr. James H. Miller, and J. H. B. Latrobe, who has left us
the story of what happened:
We met one pleasant afternoon in the back porch of my house on
Mulberry Street, and seated round a table garnished with some old wine
and good cigars, commenced our critical labors. As I happened to be
the youngest of the three, I was required to open the packages of
prose and poetry, respectively, and read the contents. Alongside of me
was a basket to hold what we might reject.
I remember well that the first production taken from the top of the
prose pile was in a woman's hand, written very distinctly, as indeed,
were all the articles submitted, and so neatly that it seemed a pity not
to award it a prize. 445
It was ruthlessly criticized, however, for it was ridiculously bad
namby-pamby in the extreme and of the school known as the Laura
Matilda school. ... Of the remaining productions I have no recol-
lection. Some were condemned after a few sentences had been read.
Some were laid aside for consideration not many. These last failed
to pass consideration afterwards, and the committee had about made up
their minds that there was nothing before them to which they would
the sound of slops being poured from the windows. The beds did not permit a
night's undisturbed rest. Sanitary conditions were those of the frontier. Only
Virginia chivalry could survive the roads. A plague of flies added the last
delightful touch.
444 The statement of the amount of the prize has often been wrongly given
heretofore as $100. It was, as a matter of fact, $50 for a story, and half that for
a poem; Mr. Latrobe himself, one of the judges, afterwards misstated the amount
which biographers have followed.
445 In his egregious sketch of Poe, Dr. Rufus W. Griswold afterward tried to
rob Poe of all credit in this matter by stating that the prize was awarded to the
best written manuscript in point of penmanship. This was a sneer at Poe's beau-
tiful Roman holograph of the Folio CM> Tales.
348
ISRAFEL
award a prize, when I noticed a small quarto-bound book that had until
then accidentally escaped attention, possibly because so unlike, exter-
nally, the bundles of manuscript that it had to compete with. Opening it,
an envelope with a motto corresponding with one in the book appeared,
and we found that our prose examination was still incomplete. Instead
of the common cursive manuscript, the writing was in Roman char-
acters an imitation of printing.
I remember that while reading the first page to myself, Mr. Kennedy
and the Doctor had filled their glasses and lit their cigars, and when
I said that we seemed at last to have a prospect of awarding the
prize, they laughed as though they doubted it, and settled themselves
in their comfortable chairs as I began to read. I had not proceeded far
before my colleagues became as much interested as myself. The first
tale finished I went to the second, then to the next and did not stop
till I had gone through the volume, interrupted only by such excla-
mations as ' Capital! ' ' Excellent! ' and the like from my companions.
There was genius in everything they listened to; there was no uncer-
tain grammar, no feeble phraseology, no ill-placed punctuation, no worn
truisms, no strong thought elaborated into weakness. Logic and imagi-
nation were combined in rare consistency. . . . There was an analysis
of complicated facts an unravelling of circumstantial evidence that
won the lawyer judges an amount of accurate scientific knowledge
that charmed ... a pure classic diction that delighted all three.
When the reading was completed there was a difficulty of choice.
Portions of the tales were read again, and finally the committee selected
A Ms. Found in a Bottle. One of the series was called A Descent into
the 'Maelstrom, and this was at one time preferred ... all the circum-
stances of the selection ultimately made have been so often since re-
ferred to in conversation that my memory has been kept fresh, and I
see my fellow judges over their wine and cigars, in their easy chairs
both genial, hearty men, in pleasant mood, as distinctly now as though
I were describing an event of yesterday. . . .
Refreshed by this most unexpected change in the character of the
contributions, the committee refilled their glasses and relit their cigars,
and the reader began upon the poetry. This, although better in the main
than the prose, was bad enough, and, when we had gone more or less
thoroughly over the pile of manuscript, two pieces only were deemed
worthy of consideration. The title of one was The Coliseum, the written
printing of which told that it was Poe's. The title of the other I have
forgotten, but upon opening the accompanying envelope, we found that
the author was Mr. John H. Hewitt. 440 1 am not prepared to say that
44 Mr. Hewitt's poem was entitled The Song of the Winds under a pen-name
"Henry Wilton."
BOTTLED FAME 349
the committee may not have been biased in awarding the (poetry)
prize to Mr. Hewitt by the fact that they had already given the (prose)
. . . prize to Mr. Poe. I recollect, however, that we agreed that, under
the circumstances, the excellence of Mr. Hewitt's poem deserved a re-
ward, and we gave the smaller prize to him with clear consciences. I
believe that up to this time not one of the committee had ever seen
Mr. Poe. ...
Not long afterward the Saturday Visitor for October 12, 1833,
appeared with the following notice that must have come to Poe's
eye with almost the relief of a reprieve.
. . . Amongst the prose articles were many of various and distin-
guished merit, but the singular force and beauty of those sent by the
author of The Tales of the Folio Club leave us no room for hesitation
in that department. We have accordingly awarded the premium to a
tale entitled The Ms. Found in a Bottle. We cannot refrain from saying
that the author owes it to his reputation, as well as to the gratification
of the community to publish the entire volume. These tales are emi-
nently distinguished by a wild, vigorous, and poetical imagination, a
rich style, a fertile invention, and varied and curious learning.
Signed JOHN P. KENNEDY
J. H. B. LATROBE
JAMES H. MILLER
In the same number in which this notice appeared, the prize
story was published.
At a time when prizes for literary effort are so many and
various as to have almost ceased to attract attention, the sig-
nificance of this award can scarcely be appreciated. Not only
was the cash itself supremely grateful, but, for the first time, the
attention of a fairly large public was now focused upon Poe, for
the news of the award was not confined to the pages of The
Visitor. Poe had at last emerged from the shadow of the wings.
The limelight had been definitely focused upon him, and, from
this time on, his various entrances and exits on the literary stage,
although they were not always accompanied by applause, were
nevertheless followed by the magic glare. Perhaps of more im-
mediate importance was the fact that he had gained some in-
fluential friends. Among the most important and constant of
350
ISRAFEL
these was a benevolent and wise gentleman, then a well-known
Baltimore author, John P. Kennedy, Esquire. 447
The Monday after the announcement of the award in the Satur-
day Visitor was used by Poe to call upon all the members of the
committee in order to thank them. Mr. C. F. Cloud, 448 the owner
and publisher of the paper, had, it seems, already called on Mr.
Kennedy on Sunday morning and given him such an account of
the young author that the good gentleman's curiosity and sym-
pathy were both thoroughly awakened. When Poe was introduced
next day, he was cordially received, and the interesting reports
about him fully confirmed by his conversation and appearance.
He was invited to return to the house, then one of the most im-
portant from a literary as well as a social point of view in Balti-
more in short, in a limited but very definite and helpful way,
Mr. Kennedy became Poe's patron. Never was a young poet
more in need of one.
An hour or so after the call upon Mr. Kennedy, Poe introduced
himself to Mr. Latrobe, another one of the judges, in his office. 418
From him comes a full and interesting account of the interview:
I was seated at my desk on the Monday following the publication of
the tale, when a gentleman entered and introduced himself as the writer,
saying that he came to thank me as one of the committee, for the award
in his favor. Of this interview, the only one I ever had with Mr. Poe,
my recollection is very distinct, indeed, He was if anything, below
the middle size, and yet could not be described as a small man. His
figure was remarkably good, and he carried himself erect and well, as
one who had been trained to it. He was dressed in black, and his frock
coat was buttoned to the throat, where it met the black stock, then
almost universally worn. Not a particle of white was visible. Coat, hat,
boots, and gloves had evidently seen their best days, but so far as mend-
ing and brushing go, everything had been done apparently, to make
447 Swallow Barn was Mr. Kennedy's magnum opus. His kindness to Foe is
his only genuine claim to literary remembrance. His work was like its author,
urbane and impeccable. He commanded at one time a considerable and highly re-
spectable public, especially in Baltimore. He is also " remembered " for Horseshoe
Robinson.
448 Descendants of Mr. Cloud in Catonsville, Maryland, have the only com-
plete file of the Baltimore Saturday Visitor extant, I am informed by a Baltimore
collector.
The Mechanics Bank Building later.
BOTTLED FAME 35*
them presentable. 450 On most men his clothes would have looked shabby
and seedy, but there was something about this man that prevented one
from criticising his garments, and the details I have mentioned were
only recalled afterwards. The impression made, however, was that the
award in Mr. Poe's favor was not inopportune. Gentleman was written
all over him. His manner was easy and quiet, and although he came
to return thanks for what he regarded as deserving them, there was
nothing obsequious in what he said or did. His features I am unable
to describe in detail. His forehead was high, and remarkable for the
great development at the temple. This was the characteristic of his
head, which you noticed at once, and which I have never forgotten. 451
The expression of his face was grave, almost sad, except when he be-
came engaged in conversation, when it became animated and change-
able. His voice I remember was very pleasing in its tone and well
modulated, almost rhythmical, and his words were well chosen and
unhesitating. ... I asked him whether he was then occupied with any
literary labor. He replied that he was then engaged on A Voyage to the
Moon, and at once went into a somewhat learned disquisition upon the
laws of gravity, the height of the earth's atmosphere, and capacities of
balloons, warming in his speech as he proceeded. 452 Presently speaking
in the first person, he began the voyage . . . leaving the earth, and be-
coming more and more animated, he described his sensation as he as-
cended higher and higher . . . where the moon's attraction overcame
that of the earth, there was a sudden boideversement of the car and
great confusion among its tenants. By this time the speaker had become
so excited, spoke so rapidly, gesticulating much, that when the turn up-
side-down took place, and he clapped his hands and stamped with his
foot by way of emphasis, I was carried along with him. . . . When he
had finished his description he apologized for his excitability, which he
laughed at himself. The conversation then turned upon other subjects,
and soon afterward he took his leave. ...
In his calls on the judges, Poe did not forget Dr. James Miller
with whom he also struck up an acquaintance that later led to
some letters between them. The friendship with Lambert Wilmer,
the editor of the Visitor was kept up for some time. He and Poe
discussed together the founding of a magazine in Baltimore and
were evidently fairly intimate. It was the first of the many maga-
450 So much for Mrs. Clemm !
451 Phrenology was then taken in all seriousness.
452 See Chapter IX, page 131.
3S 2 ISRAFEL
zine projects which from this time on became a preoccupation
with Poe and absorbed much of his thought and energy. Two
items were always lacking in these schemes to found the great
American periodical; i.e., capital, and stability in the character
of the proposed managing editor.
Wilmer describes Poe as the " most passionless " of men that
he ever knew. His opinion seems to have been based for the most
part on Poe's writing and an innate delicacy in his friend which
he mistook for lack of vigor. As he must have known of the horse-
whipping incident, which raised not a little dust in the neighbor-
hood, his statement cannot have the force which the words alone
would imply. Wilmer was doubtless soon sorry enough that the
poetry prize had been given to Hewitt, for that young gentleman
soon worked himself into the good graces of the owner of the
paper, Mr. C. F. Cloud, and usurped the editor's chair. Wilmer
was forced to leave Baltimore in 1834, penniless and on foot. The
prospectus with which Poe provided him, outlining the plan for a
magazine to be published in Baltimore, fell by the wayside. 468
The " bouleversements " of the fly-by-night journalism of the
time were generally sudden and often merciless and tragic, as Poe
himself was to find out later. Even the modicum of humanity,
usually embodied in the ethics of an organized profession was
still lacking.
Hewitt's complication with Wilmer did not, however, prevent
Poe from becoming close friends with the former. The two poets
were in a sense rivals, Hewitt had once been on the staff of the
Minerva and Emerald which had handed Al Aaraaf so nonchal-
antly, but their mutual interest in poetry seems to have brought
them together frequently. There were long rambles in the country
about Baltimore during which literature was the topic of conversa-
tion, and Hewitt has left us a picture of Poe in Byron collars and a
black stock, one who " looked the poet all over." Yet all this did
not prevent Poe, when the occasion offered, from explaining just
how it was that Hewitt had received the prize. After Wilmer left,
the columns of The Visitor do not seem to have been so hospitable
w When Wilmer left Baltimore, Poe sent him a prospectus for a Baltimore
magazine. It was the first of many similar schemes.
John P. Kennedy
Poe's Baltimore Patron, author of Horseshoe Robinson, Swallow
Barn, etc. Member of Congress, attorney, and famous host
After a painting by Wilson
Courtesy of tbe English Bookman
Author of "Ten Nights in a
Bar-Room"
A friend of Poe in Baltimore
/Vow *m etching in Godey's Lady's Book /or 2844.
BOTTLED FAME 353
to Poe. That paper fell later into the hands of T. S. Arthur, 454
who in turn yielded to Dr. J. E. Snodgrass, the physician who
was Poe's friend to the last. It was thus peculiarly linked with
Poe's name, and with all of those connected with it he was for
long, then and afterward, more or less associated. Lambert Wil-
mer remembered Poe particularly well:
. . . His time appeared to be constantly occupied by literary labors;
... he lived in a very retired way with his aunt Mrs. Clemm, and his
moral deportment as far as my observations extended was altogether
correct. ... In his youthful days Poe's personal appearance was deli-
cate and effeminate, but never sickly or ghastly, and I never saw him
in any dress which was not fashionably neat with some approximation
to elegance. Indeed, I often wondered how he could continue to equip
himself so handsomely, considering his pecuniary resources were gen-
erally scanty and precarious enough. My intercourse with Poe was al-
most continuous for weeks together. . . . His general habits at that
time were strictly temperate, and but for one or two incidents I might
have supposed Mm to be a member of the cold-water army. . . .
" The one or two incidents " were the occasion of the cadets'
supper at the Barnum Hotel and a singular instance when Poe
took Wilmer home and offered him some Jamaica rum after the
universal custom of the time. Aside from these, there is no au-
thentic, indeed not any attempt, to indicate drinking episodes
during the entire period of the poet's residence in Baltimore. He
was, as a matter of fact, unusually abstemious for a young man
of the time much about a convivial Southern town.
During the time of Poe's stay in Baltimore, from 1831 to 1835,
there were two distinct literary groups in the city. The first of
these gathered about John P. Kennedy, William Gwynn, and
others of the old " Tusculum " Club. These were more literary than
journalistic. The second group consisted of men, then only be-
ginning to be known as writers, such as Arthur, Brooks, Dawes,
Carpenter, Hewitt and Macjilton. These represented rather ably
the various tendencies in cheap verse, magazine stories, and the
more " popular " writing of the time. Their names are to be
found frequently associated with that of Poe in the newspapers
454 See the portrait included in this volume.
354
ISRAFEL
and magazines of the period, and the decades to follow, and they
were, at least during his lifetime, in some sense his rivals. It was
from the first group that Poe, for the most part, received his in-
spiration and his aid, principally from John P. Kennedy. The in-
ference cannot reasonably be avoided that it was Mr. Kennedy
who really smoothed the path, not only by advice and influence,
but by actual physical help. He was one of the few friends that
Poe kept to the very end, one to whom he was permanently
grateful.
The suggestion that the remaining Tales of the Folio Club
should be published, was not lost upon Poe, and towards the end
of 1833 he seems to have gone personally to Philadelphia, to
try to prevail on his old acquaintance Carey & Lea to bring
out the collection of tales to which others, it appears, were later
added. Mr. Kennedy's help was probably largely instrumental.
In addition to this, Cody's Lady's Book was induced to accept one
of the series, The Visionary, which appeared in the issue of that
magazine for January, 1834.
Nevertheless, the last months of 1833, an d the greater part of
1834, was a starving time for Poe in the little two-story brick
house with a dormer window and double chimneys on Amity
Street. Mrs. Clemm's basket must have frequently made the
rounds for requisitions, her needle could not be busy enough.
At one time she is said to have tried to eke things out by teach-
ing school. With nothing but prospects in view, the Winter of
1833 came to an end for the Poe-Clemm household in Baltimore.
It had been a memorable year, the path ahead was smoother and
brighter. It was the question of continuing to exist, until the
editorial barriers were passed, that was now most perplexing. In
the meanwhile, Virginia was entering upon womanhood, pro-
pinquity was at work, and a cousinly affection was ripening into
something more definite. With the opening of the new year the
rumor of an approaching event, in which Poe could not help but
be vitally interested, claimed his presence at Richmond. John
Allan was dying.
Sometime during the latter part of the Winter of 1833, probably
in February, Poe, therefore, again found himself before the
BOTTLED FAME 355
familiar mansion in Richmond with the firm intention of having
an interview with " Pa." His object must have been to plead his
"rights," and to make plain his necessities; perhaps, once and
for all to explain away all differences and, in the forgiving mood
which he might expect to find at a death-bed, to be received again
as a son who could hope to share in the benefits of affection. Evi-
dently he had been reliably warned that the end was near, and
there was a chance, even in the remote possibility of a reconcilia-
tion, which he could not afford to neglect. All the memories of a
lifetime, and the vital element of self-interest combined to make
a motive powerful enough to cause him to try to force his way
into the house where his last reception could leave no doubt as
to the nature of his welcome as a member of the family.
After the visit of the Spring before, the servants had doubtless
been instructed by both their master and their mistress how to
receive " Marse Eddie." But prophetic foresight here seems to
have been of little avail. Poe arrived, is said to have thrust him-
self past the butler, and to have run upstairs to the big front
room overlooking the lawn. Mr. Allan was seated, with his cane
beside him, propped up with pillows, and reading a newspaper.
He was helpless from dropsy. The lines of youthful and amused
irony that had once given him an almost sweet expression about
the mouth, had long ago faded, and the hawk face and black eye-
brows lowered menacingly at the lines of the daily news. Sud-
denly the small piercing eyes looked over the edge of the Rich-
mond Whig, and beheld in the doorway an apparition from the
past. The young foster-son was standing there as if the years had
rolled back, gazing appealingly at his " father," and, as always
in that presence, looking ill at ease. For a moment they must
have stared thus at each other, these two strongly opposed spirits,
for the last time. Then Poe tried to make some advances to the
older man, probably pitiful enough, he tried to come into the
room. As if he were being attacked, John Allan seized the cane
by his armchair and flourished it in the air. A torrent of impreca-
tions and reproaches rolled from his lips. He threatened to beat
Poe if he approached him, rising up in his invalid's chair like a
dying eagle, dangerous, implacable, and able to strike till the
3S 6 ISRAFEL
last. His cries brought his startled wife and the servants to the
room, and Poe was ignominiously thrust by the slaves from the
door. One can imagine the invalid trembling and exclaiming,
and the young poet returning to Baltimore, sorrowful and
shaken, even to the roots of his ego, by the spectacle and the
strange fact, of someone who hated him to the last. Had either
of them cared less, the last infernal scene would have been
impossible. Devastating demonstrations are not manifested by
indifference.
It is now time to relate the passing of the maai whose shadow
of influence lies across the life of Poe from first to last. Edgar's
visit to Richmond may well have hastened the end. That the
intimations of his departure had lain heavily upon John Allan
for almost two years, the dates, and the nature of his will, show
clearly. In December, 1833, he was busy winding up the affairs
of Ellis & Allan with his old partner, Charles Ellis. Poe's visit
to Richmond followed a few weeks later, after which time Mr.
Allan failed rapidly. On March 19, Miss Valentine stopped in
at Ellis & Allan to tell the clerks that Mr. Allan " was a very sick
man." About a week later the end came. At eleven o'clock on the
morning of March 27, 1834, Mrs. Allan was in her husband's
chamber attending to some of the duties of the sickroom, when a
terrified scream from her brought the family and the servants
hurrying in. John Allan had died suddenly in his easy-chair. The
jaw had dropped. Up until the very last instant of life it had re-
mained absolutely firm. There was only one thing that he could
not overcome.
Even about the semblance of the man who sat there propped
up amid the pillows, there must have been something tremen-
dous. The hands which had, at last, relaxed had never relented,
and even after death they reached out strongly into time. By
every worldly standard John Allan was a success. He had begun
with nothing, but he died in full possession of ample monies, a
handsome mansion, broad fertile acres, the arbiter, and abso-
lute master of over half a hundred human souls. 455 Two ladies of
436 Slaves, immediate family, and a host of relatives in Scotland. See his own,
and the will of William Gait, Appendix III.
BOTTLED FAME 357
considerable force, beauty, and attainments had been his wives;
at least two other women had shared his favors; he was the father
of seven children 456 for his second wife was pregnant when he
died. Of all those upon whom the dominant shadow of his per-
sonality had so heavily fallen, Edgar Allan Poe, was the only one
that had completely eluded him. That John Allan is remembered
by the one and only item that he. failed to completely possess, is
a comment which a generation that ignored irony failed to under-
stand. The influence which finally relaxed the grasp of the Scotch
merchant on the twenty-seventh of March, 1834, was a powerful
one. It is no wonder that Mrs. Allan screamed.
The will, in which there was not even an allusion to Poe, was a
curious human and quasi-legal document containing clauses which
throw a new light on the troubles that had long disturbed the
Allan household, troubles in which the foster-son had played
such an important part. There were, it now appears, a disconcert-
ing number of children to provide for, and a domestic situation
already so perplexing that the testator might well overlook a mere
foster-child (who had merely been raised as the son of his bosom)
in favor of those who were of his own blood. But, even of that
motive, no one can be certain. If the intentions of the testator
were benign, they were also unfortunately obscure, for both the
grammatical and legal phraseology of the will were so faulty 457
as to arouse the justifiable suspicion that it was meant to protect
the posthumous reputation of the testator rather than to confer
benefits upon the legatees. Whatever the motives or the intentions,
they were not carried out. The widow refused to abide by the will
itself, and, in a long and scandalous litigation, carried her case
to the State Supreme Court, where she successfully established
her intestate rights. To the proud and firm minded relict, who
buried her husband in Shockoe Cemetery at noon, sharp, on
Saturday the twenty-ninth of March, 1834, the sorrow of his
taking off was somewhat mitigated by certain considerations to
456 Edwin Collier, twin sons and a daughter by Mrs. W., two sons by his
second wife, and a posthumous daughter. Mr. Allan never " acknowledged " the
daughter by Mrs. W., but left her and her mother jointly $3000. See the will.
467 For a legal analysis of the will, see Appendix III.
358 ISRAFEL
which the world at large was not then privy. The nature of these
was revealed in his will: 45S
In the name of God, Amen: I John Allan, of the City of Richmond,
being of sound mind and disposing memory, do make and ordain this
my last will and testament, revoking all other wills by me heretofore
made. (Then follow items, and a provision constituting his beloved wije,
Louisa Gabriella Allan, James Gait, and Corbin Warwick, executrix
and executors. This part of the will is dated April 17, 1832, and is wit-
nessed by Th. Nelson, M. Clark, and Robert L. Cabell. On December
31 9 1832, in a second section of the will without witnesses, the intent
of the first part of it was reiterated with some cwioits additions:)
Mrs. Louisa Gabriella Allan, wife of John Allan
John Allan, child and i enseignt
ist pay all my debts.
2nd. My whole estate to be kept under the management of my exors,
hereinafter mentioned until my eldest child becomes of age, the house
and all the ground contiguous and attached to the same, I hereby au-
thorize and empower my executors, or such of them as may act, to sell
if they shall think it advisable after the expiration of 5 years from this
date, also lot at intersection of F and 2nd Street, opposite Mr. Ellis's
... ^ of the net annual income of my whole estate to be paid to my
beloved L. G. A. during her natural life or until my eldest child be-
comes of age. At the division of my estate I desire that my wife shall
have one-third of my estate for life. . . .
To Miss Ann Moore Valentine $300 per annum and her board lodging
and washing to be paid and found her out of my estate during her
natural life, and this provision is to be in lieu of $2000 which I hold
of her money, and of which my estate is to be discharged if she accepts
this bequest. 469 To each of my sisters Nancy Fowlds, Jane Johnston,
Elizabeth Miller 300 Sterling, and to my sister Mary Allan 100 Ster-
ling, all residing in Scotland. 400 I devise the whole of my estate among
my children which may be alive at the time of my death and of such
as my wife may at that time prove to ensignt, in case they should be
all boys I then desire that the estate may be equally divided among
them in case of the birth of a daughter or daughters then I desire that
458 The part of John Allan's will given here and the complete text given
in the appendix are from a certified copy supplied the author by Mr. Charles 0.
Savflle, Clerk of the Chancery Court of the City of Richmond, Virginia.
450 This money had been left to Miss Valentine by William Gait in 1825.
See his will, Appendix III,
* See Chapter III, and Chapter V, for other mention of these relatives,
BOTTLED FAME 359
my son or sons as the case may be shall be entitled to double what my
daughters may have, my children to take the part of such of them as
may die under age. In case of the death of all my children without
being married or arriving at the age of 21 years I then give and devise
to my relations Wm. Gait & Jas. Gait and to Corbin Warwick and to
their heirs, exors, and administrators all the estate given to my children
... the remaining -J- part I wish disposed of in such manner as I may
hereafter appoint by codicil. I desire that my executors shall out of my
estate provided give to a good english education for two boys
sons of Mrs. Elizabeth Wills, which she says are mine, I do not know
their names, but the remaining fifth, four parts of which I have dis-
posed of must go in equal shares to them of (or) the survivor of them
but should they be dead before they attain the age of 21 years their
share to go to my sister's Fowlds children in equal proportions with
the exception of three thousand dollars, which must go to Mrs. Wills
and her daughter in perpetuity.
JOHN ALLAN, Dec. 3ist, 1832
This memo, in my handwriting is to be taken as a codicil and can
easily be proven by any of my friends.
The notes preceding are in the handwriting of my friend, Jno. G.
Williams.
The twins were born sometime about the ist of July 1830. 1 was mar-
ried the 3rd October 1830 in New York, my fault therefore happened
before I ever saw my present wife and I did not hide it from her. In
case therefore these twins should reach the age of twenty-one years
and from reasons they cannot get their share of the fifth reserved for
them, they are to have $4000 each out of my whole estate to enable
them to prosecute some honest pursuit, profession or calling.
March i$th, 1833, I understand one of Mrs. Wills' twin sons died
some weeks ago, there is therefore one only to provide for. (With this
happy natural simplification of so plwal a difficulty, the testator then
delicately adds) : My wife is to have all my furniture, books, bedding,
linen, plate, wines, spirits, etc., etc., Glass and China ware.
JOHN ALLAN
Even the "wines, spirits, etc., etc.," however, do not seem to
have had the desired cordial effect.
At a Circuit Superior Court of Law and Chancery held for Henrico
County at the Capital in the City of Richmond, the 8th day of May
1834. . . . Louisa G. Allan, widow and relict of the said John Allan,
deceased . . . appeared in Court and renounced the Executorship, and
also declared that she will not take or accept the provision of any part
thereof. . . .
3 6o ISRAFEL
The second Mrs. Allan survived her husband by almost half
a century, during a considerable portion of that time, several
gentlemen practicing before the Richmond bar were able to join
in the refrain of an old English song:
God bless the testator who draws Ms own mil
discreetly, but with substantial reasons for appreciation of the
professional sentiment.
There can be little doubt that even the hope of a legacy in
Richmond had kept the young poet in Baltimore restless. John
Allan could be, and we know often was, prevailed upon to help
from time to time, so that the feeling of there being a final refuge,
someone to depend upon in time of desperate need, had never
been entirely absent in his former ward. The r61e of the cast-off
rich man's son, even of the prodigal who might be forgiven at the
last, was also a pleasant and interesting background which Poe
never entirely abandoned. He was delighted to refer to it from
time to time in letters, and we have already seen how frequently
it cropped up in his conversation. Mr. Allan's death had now put
an end to this as far as the reality went. The last ties of self-
interest and lingering sentiment with the past were now demon-
strably dissolved. " Dear Pa " was now beyond the appeal of even
the most needy " man of genius "; and the will, silent about Poe,
had been probated. The doubtless disappointed young man in
Baltimore could no longer deceive even himself about the past.
In grim earnest he must now look to the future for the tying of
any ties that might bind. Those of his youth were now only the
figments of memory.
There was a certain side of Poe's nature which made him ad-
mire and lean upon those who were capable of overcoming the
difficulties of a physical world. He was, in a large sense, incapable
of doing so himself, like so many other artists who find the ulti-
mate reality in dreams, yet he instinctively felt the need and the
worth of practical capacity. It was for that reason that he had
never been entirely able to shake himself clear of John Allan,
even in his own mind. He ivas not entirely selfish in this, it was
merely the necessity of self-protection, a means by which he tried
BOTTLED FAME 361
to vicariously complement an accidental lack in his own charac-
ter. Yet strangely enough he was never willing to admit that de-
pendence implied possession. It was always at that point that the
break inevitably came, and a new pillar was sought to lean upon,
or another breast upon which to rest " a proud but weary head."
The situation, in various disguises, occurred again and again in
the future, as it had in the past, for instance:
Once having freed himself from John Allan, starvation forced
Poe to depend upon another guardian, the Army; finding that
intolerable, he went through exactly the same motions with pre-
cisely the same persons at West Point; free of that, with John
Allan beyond recall, he sheltered himself upon the wide and will-
ing breast of his Aunt Maria Clemm. It seemed providential to
both of them, and psychologically it was so. On the return from
the visit to Richmond in the early Winter of 1834, Poe must have
realized in his inmost being that the little house on Amity Street,
and not the great mansion in Richmond, was " home."
Consequently, it was natural enough that it should occur to
both Poe and Mrs. Clemm, if it had not been in their thoughts
even earlier, that the arrangement, already in force at Amity
Street, might be made permanent by a marriage with Virginia.
She was still young, very young, only in her twelfth year in fact,
but she was budding into womanhood, and marriage at that time,
especially in the South, often took place very early. Many a girl
was the mother of a family at sixteen. Edgar's affairs with other
girls must have alarmed Mrs. Clemm. She could see herself left
alone if Poe married, or making room for a young bride in her
household, to the numbers of which, death only had brought
relief. In addition she loved Poe, there can be no doubt of that.
He was of her own blood, and she regarded herself now as his
mother. It would be an excellent family arrangement, and some
sort of an understanding was certainly arrived at by the young
people. Henry Clemm had gone away, and his mother was anxious
to have the protection and the support which Edgar's presence
promised. Much has been made of this " romance." In sober real-
ity it can scarcely be regarded as more than an acknowledgment
of general convenience. Virginia was still too young for an imme-
362 ISRAFEL
diate ceremony and there was grave objection to an immediate
marriage on the part of the Neilson Poes.
Poe, on his part, was troubled in his heart by the fact that Vir-
ginia was his full cousin, and by her extreme youth. He was
troubled and yet attracted. The truth seems to be that he was a
type which was so hypersensitive as to be somewhat revolted by
the fully developed womanly form, and some of its more hearty
implications. The infantile, and very youthful, bore a strange
attraction for him that satisfied a craving for the abnormal mani-
fest in other directions. Baudelaire describes it well. Poe was
at once excited and repulsed. The relations with Virginia lie very
close to the core of his inner mystery; they explain many of his
heroines. It was not the charming and simple affair that those in
love with convention would have us believe. About it was the
haunted grey twilight of near incest that troubled his deepest
dreams. He was twenty-five and she was about thirteen. The
neurologist's eye is needed to probe deeper. One feels very near
here to the secret of a strange soul. What were the real incidents
of the wooing, no one will know. The kind Poe cousins were
evidently alarmed, and are known to have remonstrated with
Mrs. Clemm. 461 Thus matters remained for about a year.
During the latter part of 1834 despite the brighter prospects
opened up by the Saturday Visitor prize and a certain amount of
"fame" which went with it, Poe's condition was more than
usually desperate. No word had come from Carey & Lea, in
Philadelphia, about the volume of short stories, and there seems
to have been no remunerative work of any kind. Mrs. Clemm's
entire attention must have been taken up by ministering to the
old grandmother who was fast approaching her end. Edgar him-
self was in ill health, approaching one of those periods of utter
depression, due to nerve strain and a weak heart. The neu-
rasthenic hero of the stories written during the Baltimore period
shadow forth his own condition. The Visitor had published his
poem, The Coliseum, earlier in the year. But even its columns
401 Neilson Poe, who had a large place just outside of Baltimore, a little later
offered to take Virginia and keep her as one of his family until she was eighteen.
The objection was not to Virginia's marrying Poe, but on account of her extreme
youth. The fact is significant. See Woodberry, 1904, vol. I, pages 137 and 144.
BOTTLED FAME 363
were now less hospitable, as his friend Wilmer had been forced
out of the editorship into circumstances of great poverty and his
place taken by Hewitt, who was a competitor of Poe and probably
could not forget that Poe had approached him once asking him
to allow the facts of the poetry award to become known. Finances
for the little family on Amity Street were now at their lowest ebb,
and in November, 1834, alarmed and dismayed by hearing no
word from Philadelphia, Poe wrote the following letter to his
friend Mr. Kennedy:
Baltimore Nov. 1834 462
DR. SIR, I have a favor to beg of you which I thought it better to
ask in writing, because, sincerely, I had not the courage to ask it in
person. I am indeed well aware that I have no claim whatever to your
attention, and that even the manner of my introduction to your notice
was, at best equivocal. Since the day you first saw me my situation in
life has altered materially. At that time I looked forward to the inherit-
ance of a large fortune, and in the meantime was in receipt of an
annuity sufficient for my support. This was allowed to me by a gentle-
man of Virginia (Mr. Jno. Allan) who adopted me at the age of
two years (both my parents being dead) and who, until lately always
treated me with the affection of a father. 463 But a second marriage on
his part, and I dare say many follies on my own at length ended in a
quarrel between us. He is now dead and has left me nothing. I am
thrown entirely upon my own resources with no profession, and very
few friends. Worse than all this, I am at length penniless. Indeed no
circumstances less urgent would have induced me to risk your friend-
ship by troubling you with my distresses. But I could not help thinking
that if my situation was stated as you could state it to Carey and
Lea, they might be led to aid me with a small sum in consideration
of my Ms. now in their hands. This would relieve my immediate wants,
and I could then look forward more confidently to better days. At all
events receive the assurance of my gratitude for what you have already
done*
Most respy, yr, obt. St.,
EDGAR ALLAN POE
Mr. Kennedy was just stepping into a carriage to go to An-
napolis when he received Poe's note. He remained there for some
462 A letter in the Kennedy Manuscripts.
463 This is all " poetic license " on Poe's part, of course.
364 ISRAFEL
time and did not reply to Poe until December 22, 1834, in part
as follows:
... I requested Carey immediately upon the receipt of your first letter
to do something for you as speedily as he might find an opportunity,
and to make some advance on your book. His answer let me know that
he would go on to publish, but the expectation of any profit from the
undertaking he considered doubtful not from want of merit in the
production, but because small books of detached tales, however well
written, seldom yield a sum sufficient to enable the bookseller to pur-
chase a copyright. He recommends, however, that I should allow him to
sell some of the tales to the publishers of the annuals. My reply was
that I thought you would not object to this if the right to publish the
same tale was reserved for the volume. He has accordingly sold one of
the tales to Miss Leslie for the Souvenir, at a dollar a page, I think with
the reservation above mentioned and has remitted me a draft of
fifteen dollars which I will hand over to you as soon as you call upon
me, which I hope you will do as soon as you can make it convenient,
If the other tales can be sold in the same way, you will get more for
the work than by an exclusive publication.
Yours truly, JOHN P. KENNEDY
This little snatch of correspondence lowers us like a diving
bell into the depths, where for a little space we can look around
us in the darkness of a young poet's despair. Both letters are
characteristic of their writers. Poe's one of restrained despera-
tion, with the characteristically garbled autobiographical state-
ments, altered to suit the occasion; Mr. Kennedy's kindly, wise,
and supremely tactful " My reply was I thought you would
not object to this " and the " draft of fifteen dollars which I
will hand over to you as soon as you call upon me which I hope
you will do as soon as you can make it convenient " how soon,
and how convenient it was, we may be sure that Mr. Kennedy
knew only too well.
Nor did the kind offices of the older man end here. The $15
must have been eked out to the last penny, but in the middle of
March, 1835, Poe again wrote Mr. Kennedy asking his influence
with the Public School Commissioners to enable him to obtain a
position as a school teacher, "... Have I any hope? ... the
1 8th is fixed for the decision of the commissioners, and the adver-
tisement has only this moment caught my eye." Mr. Kennedy's
BOTTLED FAME 365
reply written the same day, Sunday, March 15, iSss 46 * was
famous invitation to dinner. In reply to this Poe dispatched the
following pathetic note, perhaps the wide-eyed little Virginia car-
ried it, as she had carried notes of a different kind before:
DR. SIR, Your kind invitation to dinner today has wounded me to
the quick. I cannot come and for reasons of the most humiliating
nature in my personal appearance. You may conceive my deep mortifi-
cation in making this disclosure to you but it was necessary. If you
will be my friend so far as to loan me $20, 1 will call on you tomorrow
otherwise it will be impossible, and I must submit to my fate.
Sincerely yours,
E. A. POE
Sunday
The little note was the turning point in Poe's literary career. Poe
must, indeed, have been desperate before his pride, his governing
motive, could have surrendered so far. Mr. Kennedy was touched
to the quick. He now fully realized the situation that the letter
revealed. The curtains in the windows of a proud little home had
been drawn back for an instant and revealed the illy clad family
who dwelt there sitting about an empty table. The good man
bestirred himself, as he would doubtless have done before had he
known. Poe was provided with clothes, invited to the Kennedy
house, made much of at the generous board, doubtless Mrs.
Clemm's basket profited, too and Edgar was even loaned Mr.
Kennedy's horse " for exercise." The last was indeed the refine-
ment of courtesy to a Virginian. Once on horseback, Edgar Poe
felt himself to be a gentleman again. Nor will the sneers of Gris-
wold a quarter of a century later, at all these items, suffice to
convince the world that it was merely a beggar who went riding,
But the greatest service of all was Mr. Kennedy's introduction
of the young author to the editor of the Southern Literary Mes-
senger in Richmond, to whom, upon the advice and recommenda-
tion of his patron, Poe submitted some of his tales. Berenice was
accepted, and appeared in the March, 1835, number of the Mes-
senger with a highly laudatory editorial notice. The editor was
* 4 This note has been correctly dated as of 1835 by Prof. Woodberry, and not
1833 as given by Prof. Harrison,
366
ISRAFEL
much impressed and followed up Poe's reference to Mr. Kennedy
with a letter of inquiry. Mr. Kennedy replied to Mr. White:
Baltimore, Apr. 13, 1835
DEAR SIR, Poe did right in referring to me. He is very clever with
his pen classical and scholar-like. He wants experience and direction,
but I have no doubt he can be made very useful to you. And, poor fel-
low, he is wry poor. I told him to write something for every number of
your magazine, and that you might find it to your advantage to give
him some permanent employ. ... The young fellow is highly imagi-
native and a little terrific. He is at work upon a tragedy, but I have
turned him to drudging upon whatever may make money. . . .
The hint from Mr. Kennedy went home. Berenice was the
entering wedge, and every number of the Messenger for some-
time afterward contained a story and some criticism or reviews
by Poe. John P. Kennedy had not only saved him; he had
" made " him. Poe never forgot this as long as he lived and, many
years later, remarked to Thomas Stoddard with an undimmed
sense of gratitude, " Mr. Kennedy has been, at all times, a true
friend to me he was the first true friend I ever had I am
indebted to him for life itself."
Thomas Wylkes White, editor of the Southern Literary Mes-
senger, was a native of Virginia, 400 and a member of the numer-
ous tribe of itinerant printer-publishers who, in the 1830*8, were
filling the ephemeral editorial chairs of various will-o'-the-wisp
magazines that glowed faintly here and there all over the United
States, and for the most part died away painlessly, after giving
off a faint gaseous light. Mr. White was more able than most,
however, and a happy combination of circumstances and per-
sonalities permitted him to continue the Southern Literary Mes-
senger with unusual success. In 1834, he went to Richmond
where nine numbers of the Messenger had already appeared
under the editorship of Mr. James Heath, author of Edge HUI*"*
There White became a sort of combined printer-business-manager-
and-editor of the sheet, Mr. Heath continuing for some time
* 5 The statement that Mr. White was a Northerner, born in Yorktown, Penn-
sylvania, etc., etc., is incorrect.
** Edge Hill, a novel then rather widely read, by James Heath.
BOTTLED FAME 367
to act in an unpaid advisory capacity. White was a good business
man, with a pleasant personality, although shrewd, but he lacked
the background, the literary qualities, and the editorial vision to
make the magazine a complete success. In 1834, there were only
a few hundred subscribers. In Poe, Mr. White soon recognized
the very type of man which his paper most needed, and the cor-
respondence, stories, reviews and articles, which Poe contributed
through the Spring of 1835, led up to a suggestion of permanent
employment on the staff. On June 2, 1835, Poe wrote White a
long letter on various topics concerning the magazine, in which
he says:
. . . You ask me if I would be willing to come to Richmond if you
should have occasion for my services during the coming winter. I
reply that nothing would give me greater pleasure. I have been desirous
for some time past of paying a visit to Richmond, and would be glad
of any reasonable excuse of so doing. . . .
Aside from the fact that Richmond was always home to Poe,
there was a particular, and peculiar personal reason, over and
above the opportunity offered by White, why he " would be glad
of any reasonable excuse of paying a visit to Richmond." The
reason belonged to the realm of the romantic. 467
Miss Mary Winf ree of Chesterfield, Virginia, a young lady who
had formerly enjoyed Poe's passing attentions, and who had never
forgotten him, had come to visit in Baltimore some time before
Poe's marriage with Virginia. She was, perhaps, the first of the
several Marys to whom Poe had confided the touching fact that
she bore his favorite name. At any rate, her interest was sufficient
to cause her to seek him out. She did not, of course, know that
Poe was thinking of marrying Virginia, and it is not likely that he
enlightened her. Miss Winfree was a close friend of Elmira
Royster (Mrs. Shelton), and, in discussing the past with Poe,
the interesting and disturbing information came to light that El-
mira was not altogether happy with her husband, and that she had
never ceased to love Poe. The deception which her parents had
467 I am indebted to a Richmond acquaintance who desires to remain anony-
mous for part of the information dealing with this little known episode. This
acquaintance has the copy of the Bijou.
3 68 ISRAFEL
practiced upon her had, as we have seen, come to light through the
finding of one of Poe's letters to her from the University, and her
first romantic attachment flamed up anew. Miss Winfree brought
with her a little book called the Bijou, one of the ubiquitous parlor
annuals of the time, to whose pages Mrs. Shelton had contributed
a story signed with her initials, in which, to those who knew her
past, the meaning was clear. She was, it appears, languishing for
a glimpse of her true love, and the pain could not be assuaged.
Despite the fact that " Hymen (in a double sense) and Time and
Destiny were now stalking between " him and her Poe seems
to have determined to see her at least once again, to let her know
that he still loved her, and to justify the past. How far he intended
to go, it is impossible to say. Circumstances would doubtless dic-
tate that, as they did. It was a sentimental and dangerous situa-
tion that appealed to his romantic heart. Once in Richmond, time
would provide the opportunity. What was Virginia's status in the
triangle it is hard to say.
For a time, however, the move to Richmond had to be deferred.
Mr. White was not yet ready, and old Mrs. Poe was dying. A few
checks now and then for $5 and $10 amounts from the Messenger
served to back the wolf off the front stoop, at least, while the pen
in the little room on Amity Street went forward. . . . The mail
was robbed by one William Jones and Poe found himself the loser
" to a small amount." Poe purchased some especially fine printer's
ink for Mr. White and took it to the steamboat himself. John
Marshall, the great Chief Justice, died, Poe remembered him well
from the old family pew in the Monumental Church. He, too, was
now added to the names of the past recorded in Shockoe Ceme-
tery, and a little paragraph from the hand of the boy who had
known him appeared in the Messenger soon after:
. . . Our great and lamented countryman, fellow-townsman, neighbor
and friend for by all these names did a fortuitous conjunction of
circumstances, including his own kind and prideless heart, entitle us
to call him. . . . 408
468 Chief Justice Marshall had been injured in a stage coach accident in the
Spring of 1835. He went to Philadelphia for medical treatment where he died on
July 6. Poe was at work on a review of the second edition of Marshall's Life of
BOTTLED FAME 369
On May 30, 1835, P e wrote to Mr. White in Richmond al-
luding to a serious breakdown about that time:
I have not seen Mr. Kennedy for some days, having been too unwell
to go abroad ... at the time I wrote the hasty sketch I sent you I
was so ill as to be hardly able to see the paper on which I wrote, and
finished in a state of complete exhaustion. . . .
On January 12, he again writes White:
I am glad to say that I have entirely recovered although Dr.
Buckler, no longer than three weeks ago, assured me that nothing but
a sea-voyage would save me. . . .
Evidently this was no ordinary indisposition. Dr. Buckler
would not have ordered a sea-voyage to a poverty-stricken young
poet unless he had good cause for alarm. He thought it was the
only thing that would save his patient. And this illness was only a
repetition of several that had preceded it in the previous four
years. Poe had specifically mentioned his ill health in letters to
John Allan as we have seen. -'
An understanding and some explanation of Foe's physical and
mental condition is, from now on, fundamental even to a partial
understanding of his character. A completely satisfactory under-
standing of a matter, necessarily nebulous and of a character so
strangely contradictory and complex, must perhaps forever elude
our grasp. There are, however, certain indications inherent in the
symptoms of his condition, and the work which he produced, that
tend to throw a light upon some of the darker phases of his nature.
Any study of the man, which obstinately refuses to recognize the
unpleasant and unfortunate aspects of his nature, or to explain his
tragedy by assuming and asserting that his misfortunes were due
merely to persecution, an unappreciative world, and a preverse
fate, must disregard, ignorantly or deliberately, some o'f the out-
standing and most incontestable facts of his career. Poe's human
misfortunes cannot be laid in the main upon the shoulders of
the epoch and the world in which he moved; they were, for the
most part, caused by the early break-up of his physical health,
Washington, in two volumes, 1832. Marshall's death had an important bearing on
the trend of national events, see note 500, Chapter XVIII, page 412.
370 ISRAFEL
due to his unhappy youth and heredity and the stimulants which
he used to counteract their effects. Paradoxically enough, out of
the mental state evolved from ill health and one of the stimulants
he resorted to, flowed much of the creative work of the artist
which insured his literary success. That there was, in addition to
this, a third factor, the unique humanity of the man himself, goes
without saying. Every human being is different from all others.
The exact and unique flavor of a personality can never be com-
pletely caught in any literary reconstruction. The hint of the
peculiar genius of a man, can only be partly reflected in the glass
of his actions. These are being detailed here, and, from them, the
reader must largely be left to make his own reconstruction. The
more physical aspects, however, bear analysis, and it is necessary
now to attempt some evaluation of them in the interplay of ill
health and the effects of nostrums. Combining the last two with
the reflection of the man's self in his actions, at least, a credible
ghost may be invoked.
Poe was afflicted with a weak heart. There is, later on, direct
medical evidence of a doctor and a professional nurse of long
experience to that effect. In addition to this, the long tragedy
of his youth had, as we have seen, exhausted him nervously.
The affect of these two conditions was to subject him to a gen-
eral feeling of depression due to subnormal vitality, culminating
frequently in periods of more or less complete prostration or
threatened collapse. A specious, and apparently easy " remedy "
for this feeling of debility, induced by a weak heart and ex-
hausted nerves, was the use of stimulants or sedatives. It seems
transparently evident that, when a period of collapse overtook him,
Poe resorted to one of two drugs, either alcohol or opium. There
is direct evidence, as we have seen, of his use of alcohol in 1826 at
Charlottesville and in 1830 at West Point, Even a very little was,
to him, peculiarly disastrous. With the advent of the Baltimore
period, there are powerful reasons to lead one to believe that,
from that date on, Poe now resorted, from time to time, to the use
of opiates.
In the first place, it must be remembered that in his condition,
if he were to continue to work, perhaps at times even to survive,
BOTTLED FAME 371
drugs were in order. He had tried alcohol and found it more
or less disastrous. Opium, for Poe, involved a peculiarly seductive
temptation. It removed him completely from the world of reality
which he largely disliked; it enormously increased the bounds of
his imagination; and it coincidentally vastly stimulated his crea-
tive faculty while soothing his nerves. At the same time its effects
were so subtle as to escape immediate observation and comment,
while, at least at first, it did not produce the violent reactions and
periods of mania which followed his resort to drink. For the time
being, it seemed to solve all difficulties and to provide a sovereign
panacea.
During the stay in Baltimore from 1831 to 1834, there can be
no moral doubt that Poe was using opium, at least from time to
time. The indubitable evidence of the fact, lies in the work which
he produced. The Tales of the Folio Club are replete with opiate
dreams, and when they fell into the hands of Baudelaire, some
years later, caused him to shed tears of joy as he recognized the
very features of his own reveries as it were endowed with life.
Such stories as Ligeia and Berenice illustrate this directly, espe-
cially the latter. They provide not only direct references to the
drug, but the imagery, the irrational associations, and the very
use of words is characteristic. To those who have no knowledge
or familiarity with the effects of opium, and they are, of course,
the majority, the evidence may seem insufficient; to those who
have, the turning of these pages tells an irrefutable tale. There is
evidence by witnesses that Poe took opium in Philadelphia. In
1847, he tried to commit suicide with laudanum. The inference
is that he had tried the use of opiates before. Rosalie Poe, his
sister, says that in 1848, at Fordham, he " begged for morphine."
In June, 1884, Dr. John Carter of Baltimore who had consider-
able knowledge of Poe from his brother, another physician who
had treated the poet in Richmond in 1849, wrote to Professor
Woodberry that, while he had no direct personal evidence, " I may
state, in a matter of so leading importance, that I incline to the
view that Poe began the use of drugs in Baltimore, that his
periods of abstinence from liquor were periods of at least mod-
erate indulgence in opium, . . ." etc.
372 ISRAFEL
During the Baltimore period, Poe is known to have abstained
almost totally from liquor. Although he was ill and in the greatest
poverty, as his own letters at that time abundantly attest, he
nevertheless contrived to produce a large mass of creative work.
That when so ill, and under such difficult living conditions, he
could produce at an hitherto unexampled rate, indicates an un-
usual cause. But when the work itself produced under such con-
ditions is examined and found to contain, not only direct refer-
ences to the use of opium, but to be of a type produced by a
consciousness laboring under the effects of the drug, the chain
seems complete. Besides this, there were also secondary mani-
festations of a decided change in his character through the Balti-
more years which tend to confirm the suspicion.
In the first place, from 1831 to 1834, Poe remained almost un-
known. The records of his existence for part of that time are
amazingly obscure, and, for a considerable portion of the period,
obsolutely lapse. This means, if anything, that he was largely
confined to the garret of Mrs. Clemm. Ill health, poverty, and
pen-driving will not entirely explain the fact that a young soldier
and a fairly athletic young man of a few years before had sud-
denly become a complete recluse. He was not ill all the time, but
at periods, yet he obtained no steady employment for a period of
almost five years in the prime of youth. Thousands of the young
men in Baltimore at the same time, despite the severe financial
stricture, were successfully employed. What was Poe doing?
Dreaming in Mrs. Clemm's attic, and -the records of those dreams
are strongly tinged with opium. Alcohol he did not take because
he did not need it. Mrs. Clemm's influence is of course to be
reckoned with here.
Another startling change also overtook him now. From 1832
to 1847, Mary Devereaux is the only record of a really normally
passionate love affair that Poe was engaged in. Up until that time,
all through his youth, his interest in girls and women had been
varied and constant. These now suddenly cease. Now, one of the
notorious effects of opium, is the eventual weakening of sexual
desire. This condition now suddenly seems to present itself. At
the end of the period in 1835, he had deviated so far from the nor-
BOTTLED FAME 373
mal as to be able to marry, apparently both willingly and apathet-
ically, a thirteen-year-old child. That there were other and more
profound sexual disturbances in Poe's nature, the Sadistic trend
of a considerable body of his work indicates. The lessening of
desire, and the strange conditions of his marriage, are the princi-
pal matters, however, to be reckoned with. During the latter half
of his life, his trend from the normal was marked. What had pro-
duced such an effect upon one who, in boyhood, appears to have
been somewhat precocious, may well cause one to ponder. In the
understanding of Poe's character during the latter half of his life,
the problem is a central one. He was now entering upon a new
phase.
For the Baltimore period and the home on Amity Street was
about to close. One cannot help but wonder about the life that
went on in the little house with the single dormer window and the
end chimney. Mrs. Clemm was preoccupied night and day with
the duties of the household and the dying grandmother, she and
Edgar gathered about the little dining-room table with the always
snowy cloth and the spotless china, listening to the childish talk
of the childish cousin, whose great eyes looked at Edgar only
half comprehendingly. What did Poe think of it all? the
ambitious young man with the soaring mind. And what of the
more intimate and tender episodes? There was something strange
about that, something infantile with the quality of a day-dream
come true. Strange and yet alluring. An inscrutable experience
was having its subtle way. " Ligeia " had become a reality. She
was beginning to dominate his dreams, and yet was she? There
was still Elmira.
On July 7, 1835, Mrs. David Poe died at Amity Street. She
was seventy-eight years old. Her death could, in the nature of
things, have been nothing but a relief. Mrs. Clemm could now
turn all her attention to Edgar and Virginia. The household was
reduced to the final number to which there was never any natural
addition and Poe was free to follow his star.
Under the beat of the steamer's paddles, Baltimore faded for
the time being into a dream. Richmond was calling with all the
force of the past and a brighter future. The dream of Poe's life
374 ISRAFEL
was coming true he was going " home " with foreign laurels.
They were not bright yet, but they were visible, and they became
him well. Mrs. Clemm remained behind in the house on Amity
Street, awaiting the outcome of a long litigation over her husband's
will, 469 and to watch over Virginia. It was about midsummer of the
year 1835. Only fourteen years later the curtain fell.
*9 This " litigation " if it can be termed that, had to do with Mrs. Clemm's
and her children's share in the property of Mrs. Catherine Clemm of Mount Pros-
pect, Maryland. She was, it seems, entitled to one-third the children of the first
wife of William Clemm made trouble. Poe was exceedingly anxious to obtain this
legacy, a small amount, to help set up his own house with Mrs. Clemm. See Poe
to Kennedy, Richmond, January 22, 1836, etc. The matter later called Poe to
Baltimore from Philadelphia.
CHAPTER XVII
The Valley of the Many-Colored Grass
ABOUT the person of the young man, who reappeared in
Richmond in the early August days of 1835, there was,
beyond per adventure, something distinguished: a certain
knack of tying the black stock; a precise and studied nonchalance
about the buttoning of the tight, double-breasted waistcoat over
the impeccable linen carefully mended by " Muddie " that
was somehow arresting. The large beaver hat, then universally
worn by all who pretended to the name of gentleman, sat a little
to the side, tilted a bit backward, accentuating an already promi-
nent brow, and curling in an arch way over a delicate ear. Under
the flare of its small brim, drooped a tangle of black-brown hair
blanching an olive, oval face from which looked, unforgettably,
two large and haunted grey-blue eyes. The mouth was small, a
little weak, and slightly twisted by pain. The lips and chin were
clean shaven, and there was the faintest suggestion about them
of a whimsical and ironical smile out of a wisp of side-burns. It
was the countenance of one who regarded his world as a dream
within a dream.
The erect figure of the man dressed in a raven-black and metic-
ulously brushed flare-tail coat, with the roll collar left open,
contrived to be impressive by just avoiding being dapper. The
shoulders were thrown back, showing too narrow a chest, and
vest buttons that gleamed like medals over the stomach. The
metal tassel of a long, knit, ring-fastened purse dangled from the
slant vest pocket, anchored there by nothing more than a Mexican
half dollar of a few " levys," and a nervous brisk gait was ac-
centuated by the ripple in an ample pair of Nankeen, diapered
pantaloons, strapped under the boots. Such was Mr. White's bril-
liant young editor, going calling in Richmond some weeks after
the last purple blooms had disappeared from the paulownia trees.
376 ISRAFEL
Those who passed him in the street felt they had encountered a
presence, and both men and women remarked and remembered,
" There goes Edgar Poe."
For the first few days he probably stopped at Duncan Lodge
with the Mackenzies. Rosalie was there, happy, unshadowed by
any future, a fully grown child. Mr. and Mrs. Mackenzie never
failed to make him welcome, and there was always Jack bluff
and hearty. Perhaps " Aunt Nancy " dropped over quietly from
the Allan house to tell him about Pa's last hours, and whisper
about the will. She, at least, was secure in $300 a year and her
board and washing. Her revelations could not have been much of
a surprise to Poe, who would certainly ascertain for himself the
exact provisions of a certain document. 470 But it must have been
strange to pass the big house with its drawn curtains; to hear the
shouts of John Allan's eldest boy in the old garden; to be stopped
in the streets by the affectionate greeting of the old house-serv-
ants, and yet to know, beyond doubt, that in all that he was never,
nevermore, to have any part. How curious, too, when passing the
store at Ellis & Allan to look in at the door! The very shadows
and odors were familiar 471 John Allan's desk was there in
the office, and a trunk with letters but " Pa " was inevitably
gone.
The past was not forgotten, however. The strange record of it
lay there in the old trunk, and in the hearts of those who now
occupied the big house. Poe's arrival, although she took no notice
of it, was undoubtedly a source of anxiety to Mrs. Allan. Already
she was in trouble about the will. Poe knew too much, if he had
cared to say anything. It would pay to be careful, above all to
avoid any more scenes. So the big door never swung open to him
again, and other doors in certain other places were quietly and
470 Poe would almost certainly acquaint himself with the nature of John
Allan's will probated in public court. He would take no chances.
471 After the death of the first Mrs. Allan, John Allan removed a trunk con-
taining his first wife's correspondence and probably other data to Ellis & Allan.
In this he put Poe's letters from 1824 on. The trunk fell into the hands of James
Gait as John Allan's executor and was by him removed to Fluvanna Plantation.
There the second Mrs. Allan had access to it and removed from it some of Poe's
letters now in the Valentine Museum Collection. She appears to have destroyed
others. Only one letter in Frances Allan's handwriting is known to exist. James Gait
said there were " other letters " that remained in the trunk. Whose, it is not known*
VALLEY OF THE MANY-COLORED GRASS 377
mysteriously closed. Sub rosa, in certain circles the word went
around. In the end it made a difference, especially when the
Allan children grew up. At that time they were only cutting their
teeth. 472
For the most part, though, the old friends remained true, Jack
Mackenzie, of course, and Bob Cabell, Rob Stanard especially,
and the Gaits. Poe was welcome at many homes, for himself alone.
Many knew enough to take the talk of ingratitude to John Allan
with the proper grain of salt; card playing at the University had
been heard of before. It was not a sin which debarred one from
dances. Even old I. O. U.'s could be overlooked when a charming
young man in the way of fame was to be forgiven, and invited in
to add to the conversation. On the whole it was at first rather a
triumphant return. There were a few discreet smiles, no doubt, at
the expense of a certain proud lady, not a Virginian, who kept a
large house. But Frances Valentine's foster-son was not over-
looked. After Baltimore and poverty it seemed brilliant. There
was wine at every table, music, pretty girls, and a certain defer-
ence to " literature." On some occasions all this seems to have gone
to the head.
After a short stay at the Mackenzies 3 , Poe took up -lodgings
with Mrs. Poore, who kept one of those peculiarly genteel
Southern boarding houses on Bank Street, Capitol Square. The
weather was fine, Mr. White was more than cordial, and Eliza,
his daughter, could recite Shakespeare "elegantly." She had
" remarkable eyes." Elmira was near and not forgotten. A little
after the arrival of the young poet in Richmond, the Southern
Literary Messenger found its columns embellished with the fol-
lowing lines contributed by " Sylvio."
TO SARAH
. . . The silvery streamlet gurgling on,
The mock-bird chirping in the thorn,
Remind me, love, of thee.
They seem to whisper thoughts of love,
As thou didst when the stars above
Witnessed thy vows to me;
472 John Allan's last child, a posthumous daughter, survived her two brothers,
who died young men.
378 ISRAFEL
The gentle zephyr floating by,
In chorus to my pensive sigh,
Recalls the hours of bliss,
When from thy ruby lips I drew
Fragrance as sweet as Hermia's dew,
And left the first fond kiss. . . .
As Mrs. A. Barrett Shelton suddenly ran across these yearning
rhymes in the Messenger, her eyes may possibly have become too
dimmed to note the exact expression on the face of her husband
comfortably seated at his breakfast coffee. Many must have known
who the poet on the Messenger was, " Sylvio " could not have been
an impenetrable disguise. If so, the enlightening Miss Winfree was
Elmira's bosom friend. In the meantime Edgar went every morn-
ing to his desk at the Messenger office, sometimes, too often per^
haps, taking a bracer from the decanter on Mrs. Poore's side-
board, which made him superbly confident a superbness that
did not altogether recommend itself to Mr. White. 470 Otherwise
they got along famously.
The offices of the Southern Literary Messenger were situated at
the corner of Main and Fifteenth Streets, in a substantial three-
story brick building with a steeply-pitched slate roof topped by
a squat brick chimney. Underneath was Archer's shoe shop, the
Messenger being on the second floor. Poe reached his sanctum by
an outside stairway from Fifteenth Street and held forth in the
rear room. It was a neighborhood with which he was uncannily
familiar, for right next door (one could hear the clerks shouting
through the walls) were the store and lofts of Ellis & Allan. Poe
had gone to work that way before! The very slight rise in the
brick pavement starting up Fifteenth from Main was familiar.
Even now the click of a cane upon it, and the ring of a boot
must have made him start.
In the same office with Poe, sat Mr. White, 474 a stocky, good-
478 Mr. White, it will be remembered, specifically warned Poe against morning
drinking. See White to Poe, Richmond, September 29, 1835, printed on page 385.
474 The author is in possession of abundant material for a literal description
of the Southern Literary Messenger offices, the vicinity and the personnel. The
building was removed in 1908, much of the material in it being taken over for
the Poe Shrine. The description of T. W. White is from a portrait.
The Southern Literary Messenger Building
and the offices of Ellis fef Allan to the right
Two buildings in Richmond, Virginia, intimately connected with POE. Many
months were passed under both roofs as a clerk in his foster-father's warehouse,
and as an editor on the Messenger
! Sunday Evening at the Yarringtons"
From an old illustration
VALLEY OF THE MANY-COLORED GRASS" 379
natured man with a florid face. Visitors, local literary lights and
authors, dropped in frequently for a chat or to solicit a favor.
In front could be heard the Scotch-tinged conversation of the
foreman, William McFarland, and John Fergusson as they clapped
the frames on the round, black-faced presses or fluttered their
hands magically over the square cases of type. Proofs hung
upon rusty hooks; the mail was heavy, and piled up mainly upon
Poe's desk. Copies of books for review kept coming in, so the
young editor was very busy.
The office was left very much alone to Poe, as Mr. White, once
the literary capacity of his assistant became apparent, went about
the state and the neighboring towns soliciting subscriptions. There
were only 700 subscribers when Poe came. With the combined
efforts of the young man's brilliant pen and Mr. White's junket-
ings, they now mounted with a bound. So there was no time left
to dream. In the little office, where the light filtered blankly
through the square, dusty panes, someone was always holding
forth and squirting tobacco about. There were volumes to review;
McFarland was howling for copy; or the latest edition was to be
bundled up, addressed by hand, and sent out. Whale-oil lamps
and printer's ink scented the air. Only on the way home in the
evening, as the strong sugary smell of Virginia tobacco surged
out at him from the door of Ellis & Allan, the past, all the lost
past, rolled down upon Poe overpoweringly in a cloud of sweet
odor, for he was peculiarly sensitive to perfume. To his dying
day the scent of orris root made Frances Allan live again, stand-
ing as she used to in her bedroom, looking into her glass before
an open bureau drawer. 476 Then he went "home " to dine at Mrs.
Poore's in Capitol Square.
Behind it all there was, already, a vast melancholy. If " Mud-
die " and " Sis " could only come to Richmond! Perhaps a little
later? Just now his " salary " was only $10 a week.
One day Poe received an invitation to attend a party at a big
house " across the river." He went early. 476 Elmira, he heard, was
475 Poe spoke of this memory-odor as late as 1849.
476 Mrs. Shelton herself authenticated this incident.
380 ISRAFEL
going to be there. The stairs, in this mansion of a memorable
meeting, curved in a double arc to a landing with a bay window !
from which opened a spacious drawing-room. At the end of this,
in a window niche, Poe took his stand and waited. The gentlemen
left their hats in the hall; the ladies left their wraps in an ante-
room off the stairs. Presently Elmira appeared. She was coming
up the stairway alone and still beautiful. The September sunshine
caught, with a well-known glint, in her auburn hair. Poe watched
it while she took off her hat. Then she turned to enter the room,
but she did not do so. Something stopped her at the thresh-
old more powerful than a restraining hand. It was an unfor-
gettable and devouring pair of eyes.
Mrs. Shelton said, years later, that it seemed to her as if there
were nothing else in the room. 470 It seemed as if they shed dark-
ness in the place, the shadows of longing and reproach. For a
moment they stood and exchanged glances, then her husband
came. He took in the situation at a glance; almost carried his wife
away; put on her cloak himself as he led her to the door, and
drove off furiously down the road.
Poe had, indeed, lost his " Lenore." He did not see her again
for more than ten years. Both the Sheltons and Roysters were
much alarmed. Elmira was, after this, both recalcitrant and ill,
and her husband intimated that if Poe tried to meet her again,
there would be a violent reckoning. Nor was this an idle threat,
for, along the James and farther South, 477 the code duello was at
that date, and for years to come, by no means a dead letter, as
many another editor had good cause to know.
Poe was greatly depressed and, about that time, news came
from Baltimore that threw him into despair. The Neilson Poes, it
appears, had taken advantage of his absence to break off the af-
fair with Virginia and were bringing pressure upon Mrs. Clemm
to let the young girl come and live with them. It seemed as if
once more his hopes of a home were to be dashed to the ground
or at least intolerably deferred. There was something peculiarly
477 Duelling lingered in Virginia and the Carolinas long after it went out of
fashion in the North. A notorious case occurred in Charleston, South Carolina,
just before the Civil War, in which an editor was killed.
VALLEY OF THE MANY-COLORED GRASS 381
repulsive to Poe about a boarding house table. The purely acci-
dental association of insufferable personalities who sought to
gorge their appetites and curiosity about the same board, the
landlady introducing " our poet," the suspicion which followed
one who desired privacy, the five-year-old conversation, and the
ignorant gossip, were enough to drive him mad. How could the
gods afflict him with great dreams and the love of " all the beauty
that we worship in a star," while seating him at a board where
any remark above an inanity made all the heavy f easters choke
or stare? It was a divine jest! Worse than the army mess, for
there was no escape whatever. So Poe kept longing for the refuge
of a home. As early as August 20 he remembered that he had
well-to-do cousins in Georgia, and wrote to William Poe of Au-
gusta giving a detailed account of the family and his life history,
and soliciting aid for Mrs. Clemm:
. . . In conclusion I beg leave to assure you that whatever aid you may
have it in your power to bestow upon Mrs. Clemm will be given to one
who well deserves every kindness and attention. Would to God that I
could at this moment aid her. She is now, while I write, struggling
without friends, without money, and without health to support herself
and two children. I sincerely pray God that the words whidi I am writ-
ing may be the means of inducing you to unite with your brothers and
friends, and send her that immediate relief which it is utterly out of my
power to give her just now, and which, unless it reach her soon will, I
am afraid, reach her too late. Entreating your attention to this subject,
I remain
Yours very truly & affectionately
EDGAR A. POE
The taking over of a new position or a decided change in one's
mode of life and residence is, like New Year's, very often the
occasion for trying to put good resolutions into effect. Upon as-
suming the new position in Richmond, Poe evidently undertook
to shake off his dependence on stimulants of any kind, while, at
the same time, he forced himself at the new work. The combined
effect was more than he could support; he had evidently tried
to bolster himself up by drinking, and the result was a col-
lapse. The letter which he now wrote to Mr. Kennedy is the ex-
pression of one who finds the terrible drabness of the real world
382 ISRAFEL
intolerable as he struggles to abandon a habit. What the real
reason is, Poe carefully conceals:
Richmond, Sept. n, 1835
DR. SIR, I received a letter yesterday from Dr. Miller * 78 in which he
tells me you are in town (Baltimore). I hasten therefore, to write you,
and express by letter what I have always found impossible to ex-
press orally my deep sense of gratitude for your frequent and
effectual assistance and kindness. Through your influence Mr. White
has been induced to employ me in assisting him with the Editorial
duties of his Magazine at a salary of $520 per annum. The situation
is agreeable to me for many reasons but alas! it appears to me
that nothing can now give me pleasure or the slightest gratification.
Excuse me, my Dear Sir, if in this letter you find much incoherency.
My feelings at this moment are pitiable indeed. I am suffering under
a depression of spirits such as I have never felt before. I have strug-
gled in vain against the influence of this melancholy you will believe
me when I say that I am still miserable in spite of the great improve-
ment in my circumstances. I say you will believe me, and for this
simple reason, that a man who is writing for effect does not write thus.
My heart is open before you if it be worth reading, read it. I am
wretched, and know not why. Console me for you can. But let it be
quickly or it will be too late. Write me immediately. Convince me
that it is worth one's while, that it is necessary to live, and you will
prove yourself my friend. Persuade me to do what is right. I do not
mean this I do not mean that you should consider what I now write
you a jest oh pity me I for I feel that my words are incoherent but
I will recover myself. You will not fail to see that I am suffering under
a depression of spirits which will ruin me should it be long continued.
Write me then, and quickly. Urge me to do what is right. Your words
will have more weight with me than the words of others for you were
my friend when no one else was. Fail not as you value your peace of
mind hereafter,
E. A. POE
This terrible letter was evidently written in the access of re-
morse which followed an application to the bottle, and in a state
of physical and mental collapse. Poe was, for the first time, com-
pletely in a vicious circle. Trying to escape from his troubles he
had delivered himself to another torment. The angel of oblivion,
which he sought to invoke, now first revealed itself as a demon
* Remedy Manuscripts.
VALLEY OF THE MANY-COLORED GRASS 383
from which he could not escape. The thought was maddening. Had
all the slavery in time of starvation, the escape from John Allan,
the dreams of ambition been in vain? Elmira was gone. Virginia,
it appeared, and with her the strength of Mrs. Clemm upon which
he leaned, were about to be snatched from him, too. At Mrs.
Poore's for the first time, Poe heard unmistakably the faint
tapping at the window pane of the inexorable beak of the bird
of despair that later invaded his chamber to perch triumphant
over the personification of knowledge and art. It was the hand
of a drowning man who had gone down for the first time, and
felt the water close over him, that Mr. Kennedy was asked to
take. There was a postscript almost as long as the letter in which
Poe discusses the fate of his tales with Carey & Lea and rails
against a fellow author for stealing (sic) some of his ideas from
Hans Pfadl. It seems almost at if the man had developed two
minds, a personal and an editorial self. The manifestations of
the dual nature and the occasional visits of the demon were to
continue. A few days later Mr. Kennedy replied:
Baltimore, Sept. 19, 1835
MY DEAR POE, I am sorry to see you in such a plight as your
letter shows you in. It is strange that just at the time when every-
body is praising you and when Fortune has begun to smile upon your
hitherto -wretched circumstances you should be invaded by these vil-
lainous blue devils. It belongs, however, to your age and temper to
be fhus buffeted, but be assured it only wants a little resolution to
master the adversary forever, Rise early, live generously, and make
cheerful acquaintances and I have no doubt you will send these mis-
givings to the Devil. You will doubtless do well henceforth in litera-
ture and add to your comforts as well as to your reputation which, it
gives me great pleasure to tell you, is everywhere rising in popular
esteem. Oan't you write some farces after the manner of the French
Vaudevilles? If you can (and I think you can ) you may turn
them to excellent account by selling them to the managers in New York.
I wish you would give your thoughts to this suggestion. . . .
An excellent suggestion, too a few light farces to take his
mind out of the strange ghoul-haunted hinterland where it too
often wandered, and the first hint of New York. Mr. Kennedy
understood suggestion better than he knew. But the "adver-
3 8 4 ISRAFEL
sary " was not such a simple one as he imagined. It was much
" stranger " than he knew and had delivered a knockout in the
first round. It is doubtful if Poe received Mr. Kennedy's letter in
Richmond. He had parted with Mr. White and had gone back to
Baltimore. Matters there had evidently come to a crisis with
the Poes, Mrs. Clemm and Virginia, and on September 22, iSas, 479
he was secretly married in St. Paul's Episcopal Church to his lit-
tle cousin. Mrs. Clemm was the only witness present and the min-
ister, possibly at the solicitation of Poe himself, who was anxious
to keep the matter from coming to the ears of his cousin Neilson,
did not even make an entry in the parish register. Only the record
of the city license and Mrs. Clemm's word remain. There can be
little doubt, however, that the clandestine marriage took place.
Poe arrived in Baltimore somewhere about the twentieth in
a highly agitated state. He had been dismissed by Mr. White and
he thought he was going to lose Virginia. The house at Amity
Street no doubt echoed with his pleadings and explanations. Once
the clandestine marriage was suggested, Mrs. Clemm saw the way
out of an immediate imbroglio with her relatives, and doubtless
acquiesced willingly in an arrangement which she undoubtedly
had much at heart. Virginia must have been at once terrified by
the state that Edgar was in, and excited by the thought of being
married, a step to adult dignity and an event in which, for the
first time, she found herself indispensable and of genuine impor-
tance. But her disappointment at having no one but her mother
present must have been extreme. The entire setting of a ceremony
so dear to the feminine heart was entirely lacking. Not even a
veil! One can imagine " some natural tears were shed." Yet worst
of all, no one was to know afterward. It was a matter that later
on had to be remedied by an ingenious device. In the meantime
Edgar was calmed. His hints of suicide made in Mr. Kennedy's
letter were probably renewed before Virginia and Mrs. Clemm. 480
* Prof. J. A. Harrison gives the date as September 22, 1834* but Prof.
Woodberry, 1835. The latter is correct as I have been at some pains to ascertain.
The correspondence in the appendix from St. Paul's Parish shows no records of
the marriage. Mrs. Clemm was afterward much " upset " when she was questioned
about it.
4 * The reader will recall that Poe frequently threatened suicide in letters to
John Allan) indirectly at least.
VALLEY OF THE MANY-COLORED GRASS 385
What could they do? The women would be terrified. So it hap-
pened that the momentous step was taken. Edgar Allan Foe was
provided with a home; whether he* had also gotten a wife in the full
sense of the word has been doubted. No one will ever surely know.
In striving to understand the man, however, the speculation is
not entirely idle.
A few days after the very quiet and more than obscure cere-
mony, Poe must have written to Mr. White asking him to take
him back on the Messenger and promising to behave, for Mr.
White replied in a letter which reveals him as a kindly and wise
friend whose patience had evidently been tried. A full under-
istanding of the situation can best be arrived at by allowing White
to speak for himself:
Richmond Sept. 29, 1835
DEAR EDGAR, Would that it were in my power to unbosom my*
self to you in language such as I could on the present occasion, wish
myself master of. I cannot do it and therefore must be content to
speak to you in my plain way.
That you are sincere in all your promises, I firmly believe. But
Edgar, when you once again tread these streets, I have my fears that
your resolves would fall through, and that you would sip the juice,
even till it stole away your senses. Rely on your own strength and you
are gone! Look to your Maker for help, and you are safe.
How much I regretted parting with you, is unknown to anyone on
this earth, except myself. I was attached to you and am still, and
willingly would I say return, if I did not dread the hour of separation
very shortly again.
If you could make yourself contented to take up your quarters in
my family, or any other private family, where liquor is not used, I
should think there were hopes of you. But, if you go to a tavern, or
to any other place where it is used at table, you are not safe. I speak
from experience.
You have fine talents, Edgar, and you ought to have them re-
spected as well as yourself. Learn to respect yourself, and you will
very soon find that you are respected. Separate yourself from the
bottle, and bottle companions, forever!
Tell me if you can and will do so and let me hear that it is your
fixed purpose never to yield to temptation.
If you should come to Richmond again, and again be an assistant in
my office, it must be expressly understood by us that all engagements
on my part would be dissolved, the moment you get drunk.
386 ISRAFEL
No man is safe who drinks before breakfast! No man can do so, and
attend to business properly. ...
I am your true Friend
T. W. WHITE
E. A. Poe, Esq.
In the face of this letter, attempts to sweeten the reason for
the first parting between Poe and White can scarcely be regarded
as a contribution to biography, however kindly in motive. Mr.
White addresses Poe almost in the tone of a father. Evidently
the sight of the vacant chair in the office in Richmond caused the
good man to yearn over the brilliant and wild young figure that
had lately occupied it. What the real cause for Poe's " sipping "
was, Mr. White could have had no idea. That his loss by Poe's
absence was financial as well as personal is not sufficient to ac-
count for a ring in the lines that is not metallic. Poe must have
made the promise, for in a few days he returned to Richmond.
Mrs. Clemm made arrangements to follow speedily. Her protec-
tion, as she knew, was urgently needed. The house in Amity
Street was broken up in October, 1835, and the ghosts of poor
Henry and Grandmother Poe left to twitter there alone.
Upon his return to Richmond, Poe was welcomed back by Mr.
White, who was doubtless reassured by hearing that his aunt and
cousin were about to come from Baltimore to provide the domestic
influence which the good man had so strongly advised. Mrs.
Clemm and Virginia followed a short time afterward, and the
newly married couple and mother-in-law took up their abode at
a Mrs. Yarrington's boarding house, also overlooking Capitol
Square, in the same neighborhood as Mrs. Poore's.
Mrs. Yarrington's was on the southeast corner of Bank and
Eleventh Streets, a two-story brick house with large green shut-
ters of a type then common in Richmond. The Poes occupied a
front room above the parlor, the windows of which gave a pleas-
ant view of the garden-like Capitol Grounds. The exact nature
of the domestic arrangements is not known. Nothing was said
about the marriage at all. Poe's friends were simply informed
that his aunt and little cousin, who were dependent upon him,
had come to live with him, Virginia did not impress those who
VALLEY OF THE MANY-COLORED GRASS 387
saw her as being a woman. Her actions were rather those of a
merry schoolgirl, which, after all, was no more than could be ex-
pected of a child of thirteen. She was rather small for her age,
"plump, pretty, but not especially so, with sweet and gentle
manners and the simplicity of a child."
Rosalie, or " Rose Poe," as she was more generally known,
was now twenty-five years old, but only about Virginia's age
mentally. She was, it appears, somewhat of an annoyance to
Edgar, who was then called " Buddie " by his family circle. Rose
would follow him about with a patient, lamb-like admiration that
was, at times, embarrassing. The games of childhood still occu-
pied her attention, and she and Virginia played like two little
girls together at the Mackenzies', screaming in a swing under the
trees at the Hermitage or skipping rope together in the yard. A
brief glimpse at this kindergarten eclogue of Poe's early married
life has been preserved by Mrs. William Mackenzie, who remem-
bered that one afternoon " Buddie " came up to the Hermitage
to fetch home Virginia who met him with such " abandon " that
Mrs. Mackenzie's Victorian sensibilities were shocked.
The sad truth seems to be that Virginia very closely resembled
Rosalie. She, too, never fully developed. When she was twenty-six
it was noticed by competent persons 481 that she did not appear
to be over fifteen. Her mind developed more normally than her
cousin's, but her body was never wholly mature. It was the re-
verse in the case of Rose.
In Richmond, even in 1835, ft was remarked that the other-
wise childish prettiness of Virginia was marred by a chalky-white
complexion, a pastiness that later became waxen. Such a detail
would be unimportant if it were not for the fact that she de-
veloped tuberculosis a few years later, and finally died of it.
Virginia had been raised in the same house where Henry Poe
died of the disease; a certain strain in the Poe family seems to
have been predisposed to it, and the frequent short commons at
Mrs. Clemm's was certainly a contributing factor. The affliction,
the appearance, and some of the more ethereal and abnormal
481 Elizabeth Oakes Smith and others of the literati in New York in the late
'405. When hi Philadelphia, in 1842, a friend took her to be only fourteen.
3 88 ISRAFEL
characteristics of the little child-wife have been transferred into
literature.
For Poe the " delicacy " which the advancing stages of the
dread, but then fashionable and romantic, disease, conferred on
his wife the strange, chalky pallor tinged with a faint febrile
rouge, the large, haunted liquid eyes gradually acquired a pecul-
iar fascination. From the wide and later on terror-stricken depths
of those eyes, looked forth the spirit of one who had been robbed
of life, a mind which had outgrown its body, simple, and yet wise
enough to sense its own tragedy. Her whole being slowly became
morbidly ethereal. The plumpness remained to the last, 482 yet
somehow it suffered a subtle earth-change as if Death himself
were amorous. To the man who was irretrievably linked to her,
she became part and parcel of his own tragedy. His capacity for
love, perhaps even his potentiality for sensuousness, was meta-
morphosed into a patient and tragic sympathy the truly mag-
nificent and loyal sorrow of one who beheld in his bed, in his
garden, and at his table a constant and pathetic reminder of the
omnipotence of the conqueror worm. On the whole, aside from his
great art, his abiding tenderness for Virginia must remain as his
greatest claim for a hold on the average human heart. She was the
key that completely unlocked for him the house of shadows. She
is the prototype of his heroines.
Virginia became his "Ligeia," his "Eulalie," "Eleonora," the
sister in the House of Usher, perhaps even his " Annabel Lee,"
" Berenice," for instance.
Berenice and I were cousins, and we grew up together in my paternal
halls. Yet differently we grew, I, ill of health and buried in gloom,
she, agile, graceful, and overflowing with energy. . . . Oh, gorgeous
yet fantastic beauty! Oh sylph amid the shrubberies of Arnheim. . . .
And then then all is mystery and terror, and a tale which should not
be told. Disease a fatal disease, fell like the simoon upon her frame;
and even while I gazed upon her, the spirit of change swept over her,
pervading her mind, her habits, and her character, and in a manner the
most subtle and terrible, disturbing even the identity of her per-
son. . . .
482 See the picture of Virginia made after her death at Fordham in 1847,
in Volume II.
VALLEY OF THE MANY-COLORED GRASS 389
So they all were, always subtly different from Virginia, and yet
always the same; dying, corpse-like ladies usually related to their
lovers, with the pale suggestion of incest just around the corner
of the family tomb. It was a page, many pages, from his own
experience.
It seems strange that this should have been so, but it must be
remembered that Virginia Clemm in her actual appearance and
life history approached the ideal of the desired feminine type of
the time. Delicate, consumptive, given to fainting, and languidly
lying upon invalid couches; saying incredibly refined and senti-
mental things, and listening to denatured artificial rhapsodies,
they wasted away in their wailing lovers' arms, leaving them
stricken with sorrow or touched by madness to haunt the lonely
grave, forever inconsolable.
Poe, as it happened, had married a little girl who, as time
passed, approximated the fashionable ideal of the romantic Vic-
torian heroine more nearly than any other whom he might have
chosen. The real story of her tragedy is like an excerpt from a
novel of the day. That Poe etherealized and enormously improved
it, there can be no doubt. His particular etherealizations were not
sentimental mockeries, because behind them lay the grim spiritual
reality of a human tragedy that was horribly, pitiably true. That
he sometimes sought to escape from it into die more robust world
of reality, only proves that he was human after all.
In Richmond, Poe began in leisure hours to teach Virginia to
chatter a little French and to play the harp. She sang in a sweet,
high, girlish voice, trilling, as the fashion then was, like a bird.
Mrs. Clemm did the work. But with the unwonted plenty and
comparative peace at Mrs. Yarrington's she began to recover her
health. The basket for a few months was temporarily forgotten,
nor was she by any means oblivious, then or later, to tie necessity
of providing a background of respectability for Edgar. Now for
a little time, however, she was able to sit in the parlor with the
stuffed birds, rocking, in her white cap, her white starched cuffs,
and her widow's weeds, while she sewed for the two over whom
her grandly simple heart yearned maternally chatting with the
other boarders, or Mrs. Mackenzie supported like a real 'lady
3QO ISRAFEL
by a professional man, and entirely, impeccably genteel. On Sun-
days, Poe read by the parlor lamp while she sat opposite him, her
hands unwontedly idle.
Through the week, Poe on his part was busy for the time
being completely absorbed by his work at his desk in the office
of the Southern Literary Messenger. The young man was actually
becoming a force, if not a figure, in contemporary national jour-
nalism and literature. During the year 1835 he published in the
Southern Literary Messenger thirty-seven reviews of American
and foreign books and periodicals, nine tales, four poems, and ex-
cerpts from his drama of Politian*** In addition to this there were
critical notes and notices, a general editorial supervision of the
contents of the magazine, and an active correspondence.
His work had already fallen inevitably into the two main cate-
gories in which it continued, from then on, to manifest itself; i.e.,
the critical, and the creative. For the time being, due to the fact
that his editorial duties gave him no leisure time, the creative
faculty slumbered. Most of the tales and several of the poems
were drawn from the reservoir of manuscript which Baltimore
and the past had provided. The poems were minor affairs such
as To Sarah, To Mary, The Hymn (from Morelld) or excerpts
from Politian. One or two new stories of minor importance were
produced, but, for the most part, they were drawn from the al-
ready prepared Tales of the Folio Club. The bulk of the work,
however, was critical. It was in the pages of the Messenger that
Poe first appeared in the American arena as the greatest literary
gladiator of his time. American critics up until that era had form-
erly conducted their mock combats with blunt or, at best, lead
weapons. Poe now appeared in their midst with a bright sword
that bit deep and drew blood. He began to be feared, hated, and
admired. He was, despite peculiar personal reservations, a Hu-
manist.
The texts which the young man in Richmond reviewed in
1835-36 the world has for the most part comfortably contrived
"to forget, a fact which has pulled the same damp blanket of
oblivion over the work of their only able critic. Yet this fact, natu-
483 The bibliography is taken from Harrison, and is probably incomplete.
VALLEY OF THE MANY-COLORED GRASS 391
rally enough, did not then detract from its contemporary import-
ance. The books, periodicals, speeches, and poems which Poe
passed upon in the 18303, constituted his education in the current
literature of the day and a soft bone on which to cut his eye-teeth.
For the most part, with the single exception of Carlyle, time has
confirmed his judgments.
His aptitude for the work was deeply rooted in the intricate
folds of his nature. In the first place, he had a genuine respect
for real literature that endowed him at times with a sixth sense
as to the acid effect of time. His background, from a constant and
early reading of foreign periodicals, 484 was genuinely cosmopolitan
instead of local. Great critics of the English reviews, particu-
larly Macaulay, were his models. His artistic idealism and his
materialistic philosophy gave him a hatred of cant; and his youth-
ful experience with a provincial aristocracy in a small Southern
town made him dislike snobs even from New England. Poe
had a genuine love for literature; it was his great passion; he was
in earnest about it. He could not therefore abide dilettantes, and
it was insufferable to him that the prize for which he had starved
and worked should be dropped even ephemerally into the hands
of those whose sole art consisted in the clever manipulation of
little feeble "puffing." The sappy sentimentalism of the time,
although it did not fail to leave its mark on him, was nevertheless,
the great god Sham against which he mainly tilted. As a great
lyricist in prose and poetry he could not abide a mock emotion,
and he was unerring in smelling it out. Mixed with all this was a
tendency to the pedantic that became more marked, as the neces-
sity for confirming the belief in his own logical mental processes
began to require a secret assurance, and above, and finally domi-
nating all, was an ego that felt itself exalted because it was able
to abase. It was an almost insane desire for fame, the last infirm-
ity of noble minds.
Out of such an exalted head the critic on the Messenger was
suddenly born. Mr. White received protests. From time to time he
and others remonstrated. Libel suits might follow enemies
would be, in fact, were made even New York began to take
*s* This familiarity extended back at least as far as 1824.
392 ISRAFEL
notice. But the subscription list bounded from three, well up into
four figures; esteemed contemporaries watched and reprinted.
The audience became large, very large. The salary if it did not
leap, at least wriggled to $15 a week and a few extras, While Vir-
ginia and Rose skipped rope at the Hermitage, the pen at the
Messenger went back again and again into the ink and the acid.
At last, it was making an immediate and an effective noise.
For some time after his return from Baltimore, Poe must have
kept his promise to Mr. White. Years later, J. W. Fergusson, one
of the printers, remarked, " There never was a more perfect gen-
tleman than Mr. Poe when he was sober," (but at other times,)
" he would just as soon lie down in the gutter as anywhere else."
The " other times " must have come later, and perhaps cast some
light on the reasons for Poe's finally parting with Mr. White.
Through the Winter of 1835-36, indeed till some time late in
1836, there could not have been many lapses, if any at all. The
proof lies in the crowded columns of the Messenger.
Poe found most of his social relaxation with the Mackenzies at
the Hermitage, at the Sullys', and with Dr. Robert G. Cabell.
His boyhood friend, Bob Stanard, " Helen's " son, he regarded
with a peculiar affection which was heartily returned. But there
were some rents in the social pavilion which let in a stinging
rain. Two of his old schoolmates refused to attend with him a
party given by the mother-in-law of General Scott,' 1 * 6 and some of
the old hostility from the University and from friends of the
Allans troubled him. Troubled him more, perhaps, than will ever
be known. Part of his spare time was spent at Sanxey's book-
store or with Eliza White, who was rather a beauty and bookishly
inclined. She was the daughter of his employer, so both inclina-
tion and interest dictated that he should be attentive. A great
deal of nonsense was afterward talked about this, based largely
on the fact that the lady was never married. Poe was undoubtedly
intimate with her, and she was present, years later, as an old
friend, at the death-bed of Virginia at Fordham. The effort to
throw a romantic atmosphere about every woman with whom the
poet came in contact on an intimate basis is, of course, nonsense.
4 A Mrs. Mayo with some pretense to " literary " fame.
VALLEY OF THE MANY-COLORED GRASS 393
Of the house and the domestic circle at Mrs. Yarrington's, we
know very little. Certain it is, though, that both Poe and Mrs.
Clemm longed for their own home and continued to work for it.
One of the cousins, George Poe, of Mobile, Alabama, was now in
turn appealed to about the beginning of the new year. The glimpse
is rather intimate:
DEAR SIR, I take the liberty of addressing you in behalf of a mu-
tual relative, Mrs. William Clemm, late of Baltimore and at her
earnest solicitation. . . .
Having lately established myself in Richmond, and undertaken the
Editorship of the Southern Literary Messenger, and my circumstances
having thus become better than formerly, I have ventured to offer my
Aunt a home. She is now therefore in Richmond, with her daughter
Virginia, and is, for the present boarding at the house of a Mrs. Yar-
rington. My salary is only, at present, about $800 per ann: and the
charge per week for our board (Mrs. Clemm's, her daughter's and my
own), is $9. 1 am thus particular in stating my precise situation that
you may be the better enabled to judge in regard to the propriety of
granting the request I am now about to make for Mrs. Clemm.
It is now ascertained that if Mrs. Clemm could obtain the means of
opening, herself, a boarding-house in this city, she could support herself
and daughter comfortably with something to spare. But a small capital
would be necessary for an undertaking of this nature, and many of the
widows of our first people are engaged in it and find it profitable. I am
willing to advance, for my own part, $100, and I believe that William
and R. Poe will advance $100. If then you would so far aid her in her
design as to loan her, yourself, $100, she will have sufficient to com-
mence with. I will be responsible for the repayment of the sum, in a
year from this date, if you can make it convenient to comply with her
request. ... I feel deeply for the distresses of Mrs. Clemm, and I am
sure you will feel interested in relieving them.
(Signature cut off)
P. S. I am the son of David Poe, Jr., Mrs. Clemm's brother.
On the receipt of such letters as these several of the relatives
did respond the reason for keeping the first marriage secret now
becomes clear. Once married, Poe would be appealing on behalf
of himself. With the marriage a secret he could, with good grace,
as a relative supporting his aunt and cousin out of the kindness
of his heart, ask the rest of the family to chip in. It was, perhaps,
a justifiable subterfuge. Mrs. Clemm certainly needed help.
394
ISRAFEL
That she and Poe connived, there can be no doubt. Things on the
whole were looking up for Edgar. A few days after the letter to
George Poe he wrote to Kennedy:
Richmond, Jan. 22, 1836
DEAR SIR, Although I have never yet acknowledged the receipt of
your letter of advice some months ago, it was not without great influ-
ence on me. I have since then, fought the enemy manfully, and am now,
in every respect, comfortable and happy. I know you will be pleased
to hear this. My health is better than for years past, my mind is fully
occupied, my pecuniary difficulties have vanished. I have a fair prospect
of success in a word all is right. I shall never forget to whom all
this hapiness is in a great degree to be attributed. I know that without
your timely aid I should have sunk under my trials. Mr. White is very
liberal and beside my salary of $520, pays me liberally for extra work,
so that I have nearly $800. Next year that is at the commencement of
the second volume, I am to get $1000. Besides this, I receive from
publishers, nearly all new publications. My friends in Richmond have re-
ceived me with open arms, and my reputation is extending espe-
cially in the South. Contrast all this with those circumstances of ab-
solute despair in which you found me, and you will see how great reason
I have to be grateful to God and to yourself. . .
Yours very truly
EDGAR A. POE
J. P. Kennedy
During the Spring of 1836 Poe conducted, among others, a
heavy correspondence with Beverley Tucker of Williamsburg,
Virginia, a critic who admired his work but was careful in his
praise. Some comments which Tucker made to White in a letter
about Poe, caused the young author some uneasiness as to the
effect they might have on his employer. Poe consequently wrote
explaining the situation to Tucker who immediately responded by
writing White a reassuring letter containing some additional good
advice meant for Poe. The manuscript of The Tales of the Folio
Club which still remained with Carey & Lea in Philadelphia had
not been published by them. In February, 1836, the manuscript
was returned by them to Poe with one story missing. Most of
those stories had appeared in the Messenger.
Poe now wrote to J. K. Paulding in New York City, asking him
VALLEY OF THE MANY-COLORED GRASS 395
to submit the volume to Harpers, which he did. The book was
refused, and on March 3, 1836, Mr. Paulding wrote to White:
... I regret this decision of the Harpers, though I have not opposed
it, because I do not wish to lead them into any measure that might be
accompanied by a loss, and felt as I would feel for myself in a similar
case. . . .
Exactly two weeks later Paulding wrote to Poe saying he was
returning the manuscript in a box of books that Haynes was send-
ing for review. Poe, it appears, had requested Paulding to submit
it to another publisher but he was unable to do so. In this letter,
he suggests to Poe, " I think it would be worth your while, if
other engagements permit, to undertake a Tale in a couple of
volumes, for that is the magical number." Out of this suggestion
grew Arthur Gordon Pym, which shortly afterward began to ap-
pear serially in the Messenger. It was the only notable piece of
creative writing which occupied Poe in Richmond. An effort was
now made to get the Tales published in England through Sanders
& Ortley of New York. Poe's friend, Edward W. Johnson of the
College of South Carolina performed the good offices of a go-
between, and the New York publishers were ready to send the
book to England in the Fall of 1836, when Poe asked to have it
returned for further revision. He was not satisfied to let it go to
England as it stood. Nothing further came of the matter. In the
meanwhile, Poe was married a second time to Virginia. This time
the ceremony was public. It took place at Mrs. Yarrington's
house, in Richmond, on May 16, 1836.
The reasons for a second ceremony, although complex, are not
at all mysterious. As we have seen, the chief reason for the clan-
destine marriage in September, 1835, had been the opposition to
it on the part of the Poe connection. Since then Poe and Mrs.
Clemm had been receiving contributions " to help Mrs. Clemm,"
Edgar acting as the nephew who had charitably assumed the chief
responsibility of maintaining his Aunt Maria and Cousin Virginia.
No mention was made of her being his wife. The cousin Poes
would by no means have contributed toward setting up a house
for a young man already on his own salary so that he could live
396 ISRAFEL
with a full cousin who was in their judgment too young to marry.
It would never do now suddenly to throw off the mask and reveal
the fact that the relatives had simply been fooled. Family com-
plications would follow, when it was important to keep on good
terms. The easiest solution, therefore, was simply to have a new
ceremony. By the removal from Baltimore the influence of Neil-
son Poe had been dodged, and Poe now had the argument that he
was already supporting his aunt and cousin. In addition to this,
the revelation in Richmond that he was already married to a little
girl when she was only thirteen would have been extremely un-
comfortable, and the statement might have been met with doubt.
There is also the very likely possibility that Poe and Virginia had
not been living together as man and wife, but that there had been
an understanding at the time of the first marriage that he was to
wait till Virginia was mature. Both Virginia and Mrs. Clemm un-
doubtedly desired the social distinction of even a simple public
ceremony. The other affair without ring, cake, or guests could
scarcely have seemed a marriage to them at all. Now, with Edgar's
unexpected " affluence," a regular marriage was possible. By a
second marriage all of these difficulties were solved and an endless
round of explanations avoided. But the extreme youth of the bride
was still a source of embarrassment and was carefully concealed.
The marriage bond, which was signed in the Hustings Court of
the City of Richmond on May 16, 1836, shows that oath was
made before Charles Howard, the Clerk of Court, by Thomas W,
Cleland as witness that " Virginia E. Clemm is of the full age of
twenty-one years." She was, as a matter of fact, thirteen years,
nine months and one day old. 486 The discrepancy is glaring. Cle-
land, who was a friend and fellow boarder of Poe, is known to
have been a pious Presbyterian and he would scarcely have taken
oath to what he did not believe to be true. Despite the extremely
youthful appearance of the bride, he must have been assured of her
age by Poe, Mrs. Clemm, and, of course, Virginia. She, poor child,
was probably eager enough for a " real wedding " to say anything
" Muddie " and " Buddy " suggested.
486 For a discussion of Virginia's date of birth see Woodbcrry, 1909, vol. I,
page 137.
VALLEY OF THE MANY-COLORED GRASS 397
On the day of the marriage, Jane Foster, 467 a friend of Mrs.
Yarrington, who lived outside of Richmond, came to visit her
friends in town. She found Mrs. Yarrington and Mrs. Clemm busy
baking a wedding cake and was informed that a marriage was
to be performed at the house that day. Jane watched the cake
while the two older women concerned themselves about the other
simple preparations. Late in the afternoon, the Virginia "eve-
ning," the guests began to arrive. Mr. White and his daughter
Eliza, Mr. and Mrs. Cleland, William McFarland and John Fer-
gusson, the printers on the Messenger, Mrs. Yarrington, Mrs.
Clemm, and Jane Foster constituted the little party. The marriage
was performed in the boarding house parlor by the Reverend
Amasa Converse, a Presbyterian divine, at that time the editor
of the Southern ReUgiom Telegraph. Virginia was dressed in a
traveling dress and a white hat with a veil, Poe was, as usual,
in a black suit and the omnipresent black stock. Jane Foster,
who was herself scarcely more than a child, remembered the very
youthful appearance of Virginia. The nupital scene was reflected
in a looking glass on the parlor wall, and little Miss Foster was
surprised to note that the mirror did not show Virginia to be any
older when she passed out than when she walked in. Marriage,
she was sure in her naive way, would magically remedy the con-
trast between the little bride and the mature bridegroom, for Poe
was twenty-seven. The Reverend Amasa Converse remarked that
the bride had a pleasing air, but did seem young. Mrs. Clemm he
noted as " being polished, dignified, and agreeable in her bear-
ing " and that she gave Virginia away " freely ." In the parlor
after the ceremony Mrs. Clemm was in her element when her
fellow boarders were called in while the happy event was an-
nounced, and wine and cake were served. It was doubtless then
that the Reverend Amasa noted that the widow was " agreeable in
her bearing."
487 Afterward Mrs. Stocking. The account of the wedding given here is taken
from various documentary sources and from an account given personally to the
author in Richmond in July, 1925, by a niece of Mrs. Jane Stocking (Miss
Foster) who was fond of relating the details of the occasion to members of her
family. Mrs. Stocking was a close friend of Mrs. Yarrington, who was a planter's
daughter and risked the anger of her family by " marrying beneath her." In order
to help her husband " to get along faster " she had started a boarding house.
39 8 ISRAFEL
After the humble felicitations, a hack was called to the door,
and Virginia and Edgar drove off together on their honeymoon.
One catches a glimpse of the waving hands of the boarders, the
fat stack of the little, wood-burning locomotive throwing sparks
on Virginia's traveling dress on the short journey to Petersburg,
and a round of entertainments at various friends' houses in the
quiet little town basking in the sunlight and perfume of a Vir-
ginia May. The pautownia trees were in bloom.
The Poes spent their honeymoon at the house of Mr. Hiram
H. Haines of the Petersburg, Virginia, Constellation, Democratic
in its journalistic policy, we solemnly learn. There were also visits
to the house of Edwin V. Sparhawk, another journalistic friend,
and Dr. William M. Robinson entertained them at a party and
noted that Poe's conversation was brilliant. Poe no doubt noticed,
although he enjoyed it, that the conversation of the others was
somewhat bucolic. He was already longing for more cultivated
fields in which to converse largely.
Before the end of May, the young editor and his child wife
returned to Richmond. The Stanards, the Sullys, and young Dr,
Ambler called, the latter, doubtless recalling two little boys who
once swam together in Shockoe Creek twenty years before. Mr.
White promised the young husband a raise in salary. He was to
receive " $20 after November."
It was now Summer, and the hot valley of the James took
on the glittering green of June woodlands and the pied hues of
many-colored grass. The calmest hours that Poe was ever to
know in manhood were swiftly passing, a brief respite between
poverties and tragedies, the memory of this time he has preserved
in the tropical idyl of Eleonora:
She whom I loved in youth, and of whom I now pen calmly and
distinctly these remembrances, was the sole daughter of the only sister
of my mother long departed. Eleonora was the name of my cousin. We
had always dwelled together, beneath a tropical sun, in the Valley of
the Many-Colored Grass. No unguided footstep ever came upon that
vale; for it lay far away among a range of giant hills. . . . Thus it
was that we lived all alone, knowing nothing of the world without the
valley, I, and my cousin, and her mother.
VALLEY OF THE MANY-COLORED GRASS 399
" Knowing nothing of the world . . ." unfortunately it was
true. Now they were married, Poe was making every effort to
have his own home where the illusion of the secluded valley might
be continued. Only a few weeks after the return from the honey-
moon he wrote Kennedy, again unfolding his domestic and finan-
cial circumstances to the faithful friend in Baltimore.
Richmond, Va., Jan. 7, 1836
DEAR SIR, Having got into a little temporary difficulty I venture
to ask you, once more, for aid, rather than apply to any of my new
friends in Richmond. Mr. White, having purchased a new house at
$10,000., made propositions to my aunt to rent it to her (sic), and to
board himself and family with her. This plan was highly advantageous
to us, and, having accepted it, all arrangements were made and I ob-
tained credit for some furniture, etc., to the amount of $200, above
what little money I had. But upon examination of the premises pur-
chased, it appears that the house will barely be large enough for one
family, and the scheme is laid aside, leaving me now in debt, (to a
small amount), without those means of discharging it upon which I
had depended.
In this dilemma I would be greatly indebted to you for the loan of
$100. for six months. . . .
"But upon examination of the premises purchased" one
cannot help but smile a little, and yet want to cry too with Mrs.
Clemm and Virginia over the disappointment about the " prem-
ises " so carefully examined after the purchase had been made!
One wonders Mr. White would scarcely buy a house before
he had looked at it. "This plan," says Poe, "was highly advan-
tageous to us" Then he continues to Kennedy:
. . . Have you heard anything farther in relation to Mrs. Clemm's
estate?
Our Messenger is thriving beyond all expectations, and I myself have
every prospect of success. It is our design to issue, as soon as possible,
a number of the Magazine consisting entirely of articles from our most
distinguished literati. . . . Could you not do me so great a favor as to
send me a scrap, however small, from your portfolio? Your name is of
the greatest influence in that region where we direct our greatest efforts
-in the South.
Any little reminiscence, tale, jeu d'esprit, historical anecdote,
400 ISRAFEL
anything, in short, with your name, will answer all our purposes. I pre-
sume you have heard of my marriage.
With sincere respect & esteem
Yours truly,
EDGAR A. POE
" Our Messenger " may have been thriving, but Mrs. Clemm
and Virginia shared only in the glory. The grand scheme of the
$10,000 boarding house having been abandoned, perforce, the
little family moved from Mrs. Yarrington's on Capitol Square to
"a cheap tenement on Seventh Street," 488 where they sublet
rooms. Mrs. Clemm went back to her dressmaking; there were
generally a few boarders at the table. Virginia was a little more
silent now, the honeymoon was over, some of the patches of
many-colored grass were probably becoming a little parched,
even for her, life had a few surprises. She was trying as hard as
she could to grow up
Nearly twenty years after this time there were persons living on
Main Street who remembered almost daily to have seen about the Old
Market, in business hours, a tall, dignified looking woman, with a
market basket on one arm, while on the other hung a little girl with
a round ever-smiling face, who was addressed as "Mrs. Poe! " She,
too, carried a basket. 488
Mrs. Yarrington's parlor mirror had been right after all. The
marriage had worked no magic for Virginia.
Poe was now seldom to be found at home. " Graceful, and with
dark, curling hair and magnificent eyes, wearing a Byron collar
and looking every inch a ' poet/ " he preferred the recitations of
Eliza White doing " Lady Macbeth " in the house that was too
small for two families, the lurid remarks of journalistic brethren
at the office, the excitement of a correspondence with J. Q. Adams
or Mrs. Sigourney, supper at the Sullys', or an evening at the
Court House Tavern. There were many places he could go, and
every place he went he was offered wine. Sometimes he took it.
Then he was very ill and went home, to spend several days in
48 Mrs. Susan Archer Weiss, Home Life of Poe, A few facts regarding Rich-
mond occurrences of which Mrs. Weiss was reliably informed are culled here from
an otherwise inaccurate biography.
VALLEY OF THE MANY-COLORED GRASS 401
bed. " Dear Eddie's health was so bad, no, he could not get down
to the office to-day," was Mrs. Clemm's version. And she loved him
so much that at last she came to believe it, although she knew it
was not true.
Towards the end of 1836 the days in bed became more fre-
quent. Mr. White it appears became annoyed and then alarmed.
Yet he was loath to force a parting. His young editor had be-
come invaluable. There was a good deal of idle gossip about it
a ll ? about Poe, the Allans, Elmira, Eliza White, Virginia, and
Mrs. Clemm. " There was a general prejudice against her on ac-
count of her having made or consented to the match between her
little daughter and a man of Poe's age and dissipated habits." 488
As usual, the gossips with the unerring instinct of their race,
had aimed the barb for the heart. For back of it all, then and
forever afterward, remaining even after Israfel was removed
from the scene, was the grand simple heart, the strong arms, and
the maternal bosom of Maria Clemm. If there be anything at all
in the tradition of the test of sacrifice and abnegation, she loved
him better than all the other women who crossed his path. She
it was who never doubted or faltered in her belief in the immortal
part of the man; who, after the mortal had been removed, con-
tinued nobly to cherish the memory of his genius. She washed
for him, worked for him, begged for him, nursed him and com-
forted him. Before her simple " Eddie, Oh God, my dear Eddie I "
all the mud of Mrs. Ellet, the vitriol of Griswold, and the
sugar of Helen Whitman is dried up and blown away while
Mrs. Clemm's cry remains to keen in our ears. Small persons,
who called upon her later when smug society and the legacy of
fame had driven her half crazy, saw nothing in her but an old
bereaved woman with a broad face, roughened hands, and an
ignorant manner of speech. 489 Pharisees like Stoddard departed
making long the fringes of their phylacteries laughing, and
thanking God they were not like that. Thackeray, who knew
nothing at all of one Virginian, drew large genteel audiences in
48* See R. H. Stoddard's account of Mrs. Clemm, after Poe's death. Lippin*
cott's Magazine, January, 1889, page 112. One of the most self-complacent articles
ever written.
402 ISRAFEL
Richmond, and exchanged aristocratic repartee with ladies in
Charleston and departed. Charles Dickens returned to the
States on his second tour. In a certain obscure Episcopal Church
Home in Baltimore, erected on the same spot where a great poet
had died only a few years before, the author of Bleak House
called on a tearful old woman whose last days were being pro-
longed by Christian charity. It was " Muddie," whose reward for
exorcising the demons down under the sea, was the contempt of
mankind and a saintlike face. Mr. Dickens left behind a present
of money pressed into a rheumatic old hand. Only he and Lowell
were fully aware who it was that had made the croaks of the
raven in Barnaby Rudge audible to the entire world.
By December, 1836, Richmond and the South no longer offered
a broad enough field for a rising young author and editor who
desired to try sinking his plowshare into more fertile literary soil.
During the year, Poe's tremendous critical fertility had con-
tinued.
No less than eighty-three reviews, six poems, four essays, and
three stories had appeared in the Messenger* besides there was
correspondence which its editorial duties necessitated and the writ-
ing of the narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym that Poe hoped to sell
to Harpers after publishing it in the Messenger in serial form. The
reviews ranged through almost the entire gamut of contemporary
literature from Recollections of S. T. Coleridge 40 to Mrs. Sig-
ourney's Letters to Young Ladies. The poems were mostly old
ones revived, some of them changed into masterpieces. To Helen
had appeared in March, Irene, or The Sleeper in May, and
Israjcl now wonderfully perfected in August. Besides this, there
had been the lovely sonnet, Zante, and some additional scenes
from Politian. Poe's study of poetical criticism was having a
memorable effect upon his own early work. His poems were now
pruned and grafted to last through the winter of time. The stories,
Metzengerstein, The Homo-Camelopard and the like, were still
400 Letters, Conversation, and Recollections of S. T. Coleridge, New York,
published by Harper & Brothers, No. 28 Cliff Street, 1856. Another Harper book
reviewed by Poe who was anxious to publish Arthur Gordon Pym through Harpers.
Poe was much in debt to this book for many ideas he later developed. Poe's critical
debt to Coleridge cannot be too strongly stressed.
VALLEY OF THE MANY-COLORED GRASS 403
drawn from the old reserve supply, but the essays were new. Chief
of these was Maelzell's Chess-Player in which he exposed the
method by which a dummy chessman, that had gone the rounds
of American cities winning games with living opponents, was
operated. It is possible that Poe's interest in this automaton was
early aroused by an article in the Baltimore North American to
which Henry Poe had contributed in 1827. Many persons had been
more mystified than amused by the maneuvers of the automatic
man, and the expos6 9 although only partly correct, created quite a
little furor. It was the first of Poe's work in which he emerged as
the unerring, abstract reasoner, and foreshadowed the method he
followed later in his detective stories such as the Murders in the
Rue Morgue, a method which has been embalmed in the triumphs
of " Sherlock Holmes."
Pinakidia, another type of contribution, were selections from
the author's notebook, selections which throw an interesting side-
light on his literary and journalistic pilferings, nearly always from
secondary sources. By a mistake, obviously made in the compos-
ing room, they were printed in the Messenger as " original " in-
stead of the opposite.
Like so many other literary and curious persons of his epoch,
Poe kept a commonplace book. Into it went from time to time
cullings from a thousand books, magazines and newspapers, copies
of which came under his editorial eye. Nor was he by any
means blind to the dusty shelves and remote alcoves of libraries
public and private. He made the most of, and he improved such
opportunities for browsing as Pinakidia and the later Marginalia
show. These grains of gold sifted out of dust and refuse were
not so valuable in themselves, but they provided an inexhaustible
source upon which he drew for items of curious knowledge, for
a parade of learning, and for quotations that temporarily lulled
or alarmed even the learned. Above all, here was the store of am-
munition for charges of plagiarism which he loved to ram home.
From his careful gleaning over wide fields, there was scarcely
any figure in poetry, or any idea, which Poe could not show had
been used before. Often the charge was true; always it was plau-
sible. In the great shallow lakes of American crudity, the well of
404 ISRAFEL
erudition of the young Richmond critic seemed deep even
profound.
But there was something more to it than that. This habit of
clipping and noting exercised a valuable curiosity. Out of a dead
book or a banal news-sheet, Poe developed the habit of culling
the one living incident, the pertinent fact, or the picturesque
scene. He remembered it, and when the time came the shot was
there, carefully greased and labelled, in the right locker. It was
later always delivered with telling effect, and in a direction that
associated it with the living thought of his time. That the French
of obscure titles, the original sources, or the precise wording of
quotations were sometimes garbled, is of importance only in the
cemetery of the scholastic mind, for, by the living use of such
matter, Poe frequently conferred upon it the only gleam of vital-
ity which it ever possessed. Even in 1836, he stood out boldly
and alone as the only arresting critic of contemporary literature
in the United States.
His rise to that position had been meteoric. It was the Southern
Literary Messenger which had conferred upon him the opportu-
nity to claim the title. In less than two years that obscure maga-
zine claimed the attention of the nation on an equal footing
with The New Englander and the Knickerbocker, and was even
beginning to disturb the complacent local religion of the North
American Review, to which, heretofore, nothing south of the
Delaware had been audible.
In the late Fall of the previous year (1835), Theodore S. Fay,
a young author who had many friends in the literary circles of
New York and among the editors of the Knickerbocker journals,
published a novel called Norman Leslie. It was greeted by a
howl of metropolitan acclaim that found the usual servile echo
in the provinces. The book was unusually poor, and the rever-
berations in the canyon of criticism were more than usually
grand. In December, 1835, Poe reviewed Norman Leslie in the
columns of the Messenger. Both the book, and, by implication, the
author, were reduced to the light powder of which they were
actually composed, but in a manner so trenchant, so vividly
interesting and unanswerable, that the public in general be-
VALLEY OF THE MANY-COLORED GRASS 405
came interested, subscribed in numbers, and eagerly hoped for
more.
The New York papers, at first, maintained a discreet and digni-
fied silence, but the cat was out of the bag and scratching so hard
that the pose of dignified silence became too painful to maintain.
On April 9, 1836, the New York Mirror with a display of no less
than four scornfully pointing, printed hands drew attention to a
column on another page in which Poe was satirized in his own
style for his methods of criticism, his minute analyses, and his
accusations of plagiarism. The notice itself accused him of striv-
ing for notoriety " by the loudness of abuse," hinting that he was
actuated by jealousy because he " knows by experience what it
is to write a successless novel." This doubtless referred to some
rumor of the collected tales which Harpers had refused.
In the April number of the Messenger Poe replied. The state-
ment about "a successless novel" not being true, was easily
refuted, and the young editor took the occasion to make his views
on the necessity for a broad attitude in criticism clear:
. * . We are becoming boisterous and arrogant in the pride of a too
speedily assumed literary freedom. We throw off with the most pre-
sumptuous and unmeaning hauteur all deference whatever to foreign
opinion we forgot, in the puerile inflation of vanity, that the world
is the true theatre of the biblical histrio we get up a hue and cry
about the necessity of encouraging native writers of merit we blindly
fancy that we can accomplish this by indiscriminate puffing of good,
bad, and indifferent, without taking the trouble to consider that what
we choose to denominate encouragement is thus, by. its general applica-
tion, precisely the reverse. In a word, so far from being ashamed of the
many disgraceful literary failures to which our own inordinate vanities
and misapplied patriotism have lately given birth, and so far from
deeply lamenting that these daily puerilities are of home manufacture,
we adhere pertinaciously to our original blindly conceived idea, and thus
often find ourselves in the gross paradox of liking a stupid book the
better because sure enough, its stupidity is American.
Poe's view that the world, by which he unconsciously meant
the world of European culture, was the only background which
provided the correct perspective in which to judge one's own work
or that of others, was, of course, by no means new. It has been
406 ISRAFEL
consciously or unconsciously adopted by many of the greatest
writers of other periods, and it jibed with the private opinions
of many readers at the time. But in some quarters it was essen-
tially uncomfortable. In such a " world vista " as Poe proposed
what would become of America's literary Holy Land, New Eng-
land? Besides this, the new prophet had arisen on the wrong side of
Jordan. In certain quarters the stone heaps were prepared. The
New York Commercial Advertiser pronounced him anathema.
W. G. Clark of the Philadelphia Gazette pounced on him and the
war was even carried south of the James. For the most part,
though, the South rallied around him. For it, the position of the
Jordan was reversed. But Poe understood that, and how little
it meant. He had raised the view halloo under the palace windows
and he longed to follow the quarry whither it fled northward.
Once dip your pen in acid and it becomes difficult to convince
even a friend that a compliment is not meant for an innuendo.
Poe's reputation for critical savageness has been over-strained.
A letter by Poe to a complaining contemporary in September,
i836, 401 provides an answer to those who complain of his severity
which an examination of the columns of the Messenger also re-
futes. For the most part, indeed almost without exception, time
has confirmed the justness of his criticism. Sartor Resartus alone
survives. Nor would it be reasonable to expect Edgar Allan Poe
to be in sympathy with the style of Thomas Carlyle. It is doubt-
ful if Poe ever descended into those turgid and strangely agitated
depths. Yet here was the only " world book " that met his view.
It was the " world view," however, that moved Poe northward
in 1837. Ten years before, he had written from Fortress Monroe
to John Allan, " Richmond and the United States were too nar-
row a sphere and the world shall be my theater." 402 This fine am-
bition had never died. Poe knew the South too well to put any
value on its acclaim. He was not deceived because three, or even
41)1 Poe to the Richmond Courier and Dally Compiler, Richmond, September
a, 1836, . . . "But this charge of indiscriminate 'cutting and slashing* has never
been adduced except in four instances, while the rigid justice and impartiality
of our Journal had been lauded even ad nauseam . . ." etc. The letter is detailed
and convincing.
4 a Valentine Museum Collection, letter No. 7, Poe to John Allan, December
22, 2828.
VALLEY OF THE MANY-COLORED GRASS 407
five thousand persons 49S there had subscribed to the Messenger.
That was mainly because out of an honest literary opinion he had
happened to criticize the North. There were probably not five
hundred souls all told, anywhere, who knew what he was really
talking about. South of the Potomac, literature was " cherished "
as the decent avocation of a gentleman who might otherwise have
to work with his hands. Haynes and Simms met the same situa-
tion in South Carolina a little later and lost. What could one
do in a section which gave its praise easily and so took it with a
private grain of salt, where every crowing plantation Chanti-
cleer or twittering Jenny Wren was acclaimed as a poet; a
province that talked of "Southern Literature" and preferred
foreign books, a locality whose estimate of style was theatri-
cally forensic? 24<J One could live there comfortably and become,
possibly, an obscurely honored local bard, the schoolboy's aver-
sion and the old maid's pride. Horrible thought! Every day that
he had spent in England, every page of the foreign reviews in the
loft of Ellis & Allan, every contact with the great, wide, oblivious
world cried out against it. " The world shall be my theater! " and
the world won. In January, 1837, the following notice appeared in
the Southern Literary Messenger:
Mr. Foe's attention being called in another direction, he will decline,
with the present number, the Editorial duties on the Messenger. His
Editorial Notices for this month end with Professor Anthon's Cicero
494 what follows is from another hand. With the best wishes to the
Magazine, and to its few foes as well as many friends, he is now de-
sirous of bidding all parties a peaceable farewell.
Mr. Poe's urge for exit, however, was not purely literary. En-
counters with the glass toward the end of 1836 had evidently
been at least occasional, consequently his health was again
" bad." Despite his increased salary, now over $1000 a year, he
had, it seems, involved himself in debt, Mrs. Clemm's boarding
498 Prof. J. A. Harrison, Life and Letters, vol. I, p. 125, gives the increase of
subscribers on the Messenger as from seven hundred to five thousand. Prof. Wood-
berry is more conservative and puts the last figure at thirty-five hundred. The
last is correct. Poe gave the larger.
494 p oe was expecting to go to New York, where Prof. Anthon lived, and had
therefore probably picked his book for iavorable notice.
408 ISRAFEL
house venture was evidently not a paying one. Increasing fame
had also added a certain arrogance that even his friends depre-
cated. Mr. White had been patient, but probably annoyed by
irregularities; and no one enjoys being patronized. They parted
friends, however. The young editor's copy on hand was to be ex-
hausted rapidly, as the pages of the Messenger show, but Poe was
to continue some contributions. He was particularly anxious to
finish the serials of Arthur Gordon Pym.
About the middle of January, 1857, we find Poe in bed winding
up his correspondence and making his last acceptances for the
Messenger^ articles which did not please Mr. White. 195 There is a
tradition that Poe asked to be reinstated but it is a doubtful
one that would naturally be cherished by a magazine. During his
regime it had increased its circulation from 500 to 3500 copies, 103
Poe had developed, by valuable experience, some well-defined
ideas about the possibilities of a truly national publication. He
was the first journalist to conceive of a magazine on a huge
modern scale. That was the great idea he hoped to put into opera-
tion. He saw clearly, even then, that it would have to be done
from Philadelphia or New York.
What little furniture they had was probably sold. " Muddie "
and Virginia accompanied him. The little wife had matured con-
siderably. There is a brief silence, and then we find them in New
York. In Richmond he left behind him a few virulent enemies and
a large number of friends. The great experiment had begun.
4 5 See the correspondence between White and Poe in January, 1837.