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[page 15:]
Two Biographical Digressions:
Poe’s Wandering Trunk and Dr. Carter’s
Mysterious Sword Cane
Jeffrey
A. Savoye
Perhaps no aspect of Edgar Allan Poe’s life has attracted more
attention, generated more discussion, or caused more confusion than the
murky circumstances surrounding his death (1). The
story has evolved
over a period of more than 150 years, the details being refined in the
telling as much by repetition and dramatic flair as by scholarly
analysis. Although much is still the subject of debate, a hardened core
of the tale has entered the lore of American literary biography, and
among the elements now fused with this core are two humble objects, a
trunk and a cane, which have taken on lives of their own. In addition
to being relics of Poe, both are important mostly for what they
contained — the trunk with its manuscripts and other documents, and the
cane with its concealed sword. Given the scanty details and the
unreliable nature of some of the sources, the following information is
reasonably comprehensive but neither exhaustive nor absolutely
conclusive.
“I have a trunk with my papers and
some manuscripts”
On that fateful trip, starting from Richmond about September 27 and
ending so abruptly in Baltimore on 7 October 1849, Poe brought with him
a single trunk of belongings. For several months after his death, this
trunk was the target of considerable interest from two opposing forces:
Maria Clemm and Rufus Wilmot Griswold in New York, and Rosalie Poe and
John R. Thompson in Richmond. Caught in the middle were Neilson Poe and
Dr. John J. Moran in Baltimore. Poe had left an estate with no money or
property, but there were his poems, tales, and other writings, and
Griswold had agreed to edit a collection of Poe’s works, to be
published for the financial benefit of Poe’s mother-in-law, Maria
Clemm. Poe’s sister, Rosalie, however, sought to exercise her own
rights through the legal assistance of Thompson, and a kind of tug of
war ensued (2).
Having “heard this moment of the death of my dear son Edgar,” and in a
state of “dreadful uncertainty,” a distraught Mrs. Clemm wrote to
Baltimore on 9 October 1849, “to try and ascertain the fact and
particulars . . . My mind is prepared to hear all — conceal
nothing
from me” (3). Among the general details and rather
cautious expressions
of sympathy, Neilson Poe’s 11 October 1849 reply provides the first
recorded mention of the trunk: “Mr. Herring [Poe’s uncle] & [page
16:] myself
have sought, in vain, for the trunk & clothes of Edgar. There is
reason to believe that he was robbed of them, whilst in such a
condition as to render him insensible of his loss . . .” (4).
On 25
October 1849, more interested in the trunk than consolation, Griswold
wrote to Thompson, in Richmond: “Poe’s trunk has not been recovered.
Mr. Neilson Poe of Baltimore writes that from something said by Poe it
was believed that he gave it into the hands of a porter at Baltimore to
carry to the Philadelphia depot. Can you give any clue to it? It
contained some important letters, and his lectures and I am
very
anxious to obtain the last, to print” (5). Thompson
wrote back to
Griswold on 3 November 1849: “I have written to Mr. Neilson Poe, as
Miss Poe’s attorney, directing the trunk of the deceased to be
forwarded to me. If it should come, I will be careful to secure for you
the MS lectures and whatever other literary contents may be found in
it” (6). Thompson’s assertion of his legal position
was well-timed; in
the week between Griswold’s letter to Thompson and Thompson’s letter to
Griswold, the trunk had been located and was in the possession of
Neilson Poe.
We have already had a few hints of the treasures contained in this
elusive trunk, but what can we divine of its full contents? Dr. Moran,
usually acknowledged as Poe’s attending physician during his final few
days, quotes Poe as saying “I have a trunk with my papers and some
manuscripts.” Moran curiously adds: “Note this, there was no clothing
in the trunk. A new suit of wedding clothes was to have been placed in
it for the groom. His visit was a business one and was to be a short
one” (7). Although he may indeed have been
instrumental in reclaiming
the trunk, Dr. Moran is so unreliable in his recollections that his
comments about the clothing must be taken with a grain of salt.
Contradicting his 1885 statement, we find Moran’s earliest comment on
the trunk, from a letter to Mrs. Clemm, 15 November 1849, in which he
mentions that Poe did not know “what had become of his trunk of
clothing” (8). There is no clear evidence that Moran
actually opened
the trunk or had any personal knowledge of its contents.
Fortunately, we have a direct contemporary comment from Neilson Poe,
who wrote to Griswold on 1 November 1849: “I have opened his trunk and
find it to contain very few manuscripts of value. The chief of them is
a lecture upon the poetic principle and some paragraphs prepared,
apparently, for some literary journal. There are, however, a number of
books, his own works, which are full of corrections by his own hand.
These ought, undoubtedly, to be placed in your hands” (9).
Woodberry
goes on to specifically list two of the books. The first was the [page
17:] J.
Lorimer Graham copy of Tales and The Raven and Other Poems (1845), with
Poe’s significant revisions penciled on many pages. This was the
double-bound edition, the same as the presentation copies for Sarah H.
Whitman and Miss E. B. Barrett (10). The second was
the Bishop Hurst
copy of Eureka (1848), one of several copies with manuscript changes
and additions by Poe, but this one is certainly the most important and
has the most extensive notes (11). Woodberry also
suggests “possibly
others” without saying what these remaining books may have been,
leaving us to resort to some speculations.
We may safely eliminate Tamerlane and Other Poems (1827) and Poems
(1831) from the list. Writing to J. R. Lowell in 1844, Poe stated
off-handedly, “I have been so negligent as not to preserve copies of
any of my volumes of poems — nor was either worthy preservation” (12).
He did, however, have a copy of Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane and Minor Poems
(1829), which he borrowed back from his cousin Elizabeth in 1845 and
subsequently used at his disastrous reading in Boston. In this copy,
Poe carefully altered the date on the title page to read 1820,
apparently in an effort to bolster his claim that these poems were
written when he was very young. Afterwards, he kept it and may have
used it in Virginia for a similar purpose, in which case it would have
accompanied the other volumes noted by Woodberry (13).
Also in the
trunk was a set of his two-volume Tales of the Grotesque and
Arabesque
(1840), referred to as “an early edition of Mr. Poe’s works” in a 24
December 1875 letter from Miss Sarah H. Heywood to J. H. Ingram. With
no indication that this set was specially marked, however, it was
clearly not the elaborately revised copies retitled Phantasy Pieces
(14). In his lectures, Poe often read the poems of
others, and may also
have had copies of their books for this purpose. A particular favorite
was N. P. Willis’s poem “Unseen Spirits.” Griswold’s Poets and
Poetry
of America would have suited as a convenient source for a number of
poems, and Poe would surely have wanted a copy in hand when he
criticized it. (Along with his own walking stick, Poe left a copy of
Moore’s Irish Melodies at the office of Dr. Carter in Richmond.
Although these two items were clearly not in the trunk after Poe’s
death, this fact does show that he had at least one book by someone
else with him on the tour (15).) One might presume
that the small Bible
given by Maria Clemm to Poe in 1846 was also present in the trunk, as
Poe did carry it with him according to tradition. Mrs. Clemm, however,
apparently gave it to Mrs. Rebecca Cromwell in late 1849, by which time
she would not have received any of the contents from Neilson Poe (16). [page 18:]
The lecture mentioned by Neilson Poe was obviously “The Poetic
Principle,” which was originally included in volume III, and later
moved to volume II. The “paragraphs” were the humorous essay “A
Reviewer Reviewed,” intended for Graham’s Magazine, and
probably a few
bits used in his readings of “Marginalia” or his aborted “Literary
America” project (17). Among other miscellaneous
material in Poe’s trunk
were various letters. Based on the dates Poe would have received them,
these would have included his six final letters, written by Mrs. Clemm,
E. H. N. Patterson, Thomas H. Chivers, Mrs. Sarah A. Lewis and Mrs.
Marguerite St. Leon Loud (RCL-812, RCL-819, RCL-820, RCL-824, RCL-825,
and RCL-827b). Neilson Poe told Eugene L. Didier that he found a
package of love letters from Elmira Shelton. Somewhat surprisingly he
also had twelve letters written to him from George W. Eveleth, ranging
in date from 21 December 1845 (RCL-599) to 3 July 1849 (RCL-807a). In
addition, he had one new letter from Thompson to Griswold, ca.
25
September 1849. He may also have had other letters, and drafts of his
own letters written while away from home (18).
Whitty claims that a
clipping of J. M. Daniel’s notice from the 25 September 1849 Richmond
Examiner was “found among Poe’s clippings after his death, and is
now
among the ‘Griswold Papers.’” It would not, of course, have been
possible for an article of this late date to have been left behind in
New York, although he might have mailed it to Mrs. Clemm just before
leaving Richmond (19). He may also have had the
miniature portrait of his
mother, painted by Sully. Mrs. Lewis mentions that he had it in his
valise when it was lost in Philadelphia (in July of 1849) (20).
The principal reason for Poe’s tour was to obtain potential subscribers
to his proposed magazine (by this time titled The Stylus). He
must,
therefore, have had with him some means of recording the names of
subscribers and contributors, and for this purpose he probably carried
his “Memorandum” book, now at the Enoch Pratt Free Library (21). Bishop
Fitzgerald claimed, many years later, that Poe had $1,500 in
subscriptions with him when he left Richmond. If so, it must have been
money he obtained after he left Norfolk. As he wrote to Mrs. Clemm, “I
lectured at Norfolk on Monday & cleared enough to settle my bill
here at the Madison House with $2 over . . . My poor poor Muddy. I am
still unable to send you even one dollar — but keep up heart — I hope
that our troubles are nearly over.” With no corroborating evidence that
he actually managed to accumulate such a large sum of money, or what
would have become of it, I consider the story apocryphal (22).
[page 19:]
For a trip requiring several days of travel and involving a visit with
the prominent Loud family in Philadelphia, Poe would surely have had
personal belongs, including a change of clothing (at least a shirt) and
such usual necessities as a straight razor for shaving (and the related
accessories of a strap, brush, etc.), a hair brush, and similar items.
Also likely were the boot hooks now on display at the Poe Museum in
Richmond (23). The fact that he left some of his
baggage behind in
Richmond at the Swan Tavern suggests that he may have removed other
items, with the intention of saving space in the trunk for new material
as part of the “move” to Richmond.
Though somewhat better documented than the contents of the trunk, its
history is even more confusing. The available evidence supports the
notion that it was retrieved by Dr. Moran, who, after some searching,
claimed the trunk from the Bradshaw Hotel or the train depot, which was
across the street. He then gave it to Neilson Poe. The idea that the
trunk was forwarded to Neilson Poe from Richmond — an error apparently
created by Mrs. Weiss and perpetuated by Woodberry and Allen — may be
easily dismissed (24). Given the statements in
Griswold’s 25 October 1849
letter to Thompson and Neilson Poe’s 1 November 1849 letter to
Griswold, the trunk must have come into Neilson’s hands during the last
week of October. At this point, most scholars seem satisfied to state
that Neilson delayed forwarding the trunk and its contents to Mrs.
Clemm, leaving the impression that he was lazy or disinterested. In a
27 November 1874 letter to Ingram, N. H. Morison reinforces this view
of Neilson, describing him as a one who “belongs, so his friends say,
to the class of dilatory men, who plan and never do” (25).
The case for
Neilson’s lack of action is further supported by a 2 March 1850 letter
from Mrs. Clemm to Dr. Moran: “What I wish you to do for me dear Sir is
to enquire for me of Mr. N. Poe why he retains the trunk and why he
will not let me have those papers. If I learn that he has them not, the
third volume of the book will have to be published without them. At all
events procure from him my darling Eddie’s letters to myself and
enclose them to me, for they are a thousand times more precious to me
‘than rubies’ ” (26).
Judging solely from this evidence, it would be reasonable to conclude
that Neilson Poe had done nothing with the trunk or its contents over
the preceding months. The truth, however, is somewhat more complicated.
Once he obtained the trunk, Neilson Poe was in a very uncomfortable
position. It was essentially the symbol of Poe’s estate, and as a
lawyer he would have known that Rosalie had the stronger legal claim as
Poe’s heir. On the other hand, Mrs. Clemm was his own [page 20:]
wife’s
stepmother, and she was destitute. Rosalie was then living with the
Mackenies, who enjoyed a wealthy lifestyle until their terrible losses
during the Civil War. Mrs. Clemm also had an unusual talent for making
people feel very guilty (27). The key to correcting
this impression of
inactivity is to accept that about this time, the trunk and at least
some of its contents began to follow separate paths. Referring to Poe’s
corrected copies of Tales and The Raven and Other Poems,
Mabbott is
wrong when he says “The book came into Griswold’s hands too late for
use in his edition of the Works.” In preparing the two volumes issued
by J. S. Redfield by 10 January 1850, Griswold was highly selective in
using Poe’s corrections, but his access to these changes is undeniable.
Among other examples, the title of “Catholic Hymn” acknowledges Poe’s
cancellation of “Catholic,” and the word “sorrow” in “The Haunted
Palace” is corrected to “morrow.” Most importantly, Poe’s “Preface” and
“The Raven” were newly set in type, incorporating a large number of
miscellaneous changes marked by Poe’s own hand (28).
By about mid-November, therefore, Neilson Poe had indeed sent Griswold
the books mentioned in his letter, but he did not include the
manuscript material. Writing again to Thompson on 19 February 1850,
Griswold noted “He [Poe] had two or three discourses — one of which was
on the Poetic Principle, and another I believe on American Literature —
with him in manuscript at Richmond. Do you know anything of them? Mr.
[Neilson] Poe, of Baltimore, wrote to me that he would send them for
insertion in the volumes of ‘Redfield;’ but they were never received.
In his trunk I suppose, were the corrected copies of his tales &c.,
of which you write, and of many other materials, including the MSS. of
several literary biographies.” The only lecture in the trunk was “The
Poetic Principle,” and in the same letter, Griswold prompts Thompson:
“I suggest that you obtain the lecture on the Poetic Principle, and
print it as a leading article in the Messenger, paying Miss R. Poe as
much as you can for it, sending me the proofs for the book, to come out
subsequently. . . .” (29). Thompson did not act on
this suggestion, and
this lecture too ended up in Griswold’s hands. In a 29 July 1850
letter, Bayard Taylor, acting for Griswold, offered the manuscript to
George R. Graham for $50 for the benefit of Mrs. Clemm. Graham
declined, and it was instead purchased for publication by John Sartain,
who printed it in the issue of Sartain’s Magazine for October
1850,
although by then it had already been printed in Willis’s Home
Journal
(31 August 1850). The manuscript has long since been lost (30). [page 21:]
Writing to Griswold on 29 April 1850, Mrs. Clemm complained that she
had received information from Moran that “the trunk has been sent to
you at your request, and for Miss Poe. I cannot understand this and
wish you to let me know if there is any truth in it.” Several months
later, however, Neilson Poe still seems to have had the trunk, though
by now presumably bereft of its most significant items. Rosalie wrote
to Griswold on 20 August 1850: “I think and do say that I have been
unjustly treated since his death, his trunk is taken from me which he
gave to me himself. Mr. Poe of Baltimore has it & will not give it
to me until I administer for it. I could not get any one to go my
security and then my friend advised me not to administer” (31). A note in
the Stanard edition of Poe’s letters in the Valentine Museum reads:
“when Poe died in Baltimore, most of his estate consisted of a small
black leather trunk, bound with iron hoops and containing manuscripts
and a few other belongings. The trunk and its key (which was found in
the dead poet’s pocket) were turned over to his cousin, Neilson Poe,
who sent them to Edgar’s sister Rosalie at ‘Duncan Lodge,’ Richmond,
the home of the MacKensies, who had adopted and reared her. Rosalie
gave the trunk and key to Jane MacKensie Miller, of Matthews County,
Virginia, only grandchild of her foster-mother, who, in 1923, conveyed
them to the ‘Edgar Allan Poe Shrine,’ Richmond, where they may now be
seen” (32).
If we accept the statement that the trunk pictured in Stanard’s book
was the one Poe had in Baltimore, and not merely part of the baggage
left behind in Richmond, Rosalie eventually managed to claim at least
that part of her inheritance. Biographers typically presume that the
trunk itself was finally sent to Mrs. Clemm. On the event of her death
in Baltimore in 1871 (at Church Home and Hospital), it would have
passed to Neilson Poe, her only close relative then living nearby, and
through him finally found its way to Rosalie. Equally plausible is the
idea that Neilson, having sent the important books and MS material to
Griswold, never forwarded the trunk itself to Mrs. Clemm at all.
Instead, Rosalie finally made the arrangements Neilson required, or he
simply gave it to her as a way of making her go away. After the Civil
War, Rosalie was living in poverty, trying to support herself by
selling pictures of her brother Edgar. She was not very successful at
this, even after she cut the price to 50 cents. Having decided to leave
Richmond, and try her luck with her Northern relatives, she would have
had little use for such a bulky item as the trunk, and thus left it
behind with the Mackenzies. She spent her final days living with the
Sisters of the Epiphany in Washington, D.C., where she taught sewing
and calligraphy to help pay for her up keep. Rosalie died on 22 July
1874 (33). [page 22:]
Stanard also touches on the tradition that this trunk is not only the
one Poe had with him when he died in Baltimore, but was the same one he
had asked John Allan to send to him in letters of 19 and 20 March 1827.
With no documentation for what that trunk looked like, however, or even
clear evidence that Allan complied with Poe’s request, Stanard’s
speculation must remain a dubious one. Poe could certainly have
acquired another trunk at any time between 1827 and 1849, even an old
one, and the idea that these trunks were one and the same is too
convenient and romantic to accept without further proof (34).
The idea
that Poe had the key in his pocket is also intriguing, but as an
essentially undocumented tradition is not necessarily reliable. Neilson
could just as reasonably have had a new key made by a locksmith in
Baltimore. The key is at the Poe Museum in Richmond, along with what
is, traditionally, Poe’s wandering trunk. The trunk is now empty,
containing only the hazy dreams of speculation.
“He was still grasping the cane of
Dr. Carter, which he had taken in Richmond”
The great quartet of Poe biographies from the first half of the
twentieth century — by George E. Woodberry, Hervey Allen, Mary E.
Phillips, and Arthur H. Quinn — all tell essentially the same story of
Poe’s visit on his final day in Richmond to the office of Dr. John F.
Carter. They also agree that Poe left his own walking stick and took
Dr. Carter’s cane, which he still had with him in Baltimore. Woodberry
tells us, “It is a trifling but interesting detail that the Malacca
cane had stuck to him through all his adventures.” Allen says, “A
carriage was sent for, and the dying man was carried to the conveyance,
still grasping Dr. Carter’s Malacca cane that he had brought by mistake
from Richmond.” Phillips has Poe “delirious but still holding fast to
Dr. Carter’s cane.” Quinn echoes Allen, “He was still grasping the cane
of Dr. Carter, which he had taken in Richmond.” This happy consensus
should come as no great surprise since all four, as I shall show, rely
on Dr. Carter’s own description of these events, although mostly
through Mrs. Susan A. T. Weiss’s second-hand account (35).
The presumed presence of a sword cane with Poe in Baltimore has been
used to debunk the possibility that he was physically attacked or
robbed. In spite of his calling it a “trifling detail,” Woodberry uses
it to make this important point: “had he been drugged and made to vote
in any violent manner, as was represented, it [the cane] could hardly
have failed to be separated from him.” Mabbott extends the implications
of the cane: “Poe had the malacca cane; would lawless [page 23:]
fellows have
failed to purloin so salable an object?” Even Phillips offers, “In a
word, perhaps no better-equipped victim was ever offered to hoodlum
thievery or political escapades that obtained dominance during election
times in many cities of those days” (36). If Poe did
not have the cane
with him, however, its role becomes a minor curiosity, with no
relevance in explaining the circumstances surrounding Poe’s death. What
remains of interest, however, is how this idea originated and became
part of the accepted story.
The cane is first mentioned by Mrs. Weiss in her 1878 article “The Last
Days of Edgar Allan Poe”: “Late in the evening he entered the office of
Dr. John Carter, and spent an hour in looking over the day’s papers;
then taking Dr. Carter’s cane he went out, remarking that he would step
across to Saddler’s (a fashionable restaurant) and get supper. From the
circumstance of his taking the cane, leaving his own in its place, it
is probable that he had intended to return; but at the restaurant he
met with some acquaintances who detained him until late, and then
accompanied him to the Baltimore boat. According to their account he
was quite sober and cheerful to the last, remarking, as he took leave
of them, that he would soon be in Richmond again” (37).
In 1902, Dr.
Carter published his own account, adding details that the cane was
Malacca and contained a sword: “On this evening he sat for some time
talking, while playing with a handsome Malacca sword-cane recently
presented to me by a friend, and then, abruptly rising, said, ‘I think
I will step over to Saddler’s (a popular restaurant in the
neighborhood) for a few moments,’ and so left without any further word,
having my cane still in his hand. From this manner of departure I
inferred that he expected to return shortly, but did not see him again,
and was surprised to learn next day that he had left for Baltimore by
the early morning boat. I then called on Saddler, who informed me that
Poe had left his house at exactly twelve that night, starting for [page
24:] the
Baltimore boat in company with several companions whom he had met at
Saddler’s, and giving as a reason therefor [sic] the lateness of
the
hour and the fact that the boat was to leave at four o’clock. According
to Saddler he was in good spirits and sober, though it is certain that
he had been drinking and that he seemed oblivious of his baggage, which
had been left in his room at the Swan Tavern. These effects were after
his death forwarded by one of Mrs. Mackenzie’s sons to Mrs. Clemm in
New York, and through the same source I received my cane, which Poe in
his absent-mindedness had taken away with him” (38).
Dr. Carter’s story is partially validated by the unbroken provenance of
Poe’s walking stick, a simple, dark hardwood shaft, 36.25 inches long,
straight and tapered (1 inch at the top to 3/8 of an inch at the
bottom), with a silver cap engraved “Poe,” augmented by a few modest
hints of ornamental scroll work. (The metal tip and eyelet are also
silver.) During his final years, illness forced Dr. Carter to move into
the home of William Henry Booker. Poe’s cane was among Dr. Carter’s
possessions left to Booker after Carter’s death. When Booker himself
died, the cane passed to his daughter, Mrs. Charles Harnish of Forest
Hill, Richmond. She allowed the Poe Foundation to exhibit the cane in
1923, eventually selling it for $250 to Mrs. Archer Jones, who
presented it to the Poe Foundation, where it currently resides.
Unfortunately, there has been less interest in Dr. Carter’s cane, which
has apparently never been displayed, photographed, or described in more
detail than the few words in Dr. Carter’s article. The idea that Poe
took Dr. Carter’s cane by mistake presumes that the sticks resembled
each other, suggesting that Dr. Carter’s cane had a straight handle.
If, on the other hand, Dr. Carter’s cane had a bent or curved handle,
Poe’s taking of the cane becomes more difficult to explain (39).
The creation of the claim that Poe had the cane with him in Baltimore
can be traced to Mrs. Weiss, in her Home Life of Poe (1907).
Accepting
the “cooping” theory of Poe’s death, she recounts: “The kidnappers had
probably exchanged his garments for others as a means of disguise,
intending to restore them eventually. They at least did not take from
him the handsome malacca cane which was in his grasp when he reached
the hospital. This cane was, at Dr. Carter’s request, returned to him
by Mrs. Clemm, to whom Dr. Moran sent it” (40). Mrs.
Weiss’s conclusion is
the result of connecting three faulty pieces of information. First, [page
25:] her
sequence of events moves Poe from Dr. Carter’s office, to Saddler’s
restaurant across the street, then directly to the boat for Baltimore.
Second, she presumes that Poe’s baggage was left at the Swan Tavern
unintentionally. Third, Dr. Carter’s article notes that his cane was
returned to him “through the same source,” which Mrs. Weiss interprets
as Mrs. Clemm (in New York) rather than by the Mackenzies (in
Richmond). Mrs. Weiss clearly does not know the identities of the
companions who went with Poe to the boat, and could not have verified
that they actually accompanied him the whole way or that they did not
stop by the Swan Tavern (41). Given the information
she had in making her
assessment, chiefly that Poe left the restaurant at midnight and the
boat was scheduled to leave at 4 a.m., does it seem reasonable that Poe
would have needed to rush to the dock without sufficient time to stop
by his room and see to his belongings? Poe’s final letters to Mrs.
Clemm indicate that he would return to Richmond. Instead of being the
result of absent mindedness, it is just as reasonable to conclude that
he left his baggage at the Swan Tavern because he did not need all of
it for his trip and expected to be back to retrieve it in a few
weeks (42). Carter’s statement about the return of
his cane suggests that
it was left with Poe’s baggage in Richmond, and this interpretation is
supported by other documentation.
We have two descriptions of Poe as he was found on the street in
Baltimore, both from first-hand witnesses to the events. Regrettably,
neither of these gentlemen was scrupulous in his recollection, but
their testimony is all we have. Snodgrass says: “His face was haggard,
not to say bloated, and unwashed, his hair unkempt, and his whole
physique repulsive. His expansive forehead, with its wonderful breadth
between the points where the phrenologists locate the organ of ideality
— the widest I ever measured — and that full-orbed and mellow, yet
soulful eye, for which he was so noticeable when himself, now
lusterless and vacant, as shortly I could see, were shaded from view by
a rusty, almost brimless, tattered and ribbon-less palmleaf hat. His
clothing consisted of a sack-coat of thin and sleezy [sic] black
alpaca, ripped more or less at several of its seams, and faded and
soiled, and pants of a steel-mixed pattern of cassinette, half-worn and
badly-fitting, if they could be said to fit at all. He wore neither
vest nor neck-cloth, while the bosom of his [page 26:] shirt
was both crumpled and
badly soiled. On his feet were boots of coarse material, and giving no
sign of having been blacked for a long time, if at all.” Moran gives a
shorter but equally detailed account: “a stained, faded, old bombazine
coat, pantaloons of a similar character, a pair of worn-out shoes run
down at the heels, and an old straw hat” (43).
Although both of these men
take care to describe the condition of Poe’s shoes, neither mentions
what would certainly have been the remarkable incongruity of “a
handsome malacca cane.” Also, amidst all the apparent discussion of the
whereabouts and contents of Poe’s trunk and belongings, there is not a
single mention of the cane, nor any inquiry about its owner or how to
return it.
For me, then, the most reasonable interpretation of the evidence is
that the cane was left behind in Richmond, and the rest is merely
misunderstanding and myth-making. Poe was fond of supplementing the
more obscure portions of his life by inventing dramatic fictions —
scholars must be ever vigilant to avoid succumbing to similar
temptations.
Notes
1. Exploring the cause or circumstances
of Poe’s death is not the
purpose of this paper. For readers interested in that topic, a brief
overview of the relevant issues and a list of sources may be found on
the website of the Poe Society of Baltimore:
http://www.eapoe.org/geninfo/poedeath.htm. The most convenient
examination in book form is J. E. Walsh, Midnight Dreary.
Walsh’s book,
however, is not comprehensive, and much good analysis is marred by the
apparent need to advance a particular solution, one plagued by at least
as many difficulties as others he dismisses.
2. In addition to being editor of the Southern
Literary Messenger,
Thompson was a member of the Richmond bar, having graduated with a
degree in law from the University of Virginia (see B. B. Minor, 161).
Mrs. Clemm was represented by Sylvanus D. Lewis, the husband of Mrs.
Sarah Anna Lewis (see Quinn 657 and 754). The Works of the Late
Edgar
Allan Poe was published by J. S. Redfield. The first two volumes
(“Tales” and “Poems and Miscellanies”) were available for sale about 10
January 1850, with the third volume (“The Literati”) delayed [page
27:] until
September 1850. A fourth and final volume appeared in 1856 (“Arthur
Gordon Pym, &c.”).
3. Maria Clemm to Neilson Poe, 9 October
1849, printed in Harrison (17:
397-398) and Quinn and Hart (28), with a facsimile. The relevant
portion is also quoted in The Poe Log (850). The MS is at
the Enoch
Pratt Free Library.
4. Neilson Poe to Maria Clemm, 11 October
1849, quoted in Woodberry,
1885 (346). The full text, without a facsimile, appears in Quinn and
Hart (30-31). The letter is also printed by Harrison (17:400-401). The
MS is at the Enoch Pratt Free Library.
5. R. W. Griswold to J. R. Thompson, 25
October 1849, reprinted in
Quinn (658). The MS is in the Lilly Library at the University of
Indiana. Griswold had already asked George Lippard to look for Poe’s
valise in Philadelphia, unaware that Poe had eventually found it
himself, though lacking the lectures it once contained (see Poe’s 14
July 1849 letter to Mrs. Clemm). Lippard wrote to Griswold on 22
November 1849: “I have not been able to obtain any intelligence in
regard to the missing valise.” The MS in the Boston Public Library,
Griswold Collection (Gris. 691). The valise itself was not mentioned
afterwards. Poe may have felt that it was insufficiently safe for his
manuscripts after his trouble in Philadelphia, in which he lost his
lecture notes.
6. J. R. Thompson to R. W. Griswold, 3
November 1849, excerpted by
Quinn (656). The MS is in the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Gratz
Collection. I am grateful to Richard Fusco for accessing the Gratz
material for me.
7. J. J. Moran, Defense of Poe
(64). In a ca. 28 August 1849 letter to
Mrs. Clemm, Poe said, “I have got the wedding ring — and shall have no
difficulty, I think, in getting a dress-coat” (see Ostrom 2:458).
8. J. J. Moran to Mrs. Maria Clemm,
November 15, 1849, quoted in Quinn
and Hart (33), with a facsimile. The MS is at the Enoch Pratt Free
Library.
9. Neilson Poe to R. W. Griswold, 1
November 1849, quoted in Woodberry,
1909 (2:450-451). The MS is in the New York Public Library, Berg
collection.
10. Poe’s corrected copies of Tales
and The Raven and Other Poems are
now in the collection of the Humanities Research Center, at the
University of Texas at [page 28:] Austin. Thompson’s lien came
to nothing. His
dealings with Griswold, however, remained cordial. Thompson provided
Griswold with several Poe items from the Southern Literary Messenger
for inclusion in the collected edition. In exchange, Griswold may have
secured the right for Rosalie to sell copies of the sets, as Maria
Clemm did (see Mabbott, Poems, 1:521). Whether or not Griswold
ever
sent these books to Thompson is unknown, but it seems improbable in
light of the fact that Griswold added his own name to the front page
and subsequent owners of the book lived in New York. There is a break
between Griswold’s ownership and the acquisition of the books by James
Lorimer Graham, although it bears the signature of George P. Philes,
whom Mabbott notes as “a New York dealer” and “a keen student of Poe”
(Mabbott, ed., The Raven and Other Poems, xix). After Graham’s
death in
1876, it was presented by his widow to the Century Club in New York
City. The volume was purchased by its present owner some time between
1942 and 1968.
11. Poe’s heavily annotated copy of Eureka
is now in the private
collection of Mrs. Susan Jafee Tane. How it was acquired by Bishop John
Fletcher Hurst, president of Drew Theological Seminary, is unknown,
although it must be noted that Hurst owned a number of significant Poe
manuscripts, all presumably from Griswold’s library. Hurst’s collection
was sold at auction in 1905. It was purchased by Stephen H. Wakeman,
then passed through the hands of A. S. W. Rosenbach and Mrs. George
Blumenthal, remaining for many years in the collection of H. Bradley
Martin. When the Martin collection was sold at auction in 1990, the
book was acquired by the 19th Century Shop in Baltimore, and ultimately
purchased by the present owner.
12. Poe to J. R. Lowell, 2 July 1844
(Ostrom 1:258). In this letter,
Poe is referring to his Poems (1831) and Al Aaraaf,
Tamerlane and Minor
Poems (1829), ignoring the earlier Tamerlane as not
officially released.
13. Poe’s altered copy of Al Aaraaf,
Tamerlane and Minor Poems (1829)
is in the New York Public Library, Berg collection. There is a gap
between Griswold and its next documented owner, George Henry Moore.
Moore’s library was sold at auction on February 8, 1894, with the book
fetching $75 (item 1934). It was apparently purchased by William
Nelson, whose own library included extraordinary Poe items and was sold
on 5 May 5 1903, where the book had increased in value to $1,825. (In
the auction catalog, item 961, it is incorrectly assumed that Poe used
this volume in preparing the Poems of 1831. Instead, he
originally [page 29:]
borrowed it to use in preparing extra material to fill out The
Raven
and Other Poems of 1845, see Mabbott, Poems, 1:577.)
Stephen H. Wakeman
acquired it on 25 November 1909 for $2,900. It was sold for the same
price to an unknown buyer in 1924. By 1942, the book had entered the
Berg collection.
14. Miss Sarah H. Heywood to J. H.
Ingram, 24 December 1874: “It was
found in the trunk which was forwarded to Mrs. Clemm from Baltimore,
soon after his death” (MS at the University of Virginia, Ingram
Collection, quoted by Miller, Building Poe Biography, 156).
Unfortunately, in spite of J. C. Miller’s claim, this letter does not
settle “once and for all the long-standing and ridiculously bitter
controversy of what finally became of Poe’s trunk.” Although Miss
Heywood says “it,” which would suggest one volume, Ingram identifies
the books as “the 2-vol. Edition of Tales of 1839” in a 18
January 1877
letter to Mrs. Whitman, printed in Miller, Poe’s Helen Remembers,
468.
Although the title page bears the date of 1840, Tales of the
Grotesque
and Arabesque was published in December of 1839, as established by
Poe’s 6 December 1839 letter to John C. Cox (see Ostrom 1:122-123). The
Phantasy Pieces may be the volumes mentioned in Mrs.
Clemm’s 23 October
1849 letter to Griswold: “in looking over a trunk I have found two
books of my dear Eddie’s which I think important for you to have.” The
MS is in the Philadelphia Free Public Library, Gimbel Collection. In
preparing volume I of his edition, Griswold appears to have used copy
from at least the second of these specially marked volumes for
“Metzengerstein” and “The Unparallelled Adventures of One Hans Pfaall”
(see Mabbott, Tales & Sketches, 2:18 and Pollin, Imaginary
Voyages,
1:385).
15. Without noting a source, Mabbott
comments about Thomas Moore’s
Irish Melodies in his “Annals” (Poems,
1:568). According to Silverman,
the copy of Irish Melodies is in the Humanities Research
Center, the
University of Texas at Austin, with a note from Carter stating that Poe
left it in his office (518). A careful search of the HRC collection by
the Curator of Manuscripts, however, found neither the book or note,
nor any other record of either.
16. Sadly, the Bible given to the Bronx
Historical Society seems to
have vanished. It is shown in Phillips (2:1545), but a recent inquiry
failed to locate the book at either the cottage or among the items
deposited in the New York Public Library. The gift to Mrs. Cromwell is
recorded by Phillips in the caption to the photograph and on pages
2:1543-1544. Mrs. Cromwell also owned a rocking chair said to have
belonged to Poe (2:1544). [page 30:]
17. In 1853, several changes were made to
the set for the sake of
creating a more integrated presentation: the title page of volume three
was modified to conform with the earlier two volumes, Griswold’s
“Memoir” was moved to volume I, and “The Poetic Principle” was moved to
volume II. For “A Reviewer Reviewed,” see Mabbott, Tales &
Sketches, 3:1377. The beautiful MS was given to the Berg collection
of
the New York Public Library on 7 October 2000 by Burton and Alice
Pollin. Fragments of “Marginalia” exist in several collections, but
most of these are from the Stedman roll MS (Savoye 3:52-72). The
surviving portions of “Literary America” are spread around in various
collections, often misidentified as being early drafts of “The Literati
of New York City,” of which they are actually revisions.
18. The RCL numbers are from J. W.
Ostrom’s “Revised Check List.” The
twelve letters written to Poe by G. W. Eveleth (RCL-599, RCL-606,
RCL-617, RCL-634, RCL-657, RCL-668, RCL-674, RCL-695, RCL-702, RCL-717,
RCL-775, and RCL-807a) are collectively item 112 in the Bangs & Co.
auction catalog, 11 April 1896, where it is noted that they were found
in Poe’s trunk after his death. For whatever reason, one other letter
Eveleth wrote to Poe on 27 July 1847 (RCL-686) was not part of this
set. In a letter of 26 June 1876, E. L. Didier wrote to Mrs. S. H.
Whitman from Baltimore: “Mr. Neilson Poe, of this city, told me he
found in Edgar’s trunk, after his death, a package of love letters,
addressed by Mrs. S. to E. A. P. They were as foolishly sentimental as
those of a love sick school girl. The letters were sent to Mrs. S.” The
MS of Didier’s letter is in the Lilly Library. No further record of
Mrs. Shelton’s letters is known. The letter from Thompson to Griswold
is noted in another letter from Thompson, sent to Griswold on 10
October 1849: “When poor Poe left here, some three weeks since, I gave
to him a letter which he promised me to deliver into your hands; but as
the papers state that he had been seven days in the hospital at
Baltimore before his unhappy death, I make sure that he did not reach
Philadelphia and by consequence that you did not receive the letter. I
therefore write you again, substantially, what I wrote before” (MS in
the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Gratz Collection, excerpted in
The Poe Log, 854). Thompson’s letter, and presumably
the one he gave to
Poe, chiefly concerns some biographical material about himself to be
used in a subsequent edition of Griswold’s Poets and Poetry of
America.
19. Whitty, Poems (199). Writing
on 18 September 1849, Poe tells Mrs.
Clemm, “Be sure & preserve all the printed scraps I have sent you
& keep up my file of [page 31:] the Lit. World” (see Ostrom
2:461).
20. Sending her copy on ivory to Ingram
on 16 May 1875, Mrs.
Shew-Houghton warned: “Don’t let the family (Poe family) know of your
having this picture at present and try to get the one Edgar had with
him when he died” (Miller, Building Poe Biography, 136). Mrs.
Shew-Houghton to Ingram, ca. 15 April 1875, “I was told by Mr. Chapin,
(who was an old resident of Baltimore) that Poe’s satchel was given up
by the Railroad Company, as he left it in the train, being entirely
mad, that this portrait was in the bag and a slip of paper pasted upon
the back, ‘My adored Mother! E. A. Poe, New York’ with date of his
departure from N. Y.” (Miller, Building Poe Biography,
131-132). On
recovering the valise, Poe notes (in a 14 July 1849 letter to Maria
Clemm) that the lectures were taken but makes no mention of the
portrait. Although Michael Deas questions the authenticity of the
miniature of Elizabeth Poe now in the Philadelphia Free Public Library,
Gimbel Collection, he accepts that Poe owned a portrait of his mother
painted by Thomas Sully (Portraits, 185, notes 114 and 117).
21. See Rose and Savoye, Such Friends
As These. It is clear that in
addition to keeping his list of subscribers, Poe also used this book as
a supply for blank paper when the need arose. It is also possible, of
course, that Poe kept a separate list on this occasion.
22. Bishop Fitzgerald’s information on
Poe is given by Harrison
(1:322). Poe to Mrs. Clemm, 18 September 1849 (see Ostrom 2:461).
23. The boot hooks and the trunk are
shown in a photograph in Allen (facing 2:839).
24. See Moran, Defense of Poe,
1885 (64). In her 1904 “Reminiscences,”
Weiss states, “on the authority of Dr. Carter, . . . he [Poe] did not
send for his baggage at the Swan, and this explains a point which has
been much commented upon by his biographers, who assert that his
baggage was stolen from him in Baltimore. It was, after his death,
forwarded to Mrs. Clemm in New York by Mr. John Mackenzie” (445).
Woodberry makes a similar error, but substitutes John Thompson for John
Mackenzie — “He . . . had left his trunk and baggage at the hotel”
(2:341) — and elaborates in the notes that in writing to Griswold,
Neilson Poe was “referring to Poe’s trunk, which had been forwarded
from Richmond by Thompson” (2:450-451). Allen says, “The key to his
trunk was found in his [page 32:] clothes, but he could not
remember what had
become of the trunk. He seems to have left it at the Old Swan Tavern
in
Richmond” (2:845). Thompson, obviously, would not have given up control
of the trunk if he had been able to obtain possession of it. Even if
the trunk had been in Richmond, there was no reason to send it to
Baltimore when Mrs. Clemm was in New York. Neilson was involved purely
because he happened to live in the town where Poe died and where the
trunk was found. A few decades after Poe’s death, only Dr. Moran
remained alive to tell of the search for the trunk, and he openly
reveled in the telling of the tale. In 1875, Moran had already given a
slightly different story: “I had meantime learned from him [Poe], and
afterward from the porter at the hotel on Pratt Street, then
Bradshaw’s, now called Maltby House, that he arrived there on the
evening of the 5th . . . . He had left his trunk at the hotel in
Baltimore. . . . . A short time before his death I received his trunk
from the hotel, as per order, and put it in the care of Mr. Neilson
Poe, for his mother-in-law, Mrs. Maria Clemm” (Moran, “Official
Memorandum,”1875). Different yet again is Dr. Moran’s earliest comment,
in a 15 November 1849 letter to Mrs. Clemm: “[Poe’s] answers where
incoherent & unsatisfactory. He told me, however, he had a wife in
Richmond (which I have since learned was not the fact) that he did not
know when he left that city or what had become of his trunk of
clothing” (from a facsimile of the letter in Quinn and Hart, 32-34). A
21 December 1877 letter from Moran is quoted in American Book
Prices
Current, 1932 (764, bottom): “I can give you the points of fact as
given to me by the lamented poet [Edgar Allan Poe], and as I have not
seen the remarks or language of Neilson Poe in print or any where, I
should be glad to have the reference so that I may possess myself of it
at once. I am anxious to hear from Mr. N. Poe. He took possession of
the Poe’s trunk containing his manuscripts and other effects.”
25. N. H. Morison to J. H. Ingram, 27
November 1874, reprinted in Miller, Building Poe Biography
(44-46).
26. Maria Clemm to John J. Moran, 2 March
1850. The MS is in
Philadelphia Free Public Library, Gimbel Collection). In printing this
letter in his 1885 Defense of Poe (16-17), Moran makes a small
but
significant change, the original “a letter from Neilson Poe saying that
he had in his possession my son’s trunk” becomes “a letter from Neilson
Poe saying that you had placed in his possession my son’s trunk.”
Moran’s alteration specifically credits him with something which Mrs.
Clemm did not do herself. About 1886, William Hand Browne,
Ingram’s
chief contact in Baltimore, concluded that “Dr. Moran’s account, of [page
33:] the
last moments of Poe, is largely apocryphal. His memory was indistinct
and he drew upon his imagination.” (Browne’s comment is written in his
own hand on page 428 of his copy of Ingram’s one-volume edition of
Poe’s biography, in the collection of Jeffrey A. Savoye.) For a more
extended comment on Moran’s general unreliability, see Bandy. For R. W.
Griswold to J. R. Thompson, 25 October 1849, see footnote 5. For N. Poe
to R. W. Griswold, 1 November 1849, see footnote 9.
27. Neilson Poe married Josephine Emily
Clemm (1808-1889) on 30
November 30 1831. She and Virginia shared the same father, William
Clemm, Jr. (1779-1826), but had different mothers. William Clemm
married Harriet Poe (1785-1815) on 1 May 1840. After Harriet’s death,
he married Maria Poe (1790-1871), Harriet’s cousin, on 13 July 1817
(see The Poe Log, xx).
28. Mabbott’s comment is from Poems,
1:581. Whitty and Rindfleish make
a similar observation in Thompson, The Genius and Character of EAP
(54). An article detailing the role of these volumes in the evolution
of Griswold’s edition is in preparation.
29. R W. Griswold to J. R. Thompson, 19
February 1850, quoted in
Thompson, The Genius and Character of EAP (55). The MS of
Griswold’s
letter is in the New York Public Library, Berg collection. Griswold is
being somewhat duplicitous here since, as I have already documented, he
must have had Poe’s copy of The Raven and Other Poems. Note
that
Griswold, while not admitting that he possesses the books, mentions but
does not ask about them. He is no longer interested in these books —
his focus is on the lectures. Griswold’s caution may be partly
explained by Thompson’s 11 November 1849 letter to Griswold: “By the
way, I have a lien on a copy of his ‘Tales & Poems,’ which
contained full marginal notes & corrections in his own
hand-writing. He was to give it to me, after a new edition had been
published. If it has come into your hands, you will oblige me by
sending it to me, after your labors are concluded. Pray recollect this”
(excerpted in Quinn 657, from the MS in the Gratz collection of the
Historical Society of Pennsylvania). For the lectures, see note 5.
30. “The Poetic Principle” appeared in Sartain’s
Magazine, October
1850, 7:231-239, as “From the unpublished manuscript.” In his
Reminiscences of a Very Old Man, Sartain says, “Poe
received thirty
dollars for his article on The [page 34:] Poetic
Principle” (220). The amount may
be correct, but clearly Sartain in mistaken in saying that Poe received
any payment directly. Printing “The Poetic Principle” in The Home
Journal, 31 August 1850, p. 1 cols. 1-6, Willis introduces the
text:
“From advance sheets of the new volume by Mr. Poe, in the press of Mr.
Redfield, we present the following admirable essay embodying the
critic’s theory of poetry. It appropriately introduces his discussions
of the individual merit of many of our prominent authors. This
concluding volume of Poe’s works, making some six hundred pages, is
entitled ‘The Literati,’ and will be published in about three weeks.”
Bayard Taylor’s 29 July 1850 letter to G. R. Graham was printed by
Wermuth (78). The MS is at the University of Virginia. The relevant
portion reads: “Would you like to have for your October number, an
unpublished article by Poe, on ‘The Poetic Principle?’ I can get it for
you. It will make about 6 pages of the Magazine; $50 are asked for it,
for the benefit of Mrs. Clemm. I have the proof-sheets of it (the book
will appear about the middle of October) and will send them if you want
the article and the terms suit you.” In printing their Census of
First
Editions and Source Materials by EAP, Charles Heartman and Kenneth
Rede
list a fragment of “The Poetic Principle” as being in the collection of
Johns Hopkins University (3:11), but this item is actually from Poe’s
article “Notes Upon English Verse.”
31. The MS for the 29 April 1850 letter
from Mrs. Clemm to Griswold is
in the Boston Public Library, Griswold Collection (Gris. 194), printed
in full by Quinn (668). Rosalie Poe to R. W. Griswold, 20 August 1850
(quoted in Bangs & Co. auction catalog, 11 April 1896, item 106).
The MS is in the Free Library of Philadelphia, Gimbel Collection.
Mabbott states: “she [Rosalie] was unable to put up the money required
to take out letters of administration in Virginia” (“Annals,” Poems,
1:571). Rosalie’s “friend” was obviously J. R. Thompson.
32. A picture of the trunk appears in
Stanard, facing page 182, with
the longer description on page 179. Also stated on page 179, in a
footnote, is the comment: “The whereabouts of the trunk was traced and
its history verified by Mr. J. H. Whitty. It was procured by Mrs.
Archer Jones who, together with her husband, founded the Edgar Allan
Poe Shrine.” A similar photograph appears in Phillips (2:1565).
33. Silverman (439), for example,
speculates that Mrs. Clemm received
the trunk through Griswold. For an earlier statement, from Mrs. Weiss,
see note 24. Allen says only that “Its subsequent history is
interesting,” referring in a footnote to [page 35:] Mrs.
Stanard’s account (2:839,
footnote 922). Walsh (158), while remaining somewhat dubious about the
precise provenance of the trunk, summarizes: “Though the actual trunk
when found had first been sent to Mrs. Clemm in Lowell in 1850, it is
possible that it later come into Rosalie’s possession.” Quinn is more
cautious, stating only that “the actual transit of the trunk is still a
matter of dispute” (656, footnote 29). Concerning Neilson’s
inheritance, Phillips notes, “By her [Mrs. Clemm’s] last request her
papers and records went to her cousin, Judge Neilson Poe. . . .”
(2:1591). Most of the information about Rosalie is given by Weiss in
The Home Life of Poe (212-218).
34. The implication that these trunks are
the same is first made in Stanard (179).
35. Woodberry (2:343); Allen (2:845);
Phillips (2:1502); Quinn (639).
Gill’s biography appeared too early to make use of Mrs. Weiss’s
article, although he had apparently made liberal use of material she
sent him from the book she had hoped to prepare. Ingram, in his
2-volume biography of 1880, merely quotes the story from Mrs. Weiss’s
article. Although Dr. Carter appears in Woodberry’s 1885 biography,
there is no mention of the cane. The description of Poe’s visit to Dr.
Carter’s office is given by Woodberry (2:341-342). Although usually
careful with his documentation, Allen gives no source for this
information, nor does he give a source a few pages earlier: “Walking
along Broad Street on his way back from Mrs. Shelton’s, he stopped in
at Dr. John Carter’s office where he read the newspaper and left,
taking, by mistake, the doctor’s Malacca cane and leaving his own”
(2:840). Just before this paragraph, Allen mentions that “during the
afternoon, Miss Susan Talley was visited by Rosalie, bearing a note
from Poe in which he enclosed the final lines For Annie,” which
is
clearly from Mrs. Weiss, who was Susan Talley before she married. A
general footnote states “J. H. Whitty prints this information in his
Memoir to the Complete Poems,” but this
would account only for the name
of Blakely, and his recollection was that Poe was “quite sober.” On
page 2:832 a footnote does give a reference to Weiss’s Scribner’s
article, which must be Allen’s source. Perhaps most curious is the fact
that Phillips, relating the story of the cane (2:1494), directly quotes
Dr. Carter without so much as a footnote. Other footnotes credit Mrs.
Weiss’s article from Scribner’s, and her 1907 book, but no
mention is
made of Dr. Carter’s article, which must be the source of the quote
since it is not given by Weiss. Quinn repeats the story on page 636,
mentioning Weiss’s Scribner’s article, but two pages later
states that
Poe was still grasping the cane, without attributing a specific source.
The various sources listed by Quinn in footnote 53 [page 36:]
on page 639 do not
refer to the articles by Mrs. Weiss or Dr. Carter. Mrs. Weiss, however,
is credited in footnote 16 on page 622, but with the very unflattering
comment that her information, “except where based on her own first-hand
knowledge,” is “untrustworthy” and that she was “incapable of judging
evidence.”
36. Woodberry (2:343); Mabbott, Poems
(1:569, footnote 8); Phillips (2:1495).
37. Weiss, “The Last Days of EAP” (716,
column 2).
38. Carter (565-566). I am indebted for
my own awareness of Dr.
Carter’s article to Dwight Thomas and David K. Jackson, who note it in
the bibliography of their invaluable The Poe Log (857).
Although Weiss
and Carter record the name as “Saddler’s,” Whitty and most subsequent
biographers give “Sadler’s.”
39. I am grateful to Chris Semtner of the
Poe Foundation for
information about Poe’s cane. This cane was not the only one Poe had
owned. In his Life of Poe, T. H. Chivers comments: “When I
first became
acquainted with him [about 1845], he used to carray [sic] a
crooked-headed hickory walking-cane in his hand whenever we went out to
walk. As he did not have this cane the very first time that we went out
togather [sic] — but purchased it immediately afterwards — I
presumed,
at the time, that he had gotten it because I had one — as it was
precisely like mine. This he flourished, as he walked, with
considerable grace — particularly so when compared to a man who had
never been in the habit of carrying a cane” (Davis, 53-54). Dr.
Carter’s cane is not currently located, but I presume that it passed
down through the same chain of owners. It may still be held by
descendants. Malacca was the preferred material for the shaft of canes
and, being hollow, was ideal for hiding a sword. The use of bamboo,
malacca, rattan, and similar materials explains the origin of the term
“cane” for such walking sticks. Dr. Carter was careful to make this
distinction, although the terms have long been used interchangeably.
Some canes were very plain, others elaborately carved. Ornamental
devices included a wide range of contrasting woods, ivory, horn, and
metal, with silver being a favorite. The sword portion, usually
measuring about 27 inches in length, was typically steel, either a flat
blade or more commonly triangular and foil-like. A few had blades made
of wood rather than steel. The usual mechanism for locking the blade in
place was a ringed collar at the base of the handle, twisted into a
groove in the top of the shaft, reinforced with metal in the better
models. Assuming that one was able to work the locking mechanism and to
pull the blade from the shaft, a sword cane could prove a [page 37:]
formidable
weapon in the right hands. Even canes without the added potential of
hidden weapons were used for self-defense (see Barton-Wright). Most
people, of course, hoped that merely having such a weapon would prevent
the need to actually use it. For a number of examples of sword canes
and the use of walking sticks for defense, as well as a wide variety of
walking sticks of a more benign sort, see Snyder (216-236) and Dike
(347-349).
40. Weiss, Home Life of Poe (207).
41. Mrs. Weiss’s source is Mr. Saddler,
the proprietor of the
restaurant. Whitty identifies the two companions as “J. M. Blakley and
other friends” (lxxxiii). In Midnight Dreary (176), Walsh also
concludes that Dr. Carter’s statement has been misinterpreted,
unfortunately relating this widely misunderstood information only in a
footnote and mistakenly attributing the error to Woodberry. Although
made independently, Walsh’s statement is the earliest record of this
observation to have been documented in print, and therefore must be
acknowledged.
42. Poe to Mrs. Clemm, 10 September 1849:
“[Elmira pro]poses for me to
go, immediately after the marriage, to one of her houses — the one she
is in now — and send for you to join us at once — there we will remain,
only for the present, until we can make what other arrangements we
please. So hold yourself in readiness as well as you can, my own
darling mother — but do not sell off or anything of that kind yet, if
you can avoid it — for ‘there is many a slip between the cup & the
lip’ — & I confess that my heart sinks at the idea of this
marriage. I think, however, that it will certainly take place &
that immediately.” The MS is in Fales Library, Robins Collection, NYU.
In his final letter to Mrs. Clemm, 18 September 1849, Poe repeats his
plan to marry Mrs. Shelton: “If possible I will get married
before I
start — but there is no telling” (see Ostrom 2:461).
43. Snodgrass (284), and Moran, Defense
of Poe (59). The series of
recollections by Snodgrass and Moran may demonstrate a troubling secret
rarely admitted by biographers. Even though both of these men are
first-hand witnesses and are theoretically relating independent
recollections, their accounts suggest an interesting example of sources
being informed by other sources. In writing his account for Beadle’s
Monthly, Snodgrass recounts the story of Moran asking Poe about
friends, with Poe replying “my best friend would be he who would take a
pistol and blow out these d—d wretched brains!”(285). Snodgrass was not
actually [page 38:] present for this exchange, of course, and
Griswold’s “Memoir”
of Poe says little more than that he was taken to the hospital and died
there. Clearly, Snodgrass is relying on some other source, presumably
Dr. Moran, whom Snodgrass never mentions by name but flatteringly
describes as the hospital’s “intelligent and kindly resident
physician.” Although he is somewhat embellishing the quotation, and
alters the context, it is essentially the same as the account given in
Dr. Moran’s letter to Mrs. Clemm. It is possible that Snodgrass had
direct contact with Moran, but it seems just as likely that he had
access to or a copy of Moran’s letter to Mrs. Clemm, and that he
elaborated in the matter of details. Use of this letter might also
explain Snodgrass’s error of Poe being found on November 1 rather than
October 3. Moran’s letter is dated 15 November 1849 and refers to Mrs.
Clemm’s letter of “the 9th Inst.” It is unclear if Dr. Moran’s account
is one of “the numerous and strangely contradictory memoirs of Mr. Poe
that I have preserved” mentioned by Snodgrass, of which he further
notes that in writing the article “there lies one before me” (284). If
this letter is a source for Snodgrass, he failed to realize the amount
of time that had passed between Poe’s death and Dr. Moran’s delayed
communication with Mrs. Clemm. The evolving nature of Moran’s story is
better documented, and more obvious to anyone attempting an evaluation
of these sources. In his 1875 “Official Memoranda of the Death of Edgar
Allan Poe,” Moran gives no description of Poe’s clothing, but his 1885
book suddenly offers an exceedingly detailed account, which agrees with
Snodgrass to a degree which makes one suspect that Moran had obtained a
copy of the Beadle’s Monthly article. It may have been brought
to his
attention as a result of his lecture tour (beginning in the late 1870s)
on Poe’s final days.
Works Cited:
[Given the bibliographical complexities involved with his issues, we
asked Mr. Savoye, who was kind enough to comply, to provide the list of
citations below — The Editors.]
Allen, Hervey. Israfel: The Life and Times of Edgar Allan Poe.
2 vols. New York: George H. Doran Co., 1926; reprinted in 1927.
[Beginning in 1934, one volume
editions have the same contents but follow
different pagination.]
Bandy, William T. “Dr. Moran and the Poe-Reynolds Myth.” Myths and
Reality. Edited by Benjamin F. Fisher. Baltimore: The Edgar Allan
Poe
Society of [page 39:] Baltimore, 1987.
Bangs & Co. Auction catalog. 11 April 1896.
Barton-Wright, Edward William. “Self-defence with a Walking-stick: The
Different Methods of Defending Oneself with a Walking-Stick or Umbrella
when Attacked under Unequal Conditions.” Pearson’s Magazine
(January
and February 1901): 35-44 and 130-139.
Carter, Dr. John F. “Edgar Poe’s Last Night in Richmond.” Lippincott’s
Monthly Magazine 70 (November 1902): 562-566.
Davis, Richard Beale, ed. Chivers’ Life of Poe. New York: E. P.
Dutton & Co., 1952.
Deas, Michael. Portraits and Daguerreotypes of Edgar Allan Poe.
Charlottesville: U P. of Virginia, 1989.
Dike, Catherine, Canes in the United States: Illustrated Mementoes
of
American History, 1607-1953 (Ladue, MO: Cane Curios Press, 1994;
second
edition, Louisville: Minerva Books, 2003).
Harrison, James A. The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe. 17
vols. New York: T.
Y Crowell, 1902. [Volumes I and XVII, were reprinted, respectively as
volumes I and II of Life and Letters of Edgar Allan Poe, 1903,
with the
same pagination].
Heartman, Charles and Kenneth Rede. Census of First Editions and
Source
Materials by Edgar Allan Poe in American Collections. 3 vols.
Metuchen, NJ: American Book Collector, 1932. [Volume 3 was printed in
a smaller run than volumes 1-2 and was chiefly distributed to libraries
and collectors owning at least one item listed.]
Mabbott, Thomas Ollive, ed. The Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe,
Volumes II-III: Tales and Sketches. Cambridge: Belknap Press,
1978.
Mabbott, Thomas Ollive, ed. The Raven and Other Poems. New
York: Facsimile Text Society, 1942. [page 40:]
Miller, John Carl. Building Poe Biography. Baton Rouge:
Lousiana State UP, 1977.
—. Poe’s Helen Remembers. Charlottesville: U. of Virginia P,
1979.
Minor, Benjamin Blake. The Southern Literary Messenger: 1834-1864.
NY: Neale Publishing Co., 1905.
Moran, Dr. John J. “Official Memoranda of the Death of Edgar Allan
Poe.” New York Herald (28 October 1875). [Reprinted in the 1876
edition
of Poe’s works by Widdleton.]
—. A Defense of Edgar Allan Poe. Washington, DC: W. F. Boogher,
1885.
Ostrom, John Ward, ed., The Letters of Edgar Allan Poe. New
York: Gordian, 1966.
—. “Revised Check List of the Correspondence of Edgar
Allan Poe.” Studies in the American Renaissance 1981. Ed. Joel
Myerson. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1981: 169-255.
Phillips, Mary Elizabeth. Edgar Allan Poe — The Man. 2 vols.
Chicago: John C. Winston Co., 1926.
Pollin, Burton R., ed. The Collected Writings of Edgar Allan Poe.
Volume I: The Imaginary Voyages. Boston: Twayne, 1981.
Quinn, Arthur Hobson. Edgar Allan Poe: A Critical Biography
(NY: D. Appleton-Century, 1941).
Quinn, Arthur Hobson and Richard H. Hart. Edgar Allan Poe Letters
and
Documents in the Enoch Pratt Free Library. New York: Scholars’
Facsimiles
& Reprints, 1941.
Rose, Alexander G., III and Jeffrey A. Savoye. Such Friends As
These:
Edgar Allan Poe’s List of Subscribers and Contributors to His Dream
Magazine. Baltimore: Edgar Allan Poe Society, 1986. [page 41:]
Sartain, John. Reminiscences of a Very Old Man. New York: D.
Appleton & Co., 1899.
Savoye, Jeffrey. “A ‘Lost’ Roll of Marginalia.” Edgar Allan Poe
Review. 3 (Fall 2002): 52-72.
Silverman, Kenneth. Mournful Never-ending Remembrance. New
York: HarperCollins, 1991.
Snodgrass, Dr. Joseph Evans. “The Facts of Poe’s Death and Burial.” Beadle’s
Monthly. 3 (May 1867): 283-287.
Snyder, Jeffrey B. Canes and Walking Sticks: A Stroll Through Time
and Place. Atglen, PA: Schiffer Publishing Ltd., 2004.
Stanard, Mary Newton. Edgar Allan Poe Letters Until Now Unpublished
in
the Valentine Museum, Richmond, Virginia. Philadelphia: J. B.
Lippincott Co., 1925.
Thomas, Dwight and David K. Jackson. The Poe Log: A Documentary
Life of
Edgar Allan Poe 1809-1849. Boston: G. K. Hall & Co., 1987.
Thompson, John R. The Genius and Character of Edgar Allan Poe.
Edited
by J. H. Whitty and J. H. Rindfleisch (privately printed, 1929).
Walsh, John E. Midnight Dreary: The Mysterious Death of Edgar Allan
Poe. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers U P., 1998.
Weiss, Mrs. Susan Archer Talley. “The Last Days of Edgar A. Poe.” Scribner’s
Magazine 15 (March 1878): 707-716.
—. “Reminiscences of Edgar Allan Poe.” The Independent. 56 (25
August 1904): 1010-1014.
—. The Home Life of Poe. New York: Broadway Publishing, 1907.
Wermuth, Paul C., ed. Selected Letters of Bayard Taylor.
Lewisburg, PA: Bucknell U P., 1997. [page 42:]
Whitty, James Howard, ed. Complete Poems of Edgar Allan Poe.
Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1911.
Woodberry, George Edward. Edgar Allan Poe. Boston: Houghton
Mifflin, 1885 (from the American Men of Letters Series).
—. The Life of Edgar Allan Poe, Personal and Literary. 2 vols.
Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1909.
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