Text: Horace Greeley, “John Neal and others vs. R. W. Griswold,” New York Tribune (New York, NY), vol. X, no. 20, May 2, 1850, p. 6, col. 3

[page 6, column 3:]

JOHN NEAL AND OTHERS vs. R. W. GRISWOLD.

— John Neal, in the Portland Daily Advertiser, and writers in Graham's Magazine and elsewhere, have recently charged that R. W. Griswold, in his anonymous notice of Edgar A Poe, printed in The Tribune, took advantage of his appointment as the deceased poet's literary executor to depreciate character and conduct. Without stopping to inquire whether there was any depreciation or defamation in the case, it is but just to state the circumstances under which the article in question was written. We learned by telegraph the fact of Poe's death at Baltimore, in the afternoon following its occurrence, and soon after, meeting Dr. Griswold, and knowing his acquaintance with Poe, asked him to prepare some account of the deceased for the next morning's paper. He immediately and hastily wrote in our presence his two columns or more — with all the “magnificent poetry” which Mr. Neal discovers in them — and they were sent to the compositors, and in a few hours published, with the telegraphic dispatch of cur correspondent — before Dr. G. could have known a syllable of Poe's disposition of his papers, or whether he was to have anything to do with editing them. Since that time we understand Dr. G. has not published a word about Poe, though in reprinting N. P. Willis's eulogium upon him he could not avoid the reproduction of the passages Mr. Willis had quoted from his Tribune article.

With this statement, we infer, the gist of Mr. Neal's attack, as well as that of the writer in Graham's Magazine, falls to the ground, but whether Dr. Griswold will permit the subject to rest here is to be seen.

Ed. Trib.