Text: Charles Zunser, “Poe's Fordham Cottage,” New York Times (New York, NY), vol. LIV, no. 17,381, August 26, 1905 (Saturday Review of Books, Part II, Literary Section of the New York Times), p. 565, col. 4

[page 565, column 4, continued:]

Poe's Fordham Cottage.

New York Times Saturday Review of Books:

I have read with great interest the communications in your issues of the 12th and 19th regarding the restoring of Poe's Fordham cottage. I too, as a worshipper — almost victim — of Poe, have made a pilgrimage to the famous spot on King's Bridge Road, only to be met with the inhospitable sign bearing its unsentimental legend, “No trespassing.”

So this is how America cherishes the memory of its greatest poet! And this is the America that keeps with care the Ross, the Paul Revere, and the Betsey Barbara Frietchie homes. I will not dispute the title to immortality that the above-named ladies and gentlemen claim, but certainly there is at least as much patriotism in caring for the house in which some of the greatest American poems were written as there is in preserving the window through which the wrinkled Barbara shook her old gray hairs. The house to the south of the cottage should be condemned and the original Poe property fenced. The old willow tree (under which Poe loved to brood upon the riddle of the universe, planning his now, unfortunately, cut down; another should replace it.

Let a committee be organized who will present the facts to the city officers. If the administration should refuse to act, I am sure that a private fund could be raised among the poet's many admirers. Something must be done, and immediately.

CHARLES ZUNSER.

New York, Aug. 20, 1905.