Text: Edgar Allan Poe and Thomas Ollive Mabbott, “Lewis Gaylord Clark” The Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe — Vol. IV: The Literati of New York City (2026), pp. 139-142 (This material is protected by copyright)

[page 139:]

LEWIS GAYLORD CLARK.(1)

Mr. Clark is known principally as the twin brother of the late Willis Gaylord Clark, the poet, of Philadelphia,(2) with whom he has often been confounded from similarity both of person and of name. He is known, also, within a more limited circle, as one of the editors of “The Knickerbocker Magazine,”(3) and it is in this latter capacity that I must be considered as placing him among literary people. He writes little himself, the editorial scraps which usually appear in fine type at the end of “The Knickerbocker” being the joint composition of a great variety of gentlemen (most of them possessing shrewdness and talent) connected with diverse journals about the city of New York. It is only in some such manner, as might be supposed, that so amusing and so heterogeneous a medley of chit-chat could be put together. Were a little more pains taken in elevating the tone of this “Editors’ Table,” (which its best friends are forced to admit is at present a little Boweryish,)(4) I should have no hesitation in commending it in general as a very creditable and very entertaining specimen of what may be termed easy writing and hard reading.

It is not, of course, to be understood from anything I have here said, that Mr. Clark does not occasionally contribute editorial matter to the magazine. His compositions, however, are far from numerous, and are always to be distinguished by their style, which is more “easily to be imagined than described.”(5) It has its merit, beyond doubt, but I shall not undertake to say that either “vigor,” “force” or “impressiveness” is the precise term by which that merit should be designated. Mr. Clark once did me the honor to review my poems, and — I forgive him.(6)

“The Knickerbocker” has been long established, and seems to have in it some important elements of success. Its title, for a merely local one, is unquestionably good. Its contributors have usually been men of eminence. Washington Irving was at one period regularly engaged. Paulding, Bryant, Neal, and several others of nearly equal note have also at various times furnished articles, although none of these gentlemen, I believe, continue their communications. In general, the contributed matter has been praiseworthy; the printing, paper, and so forth, have been excellent, and there certainly has been no lack of exertion in the way of what is termed “putting the work before the eye of the public;” still some incomprehensible incubus has seemed [page 140:] always to sit heavily upon it, and it has never succeeded in attaining position among intelligent or educated readers. On account of the manner in which it is necessarily edited, the work is deficient in that absolutely indispensable element, individuality. As the editor has no precise character, the magazine, as a matter of course, can have none. When I say “no precise character,” I mean that Mr. C., as a literary man, has about him no determinateness, no distinctiveness, no saliency of point; — an apple, in fact, or a pumpkin, has more angles.(7) He is as smooth as oil or a sermon from Doctor Hawks;(8) he is noticeable for nothing in the world except for the markedness by which he is noticeable for nothing.

What is the precise circulation of “The Knickerbocker” at present I am unable to say; it has been variously stated at from eight to eighteen hundred subscribers. The former estimate is no doubt too low, and the latter, I presume, is far too high. There are, perhaps, some fifteen hundred copies printed.

At the period of his brother's decease, Mr. Lewis G. Clark bore to him a striking resemblance,(9) but within the last year or two there has been much alteration in the person of the editor of the “Knickerbocker.” He is now, perhaps, forty-two or three, but still good-looking. His forehead is, phrenologically, bad — round and what is termed “bullety.”(10) The mouth, however, is much better, although the smile is too constant and lacks expression; the teeth are white and regular. His hair and whiskers are dark, the latter meeting voluminously beneath the chin. In height Mr. C. is about five feet ten or eleven, and in the street might be regarded as quite a “personable man;” in society I have never had the pleasure of meeting him.(11) He is married, I believe.(12)

[[Notes]]

[page 141:]

Lewis Gaylord Clark, October 5, 1808 (?) - November 3, 1873, did not like Poe. The present sketch is unfair, although it must be admitted that Clark lost no opportunity to write unkindly things of our poet. The origin of the quarrel is not known, but the Clarks were good friends of Longfellow, and may well have resented Poe's bad manners about him more than Longfellow did himself. Much of the present material has already appeared in the article on the “Magazines” Poe wrote for the New World, March 11, 1843. [[As already noted, the authorship of the article on the “Magazines” from the New World has been disputed. In regard to the difficulties between Poe and Clark, see Herman E. Spivey, “Poe and Lewis Gaylord Clark,” PMLA, December 1939, pp. 1124-1132. — JAS]]

There is a fairly complete collection of the Clarks' letters, edited by Leslie W. Dunlap, New York, 1940.

2. Willis Gaylord Clark edited the Philadelphia Gazette. He died June 12, 1841. His “Ollapodiana” essays in his brother's magazine were well-known. See his Literary Remains, 1844 for these and his poems.

3. Lewis edited the Knickerbocker from about 1831. The debt of Clark to others is exaggerated.

4. The Bowery, once a beautiful street with shady trees, had already begun to decline in Poe's day.

5. [[Here, Mabbott has a note that “The phrase is quoted as ‘from a poet’ in Sargent's Magazine, New York, 1843,” with space left for a month, which is not provided. It does not appear, however, that this phrase is found in that magazine, nor can it be proposed as an origin. Slight variations of the phrase have been in common use since at least the last 18th century, especially in England. Consequently, what Mabbott's intention was in regard to this note is not clear. — JAS]]

6. The review is in the Knickerbocker, January 1846 [[pp. 69-72]]. For more on this see Eveleth to Poe, October 13, 1846 and Poe to Eveleth, December 15, 1846. [page 142:]

7. This is quoted in “Marginalia” no. 240 (H XVI, 163).

8. Dr. Francis L[[ister]]. Hawks [[(1798-1866)]], at one time was an editor of the New York Review to which Poe contributed one book review in 1837. He became Bishop of Jackson, Mississippi in 1844; Poe commented on his sermonic manner in the Columbia Spy, June 1, of that year.

9. The year of the Clark Twins’ birth is still uncertain. [[An obituary for Lewis Gaylord Clark in the New York Times of November 5, 1873 states his age as 63, which would make his birth year 1810. Instead, 1808 is shown the year of Clark's birth on his tombstone in Oak Hill Cemetery in Nyack, New York, and that year is generally accepted. As twins, of course, the Clark's necessarily shared the same birth day. — JAS]]

10. Compare “X-ing a Paragrab” for the editor “Touch-an-go Bullethead”; and the letter of Poe to F. W. Thomas, September 8, 1844, calling English “A bullet-headed and malicious villain.”

11. Poe did know Clark personally, of course. They must have met at the [[booksellers’]] banquet on March 30, 1837, where both gave toasts; and Dr. Chivers mentions their meeting on the street in 1845. However, perhaps, they did not meet in each other's homes; and Clark is not names as attending Miss Lynch's salons.

12. Mrs. Clark was the former Ella Maria Curtis.