Text: Edgar Allan Poe and Thomas Ollive Mabbott, “Elizabeth Frieze Ellett” The Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe — Vol. IV: The Literati of New York City (2026), pp. 174-180 (This material is protected by copyright)

[page 174:]

Mrs. ELLETT, or ELLET, has been long before the public as an author. Having contributed largely to the newspapers and other periodicals in her youth, she first made her debût on a more comprehensive scale, as the writer of “Teresa Contarini”,(2) in a five-act tragedy, which had considerable merit, but was withdrawn after its first night of representation at the Park. This occurred at some period previous to the year 1834; the precise date I am unable to remember. The ill success of the play had little effect in repressing the ardor of the poetess, who has since furnished numerous papers to the Magazines. Her articles are, for the most part, in the rifacimento way, and, although no doubt composed in good faith, have the disadvantage of looking as if hashed up for just so much money as they will bring.(3) The charge of wholesale plagiarism which has been adduced against Mrs. Ellett, I confess that I have not felt sufficient interest in her works, to investigate — and am therefore bound to believe it unfounded. In person, short and much included to embonpoint.

[[Notes]]

[page 175:]

1. The authenticity of this paper is beyond doubt, although the primary authority is Works, 1850, III, 202. [[The manuscript of this entry is in the Berg Collection at the NYPL, along with a portion of the entry on Lewis Gaylord Clark — JAS]] The sketch in the Dictionary of National Biography assures us that Mrs. Ellet was generous in works of charity, and we need not doubt it, since she was well off, and most people have some good qualities. It was to her in youth that Halleck addressed his rather charming “Lines to her who can Understand Them.” Poe reprinted them, presumably at her suggestion, in the Broadway Journal, November 29, 1845. So much for credit.

Elizabeth Frieze [[or Fries]] Ellet, born in October 1818, was the daughter of a prominent physician, Dr. William N[[ixon]]. Lummis [[(1775-1833)]], a pupil of Benjamin Rush. She was married “about 1835” to Dr. William H[[entry]]. Ellet [[(1806-1859)]]. [[Dr. Ellet was a professor of chemistry, mineralogy, and geology. Beginning in 1832, prior to accepting a position at the College of South Carolina, he had been a Professor of Experimental Chemistry at Columbia College, in New York, from which he had himself graduated in 1824. In 1828, he was granted a Doctor's degree from the Rutger's Medical Faculty of Geneva College. He is said to have made some of the earliest experiments with daguerreotypes in the United States. See Harvey S. Teal, Partners with the Sun: South Carolina Photographers, 1840-1940, Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2001, pp. 9-10. He died in New York City, having retired from teaching in 1849 and worked as a chemist for the Manhattan Gas Company. See the New York Times, January 29, 1859 for his detailed obituary — JAS]] They soon went to South Carolina, where he had a post at the State University. Although she sometimes called herself a resident of that state, she spent a good deal of time in New York City. She died June 3, 1877. [[Both she and her husband are buried in Greenwood Cemetery, in New York City. — JAS]] She seems to have had no children. [page 176:]

There can be no doubt that Mrs. Ellet was a malicious busybody. There is now no need for reticence about her varied activities, which gave so much trouble to Poe, Mrs. Osgood and Griswold. Mrs. Ellet and Poe met in 1845, probably at the home of Mrs. Lynch. We have evidence in one of her two surviving letters to Poe, and a poem, “Coquette's Song” in the Broadway Journal of December 13, 1845, that she was playing a game for high stakes — unsuccessfully, he later told Mrs. Whitman. (Reference?? Poe's letter to Mrs. Whitman, November 24, 1848??) Virginia chose Fanny Osgood as the lesser evil. Virginia Poe had received anonymous letters; Poe blamed the spiteful Mrs. Ellet for the anonymous letters

In 1845 Poe became involved in a complicated quarrel. The poet, Frances Sargent Osgood, upset by her husband's attentions to another woman, published a poem late in 1844 reproaching him and offering to make up. She met Poe early in 1845 and flirted with him in print and in person. She also flirted with Griswold and a merchant who wanted “carnal” relations with her. Finding Poe in the way he spread a story that Poe had obtained money under false pretenses — something Poe had not done in the legal sense. Mrs. Osgood published an indiscreet story, “Ida Grey,” suggesting her relations with Poe were not purely Platonic. Virginia Poe tolerated Fanny. Meanwhile Mrs. Elizabeth F. Ellet had entered the picture, wrote for Poe's magazine and flattered him.

One day Mrs. Ellet found Fanny [[Frances Osgood's nickname]] and Virginia laughing at a letter which turned out to be from Elizabeth to Edgar! Mrs. Ellet, a horribly vengeful person, waited until she saw an indiscreet letter from Fanny to Poe — then sent Margaret Fuller et al to demand Mrs. Osgood's letters. Poe made his famous remark that Mrs. E. should worry about her own.

Her brother threatened Poe, who had already returned the letters to Mrs. Ellet. Unable to prove this and afraid of the complications, Poe got Dr. Frances to state that he had periods of insanity, something capable of proof today. [page 177:]

Poe also had close associations during the year with Dr. Thomas Dunn English. He met this man in Philadelphia, about 1839, and their relations were from their second meeting alternately of enmity and tolerance. About the end of the year they had a drunken fist fight at the office (of the Broadway Journal) And were never reconciled thereafter.

Poe's “Literati” article on English was so severe the doctor replied in a vulgar way, putting in the story about the money under false pretenses — Poe replied in an even less decorous article not however libellous. Poe sued English and won, but his reputation suffered, as the testimony in the suit was scandalous — and Fanny's story of “Ida Grey” had already raised a stench.

Incidentally Fanny and her husband were reconciled, and their third child, Fanny Fay, was born. My own belief is that Fanny really loved Poe, who never spoke of her save with affection, and respect. She was, however, apparently one of those people with whom everybody fell in love. [page 178:]

Mrs. Ellet's relations with Griswold were even more unpleasant than with Poe. As early as 1841 Horace Greeley arranged for her to write for Griswold, presumably for the Poets and Poetry of America, then in preparation. Later they were not on friendly terms, the lady did not like her treatment in the Female Poets, nor the excessive praise there given the Carey sisters, Alice and Phoebe. With Mrs. Stephens and Anne Lewis, she planned to write Griswold and Alice Carey down.

There were attacks in the papers, and anonymous letters to Griswold's third wife, accusing him of bigamy. In 1845 the anthologist, a widower, had made an unfortunate match with a lady from Charleston. The marriage was never consummated because of the lady's physical incapacity, and ended in divorce.

Mrs. Ellet found that a final paper to complete the divorce was not properly filed in Philadelphia, stirred up the second Mrs. Griswold to sue, and managed to get the decree set aside. This broke up the third marriage. [page 179:]

Anyone anxious for more details may find them in the Passages from Griswold's correspondence, and in the dissertation on Rufus Wilmot Griswold by Joy Bayless, Nashville, 1943. If these be not enough, one may read the Remarks Upon . . . The Divorce Case of Griswold vs Griswold by Theodore Cuyler, Counsel of the Libellant, Philadelphia, 1852; only 25 copies were printed; I have read that in the New York History Society. In a passage (still unpublished, and perhaps destroyed) in her MS autobiography, Elizabeth Oakes Smith referred to some unpleasant experience when crossing the Atlantic with Mrs. Ellet. Excessive interest in her own sex may explain some of Mrs. Ellet's conduct. Her worse fault was obviously inordinate love of self.

2. Terese Contrerini was produced at the Park, March 19, 1835, and ran three nights according to Odell, IV, 17. In his review in the Messenger, January 1836, (H. VIII, 141) Poe said the play was “received with approbation” but he thought it “better suited to the closet than the stage.” [page 180:]

3. There can be no doubt that Mrs. Ellet's conduct in literary matters was dishonorable on occasion. In the Passages from the Correspondence of his father, 1898, page 247, W. M. Griswold, quotes from the American Publisher, June 1868, is an account of one of her escapades:

Mr. Putnam stated his side of the case; she then said a “friend of hers,” whom she did not name, had sent the story to Putnam. Says the American Publisher: