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[page 2, column 5, continued:]
EDGAR A. POE AND THE PARISIAN FEUILLETONISTS. — All lovers of fiction have read Mr. Edgar A. Poe's famous story of “Valdemar,” and will remember the excitement which it created not only in this country but in Europe. We find, by the following, from a Parisian correspondent of Willmer and Smith's European Times, that this excitement has not yet subsided: “The name of Mr. Edgar A. Poe the American novelist, has figured rather prominently of late before the law courts. A newspaper, which, for the sake of clearness, I will call No. 1, gave a feuilleton, in which one of Mr. Poe's tales of a horrible murder in the United States was dressed up to suit the French palate; but no acknowledgement was made of the story being taken from Mr. Poe. Another newspaper, No. 2, stated that the said feuilleton was stolen from one previously published in another journal. This led to a squabble between the writer of feuilleton No. 1 and the editor of the newspaper No. 2, that accused him of plagiary from newspaper No. 3. This squabble resulted in a process, in the course of which the feuilletoniste No. 1 proved that he had stolen it from Mr. Poe. It was proved, too, that No. 3 was himself an impudent plagiarist, for he had filched Mr. Poe's tale without one word of acknowledgement; whilst, as to No. 2, he was forced to admit that not only had he never read Mr. Poe, but had never heard of him in his life. All this, it will be perceived, is anything but creditable to the three newspapers in question.”
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Notes:
The newspapers have been identified as:
No. 1 - Le Commerce
No. 2 - La Presse (the editor was M. De Girardin)
No. 3 - La Quotidienne
Willmer & Smith's European Times was a large format newspaper with 6 column pages, printed in Liverpool, UK, but also distributed in the United States, Canada, Newfoundland, Egypt, India, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, China and South Wales. The European Times was published 1843-1848. The primary editor, or perhaps the proprietor and business manager, was Charles Willmer (1819-1897). Smith has not been identified. He might have been Thomas Smith (1795-1871), who wrote a book on Evolution: or, The Power and Operation of Numbers, published in 1835. While it was published in London by Longman, Rees, et. al., the book was printed by Willmer and Smith in Liverpool. In 1839, Willmer and Smith published a book with the title Unitarianism defended, and several other books on Unitarianism. Prior to the European Times, in 1834, Willmer and Smith published the Horoscope: A Weekly Miscellany of Astrology.
The same item was also reprinted in the Sunday Dispatch (New York, NY), for January 31, 1846, p. 4, col. 3.
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[S:0 - HJ, 1847] - Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore - Bookshelf - Edgar A. Poe and the Parisian Feuilletonists (Anonymous, 1847)