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POE, TOO, like the poor, is always with us. This time he turns up in the Atlanta Constitution, in a letter from John Quincy Adams of Washington, Ga. — ‘a well-known citizen of Wilkes County ‘ — who writes: ‘While in Atlanta last summer, I made a sensation among a few friends by saying that in rather a strange, accidental way, I had come into possession of a strong box, full of printed and manuscript matter, relating, not only to the life and genius of Edgar A. Poe, but to other distinguished literary people of his day.’ Among the persons — to whom the secret was confided were the well-known Southern writers, Col. R. M. Johnston and Joel Chandler Harris. But let Mr. Adams speak for himself:
Thus far I have found time to take only a bird's-eye view at the box, which has been tossed about for thirty years, and which, though hidden away in a dark place, did not escape the ravages of Sherman's army. It makes me nervous to think of the good things the vandals may have stolen or destroyed. . . . Let it suffice, for the present, to say my box contains original letters, talks and criticisms by Edgar A. Poe — a new life of the poet by a Southern man, himself a great and distinguished scholar long since dead, whom Poe, in one of his letters now before me, styles ‘my best and dearest friend on earth;’ letters from Mrs, Clemm, the poet's mother-in-law, to this friend and biographer ; letters from Mrs. Locke, N. P. Willis, Gilmore Sims, Prof. Bush, the great Hebrew scholar, Prof. Gierlow, a Danish scholar, and many other eminent people of forty years ago. But strangest of all, here are letters from Mrs. Elmira Shelton and Mrs. Sarah Helen Whitman. A poem in manuscript by the latter on the death of the poet, is very beautiful. These letters and memoranda set at rest forever Poe's relation to these two charming women.
Mrs. Shelton, by the way, died at Richmond on the 12th of February.
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THE Constitution (of which Mr. Harris is one of the editors) expresses a hope that ‘Mr. Adams's discovery is all that he believes it to be,’ and that it ‘will place the poet before the world as he really was.’ We share the hope, while doubting that any material modification of the present view of Poe is likely to be made at this late day — or that it would have been, even if the strong-box had not fallen into vandal hands, to the sad unstringing of its present owner's nerves.
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Notes:
The reference to the Atlanta Constitution appears to indicate a daily form. There was also a weekly Constitution, published every Tuesday.
This note was followed by a comment in the issue for April 14, 1888, p. 183, col. 2:
IN REFERENCE to the reported discovery by Mr, John Quincy Adams, of Washington, Ga., of ‘a strong box,’ containing manuscripts by Poe and his friends and correspondents, as recorded in this column on March 17, a gentleman well versed in Poëan literature writes to me: — It is possible that these may be Griswold's. He had Poe's papers I am pretty sure, and they unaccountably disappeared. What puzzles one is that they should have turned up where they are said to have been found. Still, they may be genuine.’
The box was not Griswold's; it had belonged instead to Dr. Thomas Holley Chivers. Apparently most of the contents found its way into the Huntington Library, in San Marion, CA. Griswold's papers, such as they remained after 1900, mostly ended up in the Boston Public Library.
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[S:0 - CNY, 1888] - Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore - A Poe Bookshelf - The Lounger (Anonymous, 1888)