Text: Anonymous, “Poe's Claims to Enter the Hall of Fame,” New-York Tribune (New York, NY), vol. LXIX, whole no. 23,142, March 27, 1910, p. 55

[page 55:]

Edgar Allan Poe's Claims to Enter the Hall of Fame

Appointment of New Electors Rouses Public Interest Once More.

The announcement made the other day by Chancellor Henry Mitchell MacCracken of New York University of the names of electors for the Hall of Fame chosen to fill the vacancies caused by the deaths of certain men who served in 1905 brings sharply forward the question as to whether Edgar Allan Poe will this year receive the distinction of admission to the hall.

That Poe's name will be voted on is certain since it is a rule of the electors to place in nomination, each recurring fifth year, names that received ten votes or more of the preceding election. In 1905 Poe received forty-two votes, four more than he received in 1900. Fifty-one votes, a majority of the possible one hundred, will be necessary for election.

Admirers of Poe say that the centenary exercises of the poet's birth, which were held last year, have done much to crystallize public sentiment in his favor and to accentuate all that was most worthy, both in his work and in his living.

They point to the fact that only nine votes more than were received lat year are necessary to give Poe a place in “Author's Corner” of the Hall of Fame, hard by the memorials to Emerson, Longfellow and Hawthorne, which were inscribed in 1900, and of Lowell and Whittier, which were inscribed in 1905.

At the same time, it is known that two of Poe's most stanch supporters have been lost in the deaths of Richard Watson Gilder and of Edmund Clarence Stedman.

That it is the sentiment of some of New York's critics, scholars and literature that Poe eminently merits the distinction of admission to the Hall of Fame is shown by the following statements to a reporter of The Tribune last week.

Professor William P. Trent, head of the department of English in Barnard College, which is regarded by many as the leading “Poe scholar” in New York, expressed himself as heartily in favor of Poe's admission to the Hall of Fame.

“Since Poe's death,” said Professor Trent, his fame has been frequently assailed, chiefly in his own country, but it has continued to grow steadily. He is regarded by many foreign critics, and, perhaps by a majority of foreign readers, as the greatest of American writers, and to this opinion a fair minority of his countrymen subscribe.

“He claims attention in four ways. His biography is fuller of interest in the contrasts and the complexities it presents than that of any other American author. His criticism, at the lowest valuation, is full of suggestiveness, and, even on its destructive side, is of importance to the student of American literature. His fiction is generally considered supreme in its peculiar kind. He is an acknowledged master in the ratiocinative tale, including the detective story, which he practically originated. In the construction of his stories, and at times in his style, he yields to few writers of his kind.

“Poe was primarily a poet, and, perhaps, in England and in America, it is as a poet that he is chiefly valued. It is no small achievement to have sung imperishable songs of bereaved love and illusive beauty. It is no small achievement to have produced harmony that have since so rung in the ears [column 2:] of brother poets that echoes of them may be detected even in the verses of such accomplished artists as Rossetti and Swinburne.

“Due attention to the influence exerted by Poe's poems and tales upon both his own and other literature would have rendered the task of assigning him his proper rank among American writers much less difficult.”

When Brander Matthews, head of the department of English in Columbia, was asked to express his feeling as to whether the name of Edgar Allan Poe should be inscribed in the Hall of Fame, he replied with no hesitation and with considerable decisiveness, “Yes, I am absolutely in favor of it. It is absurd that there should have been such discussion over it.”

When asked to state the qualities upon which he based Poe's warrant to this distinction, Professor Matthews said: “Here is the American poet best known abroad. This is the criterion and sums up whatever else might be said on the subject.”

Robert Underwood Johnson, editor of “The Century Magazine,” whose name was announced as an elector to succeed the Late Richard Watson Gilder, and who will vote in the election of 1910, which is to close on October 1, comes out frankly with the statement that he intends to vote for Edgar Allan Poe. Said Mr. Johnson: “I have thought for many years that our leading candidates were Poe, Whitman, Longfellow and Emerson. These, of all our authors, are most admired abroad. In France Poe is held in reverence by those who have studied him, and in England Whitman has found favor.

“I do not consider that I am breaking faith with any man or institution when I say I shall vote for Poe if the opportunity is given to me. I am most emphatic on this point.”

“Poe's name should certainly be inscribed in the Hall of Fame,” said Miss Jeanette L. Gilder, editor and critic, when asked an expression of her feeling in the matter. “He was one of the leading geniuses of American literature. Our best critics so regard him, and he is so looked upon [column 3:] abroad. The French people have so much admired his writings that they have translated them into their own language.

“In Europe one hears only of Poe and perhaps of Hawthorne and Whitman as literary men of America. I cannot imagine why Poe should have failed of election before unless for some curious and incomprehensible reason the electors who voted against him failed to appreciate his work.”

W. C. Brownell, of “Scribner's Magazine,” whose essay on Poe in his “American Prose Masters,” published last year, entitles his opinion to consideration, declares: “Poe's name ought by all means to be in the Hall of Fame. Whatever moral idiosyncrasies [column 4:] he may have had should most decidedly not be counted against him in judging his claim to this distinction. To my thinking. Poe's chief distinction is that he was a literary artist in both prose and poetry. Mr. Brownell speaks of Poe as “the solitary artist” of our elder literature. “This is his distinction,” he declares, “and will remain such. His art is unalloyed. The extraordinary disproportion of inferior work [column 5:] to his prose does not obscure the fact that in he was essentially an artist.”

Mr. Brownell makes the following criticism of Poe in the essay above referred to: “It is a mistake to try to classify Poe. He is very strictly sui generis. His romantic interest has greatly influenced the critical of his work. In the first place, it estimate has led to the production of an unusual amount of criticism of this. And this criticism has been increasingly favorable. [column 6:]

“His reputation among us has notoriously been increased by foreign recognition of his writings say his admirers. ‘we ourselves esteem him because he is an American writer, this cannot be true of his foreign estimate.

“But foreign recognition sets such traps for our that it is prudent to be a little on our guard in the presence of it.”

Miss Ida M. Turbell, author and critic,” is another warm advocate of Poe's right to a place in the Hall of Fame.

“If the moral nature of a candidate were to be taken into account.” said Miss Tarbell, “we must admit that some of the names now in the Hall of Fame would have no right to be there. Poe was not worse than many other men who are accounted as famous.

“I think any candidate proposed for election to the Hall of Fame should be judged by the completed work he gave to the world in the line in which he was working. Poe certainly reflected great lustre on American literature. Personally, I think his short stories are his greatest claim to fame. They appeal to me strongly. 1 think that Poe had a higher type of imagination than either Longfellow or Whittier.”

William Dean Howells said: “I cannnot [[cannot]] more clearly express my appreciation of Poe's genius and his right to a place in the Hall of Fame than I expressed it in my article printed last year at the time of the Poe centenary.”

At that time Mr. Howells said:

“The Europeans, and more especially the Continental Europeans, and of these yet, more especially the French, have enjoyed the privilege of voting Edgar Allan Poe as a genius, easily prince among those who have given us standing in literature.

“For the Americans it has remained to say. however unwillingly, unhandsomely, uncouthly, that they do not think so and try to say why.

“None of us, I supppose [[suppose]], would like to deny him very great talent, when we least like to distinguish it from genius. But in spite his disqualifying qualities, Poe is [column 7:] of a life that promises to be long. Apparently there is a strongly recurrent, if not continuous, interest in him.

“Can a man continue in remembrance by virtue of pieces-of two pieces, and the entirety of one piece? Whether I think he can or not, it appears that Poe does live with the wise in these as he lives with the unwise in his inferior pieces.”

Professor Franklin Thomas Baker, head of the department of English In Teachers College, believes that Poe reached a higher level as a lyric poet than any other American, and that his poetry is his chief claim to a memorial in the Hail of Fame.

“I think that practically all teachers and critics of English are agreed,” said Professor Baker, “that Poe deserves recognition in this way. Although he produced only a small amount of poetry. I think he reached a higher level in lyric verse than any other American poet.

“He certainly founded a new style of short stories. As 1 understand it, the decisions of the electors are not based on the moral qualifications of the candidates who voted on, and I see no reason why are Poe's morals should be considered in the question of his fitness for admission to the Fall of Fame. He should be judged by the enduring work he gave to the world.

“Perhaps one reason he has not been appreciated is because we have looked more for the moral and ethical in our literature. Poe cared not a whit for this, but neither did Washington Irving, though this moral feeling is very noticeable in the New England group.”

Chancellor MacCracken sent out the following notice to all electors:

“The senate reports to the electors that the plan suggested by the late Edmund Clarence Stedman to his fellow electors for ballot in August, 1910, to be a preliminary followed by a discussion of names until the final ballot on or before October 1, did not receive the approval of more than one-fourth of the electors. The chief objection was that it involved needless work because the ballot of 1905 was practically a nominating ballot for 1910 in regard to all famous Americans who had at that time been ten years deceased.

“The names to be added of persons whose deaths occurred from 1895 to 1900 are but few and are not likely to be overlooked by the electors. Further, it was objected by some that a formal discussion in print would emphasize disproportionately the names in the class of authors because these names would interest the guild of writers more than any others.

“The senate heartily approves the procedure which it believes has been followed the two previous elections — 1900 and 1906 — in by the one hundred electors. This procedure may be again described for the sake of the many new electors. Each elector prepares for himself from among the list of nominations a roll of Americans who are already famous in the accepted sense of famous. Murray's English Dictionary defines this word:

“The condition of being much talked about, chiefly in a good sense; or reputation from great

“Then each elector out of these names which he believes to be famous, at least throughout America, selects those most deservedly famous, not exceeding the number and places them upon his final ballot.”