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Sections: Biography Criticism Bibliography
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Colonel John Stephenson Du Solle
From the frontispiece to his book, Letters from Europe, Philadelphia: 1846.
(Born: April 1811 - Died: January 7, 1876)
American journalist and editor. He was the editor of the Spirit of the Times (Philadelphia, PA) and later of the Sunday Dispatch (New York) and eventually of the Sunday Mercury (New York). He was born in New York City, the son of John Du Solle and Anna Maria Shrim. (His father was born in France, and emigrated to the United States. His parents were married in August 1810.) The family moved to Philadelphia in 1814. He married Sarah Ann Ford on December 24, 1833, at Trinity Episcopal Church, in Philadelphia, PA. He died in Jersey City Heights, NJ. The date of his death appears in the American Bookseller, vol. I, no. 2, January 15, 1875, p. 56. Charles Godfrey Leland describes him as “a good-natured, rather dissipated man, who kept horses.”
At pme point, he was the private secretary to P. T. Barnum. Charles Leland describes Du Solle as “a good-natured, rather disipated man” (Leland, Memoirs, 1893, 1:139).
Du Solle apparently related ridiculous stories about how Poe composed “The Raven,” creating for himself an important role. These stories were at least partially recounted by Francis G. Fairfield (in 1875) and Mrs. Susan A. T. Weiss (in 1907).
- Notice from “Autography”
- “John S. Du Solle” (“A Chapter on Autography” - part II) — December 1841 — Graham’s Magazine
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- Heartman, Charles F. and James R. Canny, A Bibliography of First Printings of the Writings of Edgar Allan Poe, Hattiesburg, MS: The Book Farm, 1943.
- Hicks, Deborah, “Profile: John S. Du Solle” in Pictures Abroad: An American’s Letters From Europe, 1845-46, Kindle E-book, Dusolle Publishing, 2012.
- Mabbott, Thomas Ollive, ed., The Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe (Vols 2-3 Tales and Sketches), Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1978. (Second printing 1979)
- Thomas, Dwight, Poe in Philadelphia, 1838-1844: A Documentary Record, dissertation, 1978.
- Thomas, Dwight and David K. Jackson, The Poe Log: A Documentary Life of Edgar Allan Poe 1809-1849, Boston: G. K. Hall & Sons, 1987.
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[S:0 - JAS] - Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore - People - Colonel John Stephenson Du Solle