Text: Edgar Allan Poe (ed. J. A. Harrison), “Review of The History of Texas,” The Complete Works of Edgar Allan PoeVol. IX: Literary Criticism - part 02 (1902), 9:78-79


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[page 78, continued:]

THE HISTORY OF TEXAS: OR THE EMIGRANTS, FARMERS, AND POLITICIANS GUIDE TO THE CHARACTER, CLIMATE, SOIL, AND PRODUCTIONS OF THAT COUNTRY; GEOGRAPHICALLY ARRANGED FROM PERSONAL OBSERVATION AND EXPERIENCE. BY DAVID B. EDWARD, FORMERLY PRINCIPAL OF THE ACADEMY, ALEXANDRIA, LOUISIANA; LATE PRECEPTOR OF GONZALES SEMINARY, TEXAS. CINCINNATI: J. A. JAMES & CO.

[Southern Literary Messenger, August, 1836.]

THIS should be classed among useful oddities. Its style is somewhat over-abundant — but we believe the book a valuable addition to our very small amount of accurate knowledge in regard to Texas. The author, who is one of the Society of Friends, assures us that he has no land in Texas to sell, although he has lived three years in that country, and that, too, on the frontiers — that he made one of a party of four who explored the province in 1830, from side to side, and from settlement to settlement, during the space of six months, — and that, in 1835, he had the curiosity to spend six months more in examining the improvements made throughout every locality, “in order that none should be able to detect a falsehood, or prove a material error which could either mislead, or seriously injure those who [page 79:] may put confidence in his work.” For ourselves we are inclined to place great faith in the statements of Mr. Edward, and regard his book with a most favorable eye. It is an octavo of 336 pages, embracing, in detail, highly interesting accounts of the People, the Geographical Features, the Climate, the Savages, the Timber, the Water, &c. of Texas. Much information in regard to Mexico, is included in the body of the work, and, in an Appendix, we have a copy of the Mexican Constitution. We give, by way of extract, a flattering little picture of Texian comfort and abundance.

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Notes:

None.


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[S:1 - JAH09, 1902] - Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore - Editions - The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe (J. A. Harrison) (Review of The History of Texas)