Edgar Allan Poe: Some Facts Recalled

Author(s): William Sartain

Source: The Art World, Vol. 2, No. 4 (Jul., 1917), pp. 320-323
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/25587992
Accessed: 28-05-2025 15:17 UTC

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 r SPECIAL ARTCLELES

EDGAR ALLAN POE-SOME FACTS RECALLED

BY WILLIAM SARTAIN
(See opposite page)

TJ-~HERE is no one in our literature who is so where the wretched thin suit that had been ex
universally known and whose writings are changed for the clothes worn on his arrival was
so highly esteemed in Europe as Edgar Allan stripped from him, and he was put to bed. On the
Poe. From my own experience in France I can second day he died from the chill he suffered. in that
vouch for the familiarity of all the French art stu thin bombazine suit. Dr. J. J. Moran attested that
dents with his works. Next to Poe there was he gave no sign whatever of liquor and that this
Nathaniel Hawthorne, who was admired especially story was a calumny-also that his death resulted
for "The Scarlet Letter." As boys they had all from the chill that he had suffered on that cold
read Fenimore Cooper's Indian tales also. October night.
When I was in my sixth year my father's maga I was an omnivorous reader at an early age and
zine Sartain's Union Monthly was in its last year, in the bound volumes of Graham's Magazine on our
having been ruined by the defalcations of the busi library shelves I had read Poe's "Murder in the
ness partner. It had a circulation three times as Rue Morgue," "Descent into the Maelstrom" and
great as Harper's Monthly and was the foremost other of his tales, hence the vivid impression made
literary journal of America. Poe's last contribu on my mind by these discussions of Poe's visit to
tion to it was his "Annabel Lee," which was printed our house. Sartain's Magazine had previously pub
in January 1850, three months after his death, lished his "Song of the Bells" (November 1849) of
with an explanatory note that, although accepted whose history I find some inaccurate account in his
and paid for, the delay in being printed had allowed biographies. As first written, it had only eighteen
it to be forestalled by three other publications, to lines, and though accepted and paid for, its publica
which Poe, the note stated, had also sold it. But tion was delayed some months, when Poe sent us an
this was probably an error, for it appears that he enlarged version of the poem and received additional
gave a copy to one journal, and his editors, finding payment. A month later he sent in another en
it among his effects, had it published in the New larged version-its final form as it was published
York Tribune where it first appeared. and he received an additional sum, making the total
I have a vague recollection of a visit that Poe payment amount to forty-five dollars. It was
made to my father's house only one month before printed in November-just after his death; but as
his death-but more particularly of the many dis the magazine was in press, no notice of that event
cussions of the latter event. He came there with appeared until the December issue.
his mind full of vague imaginings of conspiracies As Sarah Hale has stated that Poe had been will
against him and dread of some impending calamity. ing to write for fifty cents a page, this would seem
After supper he was preparing to leave, and my to have been an almost generous payment for those
father thought it wise to accompany him, because days. He had received only ten dollars for "The
he was like one distraught, so nervous and unstrung Raven" in 1845. For his article on the "Poetic
was he. His shoes, being worn down at the heels, Principle" he had been paid thirty dollars. There
had chafed his feet, so he was made to wear my is a letter, undated, to Carey and Lee his publishers,
father's slippers. After some prolonged rambles in in which Poe says he wished them to continue as his
Fairmount Park his weird fancies became quieted publishers and to issue a book on the same terms
down and they returned to our house, where Poe was as before-they to receive the profits and he to have
lodged for the night on a sofa, my father sleeping twenty copies to distribute among his friends.
on some chairs alongside of him without undress There seems to be good evidence that the con
ing. He remained in our house until the second struction of his poem "The Raven" or at least the
day, when, restored to a normal condition, he left idea of writing it resulted from his acquaintance,
for New York, my father lending the money for the which was for a time intimate, with Henry B. Hirst,
journey. a Philadelphia poet of merit. Hirst owned a pet
One month after that he was dead. He had raven which Poe was quite familiar with. Before
arrived in Baltimore on his way from Richmond to the publication of the poem the two poets quarreled
New York and on alighting from the boat he was and saw each other no more. As there is little
seen to turn down Pratt Street on the south side, doubt of some sort of collaboration of the two on
followed by two suspicious looking characters as far the poem, it is probable that it was on this subject
as the southwest corner of Pratt and Light Streets. that they quarreled. Moreover the poem as first
A fair presumption is that they got him into one published was not signed by Poe's name but
of those abominable dens that line the wharf, "Quarles," and that suggest that a "quarrel" had
drugged him and robbed him of everything. He some connection with the composition. As to the
was found in the morning lying unconscious on some old English poem of "Emnblemns" it has no relation to
boards placed over barrels and taken to the hospital, the verses or quarrels. The poem had an immediate
321

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 322 THE ART WORLD July 1917

and remarkable success everywhere. I can well adopted by his godfather Edgar Allan, a wealthy
remember this Henry B. Hirst, who lived but a merchant of Richmond, Virginia. From his eighth
couple of city blocks away; frequently he dropped to his thirteenth year he was put to school in
in at my father's office for some years after the England. Thence he was removed to a school in
magazine had been discontinued. He impressed me Virginia and finally to the University at Charlottes
as a poetic figure; having some resemblance to the ville. As a student he was distinguished in his
portraits of Shakespeare, his cultivation of this studies and also as an athlete; but after one year he
resemblance gave him a notable aspect that remains left. Being too passionately fond of card games,
graven on my memory. he got deeply in debt, it is said, as much as for two
Poe was easily affected by a very slight dose of thousand dollars. Some unexplained quarrel with
liquor, but he was far from indulging often. But his godfather-possibly about these debts ensued.
he was of a nervous temperament, easily excited, and He-was now eighteen years old, when he disappeared
hence had many quarrels with his friends on slight for two years and went to Europe to fight for the
causes. An old friend of mine, Mrs. Kelly, told me Greeks.. so it is said. Reannearin? in Richmond in
how he had quarreled 1829, he stayed at home
with her parents be for one year and then
cause they had named was entered as a cadet
her Victorine Addele in the Military Acad
after a French aunt emy at West Point.
instead of Lavinia or But his ambitions in
Leonore, on which name literature led him to
he was very insistent. neglect his studies and
But he soon got over he was discharged. No
this and was a frequent one knows what he did
visitor at their house for the ensuing two
as before. But his years. In 1833 he re
eccentricity often re appears as the success
sulted in more serious ful competitor for a
estrangements, since story in a Baltimore
his pride did not per newspaper, winning the
mit him to smooth over hundred dollar prize.
the affair. Yet he had Thenceforth he sub
a warm heart under his sisted by literature.
proud exterior as many His godfather had mar
ancedotes testified. ried again and had a
The "Song of the child, and thereafter
Bells" and "The Raven" not one cent for Poe!
being so connected with His biographer Gris
my early recollections, wold has slandered him
I would mention an as intemperate. My
other of his writings father said this was
that early fascinated not true, and he was
me: "The Island of the m os t temperate in
Fay." It has been drinking. It is a con
classed as a prose poem, siderable confirmation
and commences with an of this, that Poe was a
argument for the claim model of punctuality in
of natural scenery as his reviewing and other
even more capable of EDGAIT A,LJAN--T POE work for the magazines
affording solitary en during all the ensuing
A LTITIOGRAPIr iY A.
FI1O31 PERRASSIN, PARIS, AFTER A
joyment than does mu fifteen years of his life,
DAGUERREOTYPE; A VERY CORRECT LIKENESS
sic. "In truth" he says which comprises his
"the man who would literarv c a re e r. In
behold aright the glory of God upon the earth must 1837 he moved to New York and after a year to
in solitude behold that glory." To me at least, the Philadelphia, where his contributions were the main
presence of, not human life only, but life in any stay of Graham's Magazine, for which he wrote
other form than that of the green things that grow some of his finest stories. For much of his literary
upon the soil and are voiceless, is a stain upon the career he was half-starving. His labor over his
landscape-is at war with the genius of the scene. writings is shown, no doubt with some exaggeration
I have lately been reminded of this by the statement however, in his article "The Philosophy of Composi
of Jules Dupre that when he wanted to paint a tion" written shortly after the publication of "The
picture appealing to the common crowd, a salable Rav'en." In this essay he enunciates some of his
landscape or "pot boiler," he made it a point to intro articles of faith, such as: Beauty is the legitimate
duce ducks into the composition! province of the poem; it is a pure and intense eleva
Poe was born in Boston January 19th, 1809. Poe tion of the soul, not of the intellect nor the heart.
no doubt inherited his eccentric nature. His father Leading up to the motive of his, poem "The Raven"
was of good family, but after being educated for the he carried his theory to the end, and adds that the
bar, became an actor and married an actress. When tone of its highest manifestation is sadness. Death
Poe was two years old, his parents died and he wnq is the most melancholy: and Death when allied to

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 I

July 1917 .THE ART WORLD 323

Beauty is the supreme goal. The death of a beauti But except for these intermittent indulgences, his
ful woman is the most poetical topic, and the lips addiction to stimulants must have been grossly ex
best suited for such purpose of those of a bereaved aggerated by his biographer Griswold, whom my
lover. father has said he had personally seen on quite bad
Poe married in 1836, when he was twenty-seven terms with Poe. My father's acquaintance with
years old, his cousin Miss Clemm, who was only him was the more close in the latter years of his
fourteen. After six years his wife-"a wife" he life and as his statements were most positive, these
writes in 1842 "whom I loved as no man ever loved derogatory stories must be taken with a grain of
before, ruptured a blood vessel while singing. Her salt. The account I have given of Poe's death, after
life was despaired of. I took leave of her forever having been robbed even of his clothes seems to me
and underwent all the agonies of death." Again to be so reasonable-and moreover based on my
and again, at varying intervals, the accident re father's contemporary information-that I can not
curred. In all recurrences of the trouble he loved accept the story of his having been lured into the
her more and more dearly. Constitutionally sensi hands of an electioneering gang and drugged, so
tive, he says he became insane at moments and in as to be utilized for depositing ballots in numerous
those moments drank. He says, of course his polling places. It would seem very doubtful that
enemies refer the insanity to drink, rather than the votes would be received from any one in his alleged
drink to insanity. All this time his aunt Mrs. condition. His death occurred on the 7th day of
Clemm, his wife's mother, was his ministering angel. October 1849, in the forty-first year of his age. Such
His wife died in January 1846, relieving him of a was the sad end of "life's fitful fever" for one whose
strain which, if continued, so he said, would have writings are increasingly admired and who is univer
resulted in his permanent madness. sally acknowledged a great literary master.
William Sartain

IS THERE SUBLIMITY IN JAPANESE ART?

BY JOHN LUTHER LONG

W HETHER a work of art contains the ele som. Here is no expression of extent or awe, no
ments of sublimity depends entirely upon thrill, only pure and perfect beauty. A Japanese
whether it evokes such emotions. And will spend enraptured days here, enamored of the
these, I suppose, must not be altogether the emo perfection of the scene, the atmosphere, the color,
tions of the creator of the work, or of his school the form and color of the blossoms. And he who
or times or country, but of all the world at all never before indited a poem will be moved to do
times. But what thing in the art-work is most so here, couching it in the noblest phrases he knows,
likely to induce the feeling which labels a work hanging it adoringly upon the branches of the trees
sublime?* Mere bigness or even vastness is not which have inspired him. The Emperor himself is
always sublime. Often it is only rude. -In short, expected to do this when he visits Mukojima or
what is sublimity in art? Shiba. The perfection of the whole, and of each
In the West perhaps it is most often suggested tiny petal as well, is sublime to the Japanese, and
by extent-the capacity in a thing for exacting he had been transported for a brief space to the
awe. And it is precisely here that we must divest heavens where such completeness has its habitat.
ourselves of everything but the Japanese point of And if the contemplation of these perfect things
view if we would find anything sublime in their has carried him to, let us say, the Twenty-Seventh
art. I am not forgetful of what I have said in Heaven, he has at least reached thereby the sub
the preceding paragraph concerning the univer limest altitude human thought has yet achieved.
sality of artistic judgment. But we must reach It is questionable whether the thrills of awe we in
that, if at all, by beginning in this instance with the West associate with sublimity can do more.
the very creators of the thing in question. For, I Likewise a Japanese will stand for silent im
fancy, the sublimity of Japanese art consists in its movable hours on the edge of a motionless moat,
perfection. I agree that, in a western mind, this water-full, in a perfect night with a full moon in
is somewhat of a shock at first view. He is likely an immaculate sky reflected on the still water. His
to consider the chasmic distance between the defi feet, perhaps, will have been carefully bedded in
nition of Extent and of Perfection, and to dismiss irises. There will have been in the soft, moist air
the whole matter. And he may do so at this point the aroma Japonica. Perfect stillness will have
if he thinks I have no case. reigned over earth, air and sky. Impeccable perfec
For it is entirely true that the Japanese care tion to him. And, again, he is likely to make a
little for mere bigness without symmetry, form or poem. They are little-their poems-something
color. Yet, while the appreciation of these things like this:
is often in their physical presentation, it is also
The moon up there
often intellectual or compounded of both. The moon down here
Every one is familiar with the fact, that, where Tontori, tontorori!
an art object consists of a number of similar units,
O is it sea or is it sky?
the Japanese will produce only one of them, leaving The heavens or earth?
the impression of the whole to the mind. Gods, what care I?
Perhaps no loftier emotion is ever evoked in the
Upon my breast your head,
Japanese mind than by the quiet contemplation of, You sigh
let us say, a cherry-grove in full and perfect blos Tontori, tontorori!

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