CHAPTER IX.

JANUARY, 1846–January, 1847.

FORDHAM: ENGLISH-POE CONTROVERSY; MRS. MARIE LOUISE SHEW; DEATH OF VIRGINIA POE.

Do you Would

sons "I am anxious to have another volume of my Tales published before the 1st of March. not think it possible to accomplish it for me? not Mr Wiley give me, say $50, in full for the copyright of the collection I now send? It is a far better one than the first containing, for instance, "Ligeia," which is undoubtedly the best story I have written besides Scheherazade," "The Spectacles," "Tarr and Fether," etc.

May I beg of you to give me an early answer, by note, addressed 85 Amity St?

Truly yours

EDGAR A. POE.

E. A. DUYCKINCK Esq.

POE TO GRISWOLD.

[Griswold's Memoir.]

[Undated, 1846 ?]

There is one particular in which I have had wrong done me, and it may not be indecorous in me to call your attention to it. The last selection of my tales was made from about seventy by one of our great little cliquists and claqueurs, Wiley and Putnam's reader, Duyckinck. He has what he thinks a taste for ratiocination, and has accordingly made up the book mostly of analytic stories. But this is not representing my mind in its various phases it is not giving me fair play. In writing these tales one by one, at long intervals, I have kept the book unity always in mind — that is, each has been composed with reference to its effect as part of a whole. In this view, one of my chief aims has been the widest diversity of subject, thought, and especially tone and manner of handling. Were all my tales now before me in a large volume, and as the composition of another, the merit which would principally arrest my attention would be their wide diversity and variety. You will be surprised to hear me say that, (omitting one or two of my first efforts,) I do not consider any one of my stories better than another. There is a vast variety of kinds, and, in degree of value, the kinds vary but each tale is equally good of its kind. The loftiest kind is that of the highest imagination and for this reason only "Ligeia" may be called my best tale.

MISS BARRETT TO POE.

[Century Magazine.]

5 WIMPOLE ST., April, 1846. DEAR SIR, Receiving a book from you seems to authorize or at least encourage me to try to express what I have felt long before my sense of the high honor you have done me in [illegible] your country and of mine, of the dedication of your poems. It is too great a distinction, conferred by a hand of too liberal generosity. I wish for my own sake I were worthy of it. But I may endeavour, by future work, to justify a little what I cannot deserve anywise, now. For it, meanwhile, I may be grateful because gratitude is the virtue of the humblest.

After which imperfect acknowledgment of my personal obligation may I thank you as another reader would thank you for this vivid writing, this power which is felt! Your "Raven" has produced a sensation, a "fit horror," here in England. Some of my friends are taken by the fear of it and some by the music. I hear of persons haunted by the "Nevermore,” and one acquaintance of mine who has the misfortune of possessing a "bust of Pallas" never can bear to look at it in the twilight. I think you will like to be told our great poet, Mr. Browning, the author of "Paracelsus,' and the "Bells and Pomegranates," was struck much by the rhythm of that poem.

Then there is a tale of yours (" The Case of M. Valdemar ") which I do not find in this volume, but which is going the round of the newspapers, about mesmerism, throwing us all into "most admired disorder," and dreadful doubts as to whether "it can be true,” as the children say of ghost stories. The certain thing in the tale in question is the power of the writer, and the faculty he has of making horrible improbabilities seem near and familiar.