The Irish standard., 1896-02-01
ABOUT EDGAR ALLEN FOE
The Works of the Eccentric and
Much Admired Poet Presents
ed in a New Form.
Poe Painted as a Saint, a r1artyr,
God With a Perfect
Temperament.

Temperament.
A Genius the World Derided, Dis
cOuraged, Starved and No
Doubt Drove to Drink.
No more important local literary event
has taken place in Chicago than the COM
pletion of a perfect edition, in ten VOL
umes, of the works of Edgar Allen Poe,
by Stone and kimball, says the Chicago
Times Herald
This is an edition which includes per-
sonal memoir by George Edward Wood
berry, and critical memoir by Edward
Clarence Stedman, who have made and
edited the collection; also illustrations by
Albert Edward Steiner; portraits of all
dates and descriptions of the Poe family
and connections, the whole being made
ND in the choicest manner and with the
greatest elegance.
| There is nothing much more firmly
! rooted than personal prejudice. Opin-
ions of authors formed in youth may be
easy TO modifXtEr change, as experience
and maturity emold the judgment, but q
personal liking for writer made
through biography is seldom wholly OBJ
liberated, any more than renugnance
is conquered. Dumas and Abbott did
more, for instance, to instill an unreas
oning love for the character of Napoleon
than a Barras or even Il juster critic will
ha a tn
Last OF the Cavaliers implanted seeds
of reverence and admiration for Claver-
house that not even all the wise and
prudent historians who call him black
william will ever dig up; and Charles Bau-
delaire's influence will last longer in IA
vor of Poe than Mr.. Woodberry's dispas-
sionate statements of facts against him,
simply because Baudelaire's came first.
Visions continually arise OF a specially
beloved old volume, fondly dog-eared
and affectionatealy racked from it's bind
ing, frequent loans to sympathetic
friends having affected what devoted
ownership even has not done. And own
ership has done a good deal. Taking a
book to bed is not presevative OF the
book S appearance; and falls with bang
to the floor, as drowsiness overconles
the votary, do not condure to the tight
ness of binding nor neatness of pages.
The book was bought at auction in CAL
cutta years ago; it is labeled Works Of
Edgar Allen Poe and has an introduc-
tion (translateD by Charles Baudelaire;
an introduction-a kind of fulsome and
excessive memoir, by the by--which L do
not find mentioned as part of any edi
ton in the new Poe books. Baudelaire's
memoir, as already said, is fulsome to ex
cess; naught is set down to blame, but
everything in extenuation. Poe was a
saint, a martyr, a god with a perfect
temperament. a genius the world derid-
ed, disparaged, starved, and probably
made him drink himself to death; at any
rate, nothing was owing to any fault Of
his. 1t was this character England and
France knew for years. .r#
Deeply imbued with this slight preju-
dice in favor Of the subject, one became
a violent partisan of Poe, and any i'm
putation against his character was re-
sented warmly and with irritation. When
George Edward Woodberry, therefore,
eight or ten years ago, published a bio
graphy Of the paragon, interspersed with
hints as to the paragon's fallibi,ity, it
seemed like spite or petty stone linging
at a helpless hero, and even when facts,
vouehed for and proved, emphasized
| words of austerity, the austerity alone re-
NAMED, and facts melted in the crucible
Of fervent admiration.
Time and insistence destroy many ill1l-
sions. however. and a no longer unreason-
ing liking for Edgar Poe has succeeded
years of passionate idolatry. Ee is seen
more nearly as he was now; a being full
of imperfect.Ons, arrogant, conceited and
pushing, yet with a morbid hatred of
things conventional even if they aggran-
dized him in state and fortune; a persist
ent genius that bade him court. the mys-
terious and hug the horrible.
Mr.. Stedman, after a long and logical
argum ent N support of the statement that
Poe was a poet, emphasizes the induce
tive and analytical gifts OF Poe as re-
quirements for an artist. "Poe was quite
within the liberties,' he says, construct.
ing his tales of ratocinat.On and pseudo
science, although the poet may be con-
cealed from one reading these alone. To
assert such a mischance. the author of the
'Purloined Letter is at pains to show the
reader that the poet and mathematician
are one-tlat the poet-artist must be
mathematician with the analytic gift. 2
It semes to some readers Of Poe that,
according to the fashions of his day,
rather than his mind, he was devoutly
precise in analysis, and even in classi-
fication. Owning that very spirit that in
the French decadents, whose precursor he
was, mocks at mathematics and makes
meaning superf1ous. Poe was slave to
the accurate habits of expression be-
longing to his generation, and insincere
in parading them as part of his poets
stock.
He makes a bold grab at a psychologi-
cal mystery, grasps It by the hair Of its
head sets his readers shivering before it.
and then makes a note Of its every action
and. expression, the number of its teeth,
and exact calculations of every bloody.
infamous or secret deed it is going to do
or has done by rule Of three. There are
times when tedious explanation nearly
Espo:ls the whole effect of illusion in a
splendid phantasEna agoria.
E Poe's familiar letters are the most ir-
and .disillusfonizingly de-.
tailed ever seen; prices appear perpetu-
ally in them. and indeed money plays so
large part n his intimate and emotion
al correspondence that one would suppose
his life was pent in scheduling his pas-s
sions. with a view to realizing On them. 1
HIS dates about his drinking habits are
as painfully exact as his financial state
ments. Four weeks ago last Monday,sI
drank one dram, price IL cents, seems