The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-10-08
JAMES wHITcoMB RILEY.
Tells How He Wrote "Leonainie. /"

or two been entertaining an old friend, Will J. Ethel. formerly of Anderson, now of Washington City. The subject of tn 2 poem of 'Leonainie," hoax poem writ ten by Mir. Riley many years ago, came | into the conversation. The poem was an exceedingly adroit imitation of the style of Edgar Allen Poe, and gave MT. Rley hls first recognition outside Of indiana "The story has never been accurately | told,' said Mir. Riley. "The affair hap pened- but I'm not good at dates"
 'In August. 1S77.' said J. M. Dickey, MT. Riley's secretary.
 "i was at that time employed on the Anderson Democrat. doing personals, ad vertising and all sorts of miscellaneo IS | work. including some rhymng. On tn: paper with me were Will M. Croan ana Michael '. Todisman. It was dull sea- son and we pranked good deal. will Klnnard was a brilliant young fellow on The And ,rson Herald, the op- position paper. He hal considerable lit erary tastes. and a subtle sense of hu- nor. MT. Ethel, who had, like myself been a painter, WIS then reading law in Anderson. Samuel Richards, the artist: who afterward made a reputation and died in Denver, after returning from Munich, was also one of us. "Kinnard used to have great deal oe fun with me. as I was a novice Tn newspaper work. He rallied me especi H. ly about my poetry, which he did not hes- itate to pronounce as rather feeble out put, and he said that he did not marv:i at all that when sent to magazines 1t was invariably and promptly returned to the writer
 ''To this raillery invariably respondc that the writings were returned simply becauee I was unknown, and not because of the quality of the work; that on the roster of commonplace names J. w; Riley. as I then signed myself. led all the rest.
 T held that these initials might me il Joseph Wilson, John Wesley or Jabez Williamson Riley, and argued that my very ordinary name was as much the cause of the return of the manuscripts as anything else. I advanced the ar. gument that were these poems signed by a name known to fame or a name of some distinction, my poetry might pass muster: that critics would accept it for the names sake.
 "At this argument and defense Kim nard laughed again and again. Tnen set about to demonstrate the soundness of my contention. With the chums l have named little scheme was set on foot. Looking about over the iist oI dead poets l selected Poe as llttle Tn the hoaxing line himself and held that perhaps he would not care If some liber- ties should be taken with his name.
 Tt was under these circumstances that wrote Leonainie.' It was written on a fly leaf which was detached from an old copy of Ainsworth's dictionary that was in the Anderson Democrat office. I took this leaf to MT. Ethhel and Sam uel Richards. All this was before the poem was written. When 1t was written it was called 'Leonainie, ana was Tn imitation of Poe.
 There was some experimenting by my two artist friends. to whom l furnished my copy with all the indentations ana punctuation marks carefully put down, as one of the characteristics of Poe was his exquisite taste in such matters. He seemed to have it in mind to have ms copy so perfect that no compositor could possibly go wrong m reproducing It al the font.
 "In getting this together we had lim- ited fac simile of the handwriting or Poe taken from magazine article on the poet that had appeared not long before. Then it became necessary to build story regarding the finding of the poem whi;n had been put back into the old book It was not deemed prudent to publish IL in The Democrat, the paper with whicn I was connect ed. The curious would have scented the genesis of the poem. So he wrote, asking the editors or The No komo Dispatch to print the poem, Wph the story that 1t had been found, to- gether with the story of the finding of 1t in kokomo.
 q wanted to be able to shake that poem in Kinnard's face in proof of my position that 1t was the name that made things, more than the opinion of critics; that many criticised without any basis at all to go upon.
 "It was all for sport. MT. Ethel and
 
 handwriting MT. Ethel was called awLy before any copy was produced. The final copy was sent down by Samuel Rlchards' who had to do some inventing, necessar- fly, not having all the letters of Poe's handwriting.
 "Edmund Clarence Stedman was report ed to have said that it was the best ina tation poem of Poe he had ever seen. What he did say was that it was the best ina, tation of Poe's handwriting that he had ever seen. This he told me himself in his own library, with the further remark that he ought to be considered somewhat of an authority on Poe's handwriting. An assistant or secretary then took scroll from his desk and unrolled it upon the floor. It was twelve or fifteen feet long, all in Poe's handwriting, an ar ticle written for maaazme ana with all the Poe peculiaritieS of which we have been speaking, showing his accu"- acy in punctuation, the legib;lity of his writing, utterly preventing a compositor from mista ing any line, word, syllable or punctuation mark.
 "The poem of 'Leonaine was copis1 widely with different comments. Those who considered it a genuine Poe were quite as strong in their opinion as those who doubted it's gennneness.
 'The story of the finding of the poerl as given out by The kokomo Dispatch, was this: The editor chanced to call on one of his subscribers. a worthy butcher in Anderson, and as he, the editor, was waiting for him to appear, he picked up a book from a table. This was an old copy of Ainsworth's dictionary.
 As the editor opened the book he foun1 in faded ink a poem written with a peculiar accuracy that struck a prins- CTS eye. He look d over the poem. He was struck with the strange title, La onanie,' and saw that the poem was signed at the bottom with the letters E. A. P.
 When the man of the house came :. so the story ran. the editor inquired how thc book came into his possession. The visitor was told that the owner had it from a grandfather, who, iH years gone by, had kept a tavern near the city of Richmond. Va. His father had often told the story that very eccentric man had stayed al the tavern one night When morning came the guest was gone and tha most nase c: saw nIn again. But h. found on table in the room this dic tionary and the poem written on one cf It's fly leaves
 This is the story of the hoax" sail Mir. Riley. 'l did not expect that It would cause. as it did, such widespread comment The only object of those inn tie stir among the State exchanges, lr The Anderson I)emoC rat l wrote mYse.t an article de"Iding any pretension ttlt the poem could have as 10 being gen utne Poe This was done to throw ny friends of. They would say. No, Rile' didn't write it. He Is making fun of it. The old dictionary with the poem il 1t, passed into the hands of MT. Foo ! New York banker. He wrote to me when he heard the story of the hoax, long after he had purchased the book, evidently in the best of faith. Of course I told him the truth about it. He then said, very graciously, that he was go!lg