The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1908-07-10
Americans to Do Justice
to the Memory of the
Author Of "The Raven

~~~S- ~ AsesS AAotseu VI GutGt tulluttlOB Ull
Foreign Literature Than Any other Of Our
writer's to This Day--It is Only on the Hun
aredih Anniversary of his Birth In Boston
January 10. That Edgar Allan Poe Is TO Be
Properly honored by His COuntrymen.-Exer,
ciSeS Are Now Being Planned In Boston, Phia
delphld. Baltimore and New York, Four Cities
In Which He Did Most OF His Writing The
University of Virginia. That Had the Glory Of
Graduating the Author of 1.-The Raven" VIII
Also Fittingy Observe the Natal Day Of the
Poet Who Led the Saddest Life Of ANY of the
Many Pitiful Cases Where Misery Has Been
Welded to Genius.
On the occasion OF his centenary,
January 10 of next year, Americans
will do tardy justice to the memory of
the loftiest and most poetical genius
the new world has yet produced
Edgar Allan Poe.
Misunderstood during all his I'M
happy life, slandered after his death
by a jealous contemporary, the
matchless poet, author of THE
Raven" is to be treated one hundred
years after his birth to spontaneous
honor at the hands of the countrymen
whose letters he glorified.
The celebration of the hundredth
anniversary of Poe's birth has been a
favorite project of the literary for
several years. 1t was not without re-
search that the actual date was de-
termined. Poe's own statements,
which in matters of this kind were
prone to be ineXact, are responsible
for the confusion. When he entered
West Point he gave his birth mac
curately so as to come under the age
limit. But the researches of Profess
sor Woodbury. have shown to a GER
tainty that the date is January 10,
1908, paragraph in a Boston paper
of one month later proving it beyond
a question.
Commemorative Exercises Planned.
Boston, Philadelphia. Baltimore
and New York, the four cities in
which Poe did most of his literary
work, will all see commemorative ex-
ercises held. and in the University of
Virginia, whose most famed student
Poe is, noted giants of literature will
sound the praises of the greatest
American poet.
In all the injustice done to men of
genius the case of Poe is perhaps
without parallel. His gifts were
undoubtedly his curse, for he never
realized anything from them but woe.
The frightful Imagination that en-
abled him to write stories of horror
that have never been equaled was
trouble enough for any one man, but
ordinarily they would have brought
consolation in the admiration of his
fellowmen, and financial rewards that
would have enabled the writer and
his wife to live in comfort.
Passing Rich" on $40 Per.
When at the very summit of his
glory, as editor of the leading Amer
lean magazine, his salary was only
$40 week, stipend at which many
stenographer would to-day scorn-
fully turn up the nose, THE Raven, ;"
one of the most celebrated of all
poems, brought only $40 to the au-
thor, yet to-day the original manu-
script is valued at $4,000.
For quarter of a century after the
death of this master worker in letters
the enemies of Poe had the ear of the
world. The poet was scarcely cold
in his grave before r. w. Criswold
had published his slanderous biogra-
ply, which reeked in every line with
the hatred the biographer bore the
critic who had so ruthlessly exposed
the literary weakness of His Poets
and Poetry of America.
Poe and Griswold were friends, but
the poet, as one of the most noted
critics in the world, could not stifle
his sense of honesty in commenting
on his (Griswold's) work. He told
what he thought about it.
Griswold had his revenge richly
after the death of the author of The
Raven" for the close relations of the
two men, having been known to the
world. led all to believe that what
Griswold said of Poe must of neces-
sity be correct
Great Injustice Done Him.
1t was not until many friends of
Poe in life, many of those who knew
his true life in many of the places
mentioned by Griswold as scenes of
incredible debauchery, began their
campaign to clear his memory that
the world saw the possibility that it
had done the greatest of American
literary geniuses tragic injustice.
Enemies said that he starved and
beat his wife in order to hasten her
death, so that by studying her pangs
he might get material for exact de-
scription. Yet her mother, Mrs.
GLENN, who lived with the pair dur
ing their married life and who knew
how deeply the poet loved her, bore
indignant witness to the SANDER of
these stories, and responded with a
hundred others in rebuttal, showing
the mans affection, the care he had
for his wife, of how he cooked her
meals in her illness, when poverty
had brought them near actual starva-
ton.
Mrs. GLENN showed that it was the
death of his wife that overthrow Poe's