The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1914-11-09

| Who 10 the greatest poet. and who
the greatest prose writer. this country
mas produced7 For what may be
termed domestic poetry~-poetry that
comes home to the hearths and hearts
OF the people--Longfellow stands fore
most. For prose of the pure. sweet,
Addisonian style. Washington Irving
has no equal among American writers.
For prose In the form of oratory. DAN
iei Webster and Edward Everett are
probably entitled to the first rank.
Webster's reply to Hayne, and Ever
etts- address upon Washington, are
the two best specimens of oratory the
country has produced.
In the domain Of poetry we have
produced no great epic such as Mil
tons Paradise Lost and Homer's
| 'Iliad."
But for weird, imaginative produc-
lions in both prose and poetry, Edgar
Allan Poe stands first and foremost
among all Americans. His best pro-
sduction in poetry is THE Raven" and
in prose. The Fall Of the House of
Usher" In the shorter forms of poe
try his Anabel Lee lis the best ode or
lyric in our American literature.
OF all American writer's. Poe pos
sessed in highest degree the gift that
we call genius. But he had one char
acteristic that most men of genius do
not possess, he. wrote an eXquisitely
beautiful hand. Every character in
each word was distinct and separate,
the letters not connected and running
into each other as in the writing Of
most people. His manuscript looked
AS If the pen was taken from the pa
per at the formation of each letter.
The effect of this was that his hand
writing was as Iegible as printing
This fact conveys a useful lesson.
Many persons, in particular many
young men of ambition. write an
iliegible hand because they think it
is a mark OF genius. But here was a
man of the very highest order of
genius who wrote an exceptionally
legible and beautiful hand. His beau
tiful handwriting was the circum-
stance that gained him the prize Of
fered by the baltimore Saturday WIS.,
tor in October. 1888, for the best
tale or story. The story submitted
by Poe, Manuscript Found in a Bot
tie" was written on unruled sheets
of paper, but the lines were as regular
and as evenly distanced as If the pa
per had been ruled. The story showed
much ingenuity and eleverness and
was doubtless entitled to the prize on
it's merits, yet the committee were
greatly impressed, and II may be IN
part Influenced. by the exquisite
beauty of the handwriting They en-
tered their award in writing, saying
that it was made ITO the first of gem
fuses who had written legibly." Poe
was then in his 22d year.
There are two incidents In the life
of this brilliant, erratic, unhappy man
that have come to my knowledge. and
which have never been published.
They may prove interesting to the adj
mirers of this hayward child of gem
Jus. Poe was by the death of his par
ents left destitute orphan in his In
fancy. and WAS adopted by Mr.. Allan,
q wealthy citizen OF Richmond, Va.
He gets the Allan part of his haptis-
NAL name from this hencfactor. Mr..
Allan sent him TO the University oh
Virginia, when he was II years of
age. He then led somewhat Wild
and dissipated life. though by no
means to the extent that some of his
biogra pliers have imputed to him
The librarian of the university was
then Mr. William Wertenhaker, a
young man. He and Poe seem to
have been fast friends. Mr. Werten-
baker many years ago published
magazine article upon Poe's career at