The Twin City star. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1910-19??, 1916-04-01
STORY OF PH|LLIS
WHEATLEY POEMS

Learned Critics Discuss Slave
Girls Literary Work.
VIEWS OF MANY N0TABlES.
NsII Known New York Book Dealer
Publishes Three New Volumes Deal
ing With Writings of First Poet Of
the coIored Race In America-sehom
burg Wrote Introduction.
Charles Fred Heartmann, an anti
quarian and bookseller Of New York
city, has brought out three volumes
de luxe dealing with Phillis Wheatley,
which collectors and book lovers will
appreciate because Of their rarity. Mr..
Hartmann is a German scholar and q
former journalist who has travelled
much In Europe and, like a good jour-
nalist, has made excellent use Of his
eyes and ears. He has long had the
idea In mind of doing justice to the
little African pOetess who In her day
was nonized by the best class Of Amer
leans and the nobility Of England,
where she made an indelible impress
sion by her talents and genius as
writer Of poetry, says John d. Bruce
Grit"
There have been several editions Of
Miss Wheatley's poems published In
the United States and in England, but
there has been no such attempt made
as this Of the altruistic German gentle
man to give this Negro girl her true
place in American literature-that Of
the first American poetess, for no
white woman in this country, so far
as we have been able to discover, had
achieved any distinction as writer of
either prose or poetry at that period,
SO that Phiilis Wheatley was easily
first among American literary women
Of that day.
Mr.. Arthur A. SchOmburg, secretary
Of the Negro Society For Historical
Research, who collaborated with Mr..
Heartmann in the compilation of these
books, In his introduction to the poems
and letters Of Phillis Wheatley cites
DR.. Samuel Stanhope Smith (1S1O) in
bis essay on the variety Of complexion
and figure In the human species, who
said, answering Jefferson's criticisms,
that religion had produced a "Phillis
Wheatley, but it could not produce a
poet and added that her poems were
"below the dignity of criticism"
To this DR.. Smith made answer as fol-
lows: 1.-THE poems Of Phillis Wheatley.
q poor African slave taught to read by
the indulgent piety Of her master, are
spoken of with infinite contempt. But
I will demand of Mr.. Jefferson or any
other man who is acquainted with
American planters how many of those
could have written poems equal to
those of Phillis Wheatley" (page 269.
Mr.. Schomburg further along in his in
PRODUCTION states that many of the
poems Of this girl were quoted by
Thomas Clarkson, the great English
ab0litionist, in his celebrated Latin
essay, which won the first prize at
Cambridge, 17S5, on "The Slavery and
Commerce Of the Human Species" He
quotes also Lydia Maria Child, who
said Of her poems: Jefferson denies
khok ithaca poopoo boyo opy v,oovit b,,k 4
think he would have judged differently
had he been perfectly unprejudiced."
It would be indeed absurd to put
Phillis Wheatey in competition with
Mrs. Hemans, Mary Hewitt, Mrs.
Sigourpey, Miss Gould and other mod
ern writer's, but her productions GER
tainly appear very respectable in com.
parisOn with most Of the poetry Of that
day, and later critic, j. B. Earnest.
Jr., M. A., who says: IAN excellent lit.
tie volume Of poems by a Negro girl
who was a slave in Massachusetts,.
The work cannot approach the excel
fence of the poetry written by Paul l..
Dunbar, yet 1t is wonderful poetry for
a Negro slave Of the eighteenth cen
tury." Mr.. Jefferson, 1t appears, did
not accept DR.. Smiths challenge. The
reasons are obvious.
The lord mayor Of London, Mr..
Brooke Watson. was SO we'll pleased
with Phillis' poems on her visit to
England, where she was the guest of
the Countess Of Huntingdon, to whom
she dedicated her book Of poems, which
was published in 1773, that he pre-
sented to her as q mark Of his appre-
citation of her talents FOULS edition
In folio of Milton's Paradise Lost"
which is now the property Of the Har-
ward library. Mr.. Schomburg has done
well in his introduction and has given
us many important facts about Phillis
which have not hitherto been put in
such compact form. Mr.. Hartmann
has done even better in making posi-
ble these three books about Phillis
WheatlAy