The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-08-28
POE I'M AVN STREET.
Judge she9s Account Of the PubIica.
ton Of "The Raven"


To THE EDITOR on THE sUr--sh: Sew
oral letters are forwarded me here
touching the statement Of correspond
ent of THE SUN, one ~. L. r." that
the late Judge Shea of this city asserted
to me that Poe's Raven was a COM
posite production. having been evolved
cline by line and stanza by stanza" I'm
Sandy Walsh's beer cellar in Ann street.
by frequenters Of that resort, of whom
Poe was the most conspicuous. which
assertion ~. Z. r." characterizes as "a
marvellous tale, quite too bizarre for
noticer'
/ should 50 say myself were that the
story. May I say. however, that what
Judge Shea did tell me bears no such
construction?
This is my memory of what Judge
Shea did tell met was In the charm
ing study in his residence at 305 West
Forty-sixth street in 1875 or 1877
though of course not in his words at
this lapse of time.
Poe was exceedingly timid as to a
possible public reception of '"The Ra-
ven." Especially did he dread the COM
nients or possible sneers of his fellow
litterateurs whom for about q year he
had been mercilessly criticising and cas-
tiGating in the pages of the Bverino
Mirror, in which N. p. Willis, its edi-
tor, permitted him full swing.
Poe nevertheless carried the poem
about with him wherever he went, and
OH all occasions would produce It, and,
hxv
stanza by stanza," and himself point
out what he considered or claimed to
consider its biemishes and invite sug-
gestions for its betterment from any
one attentive, though doubtless he
would have not for an instant contem-
plated accepting any of the suggestions
he invited. And he did this not once
but many times in Sandy Walshs beer
cellar in Ann street-apparently prede-
cessor of Pfafrs, beloved of George
Arnold. F'itz James OBrien, and that
finer sort of bohemian which the civil
war dispersed. For example, he would
express his doubt about "the velvet,
violet lining being "gloated over by
the same lamplight which in another
stanza threw shadow over bird
perched above that chamber door, upon
the same floor where each dying en-
Der wrought its ghost"
But my father" said Judge Shea,
told him not to worry about these /;
that as an experiment in rhyme they
were permissible, and finally prevailed
on Poe to allow my father to offer the
poem anonymously to a publisher as
an experiment in rhyme"
The New York city literary periodi-
calls at that date we're the Democratic
Revieto, rival called the American
Whio Repieto, which had just been
started by Mr.. J. A. Cotton, and Will
Isis Evening Mirror, daily of which
the Neto York Mirror was the weekly
edition. Mr.. John Augustus Shea took
the poem to this Mr.. Cotton. who ac-
cepted it, and on page 143 of the Amer
icon Review for February. 1s45. you
find The Raven, Poem by Quarles,"
prefixed by twenty lines or 30 in fine
print discussing the relative superior
ity Of English over classic, Sapphic.
Adonaic, &c, rhyme assonance, allitera-
ton, and the like, signed ED. Am.
Rev." but which are so palpably in
Poe's style In this vein as to deceive
nobody.
But before the American Rcrieto, tit
ularly dated February, 1915" left the
press, Poe had either shown to Willis
the poem or Willis had somehow got
wind of it. At any rate, in the Eueniao
Mirror for February IS. 1S45. appeared
the poem with the rubric, I'VE are per-
mitted to copy in advance OF publication
from the second number of the Amer
icdn Whtg Revieto the following remark
able poem by Edgar A. Poe"
Upon the appearance of this copy Of
the Evening Mirror the poem spread like
a prairie fire. Ut was copied every
where throughout the United States and
soon got over TO England. And Poe,
who for twenty years had been only
more or less known in limited literary
CIRCLES in Baltimore. Philadelphia and
other citles-he had only arrived in
New York city in April of the previous
ycsr-awoke to find himself famous and
pointed out on the street as Poe, the
man that wrote The Raven"
Judge Shea confessed himself very
proud of his fathers sponsorship at the
baptism in print Of one of the most ia
nous poems In all literature. But THE
SUNS readers will see that the tale
that he did me the honor OF telling me
fo-ty-odd years ago was neither mar
vellous nor quite too bizarre for notice"
APPLETON MORGAN.
GREAT HARRINGTON, Mass. August 81.