The sun., 1919-08-10
POE IN ANN STREET.
Was He in . Boarding House or Sandy
walsh's Beer CeIlari

To THE EDITOR or THE SuN-Str: You
print letter from O. George Werner
stating that an AUTOGRAPH letter in his
possession records that its writer, one
Charles C. Curtis, boarded in 1S44 with
Mira Foster. at I Ann street and that
Edgar Allan Poe was Mr.. Curtiss
l''rocmmSte and companion" ana that
at this same house General Tom Thumb
was also a boardsr.
Other things being equal, this has
whin Of piausibility, seeing that Bar
NUNS Museum was at the corner OF Ann
street and Broadway and that Barnum
was the exploiter OF General Tom Thumb.
But other things are by no means equal.
As THE SUN remarks in a headline to.
the letter, Tom Thumb was only six
years old in 1914.
It will be great piece of evidence,
and / am sure that the New York
Shakespeare Society, which Is engaged
in tracing Poe's homes in this city. will
eagerly await 1t, II Mr.. Werner will give
US a copy OF this Curtis letter. Besides
THE SUMS shrewd comment, many other
things seem both to confuse and to rem
der impossible the Ann street Mrs. Fos-
ter proposition
The records Of the Shakespeare 30
ciety show that Poe came to New York
at the suggestion OF John P. Kennedy to
try his fortune in January, 1881 and
induced Mira Glen to open her board
ing house at 13h Carmine street. As to
this we have the statement of William
Gowans, the Nassau street bookseller,
who was boarder with Poe there. But
in April, 1887, being disappointed in his
prospects, Poe went to Philadelphia, and
New York saw him no more until he
and Virginia came to New York by boat
from Perth Amboy and took UP their
residence at 100 Greenwich street, and
OF this the record is the autograph let
ter of Poe himself to Mrs. Glenn. dated
$50 Greenwich street, April z. 1914. an
nouncing their joint arrival there and
its delightful surroundings.
II Mr.. werner's letter Is genuine we
are to assume that Poe left ,his child
wife Virginia alone at the Greenwich
street abode and went and resided as
bachelor with this Mr.. Curtis at Mrs.
Fosters boarding house. Ann street,
which Is next TO impossible.
Whatever irregularities are charge
able to Poe when he had the price"
which was seldom. living a double life
was not one of them. And besides. It
was from this 100 Greenwich street that
he went to the Bremen mansion, where
all records-and there are dozens OF
them, citing N. p. Willis, ]. A. Cotton.
editor of the American WING Review,
and many more well known names
prove that THE Raven was written,
read first to Mrs. Mary Bremen and
printed first by Cotton and then by
enthusiastically the reverse. since Willis
printed It from Colton's advance sheets
by permission February s. 1s45.
As q matter of fact the New York
Shakespeare Society has continuous
record OF Poe and his residences from
the Greenwich street house onward to
the end of his life In October. 1S49, and
there is no room In that record for an
Ann street residence unless Poe lived
double life, which he certainly did not.
But now comes the marvellous tale.
quite too bizarre for notice unless au-
thenticated. namely:
10 The late George Shea. Chief Justice
OF the Marine (now the City, Court. told
Appleton Morgan and many others that
Poe used to frequent Sandy Walsh's
beer cellar in Ann street. and that his,
Judge Shea.s, father. John Augustus Shea.
also used to meet Poe there. And that
Poe and his companions in that cellar.
line by line and stanza by stanZa, COM
posed THE Raven" And that Mr.. John
Augustus Shea carried the completed
poem to Mr.. Colton-and this story is