The sun., 1919-10-04
NO TABLET At TURTLE BAY.
Evidence Lacking That Poe Ever
Lived In That Vicinity.

To THE EDITOR on THE suw--sir. No
tablet at or near the foot OF East
Forty-seventh street.-The nsighborhood
whilom known as Turtle Bay-will be
among those commemorative Of Poe
residences which the New York Shake
speare Society expects TO place during
the current year.
The ample returns to our request for
information which THE SON printed
September 8 supply no slightest sus-
picion that Poe ever 20 much as heard
that there was any Turtle Bay, still less
that he sought or found In that incon-
venientiy accessible agricultural vicinity
the rooming or boarding acoommoda-
lions 70 which his res augusta re-
strictsd him
There was q thoroughfare the East
ern Post Road, connecting Fort oanse-
WORT on the Hudson and Turtle Bay.
which seems to have been obliterated
after 1890. And your correspondent
NJ a. G. Leddy forgets that the nast
River II not o river at all but the strait
through which Long Island Sound pours
It's waters to the ocean, like Othello's
Pontio Sea, and that to pull q rowboat
loaded with household goods and gods,
q portly mother-in-law and delicate
little wife from the foot Of Pike street
| UP against this volume OF Long Island
Sound to Turtle Bay, even II but lit
tie more than three miles" would have
been no summer days pisisancei
Nevertheless we did not summariU re-
ject Miss Miller's astounding revelations.
Experience In Shakespeare research had
taught US always to expect anything
and to be surprised at nothing; Shake
speare lodging at Monkwell street wig
makers while Nine. Shakespeare and
her, daughters lorded II at New Place
Only here there was no elbow room for
search. Miss Miller must have not only
Poe but the entire Poe-Clemm menage
at Turtle Bay. Poe's only possible 30
journ at Turtle Bay could have been
between August 10. 1s4B, and the spring
or early summer Of 1e4e. when At 100
East Broadway and Fordhsm rospec-
lively. But these dates include the
most strenuous months Of Poe's New
York residence. '"rhe Raven" had hut
Just appeared and he was wearing his
donors In their newest gloss. Quitting
willis's Mirror, to which he still &C.
casionally contributed, he went to the
Broadtoay Journal, first as one-third
owner, later as sole proprietor. and finally
as wrscker Of that periodical. He wrote
the second series Of '"rhe Literati,
those mastery pieces Of criticism and
II sight, inclusive Of that prescience OF
the plot of "Barnaby Ridge" which led
Dickens to write him: Mr.. Poe. are
you the Devil7" He conducted the
'Longfellow War;" supplied paragraphs.
poems, snatches at fiction and personaii-
ties that, as Harry Franco said. made
him enemies that did him more good
than harm" There Is also to be some
how supplied hereabouts more or less
brief return to West Side precincts. for
there are two letters dated In November
1s45. at IS Amity street. one OF them
. requesting that all mail matter be so
addressed; all of which IL rather In
compatible with a justification on 1.-THE
bosky shores Of 4urtle Bay" as one OF
your contributors puts It; a justification
that included pen, ink and paper as well
since no letter, note or scrap Of auto
, graph bearing a Turtle Bay date has
ever been found in all Poe's voluminous
correspondents.
It should be remembered that although
Poe was always impecunious, always
living from hand TO mouth, yet II
was not until he isolated himself al
Fordham, fourteen long miles from the
Offices where he could earn a daily pit
lance or borrow food or drink with
which to keep body and soul together
where there was even no post ONCE tc
act as his messenger-that for the first
time his poverty became absolute star'
vationl Then the neighbors saw Mrs
GLENN digging at the roadside fol
greens" and suspecting the situation
forced an entrance and found the family
actually perishing for want of bread.
Had Poe actually buried himself 6
year earlier at Turtle Bay-quite al
beyond newspaper precincts as was
Fordham-all this horror Of situation
must have been pre-experienced lest
than a twelvemonth before! Obviously
in default Of verifcation Of Miss Nil
ler's "reminiscences touching the only pre-
cinct in which Poe's residence LETT M
trace, vestige or memory save hers
solitary among, as &C. H. r" says, "bi
ographies quite by the thousands" We
must not place tablets In the faubourt
once known as Turtle BayI
APPLETON MoRoAr,
. President Of the New York Shakespeare
Society.
= | N,-.r voav OCtnhar 4