Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1920-12-20
Where Poe Lived
By Frerioric J Uaskin

services of a custodian.
A number of persons visit the place
every day, but most Of them do not deem
il necessary to contribute anything TO IT.
upkeep. The cottage stands IN q small
park which has been set aside by the city
for the purpose, and the city also furnishes
fuel and gas, but that is all. The cottage
is in the care of "a committee Of the Bfon,
Society of Arts and Sciences, which now
appeals 10 tho American public for aid in
maintaining this cottage as memorial
to one of the greatest of American writers
one of the very few who achieved world
reputation and helped to make Europe
aware that America can produce lttera-
| ture. II you want to contribute to the
cause send your check To .. J. Stephens,
secretary of the committees, at 22O East
l3Sth street, New York City.
Americans certainly ought 10 be willing
to maintain memorial to Poe. And not
for the sentimental reason, which has beeD
put forward. that he was neglected and
starved in his lifetime. You can hardly
| make any adequate reparntlon Tor that
now. But for the reason that Poe g work
and personality have intereatsd almost
every American who ever We; 70 school
He is one Of the very few American classics
that have made and kept places in the
popular imagination Who nowadays
| reads Hawthorne2 How many Americans
of the rising generation ever read Emer-
son. unless under compulsion IN class
roon2 4 good many Of them have had
| 10 read Bryaut's Thanatopsis III school.
! and n pleblsclte would show that about
| one in a million over reads u again alter
wards II Is the same with Longfelow
| You may have recited his Excelsior At
! the commencement exercises OF the high
| school in your home town, but You have
| not bothered him much since. Ihoreaa
YOU have Just heard Of, and reading James
| Russell Lowell is not your idea OF indoor
| sport
| THE APPEAL oP TOE.
| Poe IL probably not your regular fire
| aide companion either, for that matter.
| Even he cannot compete with good
| baseball story IN the sporting section or
with stack Of popular magazines on o
| rainy winter evening but you haye
sometimes read The Murders III the Rue
| Norrlle. and The Fall Of the HouFe OF
| Usher" and they have really thrilled
vou No one could read The Fall Of tho
| House of Usher' without a creepy feeling
II has been the one lurid and thrilling IN
terllde in the boredom Of many high
school course III American lit nature. and
has been the cause Of burning much md
nlrht electricity bv wdc-eyed youths who
were pfraid t. put out tho light after read
ing that Incompatible masterpiece OF
| horror
And then. too, Poe's personality takes
hold az the imagination. Most OF our
writers were such painfully respectable
fellows Lougfellow and Hawthorne and
Whittier and BRYANT and all the rest OF
them were exemplary fellows, who raifed
families. held regular jobs. and led gener-
| ally monotonous and unlntf resting lives
| Not SO Poe He drank whisky and took
| dope He wandered IN gravcyards, staring
at the moon and tearing his poetic locks
! He communed with imaginary ravens and
with ghosts and demons. lie had love
| affairs that were ncomparably poetic
| sentimental and tragic He Was, N word,
| the popular ideal Of whist a genius should
be Vie think Of genius as something
widowed and irresponsible. We think
| OF il as essentially miserable. Its hair
| should be rather long and It's clothes rather
/ seedy. Il should have at least few
/ vices. and the more exotic these are the
I better they fit the part. A genius shouic
/ be a terror TO the ladies, and IN his love
4 affairs he should dig up his agonized sou
and exhibit IL for the edihcatlon Of all anc
i slIndry.
/ POE PLAYED THE PART.
Poe did all of these things with certain
| dignity and dash. He fulfilled the popula
| idea Of genius 30 well that for long tim
| he was subject for Sunday spreads L
the newspapers, and more lies have beer
told about him before and since he dix
than were ever told about any other Amerl
can, barring perhaps few candidates 10
the Presidency. HIS appeal to the genera
/ imagination is go great that quite recent
a play WAS written about him, was at
cepted by a Boradway manager, and vi
probably "a produced before long. Pc
has a real place IN the American popula
mind He Is one figure In our nation,
letters Of whom, a people, We are reall
aware And for that reason his memor
should by every possible means be keE
alive 4 national literature which mos
of the nation neither knows nor cares any
thing about is not really national hteri
ture at all But Poe, together with Mar
Twain and one or two Others, forms Il
nucleus of a national literature Of whlc
the nation is aware.
OF course, the popular idea Of Poe is
standing. He was miserable, not becaus
he was IA genius, but because he was
genius born in a country which had litt-
use or appreciation for him. He could NJ
find anyone to talk with who understoo
him, nor anyone TO guide his developmeI
and encourage him. As q boy he was
bright, healthy, sociable fellow, thoug
somewhat naughty and tempestuous IN
as he went along III life he became moI
and more bitte ter ard self-ceptered. he ha
few friends, ard turped for companion
ship almost entirely to soft-hearted wone
who swamped him in sticky sympath
without in the least understand G hi
making him IA hoepless sentimentalr
as his letters show His works have sol
by the hundred thousand since his deaf
but when he was alive, although he kre
their worth, he could not make q livit G ol
of them. No wo der he drank whisky m
took morphine, became more and mo
bitter and self-certered, until he WAS 9
most insane His book Eureka, while
he believed to be a solution of the profile
of the universe. was indeed the work of
man very near insanity. 1t showed no
solitude and dissipation had swollen b
egotism into a Veritable megalomani
and how, living In crude provincial cor
munities, he had failed utterly to find Il
books and ideals-the cultural bae
ground which were indispensable to q
sound development Of his genius.
There is no use in blamir America +
the way il treated Poe. 1t Was simply II
ready for him 1t could not understar
him. It was nation still IN the maxim
1t needed pioneers, statesmen and I