The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1922-09-25
Edgar Allan Poe Was
Not a Drunkard

New York, September 24.-Edgar Allan
Poe was neither drunkard nor wastrel, says
Arthur B. Maurice, in the Mentor Magazine.
The truth about the great American poet, about
whom such fierce controversy has ragged, is
that he drank little, but that little was too
much for him.
"There is no doubt" writes Maurice, that
at intervals, Poe resorted to stimulants, even
to drugs. But to picture him as the habitual
drunkard opium eater is absurd. He was
so constituted physically that a single glass
of liquor drove him out of all self possession
for day, if not for many days. But consider
what he accomplished in a life that ended at
40. There are plenty of his manuscripts to
be seen. Look at the handwriting firm, legr
IDLE, almost feminine in its delicacyl The hand>
of no opium sot or habitual wallower in spirits
could have penned those
Reviewing Poe's life, Maurice says that Poe
was trailed by financial misfortune from the
day he was driven from his foster fathers
house, The child of strollng players, he had
been taken into the family of John Allan.
a Baltimore merchant, and educated in good
schools, including the University of Virginia.
He regarded himself as Allan's heir; but his
benefactor married second time, and Poe was
cut off without a cent.
Poe's following 40 years were years of adj
versity, punctuated with some happy moments
He lived in Philadelphia and New York. He
wrote steadily, and was an editor at differ
ent times. In 1S45, when he had taken New
York, and the country at large, by storm with
"The Raven" Poe a social lion. Contem-
porary accounts of his modest and graceful
conduct at this time are at odd variance with
stories of his Feasibility and bad temper.
Before coming to New York, Poe married
Virginia GLENN, who little more than 12i
years old at the time of marriage. Her mothery
was Poe's most steadfast friend, and remained
faithful even after the death of Virginia. IN
the Fordham cottage, Virginia died, and there
was talk of Poe marrying again. Mrs. Sarah
Helen Whitman of Providence, also poet
was about to marry the poet, when friends in
tervened-Horace Greeley among then-and
the match was broken off. Mrs Whitman
wrote "Our Island of Dreams as a conse-
quence of their affair, and believed firmly
that "Annabel Lee was Poe's answer. Poe
loved many women, says Maurice, but the,
women of his poems and tales are dream
women, whom he worshipped rather than
loved.
dozen men and several women have been
Poe's historians. Some of them owe all of
their reputation to association with Poe's name.
Women have been his warmest friends, and
men his greatest defamers. Poe was excluded
from the first list of the Hall of Fame because
of his alleged intemperance. Most of his his
torians have been concerned more with his,
personal habits than with his literature. which
has been the source of constant wonderans AZ
to Europeans. His critics have found I'D
untruthful, unkindly to his fellow men, lax a
money matters and Incorporate but iaoae has
disposed of his extraordinary literary gerius
This genius, says C. Alphonso Smith, head
of the department of English Al the Uaitad
States Naval academy, lay not so much in
Poe's ability to write horror tales and bewitch-
ing poetry, but in his discoveries Of new lit
erary forms. He was a ceaseless experiment.
err in sound combinations, lire combina-
tions and stanza combinations. He eailsd tho
first new stanza in English literature sirce the
time Of Spenser. He formulated code for
short-story writing that has been followed in
all lands
"Poe," writes Professor Smith, was not
some strange, abnormal being, ill-staered and
ineffective. Let US think of him as one whn
suffering much thought much and wrought
much and one we not only carried
our common Americansm to the utmost
bounds of civilization, but who enriched tbs |
concept and idea of Americanism b. q CONF
structive genius still unparalleled in ouF itsSA
ture."