The Washington times., 1934-05-05

p1SdSCu CAAC Nv" ANAAN
set. and their carping criticisms
harassed Poe continually.
Again it was Griswold, now
leader of the New York liter
ary clique, who was behind the
attacks. Nothing was allowed
to come between him and his
campaign of gradual murder.
Poe was plunged into the deep
est gloom, everything, he felt.
was against him. Then on top
of it all his beloved Virginia
broke a blood vessel while sing
ing. Poe was heart broken.
Virginia lay seriously ill for q
long period, and Poe attempted
to forget his anguish in work.
In 1845 a newspaper pub
lished The Raven" for which
2 pounds was paid. The manu-
script of this famous work re-
Gently changed hands at 10000
pounds. The Raven" made
Poe famous. He became the
literary lion of the hour. Poe
was now at a period OF extreme
nervous exhaustion, heightened
by poverty and overwork. Then
Virginia died and he passed
into state of semi-stupor.
Edgar Allan Poe was indeed
e+ricLon h11t still the hostility
against him was fostered by
Griswold. A charge Of plaglar-
ism was raked up and other at
tacks followed. Before long
Poe broke down under the
strain. He was found in a state
of delirium by Baltimore
printer and was conveyed to
Washington College Hospital.
The following day he died.
Even after his death, rumor
instantly asserted that the poet
had met his death in a drunken
debauch.
The Master Hoax
Griswold'S hatred was not yet
satisfied. Poe's body n d
scarcely time to grow cold be-
fore he struck openly at last
with a newspaper article, the
malice of which overshadoWed
the poets life and work.
The curious genius Of Edgar
Allan Poe is recalled by the
fact that it was just ninety
years ago that he hoaXed the
American people with one OF
the most fantastic flights OF
fancy, purveyed in the guise OF
news-fact, that was ever printed
in the columns of a newspaper.
On April 13, 1874, the world eX-
claimed over the spanning OF
the Atlantic by group of ad-
venturers in a steering bal
LOOM"
Poe, hard up, as always, with
a sick wife on his hands, des-
perate for money, had gone to
the editor of the old New York
Morning Sun, then only a pre-.
cocious child of II, and had sold
them, as fact, this astonishing
fake. The story was presented
by the Sun as a bona fide news
dispatch. Its Weirdness was SO
cleverly interviewer with its
plausibility that the editor OF
the Sun accepted the yarn
(though his tongue may have
been in his cheek, for the days
were somewhat queer journal
istically) and spread it out in
five columns of small type, with
screaming headlines for that
remote time.
New York and presently the
country thrilled to the detailed
account of how a company OF
daring men had guided a bal
loon from England to South
Carolina, IS hours from shore
to shore. 1t created a furore
quite comparable to the wild
excitement which followed Col
onel Lindbergh's flight across
the sea. There was an enthuS-
iastic demand on all sides to
meet and greet the gallant
aeronauts. But being the crear
lures of Poe's imagination they
could not be produced in the
flesh, and presently the hoax
was exposed while the town
roared with laughter. Any
way, it was one lulu of a story.
downright. 1884. King Features