THIS WEEK'S BOOKS
FOR ',filling gaps in the biography of Edgar Allan Poe, the collection of his Letters Till Now Unpublished (Lippincott) made by Mary Newton Stallard are invaluable ; but it is a sad and painful business to read them. They are mainly letters -between Poe and his foster-father, John Allan ; they are printed in facsimile and in type. From early years Poe
was too irresponsible to avoid offending Mr. Allan. When he was at his University the quarrel came with vehemence- Allan seems genuinely to have been absurdly parsimonious ;
Poe was himself intolerably dissipated. Both put them- selves in the wrong time and- time again ; but the provoca- tions were severe to both. Obviously no guardian could have been expected to submit tamely to Poe's extravagance and total lack of desire to work or make anything out of himself. Yet we see the excuses Poe could make for himself when Allan writes : " It is true I taught you to aspire, even to eminence in Public Life, but I never expected that Don Quixote, Gil Bias, Jo. Miller and such works were calculated to promote the end." We follow the outbursts of anger and self-justification to the final repudiation of Poe by Allan. It gives us almost a feeling of personal shame to read how Poe humiliates himself and lies and promises reformation in order to get money from Allan to keep himself alive. There is Allan's note written on one of Poe's appeals : " It is now upwards of 2 years since I received the above precious relict of the Blackest Heart and deepest ingratitude, alike destitute of honour and principle. Every day of his life has only served to confirm his debased nature. Suffice it to say my
only regret is Pity for his failings : his Talents are of an order that can never prove a comfort to their possessor." After this we have more and more desperate appeals from Poe, but no replies.
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