WCP3618

Broadstone, Dorset

Feb^y 29th. 1904

James D. Law¹ Esq.

Dear Sir

Since writing to you I have obtained four volumes of Riley's² poems including "Armazindy" which contains "Leonainie",³ and although there are many clever verses and some poems with a considerable amount of beauty and feeling, yet I see nothing in them to make me think he wrote or did ^could write "Leonanie". However, that opinion is not much to the point. What surprises me is, that, the origin of this poem being as you and Mr. Nicholson⁴ state, why is it only published in one of the later vols. of his poems, dated 1895, & with not a word of comment or explanation by him, of how it originated? Perhaps you may say [2] that its origin is well known to all his admirers, but that can hardly be the case after so many years of oblivion; and it is quite cincomprehensible to me how a man who in his youth, wrote a poem, which when first published, was taken for one of Poe's,⁵ & the acknowledgement of which was the turning point in his reputation, should not he be proud of having done such a feat, and at all events have printed it in one of the early vols. of his poems with a full account with all details of names places & dates in confirmation of his statements. I presume this has been done in some local paper or magazine, but what I find so strange is that he did ^not repeat [3] this evidence in a permanent form when he printed the poem in a vol. of his works.

Now, you will see, by this (March) Fortnightly⁶ that this full statement becomes more important than ever, in view of Mr. Robb's⁷ account of the alleged origin of his copy, which origin agrees ^{substantially} with that given by me.

Is that story of the young man passing the night at an Inn at Chesterfield, near Richmond, part of the hoax invented by Riley? The date of Poe's death being 1849 — that of Riley's birth — leaves such a large margin between the two claimants (20-25 years) that if there is any turth in the Chesterfield story Riley could not have been the first author. If you have [4] not done so already, perhaps you will now write to Riley calling his attention to Mr. Robb's statement, and asking ^him to send you a copy of his contemporary account of the way in which his poem was written, concealed, discovered, & acknowledged, — with full names places & dates. Then we shall have something definite to go upon.

In the mean time I should be much obliged for your recollections of how, when, & where, the poem first appeared.

Yours very truly | Alfred R. Wallace [signature]