WCP4909

Letter (WCP4909.5319)

[1]1

Broadstone, Wimborne

Nov[embe]r. 10th. 1903.

E. Marriott Esq.2

Dear Sir

Many thanks for the volume with "Eureka"3 which I shall read carefully.

Since I wrote to you about "Leonaine"4 [sic] I have read it many times & have it by heart, & on comparing it with the other poems by Poe5 which I have it seems to me to be in many respects the most perfect of all. It tells forcibly & very briefly a complete story — of birth & life & death, — of sadness, joy, fear, & despair. The rhythym is most exquisite, and the form of verse different from any other I can call to mind, in the double triplets of rhymes in each verse, carried on throughout by simple, natural, & forcible expressions [2] while the last verse seems to me the very finest in any of his poems. Can you recall any other poem with the same arrangement of metre & rhymes as this?

I send you herewith a copy of the Poems6 that I spoke of, as I am sure you will be interested by those ascribed to the inspiration of Poe. Read, first — The Streets of Baltimore — then, Resurrexi, and lastly the — "Farewell to Earth" — in form & substance one of the grandest poems I know, — though not of the highest poetry.

The Prophecy of Vala is also a fine poem, as are several others not imputed to the influence of Poe, [3] such as "Reconciliation, Compensation, I Still Live', & some others.

You can return the volume when I return yours.

Alfred R. Wallace [signature]

1

In the top left hand corner of page one of the manuscript, the text reads "3" This letter was one of a series of seventeen letters published privately by an unknown person.

Smith, Charles. (2012). Edgar Allan Poe;

A series of seventeen letters concerning Poe's scientific

erudition in Eureka and his authorship of Leonainie.

http://people.wku.edu/charles.smith/wallace/S708.htm [accessed 30 May 2014]

2
Marriott, Ernest (1882-1918). English literary figure and Librarian at the Portico Library, Manchester from 1901 until 1911.
3
Eureka. A non-fiction essay written by Edgar Allan Poe, published in 1848.
4
Leonainie. A poem allegedly written by Edgar Allan Poe, published in 1877 in The Kokomo Dispatch. The poem was actually written by James Whitcomb Riley.
5
Poe, Edgar Allan (1809-1849). American author and poet.
6
Poems from the Inner Life. A collection of poems written by Elizabeth Doten whilst supposedly under the influence of spirits, published in 1864.

Editorial information

Status: Draft transcription [Letter (WCP4909.5319)]

For more information about the transcriptions and metadata, see https://wallaceletters.myspecies.info/content/epsilon

Published letter (WCP4909.5496)

[1]1 [p. 7]

Broadstone, Wimborne

Nov. 10th, 1903

E. Marriott, Esq.

Dear Sir:

Many thanks for the volume with "Eureka" which I shall read carefully.

Since I wrote to you about "Leonainie" I have read it many times & have it by heart, & on comparing it with the other poems by Poe which I have it seems to me to be in many respects the most perfect of all. It tells forcibly & very briefly a complete story—of birth & life & death,—of sadness joy, fear, and despair. The rhythm is most exquisite, and the form of verse different from any other I can call to mind in the double triplets of rhymes in each verse, carried on throughout by simple, natural and forcible expressions while the last verse seems to me the very finest in any of his poems. Can you recall any other poem with the same arrangement of metre & rhymes as this?

I send you herewith a copy of the Poems that I spoke of, as I am sure you will be interested by those ascribed to the inspiration of Poe. Read, first—The Streets of Baltimore—then, Resurrexi, and lastly the—"Farewell to Earth"—in form & substance one of the grandest poems I know,—though not of the highest poetry.

The Prophecy of Vala is also a fine poem, as are several [2] [p. 8] others not imputed to the influence of Poe such as "Reconciliation, Compensation, I Still Live," and some others.

You can return the volume when I return yours.

(signed) Alfred R. Wallace.

1
Editor Charles H. Smith's Note: Third of fifteen letters in a pamphlet, a background to which is as follows: In 1904 Wallace published a pair of short essays (S612 and S614) describing what he had mistakenly taken to be a previously unknown poem by Edgar Allan Poe. This turned out to be a hoax that had been perpetrated by the Indiana writer James Whitcomb Riley some years earlier. In late 1903 Wallace had entered into a correspondence with the literary figure Ernest Marriott about this matter; sometime later Wallace's part of the correspondence—seventeen letters in all (actually, fifteen separately dated ones)—was collected and turned into a privately printed pamphlet. Who did this and when it was done is unknown, though it could not have taken place any later than 1930 (by which time both Wallace and Marriott were long dead), the date a copy of the pamphlet was added to the New York Public Library's collection.

Editorial information

Status: Draft transcription [Published letter (WCP4909.5496)]

For more information about the transcriptions and metadata, see https://wallaceletters.myspecies.info/content/epsilon

Revision history

Transcribed by Smith, Charles Hyde [2013-02-07] Transcription checked by Catchpole, Caroline [2013-02-08]

Please cite as “WCP4909,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 27 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP4909