WCP4911

Letter (WCP4911.5321)

[1]

Broadstone, Dorset

Dec[embe]r. 19th. 1903

Ernest Marriott Esq.

Dear Sir

I now return you the volume of Poe's Works you were so good as to lend me.

I find I had read "A. G. Pym" before, as I have it in a volume of Poe's tales, but I had almost forgotten it, and have now read it again. The whole of the first part, as far as the writing, is very sensational and at the same time very life—like, and if it had been finished in the same style it would have been worthy of the praise you bestow on it. But the Antarctic part completely spoils it, being so [2] completely impossible, with its abundant vegetation, mild climate, fruits & land animals near the South Pole! Also the fantastic idea of striped water so utterly unnecessary and impossible; & it was these absurdities that disgusted me with the story when I first read it, & which render it equally distasteful to me now.

The "Colloquy & "Conversation" I had not seen before. They are certainly very beautiful. But these again are spoilt by the old idea of the "rest in the grave" —till the "resurrection" at some distant date. How [3] immensely superior its beauty & probability is the spiritual teaching, that death is the birth to the new life — that there is often hardly a moment of unconsciousness, during which the spirit escapes from its now unclean body, as so finely expressed by the Spirit Poe when he says: he

"Fled and left my Shattered dwelling

To the dust of Baltimore".

and again in "Resurrect", —

"Far from out its blackened fire-crypts did

my sickened spirit so as"

and also —

"Till the golden bowl — Life's token —

Into shining shards was broken,

And my drained and chafing spirit leaped

from out its prison door."

Such teachings as these are [4] in my opinion worth all the poems he wrote during life , — & they are also confirmatory of their spiritual source, for why should an imitator of Poe's style, — a fraud in fact (if such poetry can possibly come from a fraud) go dead against Poe's teaching & beliefs as shown by his works.

I have not yet heard from my sister-in-law in California, about the origin of Leonainie1, but hope to do so shortly. Probably they are seeking for information.

Believe me | Yours very truly | Alfred R. Wallace [signature]

1
A poem by Edgar Allan Poe

Editorial information

Status: Draft transcription [Letter (WCP4911.5321)]

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

Revision history

Transcription checked by Benny, Ruth [2014-06-23] Transcribed by Ward, Christopher [2014-07-10] Transcription checked by Sherwood, Danni [2020-08-10]

Published letter (WCP4911.5498)

[1]1 [p. 9]

Broadstone, Dorset

Decr. 19th, 1903

Ernest Marriott, Esq.

Dear Sir:

I now return you the volume of Poe's Works you were so good as to lend me.

I find that I had read "A. G. Pym" before, as I have it in a volume of Poe's tales but I had almost forgotten it, and have now read it again. The whole of the first part, as far as the Mutiny, is very sensational and at the same time very life-like, and if it had been finished in the same style it would have been worthy of the praise you bestowed on it. But the Antarctic part completely spoils it, being so completely impossible, with its abundant vegetation, mild climate, fruits and land animals near the South Pole! Also the fantastic idea of striped water so utterly unnecessary and impossible; & it was these absurdities that disgusted me with the story when I first read it, & which render it equally distasteful to me now.

The "Colloquy" & "Conversation" I had not seen before. They are certainly very beautiful. But these again are spoilt by the old idea of the "rest in the grave",—till the "resurrection" at some distant date. How immensely superior in beauty and probability is the spiritual teaching, that death is The birth to the new life—that there is often hardly a moment of unconsciousness, during which the spirit escapes from its now useless body—as so finely expressed by the Spirit Poe—when he says:

[2] [p. 10] "Fled and left my shattered dwelling

To the dust of Baltimore."

and again in "Ressurexi",—

"Far from out its blackened fire-crypts did my quickened spirit soar."

and also—

"Till the golden bowl—Life's token—

Into shining shards was broken,

And my chained and chafing spirit leaped from out its prison door."

Such teachings as these are in my opinion worth all the poems he wrote during life,—& they are also confirmatory of their spiritual source, for why should an imitation of Poe's style, a fraud in fact (if such poetry can possibly come from a fraud) go dead against Poe's teaching & beliefs as shown by his works.

I have not yet heard from my sister-in-law in California, about the origin of Leonaine, but hope to do so shortly. Probably they are seeking for information.

Believe me,

Yours very truly,

(signed) Alfred R. Wallace.

1
Editor Charles H. Smith's Note: Fifth 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 (WCP4911.5498)]

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 “WCP4911,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 27 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP4911