WCP7182

[1]¹

Broadstone, Dorset

April 10th. 1904

Dear Sir

Many thanks for your very interesting letter & enclosures.² When I wrote to you I did not remember that we hadve ever corresponded before, which I presume from the tone of yours that we have done. You will see that in the April "Fortnightly Review"³ I have entered rather fully into the reasons why it seems to me not yet proved that Riley wrote "Leonainie",⁴ and since I received yours, the [2] Ed. of the "Fortnightly"⁵ has sent me another letter⁶ from a personal friend & patron of Riley ^{(J.W. Jones Atty)7} who says he knew all about the poem & the "hoax" and saw Riley daily at the time, but adds nothing to what I knew but the statement that "about 1894 the Philadelphia Press published a full page, covering the whole history of the poem." And he adds — "Riley wrote the article." But in the Interview in the "Indianapolis News", only a year and a half ago, Riley is made to say— "The story has never been accurately told"⁸— implying that he had never told it before! [3] This may be explained, but it all adds to the difficulties of getting at the truth.

The verses you send me, though pretty enough, do not in the least show the special qualitites in "Leonainie", and I still think the imagination, the feeling, & the rhythm of that poem are Poe's while the man who could deliberately print the incongruities & disharmonies I point out could never have composed such a poem.

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

[4]⁹