PREFACE. To the "Memoir" prefixed to this edition the reader's attention is particularly solicited, not so much from the fact that it contains a great deal that is new, as that it omits a great deal that is old and misleading. The soi-disant "Memoir of Edgar Poe" by Rufus W. Griswold has acquired a world-wide notoriety, and his misrepresentations have been copied or quoted by every subsequent biographer, so that the attempt, at this late period, to refute them, will appear to many an almost hopeless task; but although in Europe this "fancy sketch of a perverted jaundiced vision" has been accepted, almost without exception, as a record of facts, in America its truthfulness has been frequently and authoritatively impugned, and a perusal of the following pages will, it is confidently believed, alter the prevalent idea of Poe's character. The testimony of nearly every person with whom he was closely connected is adduced in support of the account now given of his history, and irrefutable evidence submitted in disproof of all charges capable of refutation brought against his honour. It may appear singular that no trustworthy biography of Poe has yet appeared in his native country. The circumstance is inexplicable, although the fact that attempts to produce such a work have been made is well known. Mr. James Wood Davidson, the accomplished author of "Living Writers of the South," was engaged for several years in storing up material for the work, when, most unfortunately, his whole library and manuscripts were destroyed in the siege of Charleston. Mr. Thomas C. Clarke, of Philadelphia, a personal acquaintance of Poe's, was for many years occupied in the same way, but never completed the task, and has now disposed of his collection. Mrs. Whitman, Poe's most consistent defender, whose name will hereafter be closely associated with his, has, in her beautiful little work on "Edgar Poe and his Critics," ably performed for his literary fame what is here attempted for his personal worth. To her, to Mrs. Lewis, ("Stella,") to Mr. Davidson, to Mr. Eugene Schuyler, of the Legation of the United States at St. Petersburg, to the Faculty of the University of Virginia, to the authorities of the West Point Military Academy, and to all who have so willingly assisted this endeavour to place before the world a faithful portraiture of one who has been described as America's first and greatest literary genius, my sincere and heartfelt thanks are tendered. JOHN H. INGKAM. MEMOIR OF EDGAR ALLAN POE. ANCESTRY. EDGAR ALLAN POE was descended from an ancient Norman family which settled in Ireland in the reign of Henry II., and "those who are curious in tracing the effects of country and lineage in the mental and constitutional peculiarities of men of genius may be interested," as Mrs. Whitman* observes, in such records as we have been enabled to obtain of the poet's ancestry. The family of the Le Poers, or De La Poers, was founded by Sir Roger le Poer, one of the companions-in-arms of the famous Strongbow, of whom it was remarked by Geraldus Cambrensis-"It might be said without offence that there was not a man who did more valiant acts than Roger le Poer." The race which sprang from this knightly adventurer made itself conspicuous in the annals of Ireland for heroic daring and romantic deeds, as well as for its improvidence and reckless bravery. The chivalrous conduct of Sir Arnold le Poer, * Edgar Poe and his critics, pp. 77, 78, and 79. |