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From Judas Iscariot to Benedict Arnold to Lex Luthor, the geniuses of history and mythology have suffered from traitors and archenemies.
Rufus Wilmot Griswold was born in Vermont on February 15, 1815. As a youth, he was apprenticed to the publisher of a newspaper, but soon tired of the daily strain of hard work. Instead, Rufus studied theology and became a Baptist minister. However, he failed as a preacher, probably due to his pious arrogance and his opportunistic personality. Rufus returned to journalism, beginning a successful career as an editor and anthologist.
In February of 1841, Philadephia publisher George R. Graham employed Edgar Poe as the book review editor of "Graham's Magazine" at a salary of $800 a year.
Sometime that spring, Edgar met Rufus W. Griswold.
"My acquaintance with Mr. Poe commenced in the spring of 1841. He called at my hotel, and not finding me at home, left two letters of introduction. The next morning I visited him, and we had a long conversation about literature and literary men, pertinent to the subject of a book, 'The Poets and Poetry of America,' which I was then preparing for the press."
--- Rufus W. Griswold, "Memoir," 1850
In May, Griswold began an editorial engagement on the "Boston Nation." Poe and Griswold began a correspondence between Philadelphia and Boston. Both men found the other advantageous to their respective careers. Poe hoped his work could be included in the new anthology and Griswold hoped Poe would give the book a favorable review in "Graham's."
In the November 1841 issue of "Graham's," Poe published his "Autography," where he analyzed the signatures of writers (including Griswold) and other public figures to determine their true personalities.
"I perceive that Poe did you justice in the Chapter on Autography, published in Graham's magazine, although he was unjust to others. If you see the Notion, you will perceive a rather savage article on his impertinence. You are no particular friend of his, I believe, and therefore it can hardly shock you."
--- Edwin P. Whipple to Rufus W. Griswold
On January 20, 1842, Poe's wife Virginia coughed up blood while singing and playing piano for her husband. Poe recognized this "pulmonary hemorrhaging" as the onset of tuberculosis, which had killed so many of his dear ones. Poe's "horrible never-ending oscillation between hope and despair" for the health of Virginia led him to find solace in excessive drinking.
In April, Poe resigned, dissatisfied with the magazine's commercial content. Graham replaced him with Griswold.
"Have you seen Griswold's Book of Poetry? It is a most outrageous humbug."
--- Poe to J.E. Snodgrass, June 4, 1842
"I have not quarrel either with Mr. Graham or Mr. Griswold -- although I hold neither in especial respect."
--- Poe to Daniel Bryan, July 6, 1842
In July, Griswold commisioned Poe to write a review of "Poets and Poetry" (which included three of Poe's poems and a brief biography) and promised to compensate him with his "usual" fee and arrange for the review's publication. In August, Poe delivered his review to Griswold who paid him ten dollars.
Poe's review did not please Griswold. While Poe's comments were favorable, Griswold expected a laudatory review and was disappointed. (Griswold considered reviews as advertisements rather than impartial evaluations.) Apparently, his failure to bribe Poe the critic infuriated him.
"Though I care not a fig about the publication of the criticism, as the author and myself not being on the best of terms, it is not decidedly as favorable as it might have been,"
--- Griswold to James T. Fields, August 12, 1842
"He (Graham) is not especially pleased with Griswold -- nor is anyone else, with the exception of the Reverend gentleman himself, who has gotten himself into quite a hornet's nest by his 'Poet's and Poetry.' He is a pretty fellow to set himself up as an honest judge, or even a capable one."
--- Poe to F.W. Thomas, September 12, 1842
"It is a pity that so many of these biographies were entrusted to Mr. Griswold. He certainly lacks independence, or judgement, or both."
--- Poe to James Russell Lowell, October 19, 1843
"Griswold was a notorious blackmailer…I myself had to pay him money to prevent abusive notices of 'Sartain's Magazine.'"
--- John Sartain, "Poe's Last Days," February 25, 1893
Publicly, the two men remained cordial, retaining a professional relationship, but privately, they began to detest one another, gossiping to others. Griswold considered Poe a white trash southerner, unworthy of literary attention. Poe considered Griswold a literary hack without talent and only successful due to his friendly association with northern literary society.
In 1843, Poe began lecturing on "American Poetry" and criticized Griswold's work publicly. Furthermore, Poe mocked Griswold by satirizing him as fictional characters in several of his tales, for example as the drunken narrator of "The Angel of the Odd."
Griswold never forgave him.
For political reasons rather than personal choice, Griswold included Poe in his follow-up work "The Prose Writers of America." At this time, Poe attempted a humble apology and reconciliation.
"Although I have some cause of personal quarrel with you, which you will easily remember, I do not under an circumstances permit, as you have repeatedly charged, my private griefs to influence my judgement as a critic, or its expressions. I retain, therefore, the early formed and well founded favorable opinions of your works."
--- Griswold to Poe, January 14, 1845
"You letter occasioned me first pain and then pleasure: pain, because it gave me to see that I had lost, through my own folly, an honorable friend; pleasure, because I saw in it a hope of reconciliation."
--- Poe to Griswold, January 16, 1845
"I presume you understand that in the repetition of my Lecture on the Poets I left out all that was offensive to yourself?"
--- Poe to Griswold, April 19, 1845
However, around May 1845, both Poe and Griswold became romantically interested in the same woman, Mrs. Frances "Fanny" Sargent Osgood (1811-1850), who was recently separated from her husband Samuel.
Most or all of literary society followed this well-known public rivalry.
Griswold edited her collection of poetry. She and Poe exchanged romantic poetry to one another in the press.
About this same time, Griswold entered an unpleasant phase of his life, riddled with health, personal and legal problems, all of which may have affected his attitudes and opinions.
Some have suggested that Griswold may have been mentally ill, perhaps suffering from a nervous breakdown.
Due to the "bluestocking" scandal sparked by rejected busybody Mrs. Elizabeth Fries Ellet (a friend of Griswold's) over Osgood's letters to Poe, the relationship between Poe and Osgood came to a rocky end in 1846.
Later that year, Poe did not include Griswold in his series "The Literati of New York City." When "The Prose Writers of America" was published in 1847, Griswold's introduction to Poe included a mixed commentary on Poe's abilities.
"In criticism, his chief skill lies in the dissection of sentences."
--- Rufus Griswold,"The Prose Writers of America," 1847
By 1847, Poe and Griswold were enemies again. However, Poe's February 1848 review of Griswold's next anthology, "The Female Poets of America" was favorable. But he might have done this in order to not offend his women colleagues.
Griswold would have to wait until Poe's death to achieve his ultimate revenge. On the day Poe was laid to rest, buried in Baltimore, October 9, 1849, Griswold penned an obituary in the New York Tribune, which slandered Poe's character.
Griswold signed the obituary "Ludwig" to escape accountability, but the public was aware of his animosity towards Poe and he was exposed. Without Poe around to knock his lights out or take him to court, Griswold admitted he was "Ludwig."
"I wrote, as you suppose, the notice of Poe in The Tribune, but very hastily. I was not his friend, nor was he mine, as I remember to have told you."
--- Griswold to Sarah Helen Whitman,
December 17, 1849
Poe's friends, Nathaniel P. Willis, George R. Graham, and John Neal, published protests against Griswold's libel.
Griswold continued his revenge against Poe. Claiming that Poe had made him the literary executor of his estate (no documentation exists), he obtained the rights to Poe's works from Maria Poe Clemm, the dead poet's grieving and impoverished aunt and mother-in-law. (Poe's sister Rosalie actually had the legal right to his estate.)
When Griswold published Poe's collected works in 1850, he included a "Memoir of the Author" that expanded on his previous slander. He went so far as to forge letters by Poe and made changes in the texts of Poe's work to support his lies, portraying Poe as a fiend and a drug addict.
Griswold tried to be clever. He made himself look like a sincere admirer of Poe, certainly disciple enough to be Poe's literary executor. His false regrets and phony excuses allowed him to include overt negative comments without looking like the bad guy for mentioning them. However, when you read the memoir today, more than 150 years after its publication, the stench of hypocrisy and vengeance can cripple your senses. Griswold's manipulations have become obvious and outright shameful. The document reads like a petty monologue in an afternoon soap opera.
Maria Clemm came to regret her actions. The only compensation she received was six copies of the collected works, which she tried to sell to raise money for her survival. In an August 26, 1860 letter to poe's second cousin Neilson Poe, she refers to Griswold as "that base, base man."
"When the books were published, her indignation and grief was heart-rending to witness, and after ineffectual efforts to get justice, she (Maria Clemm) expressed herself as heartbroken and was said never to have smiled again."
--- E. Dora Houghton to John Ingram,
January 9, 1875
Crafty Griswold continued his political manipulations, using the vocabulary of his religious credentials to try to convince even Poe's friends of his sincerity and truthfulness.
"I cannot refrain from begging you to be very careful what you say or write to Mrs. Clemm, who is not your friend, nor anybody's friend, and who has no element of goodness or kindness in her nature, but whose heart and understanding are full of malice and wickedness."
--- Griswold to Sara Helen Whitman,
December 17, 1849
Many of Poe's friends, including Willis, Graham, and Neal as well as George W. Peck, James Wood Davidson, Henry B. Hirst, Charles Chauncey Burr and Sarah Helen Whitman, denounced Griswold.
Seven months after Poe's death and just a short while before her own death from tuberculosis on May 12, 1850, Osgood defended Poe's character in a letter to Griswold.
To Griswold's credit, after she wrote her own reminiscence of Poe, he included it in a future edition of Poe's collected works.
Griswold died in New York City on August 27, 1857. Unlike Poe, Rufus and his work are little remembered today, save his vituperative slander of Poe. In a 1843 review of Griswold's "Poets and Poetry," Poe' friend Henry B. Hirst, made a prophetic comment:
"Did any one read such nonsense? We never did, and shall hereafter eschew everything that bears Rufus Wilmot Griswold's name. Mr. G. belongs to the class called 'toady.' If ever such a thing as literary ruin existed, or exists, nine-tenths of the Poets of America are ruined forever by the praise of Mr. Griswold! What will be his (Griswold's) fate? Forgotten, save only by those whom he has injured and insulted, he will sink into oblivion, without leaving a landmark to tell that he once existed; or if he is spoken of hereafter, he will be quoted as 'the unfaithful servant who abused his trust.'"
--- Henry B. Hirst, "Saturday Museum," January 28, 1843
Despite Poe's defenders, Griswold's "Memoir" remained the definitive biography of Poe for several years. Finally, in 1875, the Englishman John Henry Ingram (1842-1916) published an authentic memoir of Poe, which began the academic resurrection of Poe's true character. Unfortunately, flamboyant romantics admired the fashionable 19th century myth of the "decadent, tortured artist" and small-minded, concrete-thinking puritans couldn't envision such macabre subject matter to have been written by anyone but a madman. Thus, Griswold's caricature of Poe has remained the uneducated, populist view to this day. |
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