A Chapter on Autography and An Appendix of Autographs — Poe, 1841–1842

A Chapter on Autography and An Appendix of Autographs — Poe, 1841–1842 Original illustrated magazine articles from Graham’s Magazine, November and December 1841, with An Appendix of Autographs from January 1842. The three local PDFs preserve the selected source pages and signature illustrations unchanged. Two unrelated plates inserted between the December article pages are omitted. Adjoining poems on the last December and January pages remain visible in the PDFs but are excluded from the searchable reading. Repository OCR is unreviewed, has recognition and column-order errors, and does not transcribe the signature images reliably; consult the PDFs. These are Poe’s historical literary opinions, not modern assessments of the people discussed. Earlier 1836 Autography articles are not part of this record. Graham’s Magazine — 1841-11 [Source scan page 34] A CHAPTER ON AUTOGRAPHY. BY Unpber this head, some years ago, there appeared, in the Southern Literary Messenger, an article which attracted very general attention, not less from the nature of its subject than from the peculiar manner in which it was handled. The editor introduces his readers to a certain Mr. Joseph Miller, who, it is hinted, is not merely a de:cendant of the illustrious Joe, of Jest-Book notoriety, but that identical indi- vidual in proper person. Upon this point, however, an air of uncertainty is thrown by means of an equi- voque, maintained throughout the paper, in respect to Mr. Miller’s middle name. This equivoque is put into the mouth of Mr. M. himself. He gives his name, in the first instance, as Joseph A. Miller ; but, in the course of conversation, shifts it to Joseph B., then to Joseph C , and so on through the whole al- phabet, until he concludes by desiring a copy of the Magazine to be sent to his address as Joseph Z. Miller, Esquire. The object of his visit to the editor is to place in his hands the autographs of certain distinguished American literati. To these persons he had written rigmarole letters on various topics, and in all cases had been successful in eliciting areply. The replies only (which it is scarcely necessary to say are all fictitious) are given in the Magazine, with a genuine autograph fac-simile appended, and are either bur- lesques of the supposed writer’s usual style, or ren- dered otherwise absurd by reference to the nonsensi- cal questions imagined to have been propounded by Mr. Miller. The autographs thus given are twenty- six in all—corresponding to the twenty-six varia- tions in the initial letter of the hoaxer’s middle name. With the public this article took amazingly well, and many of our principal papers were at the expense of re-printing it with the wood-cut autographs. Even those whose names had been introduced, and whose style had been burlesqued, took the joke, generally speaking, in good part. Some of them were at a loss what to make of the matter. Dr. W. E. Channing, of Boston, was at some trouble, it is said, in calling to mind whether he had or had not actually written to some Mr. Joseph Miller te letter attributed to him in the article. This letter was nothing more than what follows :— Boston, DEAR Sir, No such person as Philip Phi}pot has ever been in my employ as a coachman, or otherwise. The name is an odd one, and not likely to be forgotten. The man must have reference to some other Doctor Chan- ning. It would be as well to question him closely. Respectfully yours, W. E. CHANNING. To JosEpH X. Mirter, Esq. The precise and brief sententiousness of the divine is here, it will be seen, very truly adopted, or “‘hit off.” In one instance only was the jeu-d’esprit taken in serious dudgeon. Colonel Stone and the Messenger had not been upon the best of terms. Some one of the Colonel’s little brochures had been severely treated by that journal, which declared that the work would have been far more properly published among the quack advertisements in a spare corner of the Commercial. The colonel had retaliated by wh