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

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 wholesale vituperation of the Messenger. This be- ing the state of affairs, it was not to be wondered at that the following epistle was not quietly received on the part of him to whom it was attributed :— New York, DEAR SiR, I am exceedingly and excessively sorry that it is out of my power to comply with your rational and reasonable request. The subject you mention is one with which I am utterly unacquainted. Moreover it is one about which I know very little. Respectfully, W. L. STONE. JosEPH V. MILLER, Esq. These tautologies and anti-climaces were too much for the colonel, and we are ashamed to say that he committed himself by publishing in the Commercial an indignant: denial of ever having indited such an epistle. The principal feature of this autograph article, although perhaps the least interesting, was that of the editorial comment upon the supposed MSS., regarding them as indicative of character. In these = % > } ; £3 he 4 ae | | | \4 4 ‘ al 4 4 3 2 ° | [Source scan page 35] AUTOGRAPH Y. 229 comments the design was never more than semi- serious. At times, too, the writer was evidently led into error or injustice through the desire of being pungent —not unfrequently sacrificing truth for the sake of a bon-mot. In this manner qualities were often attributed to individuals, which were not so much indicated by their hand-writing, as suggested by the spleen of the commentator. But that a strong analogy does generally and naturally exist between every man’s chirography and character, will be de- nied by none but the unreflecting. It is not our pur- pose, however, to enter into the philosophy of this subject, either in this portion of the present paper, or in the abstract. What we may have to say will be introduced elsewhere, and in connection with par- ticular MSS. The practical application of the theory | will thus go hand in hand with the theory itself. Our design is three-fold : — In the first place, seri- qusly to illustrate our position that the mental fea- tures are indicated (with certain exceptions) by the hand-writing ; secondly, to indulge in a little literary gossip ; and, thirdly, to furnish our readers with a more accurate and at the same time a more general collection of the autographs of our literati than is to be found elsewhere. Of the first portion of this de- sign we have already spoken. The second speaks for itself. Of ihe third it is only necessary to say that we are confident of its interest for all lovers of literature. Next to the person of a distinguished man-of-letters, we desire to see his portrait —next to his portrait, his autograph. In the latter, especi- ally, there is something which seems to bring him before us in his true idiosyncrasy —in his character of scribe. The feeling which prompts to the collec. tion of autographs is a natural and rational one. But complete, or even extensive collections, are beyond the reach of those who themselves do not dabble in the waters of literature. The writer of this article has had opportunities, in this way, enjoyed by few. The MSS. now lying before him are a motley mass | indeed. Here are letters, or other compositions, from every individual in America who has the slightest pretension to literary celebrity. From these we pro- pose to select the most eminent names—as to give all would be a work of supererogation. Unquestion- ably, among those whose claims we are forced to postpone, are several whose high merit might justly demand a different treatment ; but the rule applica- ble in a case like this seems to be that of celebrity, rather than that of true worth. It will be understood that, in the necessity of selection which circum- stances Impose upon us, we confine ourselves to the most noted among the living literati of the country. The article above alluded to, embraced, as we have already stated, only twenty-six names, and was not occupied exclusively either with living persons, or, properly speaking, with literary ones. In fact the whole paper seemed to acknowledge no law beyond that of whim. Our present essay will be found to include one hundred autographs. We have thought it unnecessary to preserve any particular order in their arrangement. Professor Cuarites ANTHON, of Columbia College, New York, is well known as the most erudite of our classical scholars; and, although still a young man, there are few, if any, even in Europe, who surpass him in his peculiar path of knowledge. In England his supremacy has been tacitly acknowledged by the immediate re-publication of his editions of Cesar, Sallust, and Cicero, with other works, and their adop- tion as text-books at Oxford and Cambridge. His amplification of Lempriére did him high honor, but, of late, has been entirely superseded by a Classical Dictionary of his own —a work most remarkable for the extent and comprehensiveness of its details, as well as for its historical, chronological, mythologi- cal, and philological accuracy. It has at once com- pletely overshadowed every thing of its kind. It follows, as a matter of course, that Mr. Anthon has many little enemies, among the inditers of merely big books. He has not been unassailed, yet has as- suredly remained uninjured in the estimation of all those whose opinion he would be likely to value. We do not mean to say that he is altogether without faults, but a certain antique Johnsonism of style is perhaps one of his worst. He was mainly instru- mental (with Professor Henry and Dr. Hawks) in setting on foot the New York Review, a journal of which he is the most efficient literary support, and whose most erudite papers have always been fur- nished by his pen. | The chirographiy of Professor Anthon is the most regularly beautiful of any in our collection. We see the most scrupulous precision, finish, and neatness about every portion of it—in the formation of indi- vidual letters, as well as in the tout-ensemble. The perfect symmetry of the MS. gives it, to a casual — glance, the appearance of Italic print. The-lines are quite straight, and at exactly equal distances, yet are written without black rules, or other artificial aid. There is not the slightest superfluity, in the way of flourish or otherwise, with the exception of the twirl in the C of the signature. Yet the whole is rather neat and graceful than forcible. Of four letters now lying before us, one is written on pink, one on a faint blue, one on green, and one on yellow paper —all of the finest quality. The seal is of green wax, with an impression of the head of Cesar. It is in the chirography of such men as Professor _ Anthon that we look with certainty for indication of character. The life of a scholar is mostly undis- turbed by those adventitious events which distort the natural disposition of the man of the world, prevent- ing his real nature from manifesting itself in his MS. he a Beet $3 a | 4 Rig | { | ; 4 A ’ e” 3 | AS » Sie | q ! 4 4 4 Be if [Source scan page 36] = ‘ % AS this Be bis 296 AUTOGRAPHY. ra: 3 The lawyer, who, pressed for time, is often forced to embody a world of heterogeneous memoranda, on scraps of paper, with the stumps of all varieties of pen, will soon find the fair characters of his boyhood degenerate into hieroglyphics which would puzzle Doctor Wallis or Champollion; and from chirogra- phy so disturbed it is nearly impossible to decide any thing. In a similar manner, men who pass through many striking vicissitudes of life, acquire in each change of circumstance a temporary inflection of the hand-writing ; the whole resulting, after many years, in an unformed or variable MS., scarcely to be recognised by themselves from one day to the other. In the case of literary men generally, we may expect some decisive token of the mental influence upon the MS., and in the instance of the classical devotee we | The MS. of Mr. Irvine has little about it indicative of his genius. Certainly, no one could suspect from it any nice finish in the writer’s compositions ; nor is this nice finish to be found.