Rufus Wilmot Griswold

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Rufus Wilmot Griswold

Rufus Wilmot Griswold (born February 13, 1815 in Benson (Vermont) , United States, † August 27, 1857 in New York City ) was an American publisher , literary critic and writer .

His work The Poets and Poetry of America from 1842 was the largest literary anthology of its time. He replaced Edgar Allan Poe as editor of Graham's Magazine .

Posthumous character assassination of Edgar Allan Poe

The obituary Death of Edgar A. Poe , written by Griswold under the pseudonym Ludwig , appeared on October 9, 1849 in the New York Daily Tribune (3rd and 4th columns from the left, full text) .

Posterity is familiar with Griswold, one of the most unsympathetic figures in all of literary history , primarily for the most unscrupulous posthumous character assassination campaign against Edgar Allan Poe in American literary history . Griswold and Poe had initially been on friendly terms as writers and literature enthusiasts. Poe himself had appointed Griswold to be his literary estate administrator.

Poe had worked as the editor of the literary magazine Graham's Magazine . After he had lost this job for family reasons, he wanted to take care of his terminally ill wife, Griswold took over this position - and received a higher salary for the same work. This created tensions that turned into personal rivalries . Griswold had published his most important work The Poets and Poetry of America in 1842 . When an anonymous, satirical- negative review of the work was published in the Saturday Museum , Griswold assumed it was by Poe. From this a hostility arose on the part of Griswold, which lasted well after Poe's death and which u. a. led to the fact that Griswold not only wrote the obituary, which was permanently damaging to the reputation , but later also partially falsified the contents of Poe's private letters . Concerns in this direction had already been expressed by the Poe biographers John H. Ingram (1874) and William Fearing Gill and Eugene LeMoine Didier (both 1877).

Two days after Poe's death, Griswold published a long, extremely negative obituary for Poe under the false name "Ludwig" , which began with the words: EDGAR ALLAN POE is dead. He died in Baltimore the day before yesterday. This announcement will startle many, but few will be grieved by it. [...] he had readers in England, and in several of the states of Continental Europe; but he had few or no friends […] ( EDGAR ALLAN POE is dead. He died the day before yesterday in Baltimore. This announcement will surprise many, but few will be saddened by it […] He had readers in England and in several other countries in continental Europe ; but he had few or no friends […] ). The obituary appeared in the New York Daily Tribune and contains a host of untruthful claims such as that Poe was expelled from the University of Virginia , deserted from the US Army , was a drug addict , and finally that Poe was lacking any moral sensibility ( [Poe]) no moral susceptibility ). In addition, Griswold expanded the untrue assertions in his Poe Werk edition published in 1850, in which the thesis was put forward that all figures depicted in Poe's works that had depraved traits and were depicted with (self) murderous properties were ultimately Poe's self-portrayals have been.

Griswold's obituary was reprinted in numerous American newspapers. Despite Griswold's death in 1858, his further, systematic distortion of facts determined the reception of Poe's person and work, especially in the USA, well into the 20th century.

literature

Web links

Commons : Rufus Wilmot Griswold  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Death of Edgar A. Poe "Ludwig" obituary for Poe from October 9, 1849 (full text in English).
  2. ↑ quoted from: Frank T. Zumbach: Edgar Allan Poe: Eine Biographie. FN 32, pp. 416-417.
  3. ↑ Peter Ackroyd: Poe: A life cut short. P. 94.
  4. ↑ Peter Ackroyd: Poe: A life cut short. P. 134.
  5. ^ A b c Frederick S. Frank, Anthony Magsitrale: The Poe Encyclopedia. Greenwood Press, Westport 1997, ISBN 0-313-27768-0 , p. 149.
  6. ^ William Bittner: POE. A biography. Elek Books, London 1963, p. 176.
  7. ^ Daniel Hoffman : Poe, Poe, Poe, Poe, Poe, Poe, Poe. Doubleday, Garden City 1972, p. 14.
  8. ↑ Information on Griswold's manipulations on eapoe.org
  9. ↑ Kenneth Silverman : Edgar A. Poe: Mournful and Never-ending Remembrance. P. 440.
personal data
SURNAME Griswold, Rufus Wilmot
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Griswold, Rufus W .; Griswold, RW
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American publisher, literary critic, and writer
DATE OF BIRTH February 13, 1815
PLACE OF BIRTH Benson (Vermont) , United States
DATE OF DEATH August 27, 1857
Place of death New York City