Poe's Quarrel with Boston Writers

Edgar Allan Poe
"Our Amateur Poets: NO. I. – FLACCUS"
Graham's Magazine, August 1843
[Full text]

Poe wielded his tomahawk in this review of the poetry of Thomas Ward (1807-1873), a contributor to Knickerbocker Magazine. "Mr. Ward [he opined] is not, as a poet, altogether destitute of merit, ... but the sum of his deserts has been footed up by a clique who are in the habit of reckoning units as tens in all cases where champagne and 'elegant leisure' are concerned." No wonder, then, that New Yorker James Kirke Paulding complained to Rufus Griswold, the editor of Graham's, about Poe's critical judgments: "the scurrilous strictures bestowed on [Ward's poems] by Mr. Poe."

Boston Public Library, Research Library Collection