SD1265. Edgar Allan Poe to Philip P. Cooke
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 13, 391 (in part).
New York
August 9, 1846.
My dear Sir,—
Never think of excusing yourself (to me) for dilatoriness in answering letters. …
Do you ever see the British papers? Martin F. Tupper, author of “Proverbial Philosophy,” has been paying me some high compliments—and indeed I have been treated more than well. There is one “British opinion,” however, which I value highly—Miss Barrett’s. She says:—“This vivid writing!—this power which is felt! The Raven has produced a sensation—‘a fit horror’ here in England. Some of my friends are taken by the fear of it and some by the music. I hear of persons haunted by the ‘Nevermore,’ and one acquaintance of mine who has the misfortune of possessing a ‘bust of Pallas’ never can bear to look at it in the twilight … Our great poet Mr. Browning, author of Paracelsus, etc., is enthusiastic in his admiration of the rhythm. … Then there is a tale of his which I do not find in this volume, but which is going the rounds of the newspapers, about Mesmerism, throwing us all into most admired disorder or dreadful doubts as to whether it can be true, as the children say of ghost stories. The certain thing in the tale in question is the power of the writer & the faculty he has of making horrible improbabilities seem near and familiar.” Would it be in bad taste to quote these words of Miss B. in your notice?
Text: Edgar Allan Poe, The Complete Works, ed. James A. Harrison (New York, 1902), 17, 265–268.
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