Rufus Wilmot Griswold

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Rufus Wilmot Griswold : biography

February 15, 1815 – August 12, 1857

In any case, Griswold, along with James Russell Lowell and Nathaniel Parker Willis, edited a posthumous collection of Poe’s works published in three volumes starting in January 1850.Moss, 121 He did not share the profits of his edition with Poe’s surviving relatives.Sova, 102 This edition included a biographical sketch titled "Memoir of the Author" which has become notorious for its inaccuracy. The "Memoir" depicts Poe as a madman, addicted to drugs and chronically drunk. Many elements were fabricated by Griswold using forged letters as evidence and it was denounced by those who knew Poe, including Sarah Helen Whitman, Charles Frederick Briggs, and George Rex Graham.Sova, 101 In March, Graham published a notice in his magazine accusing Griswold of betraying trust and taking revenge on the dead. "Mr. Griswold", he wrote, "has allowed old prejudices and old enmities to steal … into the coloring of his picture."Moss, 122 Thomas Holley Chivers wrote a book called New Life of Edgar Allan Poe which directly responded to Griswold’s accusations.Beale, 25–28 He said that Griswold "is not only incompetent to Edit any of [Poe’s] works, but totally unconscious of the duties which he and every man who sets himself up as a Literary Executor, owe the dead".Beale, 70

Today Griswold’s name is usually associated with Poe’s as a character assassin,Frank, Frederick and Anthony Magistrale. The Poe Encyclopedia. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1991: 149. ISBN 0-313-27768-0. although not all believe that Griswold deliberately intended to cause harm. Some of the information that Griswold asserted or implied was that Poe was expelled from the University of Virginia and that Poe had tried to seduce his guardian John Allan’s second wife.Silverman, 440 Even so, Griswold’s attempts only drew attention to Poe’s work; readers were thrilled at the idea of reading the works of an "evil" man.Meyers, 263 Griswold’s characterization of Poe and the false information he originated appeared consistently in Poe biographies for the next two decades.