Sunday, September 6, 2009

More on the U. of Texas' Poe material

After browsing through some of the digitized manuscripts and letters in the Edgar Allan Poe collection at the University of Texas, I have just one thought: Am I the only one a bit troubled by the fact that, if we accept all this material as authentic, Poe must have had about half-a-dozen completely different handwritings? And that he would not know how to spell the word, "length?"

I once read a quote from a leading rare book and manuscript expert--I wish I had written his quote down, because now I can't remember his name--where he stated that, after many years of studying Poe manuscripts, he had come to the firm conclusion that there were many more forged Poe letters in existence than there were ones the man had actually written.

Just a thought.

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