Page:Edgar Allan Poe - a centenary tribute.pdf/45

 human procedure, but it has obvious disadvantages, and perhaps it will be well to try to approach our problem from another point of view. How much do we really know about Poe's life? At first thought it would appear that we know a good deal. We have several elaborate biographies, and since the appearance of Professor Woodberry's volume in 1885 it has been possible to say that modern methods of thorough and comparatively unpartisan investigation have been applied to the study of Poe's life. Whatever Professor Woodberry s defects of sympathy, I do not see how anyone can test his book minutely, as I have done, without making the frank acknowledgment that his labors mark an important epoch in Poe scholarship. As for the interest that is taken in Poe's life, that is really immense, and it is increasing, as any one who keeps a Poe scrap-book will testify. No details seem too small to report, and, if possible, to argue over. But, despite the apparent wealth of material, are we in a position to say that we know enough about Poe to give an entirely adequate and authoritative account of his life? I cannot answer this question for others, but I can answer it for myself. About four years ago I was engaged in writing a biography of Poe which I had carried down to the year 1837. I stopped there, and I have not added a line to it since, because three facts were borne in upon