WEBVTT - Rufus Griswold: Poe’s Petty Stalker 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:03.800 Welcome to Criminalia, a production of Shonda land Audio in 0:00:03.880 --> 0:00:13.240 partnership with I Heart Radio. Hello and welcome to the 0:00:13.320 --> 0:00:17.200 second season of Criminalia. This season, we're exploring the lives 0:00:17.200 --> 0:00:21.919 and motivations of some of the most notorious stalkers throughout history. 0:00:22.520 --> 0:00:26.079 I'm Maria, I'm Holly Fry, And as we did in 0:00:26.120 --> 0:00:28.319 the first season, we planned a look at some of 0:00:28.400 --> 0:00:32.320 history's transgressions to get a better understanding of what really 0:00:32.320 --> 0:00:35.319 went down, and in doing so, we're hoping that we'll 0:00:35.360 --> 0:00:38.919 get some perspective on whether any of these alleged perpetrators 0:00:39.040 --> 0:00:43.680 emerge instead as sympathetic characters, and also how these crimes 0:00:43.680 --> 0:00:46.520 look through today's eyes, because, as they say, a little 0:00:46.560 --> 0:00:51.239 distance goes a long way. So our first season was 0:00:51.400 --> 0:00:55.240 all about women poisoners, and frankly it was all about 0:00:55.280 --> 0:01:00.640 ours neck too. But now in season two we'll see 0:01:00.640 --> 0:01:04.160 far less arsenic, but we will see a lot more stalkers. 0:01:04.880 --> 0:01:07.520 Today we're going to talk about Rufus Griswold, who was 0:01:07.560 --> 0:01:10.880 the arch nemesis of Edgar Allan Poe. And while the 0:01:10.959 --> 0:01:13.840 cause of post death is a mystery still today, we 0:01:13.880 --> 0:01:16.119 do know one thing, actually we know two things. One 0:01:16.160 --> 0:01:19.920 Griswold did not kill him too. Everything we thought we 0:01:20.000 --> 0:01:24.080 knew about Poe is actually really wrong and it's Grizzwald's doing. 0:01:24.920 --> 0:01:28.119 But we're here to talk about the man Griswold was not, 0:01:28.200 --> 0:01:31.640 to solve the mystery of post death. First, we need 0:01:31.640 --> 0:01:34.120 to lay a little groundwork and talk a little bit 0:01:34.160 --> 0:01:39.880 about stalking and stalkers. Right, So, stalking by definition is simple, Like, 0:01:39.920 --> 0:01:42.679 the definition just says it is the unwanted pursuit of 0:01:42.720 --> 0:01:46.000 another person. That's it. That's all. So it's a pretty 0:01:46.040 --> 0:01:50.120 wide net that could involve things like following someone or 0:01:50.200 --> 0:01:53.520 unexpectedly appearing at a person's home or a place of employment, 0:01:54.200 --> 0:01:58.320 or making harassing phone calls, leaving written messages or objects, 0:01:58.440 --> 0:02:01.560 or vandalizing a person's property. We've seen a lot of 0:02:01.600 --> 0:02:04.680 this in the modern era, little different in the history, 0:02:05.360 --> 0:02:09.240 not all the same technology available, and it could involve 0:02:09.440 --> 0:02:11.560 a little bit or a few of these things and 0:02:11.639 --> 0:02:16.160 still be defined as stalking. But it is also a crime, right, 0:02:16.280 --> 0:02:20.239 whether it's one or six, still a crime. So who 0:02:20.240 --> 0:02:23.640 becomes a stalker? You might wonder, Well, we wondered. So 0:02:24.040 --> 0:02:28.480 the demographics related to stalkers are actually quite diverse and 0:02:28.800 --> 0:02:32.160 as you're going to see this season. Virtually anyone can 0:02:32.200 --> 0:02:35.080 become a stalker. They come from all walks of life 0:02:35.080 --> 0:02:39.600 and socioeconomic backgrounds. But despite the diversity, research shows that 0:02:39.639 --> 0:02:43.280 there are actually some common characteristics that they have. In 0:02:43.320 --> 0:02:46.320 the United States, according to the FBI, as many as 0:02:46.360 --> 0:02:50.880 eight seven percent of stalkers are male and are white. 0:02:51.720 --> 0:02:54.720 Half fall between the ages of eighteen and thirty five. 0:02:55.800 --> 0:02:59.080 Most stalkers, again, according to the FBI, are of above 0:02:59.160 --> 0:03:03.120 average and tell agents, and most earn above average incomes. 0:03:03.720 --> 0:03:05.800 But now let's take a look at the victims. So 0:03:06.080 --> 0:03:09.760 just as anyone could become a stalker, anyone could become 0:03:09.800 --> 0:03:14.320 a victim. Of all stalking victims, about three quarters, according 0:03:14.320 --> 0:03:17.000 to the FBI, again are women, and they are between 0:03:17.040 --> 0:03:19.440 the ages of eighteen and thirty nine, and eighty three 0:03:19.480 --> 0:03:23.160 percent of them are white. Also, a little more than 0:03:23.240 --> 0:03:27.160 half of them are married. And indeed, as Maria said, 0:03:27.200 --> 0:03:32.800 anyone can become a stalker. Take Rufus Wilmot Griswold for example. 0:03:33.560 --> 0:03:37.320 Griswold was by all accounts successful. He was a journalist, 0:03:37.360 --> 0:03:40.920 a literary critic, an anthologist, and an editor. That is 0:03:40.960 --> 0:03:43.680 a really impressive resume, and it looks really good on paper, 0:03:44.160 --> 0:03:47.240 but what he's best known for is his character assassination 0:03:47.400 --> 0:03:51.600 of Edgar Ellan Poe. His hatred was palpable during the 0:03:51.680 --> 0:03:54.680 years of rivalry between the two authors, and that was 0:03:54.720 --> 0:03:58.120 a rivalry that didn't end until Griswold's death, which was 0:03:58.160 --> 0:04:03.080 well after Poe was long So. Griswald was born on 0:04:03.120 --> 0:04:08.000 February eighteen fifteen in Vermont, in a really small town 0:04:08.120 --> 0:04:11.760 outside of Rutland, and he was the twelfth of fourteen children. 0:04:12.240 --> 0:04:14.760 His father was a farmer and a shoemaker, and he 0:04:14.880 --> 0:04:18.880 raised his family strict Calvinist. And it was said that 0:04:18.920 --> 0:04:22.160 Griswald was intelligent looking. He had a high, broad forehead 0:04:22.200 --> 0:04:25.640 and large gray eyes, a sharp nose, and an expression 0:04:25.680 --> 0:04:28.640 of smug defiance, which when I read that I thought 0:04:28.720 --> 0:04:30.800 was fantastic because as you learn a little bit more 0:04:30.800 --> 0:04:35.480 about him, you're going to envision that what he looked 0:04:35.520 --> 0:04:40.000 like as a kid manifested his entire life. Um it's 0:04:40.040 --> 0:04:44.239 also been sad quote that he has a glib tongue, 0:04:44.400 --> 0:04:47.080 and I think that did carry with him his entire life. 0:04:48.040 --> 0:04:51.080 So he left home when he was fifteen, and he 0:04:52.160 --> 0:04:56.880 called himself and we quote here again a solitary soul, 0:04:57.040 --> 0:05:03.680 wandering through the world, a homeless joy, this outcast. My god, 0:05:06.040 --> 0:05:09.359 he was like an eighteen thirties emo kid. He totally 0:05:09.480 --> 0:05:17.320 wast man. And although Griswold would like people to believe 0:05:17.360 --> 0:05:20.920 that he spent his teenage years voyaging the world, modern 0:05:20.920 --> 0:05:24.080 biographers disagree with that claim because actually, at fift TV 0:05:24.320 --> 0:05:27.480 was not out traveling the world by himself. He was 0:05:27.520 --> 0:05:31.280 in Troy, New York, attending the Rensseller School that is 0:05:31.320 --> 0:05:34.839 now Rensseller Polytechnic Institute. And this was all thanks to 0:05:34.920 --> 0:05:37.599 his brother, who was a well known businessman in that town. 0:05:38.480 --> 0:05:41.760 Griswold was, however, kicked out of the school shortly after 0:05:41.800 --> 0:05:44.600 he started his studies there because apparently he had a 0:05:44.600 --> 0:05:48.920 little problem with playing pranks. So we went to live 0:05:48.960 --> 0:05:52.000 with his brother who was in Troy, and it said 0:05:52.000 --> 0:05:54.800 that during that time Griswold became acquainted with the writer 0:05:54.920 --> 0:05:57.640 George G. Foster, who's famous for writing the book New 0:05:57.720 --> 0:06:01.440 York by Gaslights. He moved of Troy and moved in 0:06:01.520 --> 0:06:04.840 with Foster, who lived in Albany, New York. Now, if 0:06:04.839 --> 0:06:08.840 you're unfamiliar with New York state, Albany is about eight 0:06:08.920 --> 0:06:15.719 miles away from Troy World Traveler. He bridging the state. 0:06:18.920 --> 0:06:22.800 While he was in his twenties, though, Griswold moved to Syracuse, 0:06:22.839 --> 0:06:26.160 New York again not so far afield, and he started 0:06:26.200 --> 0:06:29.640 a newspaper there called The Porcupine, which is terribly charming 0:06:29.720 --> 0:06:32.560 his names go, it is, except for when you learn 0:06:32.600 --> 0:06:34.960 what he did with it, and you're right. So this 0:06:35.080 --> 0:06:40.480 publication was later remembered as a spiteful critique that targeted locals, 0:06:40.560 --> 0:06:43.919 and mostly it was all written by Griswold under the 0:06:43.960 --> 0:06:49.560 pseudonym Toby Trinculo. Basically, it was just his next door 0:06:49.600 --> 0:06:53.800 that he had a printing press for. Yes, I also 0:06:53.880 --> 0:06:56.840 laughed because I know what comes ahead, and I apologized 0:06:56.880 --> 0:06:58.680 for that. But this won't be the first time that 0:06:58.720 --> 0:07:02.039 we see Griswold using a pseudonym. But I really have 0:07:02.120 --> 0:07:05.559 a love hate relationship that he uses now and writes 0:07:05.560 --> 0:07:10.840 an entire newspaper on one. So anyway, he continued working 0:07:10.920 --> 0:07:14.440 as a journalist after Syracuse and Uh he was journalist 0:07:14.440 --> 0:07:16.760 and a critic in Philadelphia, New York City, and a 0:07:16.760 --> 0:07:20.080 few other northern cities at the time when he began 0:07:20.240 --> 0:07:24.200 editing for the Chautauqua Wig that officially established him as 0:07:24.240 --> 0:07:27.440 an editor, and he held editorships of both The Western 0:07:27.440 --> 0:07:31.800 Democrat and the Literary Inquirer in and then in eighteen 0:07:31.800 --> 0:07:34.840 thirty six he edited an Olian Advocate. Much of his 0:07:34.880 --> 0:07:37.760 work at this time was again still in Western New York. 0:07:38.760 --> 0:07:41.080 So I'm actually going to change the topic quite a 0:07:41.160 --> 0:07:44.600 ways right now. Let's talk about Griswold's marriages for just 0:07:44.680 --> 0:07:47.240 a minute. And I bring this up because Griswold met 0:07:47.280 --> 0:07:50.880 his wife right before he began working at the Olian Advocate. 0:07:51.520 --> 0:07:54.280 The relationship he had with her is really interesting because 0:07:54.280 --> 0:07:56.960 it's unlike any other we see him have throughout his 0:07:57.160 --> 0:08:01.240 entire life. Watching it develop and watching them as a 0:08:01.280 --> 0:08:04.600 couple helps us see the complexity of Griswold and not 0:08:04.880 --> 0:08:08.640 just his hot streak. He was actually married three times 0:08:08.720 --> 0:08:12.280 during his life. Shortly after marrying his first wife, Caroline, 0:08:12.680 --> 0:08:17.880 Griswold actually became a reverend at her encouragement. Caroline unfortunately 0:08:17.920 --> 0:08:20.600 died young while she was giving birth to their third child, 0:08:20.800 --> 0:08:23.800 the son that also died during childbirth, and they had 0:08:23.840 --> 0:08:27.800 two daughters, and all accounts suggest that Griswold was deeply 0:08:27.840 --> 0:08:30.240 in love with Caroline from the moment he met her. 0:08:31.080 --> 0:08:34.080 As One story goes he threw himself on her grave 0:08:34.200 --> 0:08:38.160 during her funeral, and another tells about how a month 0:08:38.200 --> 0:08:40.800 after she died, he actually snuck into the crypt where 0:08:40.800 --> 0:08:42.679 she was buried, just so he could spend the night 0:08:42.720 --> 0:08:47.240 near her. Sorry, my my pause was just because I 0:08:47.240 --> 0:08:49.200 don't know if I want someone to sneak into my 0:08:49.280 --> 0:08:54.360 crypt or not. I've I'm torn on that. So, while 0:08:54.440 --> 0:08:57.200 his marriage to Caroline made him feel saved, he has 0:08:57.280 --> 0:09:02.440 said his other marriages were not so deep. He eventually remarried, 0:09:02.480 --> 0:09:04.960 as we said, to a woman named Charlotte Myers, who 0:09:05.000 --> 0:09:09.280 was many years his senior. But when Griswold became interested 0:09:09.400 --> 0:09:12.280 not in his wife but in the poetus Alice Carr 0:09:12.720 --> 0:09:17.080 and asked for a divorce, Charlotte refused him. This turned 0:09:17.080 --> 0:09:21.640 into quite an ongoing conflict, and that marriage ultimately ended 0:09:21.679 --> 0:09:26.120 in a public and very controversial divorce. Griswold's third wife, 0:09:26.160 --> 0:09:30.839 Harriet Macrillis, left him after the previous divorce was almost repealed. 0:09:31.440 --> 0:09:34.040 Basically after Caroline, he never got it right again, No, 0:09:34.440 --> 0:09:36.200 he didn't, you know, he never should have tried. He 0:09:36.200 --> 0:09:39.800 should have just stuck with being a widower. Um. But 0:09:40.400 --> 0:09:43.839 enough now, though about Griswold marriages. We're going to take 0:09:43.880 --> 0:09:47.320 a quick sponsor break, and when we returned, we're going 0:09:47.360 --> 0:09:59.840 to talk about how and when Griswold met Edgar Allan Poe. 0:10:00.240 --> 0:10:08.480 Welcome back to Criminalia. Now we're going to talk about 0:10:08.480 --> 0:10:13.880 how Poe and Griswold met. So Rufus, Griswold and Edgar 0:10:13.920 --> 0:10:18.640 Allan Poe met right around eighteen forty, and that's when 0:10:18.679 --> 0:10:22.520 Griswold was planning a poetry anthology. So at this time 0:10:22.520 --> 0:10:25.360 in his career, Poe was working as a literary critic 0:10:25.440 --> 0:10:28.480 and he was a budding poet. He was interested in 0:10:28.559 --> 0:10:31.840 Griswold and the work that Griswold was doing, and the 0:10:31.920 --> 0:10:36.000 two of them met and ended up talking for hours. Poe, 0:10:36.040 --> 0:10:40.199 presumably trying to be helpful, provided self or works of 0:10:40.360 --> 0:10:43.880 his own for the anthology, and he also recommended poets 0:10:43.880 --> 0:10:47.840 for Grizzold to consider, but Griswold ultimately ignored all of 0:10:47.880 --> 0:10:50.720 post suggestions, although he did include some of Poe's works. 0:10:51.360 --> 0:10:54.800 Once that book was published, Griswold paid Poe to write 0:10:54.840 --> 0:10:58.000 a review of the anthology for the Boston Miscellany. A 0:10:58.040 --> 0:11:03.439 little awkward, right, there's some journalistic standards to be examined. 0:11:03.480 --> 0:11:07.840 They're not so cool. Moving on, like, yeah, oh did 0:11:07.960 --> 0:11:11.520 take that job. And he wrote what was mostly a 0:11:11.520 --> 0:11:16.840 positive review except oh, yes, there is an exception. There's 0:11:16.920 --> 0:11:21.760 always He criticized some of the poets that had been selected, 0:11:22.280 --> 0:11:26.400 possibly as many as twenty four, including Longfellow, who po 0:11:26.559 --> 0:11:30.000 accused of plagiarizing Alfred Lord Tennyson. I mean, who among 0:11:30.080 --> 0:11:34.319 us hasn't done a little light Lord Tennys in plagiarism 0:11:34.360 --> 0:11:40.439 here time to time comes off. Po stated that many 0:11:40.480 --> 0:11:43.200 of the poets who were selected were and we're quoting 0:11:43.280 --> 0:11:47.319 him here to mediocre to entitle them to particular notice 0:11:48.280 --> 0:11:54.760 o whammo. So Poe was known to be a really 0:11:54.840 --> 0:12:02.400 harsh literary critic. No way was a lamb. Everybody's doing 0:12:02.480 --> 0:12:10.280 their best. He wrote, I love your high kup. So 0:12:10.520 --> 0:12:14.920 basically when he reviewed your poem, your book, your anthology, 0:12:14.960 --> 0:12:19.480 whatever it was, his reviews generally stung, and he offended 0:12:19.559 --> 0:12:22.520 many of his peers and his colleagues with his writing. 0:12:22.960 --> 0:12:28.000 Um But among the most offended was Rufus Griswald, who 0:12:28.160 --> 0:12:32.920 at the time was a rival editor, anthologist, and two 0:12:33.000 --> 0:12:37.760 po at least a failed poet. Griswald had once said 0:12:37.800 --> 0:12:41.040 about po that quote, the tales of Mr Poe are 0:12:41.080 --> 0:12:44.679 peculiar and impressive. He has a great deal of imagination 0:12:44.720 --> 0:12:48.400 and fancy, and his mind is in the highest degree analytical. 0:12:49.160 --> 0:12:52.360 The reader of Mr Poe's tales is compelled, almost at 0:12:52.360 --> 0:12:55.960 the outset, to surrender his mind to the author's control. 0:12:56.800 --> 0:12:58.640 Now that should have been the bio, and he should 0:12:58.640 --> 0:13:02.360 have done wrote the end, right, I mean, that's beautiful, praise, 0:13:02.800 --> 0:13:09.400 that's that's lovely. But um times change. So after pose 0:13:09.480 --> 0:13:13.880 assessment of the anthology, Griswold believed that Poe thought too 0:13:14.000 --> 0:13:17.319 much of himself and he was really displeased by the review. 0:13:17.960 --> 0:13:21.360 So this is the moment that sparked a rivalry that 0:13:21.480 --> 0:13:25.200 lasted beyond pose death and might be one of the 0:13:25.280 --> 0:13:29.880 longest standing smear campaigns of literary history. At the end 0:13:29.920 --> 0:13:33.200 of the day, experts on this rivalry put it pretty simply. 0:13:34.040 --> 0:13:37.160 Griswold was the kind of person who made enemies everywhere 0:13:37.160 --> 0:13:40.319 he went, and he and Poe may have just been 0:13:40.360 --> 0:13:44.640 a pair that provoked and infuriated each other. It happens, right, 0:13:44.720 --> 0:13:50.000 Sometimes people just rubbed you the wrong way. But wow, 0:13:50.040 --> 0:13:53.800 this went much further than that. So a nightmare to 0:13:53.960 --> 0:13:58.800 many who knew him, both socially and or professionally. Griswold 0:13:58.920 --> 0:14:01.760 was really actually pretty good at what he did, and 0:14:01.800 --> 0:14:05.160 he had built a strong literary reputation when his eighteen 0:14:05.240 --> 0:14:08.840 forty two collection called The Poets and Poetry of America 0:14:09.080 --> 0:14:12.480 was released. In fact, Griswold and Poe had both worked 0:14:12.480 --> 0:14:16.720 on a publication called Graham's Magazine, but to pose disappointment 0:14:17.160 --> 0:14:21.480 when Griswold succeeded him as assistant editor. Griswold also took 0:14:21.480 --> 0:14:25.560 home a bigger paycheck, and Poe may have felt short changed, 0:14:26.280 --> 0:14:29.960 but Griswald had come to utterly low's Poe because Poe 0:14:29.960 --> 0:14:34.920 had criticized Griswold's poetry collections. How dare he he was 0:14:35.000 --> 0:14:40.200 obsessed with this bad review. The owner of Graham's Magazine 0:14:40.280 --> 0:14:44.240 later commented that Poe quote gave Mr Griswold some raps 0:14:44.280 --> 0:14:48.120 over the knuckles, a force sufficient to be remembered. I 0:14:48.160 --> 0:14:50.960 suppose that is a way to say it. Yes, I 0:14:50.960 --> 0:14:53.600 mean again, this is the kid who thinks he left 0:14:53.640 --> 0:14:59.200 home and paints himself as like this lonely, penniless joy 0:14:59.320 --> 0:15:03.320 live of the world, and then someone's like, you're kind 0:15:03.320 --> 0:15:07.080 of a crap poet like, He's like, fine, then I'll 0:15:07.120 --> 0:15:09.680 just write under pseudonym as you'll never know to his 0:15:10.080 --> 0:15:14.520 entire identity was undermined by this thing. So really, at 0:15:14.560 --> 0:15:17.440 this point in their story, this is when things went 0:15:18.880 --> 0:15:22.760 kind of truly weird. Alright. So Poe died on October seven, 0:15:23.680 --> 0:15:30.640 forty nine, and the po Griswald situation moved beyond rivalry 0:15:30.680 --> 0:15:34.520 between two editors. Um Speculations about the cause of post 0:15:34.520 --> 0:15:38.560 death abound even today. They ranged from alcohol poisoning to 0:15:39.000 --> 0:15:43.120 an undiagnosed illness such as maybe tuberculosis, and they even 0:15:43.120 --> 0:15:46.520 speculated that it could have been rabies, which actually at 0:15:46.560 --> 0:15:49.040 that time wouldn't have been a weird thing like today. 0:15:49.600 --> 0:15:52.640 But what we do know is that he was found 0:15:52.720 --> 0:15:55.440 lying on a street in Baltimore, incoherent and dressed in 0:15:55.480 --> 0:15:59.280 someone else's clothing. He was admitted to the Washington College Hospital, 0:15:59.320 --> 0:16:02.800 where he spent last days, and reportedly while there he 0:16:02.920 --> 0:16:07.840 kept repeating the name Reynolds. A local newspaper reported his 0:16:07.920 --> 0:16:11.520 cause of death as congestion of the brain, and today 0:16:11.560 --> 0:16:13.800 we would call that frenitis or swelling of the brain, 0:16:13.960 --> 0:16:16.400 but it was at the time often used as a 0:16:16.440 --> 0:16:22.240 euphemism for alcohol poisoning. The circumstances surrounding pose untimely death 0:16:22.320 --> 0:16:26.400 remain one of the great mysteries about the author even today, 0:16:26.600 --> 0:16:29.560 and it has long fueled the perception that he lived 0:16:29.560 --> 0:16:34.600 a life of debauchery. With Pose death, Griswold saw an opportunity, 0:16:34.800 --> 0:16:39.680 and he went on and on to defame po for 0:16:39.920 --> 0:16:42.760 many years. We are going to take a break, and 0:16:42.840 --> 0:16:45.680 then when we come back, we will talk about how 0:16:45.720 --> 0:16:57.800 and when Griswold began this campaign of defamation. Welcome back 0:16:57.880 --> 0:17:07.520 to Criminalia. So it all started with the obituary. That 0:17:07.680 --> 0:17:11.760 character assassination we mentioned before the break began immediately upon 0:17:11.880 --> 0:17:16.480 Poe's death. Griswald penned pose obituary for the New York 0:17:16.560 --> 0:17:20.720 Daily Tribune, which actually was so libelous, and he knew 0:17:20.760 --> 0:17:25.920 that that he wrote it under the pseudonym Ludwig More pseudonyms. 0:17:26.400 --> 0:17:31.960 Come on, rufus, stand up for your own words. So 0:17:32.040 --> 0:17:36.879 that obituary began. I'm going to quote it. Edgar Allan 0:17:36.960 --> 0:17:41.320 Poe is dead. He died in Baltimore the day before yesterday. 0:17:41.800 --> 0:17:45.320 This announcement will startle many, but few will be grieved 0:17:45.320 --> 0:17:49.840 by it. He went on that Poe was morally bankrupt 0:17:49.880 --> 0:17:53.480 and a drunken womanizer, and today we know that none 0:17:53.480 --> 0:17:57.320 of that is actually true. In this obituary, along with 0:17:57.359 --> 0:18:00.760 any information about Poe that came from Griswold Old, we're 0:18:00.920 --> 0:18:04.760 all an attempt at revenge for some of the offensive 0:18:04.800 --> 0:18:08.119 and provoking things that Poe had written about Griswold and 0:18:08.200 --> 0:18:12.200 his work over the years. But there's a beautiful sort 0:18:12.240 --> 0:18:16.240 of irony here, which is that the attacks that Griswold mounted, 0:18:16.320 --> 0:18:20.120 which he intended to turn people off of reading Pose works, 0:18:20.600 --> 0:18:24.760 actually had the opposite effects. People became very fascinated and 0:18:24.800 --> 0:18:28.160 started reading Poe even more after his death than when 0:18:28.200 --> 0:18:32.040 he was alive. I love it. The obituary was just 0:18:32.280 --> 0:18:36.000 at the beginning. With Po's death, Griswold became the well 0:18:36.119 --> 0:18:40.240 spring of pretty much all the misinformation about pose life 0:18:40.440 --> 0:18:43.760 from the eight hundred still today. And next, in his 0:18:43.840 --> 0:18:47.359 toxic campaign, he decided that he would write Pose memoirs. 0:18:47.920 --> 0:18:51.840 I always think about this in the selfish lens, and 0:18:51.920 --> 0:18:57.320 go who that hates me would write my And how 0:18:57.480 --> 0:19:01.560 badly would that go? Well? Would it sound like exactly? 0:19:03.840 --> 0:19:08.919 And it said that Poe had appointed his now literary rival, 0:19:09.440 --> 0:19:14.640 Griz Wald to be his literary executor. And that sounds weird, correct, 0:19:15.320 --> 0:19:18.679 but it also might have happened. Uh. It often seems 0:19:18.680 --> 0:19:21.359 when you read about their story that Griswold was really 0:19:21.400 --> 0:19:23.480 fuming all the time and Poe was kind of like, 0:19:23.960 --> 0:19:27.080 you're crabby, Like he didn't have the same iron return 0:19:27.119 --> 0:19:29.199 at all. I feel the same way. I feel like 0:19:29.280 --> 0:19:31.280 for Poe, he kind of like came and went out 0:19:31.280 --> 0:19:33.800 of the rivalry, and like Griswold was just in it 0:19:33.880 --> 0:19:38.080 all the time. Yes, because he was obsessed. Yes, So, 0:19:38.400 --> 0:19:40.399 like we said, this may have actually happened, that Poe 0:19:40.480 --> 0:19:43.639 chose Griswold to be his literary executor. It is actually 0:19:43.680 --> 0:19:47.920 likely that one of the following two things happened. So 0:19:47.960 --> 0:19:51.560 some historians think that yes, Poe did name Griswold to 0:19:51.560 --> 0:19:55.119 be his literary executor, probably during a time when the 0:19:55.160 --> 0:20:00.840 two were in a more civil relationship, um, which you know, possible. However, 0:20:01.560 --> 0:20:06.320 others believe it was more likely this scenario. Griswold probably 0:20:06.320 --> 0:20:09.240 convinced Poe's mother in law, a woman named Maria Clem 0:20:09.280 --> 0:20:12.560 after post death to sign away the rights to the 0:20:12.600 --> 0:20:16.720 author's works, promising her profits from the sales of the memoir, 0:20:16.920 --> 0:20:22.000 but Maria was never actually paid well. She was paid, 0:20:22.040 --> 0:20:25.000 but not as she expected to be. She received six 0:20:25.280 --> 0:20:29.240 sets of the two volumes of the memoir with a 0:20:29.320 --> 0:20:32.199 card that said that she could sell them and that 0:20:32.240 --> 0:20:38.000 would be her profits. What a peach it's come on now. 0:20:38.080 --> 0:20:41.199 With all of post literary papers, Griswold was able to 0:20:41.320 --> 0:20:44.280 take real events in post life and twist them to 0:20:44.320 --> 0:20:47.720 fit the character of Poe that he was creating. And 0:20:47.800 --> 0:20:50.840 he ended up creating what you've probably heard of before, 0:20:50.960 --> 0:20:53.800 kind of a mad genius version of po One where 0:20:53.800 --> 0:20:58.840 he became this poor, wandering madman with alcohol and opioid 0:20:58.880 --> 0:21:02.800 problems who talked to himself on the streets. And Griswold 0:21:02.880 --> 0:21:06.240 backed up his claims about Poe with quote unquote evidence, 0:21:06.440 --> 0:21:09.240 although most of that so called evidence has also been 0:21:09.320 --> 0:21:14.720 completely debunked. I would love to see that evidence. So 0:21:15.320 --> 0:21:19.560 when gris Wald edited and published an inaccurate collection of 0:21:19.600 --> 0:21:23.600 Poe's writings, in which he included a biographical piece entitled 0:21:23.640 --> 0:21:27.240 Memoir of the Author, as you men guess, it did 0:21:27.280 --> 0:21:31.560 not paint a good picture of Poe. Griswold made false 0:21:31.600 --> 0:21:34.359 claims about pose character, and it was this piece that 0:21:34.400 --> 0:21:37.840 would go on to seal the negative reputation. Griswold was 0:21:37.880 --> 0:21:40.679 trying to develop a Poe within the community, and it 0:21:40.760 --> 0:21:43.600 was starting to become how people thought of Poe. In 0:21:43.640 --> 0:21:46.800 the biography that Griswold wrote of Edgar Allan Poe, he 0:21:46.880 --> 0:21:50.640 also portrayed Poe is basically a conniving jerk who had 0:21:50.760 --> 0:21:53.640 conned a woman out of money and who spent most 0:21:53.720 --> 0:21:57.160 of his time drunk. But then Griswold actually took things 0:21:57.200 --> 0:22:00.760 to a new level. He made up passages and quotes 0:22:00.880 --> 0:22:04.560 from Pope posthumously. They were all quotes that gave high 0:22:04.600 --> 0:22:11.400 praise to Rufus. Griswald surprised, and they were. They were 0:22:11.440 --> 0:22:15.120 all attributed to Poe, so he claimed after the man's death, 0:22:15.160 --> 0:22:17.920 and in fact he was very complimentary of him. Right, 0:22:18.320 --> 0:22:23.840 he's a terrible person, but he loved me. Poe at 0:22:23.880 --> 0:22:26.520 this point was becoming a legend in the community. But 0:22:26.640 --> 0:22:30.240 his life still to this day is widely mischaracterized and 0:22:30.280 --> 0:22:34.800 his character has been distorted this whole time because of 0:22:34.840 --> 0:22:40.840 this one book. And while Poe was an obsessive rivalry 0:22:40.960 --> 0:22:44.600 for Griswald, that was not the only person that Rufus 0:22:44.600 --> 0:22:47.919 had some controversy with. You don't say he had a 0:22:47.920 --> 0:22:50.800 personality type. There were a lot of people that he 0:22:50.840 --> 0:22:53.359 had conflict with, but there are two that came up 0:22:53.359 --> 0:22:56.640 in the research that are really worth noting. Reverend Jule 0:22:56.720 --> 0:23:00.480 Healey and Griswald were working on books about George Washington 0:23:00.760 --> 0:23:04.639 at the same time, and through their interactions, he was 0:23:04.720 --> 0:23:08.920 angry and swore revenge. We don't know exactly what went down, 0:23:09.000 --> 0:23:13.159 but this is Grizzwald. He began calling grizz Wald and 0:23:13.440 --> 0:23:17.240 we quote such a liar that even his friends replied 0:23:17.280 --> 0:23:19.639 to his statements with the query, is that a grizz 0:23:19.680 --> 0:23:23.159 Wald or a fact? Which I would really like to 0:23:23.160 --> 0:23:27.479 make a comeback, Holly, I think we can do it 0:23:29.800 --> 0:23:31.679 day to day life. I'll have to explain it the 0:23:31.680 --> 0:23:37.320 first few times and then people will start to get it. Yeah. So, 0:23:38.119 --> 0:23:42.080 unlike Griswold's life longs talking of po this rivalry lasted 0:23:42.800 --> 0:23:46.720 only about a month, and unfortunately no one today says 0:23:47.040 --> 0:23:50.560 is that a griz Wald or is it a fact? Anyway? 0:23:50.640 --> 0:23:55.120 So nothing about this rival We're really stuck. It's kind 0:23:55.119 --> 0:23:57.600 of another like twist of the dagger that even an 0:23:57.600 --> 0:24:00.439 insult about him did not persist his story. Glee like 0:24:00.520 --> 0:24:05.240 You're not less in anyway, dude, right, I can't even stick. 0:24:05.560 --> 0:24:08.960 And Heatley was not the first person who butted heads 0:24:09.000 --> 0:24:12.280 with Griswold that year. A young woman named Elizabeth Ellett, 0:24:12.320 --> 0:24:15.880 who was well known among the high circles of literary society, 0:24:16.080 --> 0:24:18.840 proposed to Griswold that she could write a book about 0:24:18.840 --> 0:24:22.840 American revolutionary women, and he really liked the idea, so 0:24:22.880 --> 0:24:25.679 he agreed, and he also agreed that she can have 0:24:25.800 --> 0:24:30.120 access to his private library. But she committed the terrible, 0:24:30.320 --> 0:24:33.560 terrible faux pa of never thanking him for letting her 0:24:33.640 --> 0:24:39.639 have that research access. Bless her soul. This bruised Griswold zego, 0:24:39.960 --> 0:24:44.320 and he found the oversight completely insulting, and Elizabeth Ellett 0:24:44.400 --> 0:24:47.879 essentially became dead to him at that point. Rufus just can't. 0:24:50.400 --> 0:24:55.160 Rufus just can't. It's gonna be my reaction to anything 0:24:55.200 --> 0:24:57.920 that I don't want to deal with. I'm sorry, Rufus 0:24:58.000 --> 0:25:08.000 just can't. Good So okay. During the years between Poe's 0:25:08.119 --> 0:25:12.959 death and his own, gris Wald published numerous poems and anthologies, 0:25:13.000 --> 0:25:16.119 as well as sermons and editorial pieces, and none of 0:25:16.119 --> 0:25:19.560 them had anything to do with Poe. Among His most 0:25:19.600 --> 0:25:23.160 notable works are the Poets and Poetry of America, which 0:25:23.160 --> 0:25:26.000 we talked about earlier, the Poets and Poetry of England, 0:25:26.040 --> 0:25:29.159 and a poem that was called Five Days, which was 0:25:29.200 --> 0:25:32.959 written for his first wife Caroline. After her death, Griswold 0:25:33.000 --> 0:25:35.800 continued to work on anthologies right up until his death 0:25:35.800 --> 0:25:41.359 by tuberculosis on August seven. And when Griswold died, there 0:25:41.359 --> 0:25:44.119 are stories that there was a portrait of Poe hanging 0:25:44.240 --> 0:25:47.280 on the wall in his hallway. This was the only 0:25:47.359 --> 0:25:52.240 portrait that Poever sat for, and Griswold had stolen it. Listen, 0:25:52.320 --> 0:25:54.719 you might maybe use the word con as a more 0:25:54.760 --> 0:25:59.920 appropriate discussion, but basically he had gotten met somehow from Poe, 0:26:00.040 --> 0:26:03.439 his mother in law, the same exact woman who he 0:26:03.480 --> 0:26:05.679 had kind of conned into signing away the rights to 0:26:05.720 --> 0:26:10.919 pose works. Yeah, she should stop talking to him, But 0:26:11.040 --> 0:26:14.680 I love the idea that it was a portrait on 0:26:14.720 --> 0:26:17.760 the wall in the hallway. Um, he hated him so much, 0:26:17.800 --> 0:26:24.120 he looked at him every single day. So we have Griswold, 0:26:24.200 --> 0:26:26.400 and he has died, And just a few years after 0:26:26.480 --> 0:26:30.600 his death, a woman named Sarah Helen Whitman, posed former fiance, 0:26:31.200 --> 0:26:36.040 published her own biography of Poe. Several other authors, editors, 0:26:36.160 --> 0:26:39.159 and poets followed with their own written defensive po and 0:26:39.240 --> 0:26:42.560 these versions, most of them, at least, if not all 0:26:42.600 --> 0:26:45.080 of them, portrayed Po in a much better light than 0:26:45.119 --> 0:26:48.600 Griswold ever had, And while they were unable to set 0:26:48.600 --> 0:26:52.880