Autograph In The Rue Morgue: A Tell-Tale Poe Forgery

By Stephen J. Gertz

The signature in question.

Poe used two styles of handwriting, a fluent script in his letters to intimate friends, and a painstakingly legible hand in his formal letters and the manuscripts he prepared for publication. Poe's is the most avidly sought of American literary autographs. Anything in his hand, signed or unsigned, commands an awe-inspiring price (Charles Hamilton, Collecting Autographs and Manuscripts, p. 116).

Hamilton's samples.

It was Pavlov's dog-time when a beautifully rebound first edition copy of Poe's Tales (1845) landed on my desk with a breathtaking slip tipped-in to one of the preliminary blanks.

The slip was addressed, To Col. Richard B. Mason / Holmes Island / Lustrins Calf., and signed, in the lower left corner, From Edgar A. Poe.

Mother of Mercy!

Then I looked closely and my salivary glands withered like grapes into raisins.

The tipped-in slip.

First, the hand that wrote the signature and that which addressed the slip are completely different, beyond those variations noted by Hamilton. The address bears little if any resemblance to samples of Poe's casual or formal penmanship. Poe did not write that address.

Authenticated examples of Poe's signature.
Note informal style at center. Courtesy of TomFolio.

Furthermore, it makes no sense that, if Poe had written the address, he would have used his formal and painstakingly written signature as sender. He would have likely used his informal autograph as seen above at center. Note, too, that, based upon authentic samples, when Poe wrote his formal signature he invariably added a final, usually decorative, underline. That flourish is absent from this formal autograph.

Authentic Poe letter.
Courtesy of Bauman's Rare Books.

But more than the general differences in handwriting, the weird mix of formal and informal styles on the same slip, and the absence of an underscore to the signature, there is a nearly invisible sign that this autograph was obviously monkeyed with. The lower left corner of the slip upon which  the Poe autograph is found has been washed. It is not obvious unless viewed at the proper angle in the right light. When the slip was recently photographed it was lit so that the washing would be apparent.

Detail of signature from above letter.

This copy of Tales was rebound c. 1920s by Curtis Walters of New York. That approximate date of rebinding, when the slip was likely tipped-in, provides a tantalizing possibility about the origin of this forgery. It suggests that it was the work of Martin Coneely, aka Joseph Cosey (1887-?1950).

Joseph Cosey.

At some point during the early 1920s Cosey visited the Library of Congress and stole a pay warrant signed by Benjamin Franklin dated 1786. Shortly thereafter and broke, he attempted to sell the document to a dealer. The dealer rejected it, claiming it to be a fake. Indignant, Cosey went home and carefully, after studying examples, forged Abraham Lincoln's signature and presented it to the same dealer, who bought it. Cosey felt triumphant.

Franklin, Lincoln, and Poe became his favorite subjects; Cosey had a deep affection for Poe's work. Cosey was good, very, very good. He used period ink, paper, and writing instruments. It is known that he used modern chemicals to treat paper when necessary.

I strongly suspect that this example of Poe's signature to this addressed slip was the work of Cosey, perhaps an early exercise at a time when Poe autograph and manuscript material was hot (it still is),  he was beginning to experiment with paper-treating chemicals, and curious about what he could get away with. 

Part of Cosey's genius was that when he offered his work he never claimed it to be authentic; he left it up to the buyer to decide. If the work was subsequently judged to be faked he was in the clear; it was the dealers who erred in their evaluation. I imagine that he offered this early exercise as a test to see if it would fly. It, apparently, did. At the time the unknown duped buyer (perhaps Walters, or the bookseller or collector who commissioned the binding) purchased it autograph and manuscript forensics were in adolescence, few dealers had deep experience with Poe autograph material (there was not much genuine material recorded at the time - nor now), and the quest for Poe material likely blinded those involved to err on the side of hope.

Authenticated Poe addressed envelope.

All forgers have a "tell,' something that gives them away. For Cosey, it was the simple fact that signatures evolve over time. He was appending Franklin autographs forged from samples from early in Franklin's life to documents written later when Franklin's handwriting had deteriorated. His Lincoln forgeries were revealed by "A. Lincoln" being on the same plane; genuine Lincoln signatures have "Lincoln" slightly raised above the initial "A."

Authentic Poe manuscript sample.Courtesy of Cornell University.

In the hierarchy of autograph material an author's direct signature to one their books is valued higher than a tipped-in envelope with autograph. A tipped-in "clipped" signature (the autograph excised from an original document) is valued even lower. If this tipped-in slip with autograph had been authentic it would have likely added at least $5,000 to the book. As it turns out, because of his notoriety, skill, and chutzpah, Coesy forgeries have become collectible in their own right. There remain samples not yet firmly identified, and this may be one of them.

If it can be firmly attributed to Cosey it may add $500-$750 to the book's market value.

At this point, however, what we have is a very interesting and lovely first edition of Poe's Tales with an obviously fake autograph, one that may be significant as an early example in the development of a notorious master forger.

It's certainly not the story I hoped for when I first laid eyes upon this copy of Poe's Tales. But it's still a pretty good one, a latter-day Poe tale of mystery and imagination.

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Scarce Poe First Editions Exhumed From Premature Burial at Sotheby's Sale

by Stephen J. Gertz

The strange, sentient waters that pass through literature's eerie canal bring news of Edgar Allan Poe and scarce and spectacular Poe first editions coming soon to auction via Sotheby's-New York Library of an English Bibliophile Part II sale, October 20, 2011. Their rarity, condition, and estimated prices will leave your tell-tale heart beating long after you've died from shock; the chances of seeing similar copies of these books within our lifetime are slim and nevermore. These are insanely rare books and highly desirable.

Estimate: $200,000-$250,000.

"Here begins the detective story" (Grolier American 100).

"...the first important book of detective stories, the first and the greatest, the cornerstone of cornerstones, the highest of all high-spots..." (Queen's Quorum).

A first edition, first printing, first issue of Poe's Tales (1845) in the original wrappers is the first star to shine. In miraculous condition, it is estimated to sell for $200,000 - $250,000. It's the pits when the pendulum swings so high but copies in this condition are beyond scarce. The Behrman copy, the last to come even close, exhibited loss at head of spine, an old repair along the front joint, the rear joint was partly split, it showed some soiling, possessed a chip to the upper blank margin of the Contents leaf, with pages 57-64 displaying a few chips from careless opening, sold at Christie's New York, June 12, 2008 for $110,000. Condition, the imp of the perverse in book collecting, remains everything. The serious and seriously monied Poe collector is sure to be bitten by the gold bug.

Tales was originally issued in a print run of at least 1500 copies but in three variants (bound in cloth, wrappers, and bound together with The Raven and Other Poems) so it is difficult to ascertain just how many copies in wrappers were originally released. What we do know is that there are perhaps only six copies in the full original wrappers extant. This, the Litchfield copy, appears to be the best surviving copy. The last time it came to auction was in 1990 when it sold at Sotheby's for a mere $45,000. What a difference twenty-one years makes.

Upon its original publication it sold for 50¢. What a difference 166 years makes. Poe's royalty was 8¢ per copy in whichever format. He earned at least $120 but probably not much more. Not much difference 166 years makes to the average writer today.

Estimate: $140,000 - $180,000.

"The most important volume of poetry that had been issued up until that time in America" (Allen).

The Raven "made Poe's name known both in America and England and brought him an immortality that by no other means could he have attained...[and it] gave him fame as a poet such as no other American had received" (Robertson).

A first edition, first printing, in wrappers of The Raven and Other Poems (1845) flies into the sale room and perches at an estimated $140,000 - $180,000. It, too, is in miraculous condition. "It is one of the American books of the period most difficult to find with the wrappers intact" (Heartman and Canny). The William E. Self copy, it was last seen at Christie's-New York, December 4, 2009, where it sold for $150,000. It, too, appears to be the finest copy extant.

The original edition (again with variants in cloth, and bound together with Tales) was intended to be only 750 copies "but almost immediately a much larger number of copies was issued" (Heartman and Canny).

It originally sold for 31¢.

Estimate: $30,000 - $40,000.

A splendid first edition of Poe's first collection of stories, Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque (1840), one of 750 sets originally issued, represents another descent into the maelstrom of the auction room at an estimated $30,000 - $40,000. This groundbreaking volume contains the masterpieces, The Fall of the House of Usher, Ligeia, and Ms. Found in a Bottle.

"These volumes mark the culmination of Poe's effort, beginning as early as 1834, to get his prose tales into volume form. It was a milestone in his career as a prose writer but was a failure commercially" (Heartman and Canny). "This edition was not exhausted during Poe's lifetime. Copies have been found carrying a title-page dated as late as 1849. Evidently they were issued only as sold" (Robertson).

This copy bears a vintage bookseller's ticket from Books Inc. of San Francisco on the lower pastedown endpaper of volume one. A price of $115 is written in.

Other notable Poe firsts at this Sotheby's sale include the first English edition of The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym (1838), estimated at $3,000 - $5,000; the first appearance of The Raven, in The American Review (Feb. 1845), estimated at $8,000 - $12,000; and a copy of Tales (second printing) bound with The Raven... (second American issue) released in 1846, estimated to sell for $20,000 - $30,000.

Sotheby's Library of an English Bibliophile Sale Part II is the first ripe book auction of the Fall season, with many other notable volumes featured. Booktryst will talk about a few other incredible first editions in the English Bibliophile's library prior to the sale.

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POE, Edgar Allan. Tales. New York: Wiley and Putnam, 1845. First edition, first printing (with Ludwig's imprint on the copyright page), first issue (with the New York imprint). Octavo (189 x 127 mm). [Initial blank leaf]; [i, half-title, [ii, blank], [iii, title-page], [iv, copyright], [v, Contents], [vi, blank],  228, [4, advertisements], [4, publisher's advertisements], xii pp. Original publisher's printed wrappers. Scattered foxing, slightly stained, spine split, split on upper cover near spine skillfully repaired. Housed in a brown buckram chemise within a red morocco slipcase. The Litchfield copy.

BAL 16146. Grolier American 55. Heartman and Canny (1943), pp. 90-97. Queen's Quorum 1. Robertson pp. 51-52. 

POE, Edgar Allan. The Raven and Other Poems. New York: Wiley and Putnam, 1845. First edition, first printing. Octavo (189 x 135 mm). [i, half-title], [ii, blank], [iii, title-page], [iv, copyright notice with imprint of T.B. Smith, Stereotyper / 216 William Street], [v, Dedication], [vi, blank], [vii, Preface], [viii, TOC], 91, [4, advertisements] pp. Original publisher's printed wrappers. Miinor foxing to a few leaves, wrappers with a few tears at spine edges, minor edge wear. Housed in a chemise within a half blue morocco slipcase.

BAL 16147. Heartman and Canny pp.. 97-108. Robertson (1934), pp. 53-54. Allen, Isafel 667.

POE, Edgar Allan. Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque. Philadelphia: Lea and Blanchard, 1840. First edition of the author's first collection of stories, with intermediate state of quire 20 in  volume two, correct pagination of p. 213, and with the displaced i and hyphen on p. 219. Two twelvemo volumes (195 x 115 mm). 244, [4, adv.] pp; 228. Publisher's purple cloth, printed paper spine labels. Occasional light foxing, some very light damp-staining in upper margins of second half text block to volume two, spines uniformly faded to warm brown. Housed in matching chemises within full crimson buckram clamshell box.

BAL 16133, Heartman and Canny, pp. 49-54. Roberson (1934), pp. 46-49.
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Images courtesy of Sotheby's, with our thanks.
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Poe's Tales of Terror Inspire A Royal Exhibit

By Nancy Mattoon

Ivor Abrahams.
Masque of The Red Death.
Print on Paper From The E.A. Poe Series, 1976.
(All Images Courtesy of Royal Academy of Arts.)

Two portfolios of prints, inspired by Edgar Allan Poe's chilling and melancholy tales and Edmund Burke's study of the aesthetics of passion and terror, make up a fascinating new exhibition at London's Royal Academy of Arts. Ivor Abrahams: Mystery and Imagination, brings together, for the first time, two sets of screenprints completed in the 1970's, and considered to be among the finest works created during "the golden age of printmaking in Britain." Abrahams created the two groups of works on paper in response to Poe's definition of art as "the reproduction of what the senses perceive in Nature through the veil of the soul," and Burke's thesis that pleasure and pain form the emotional and psychological underpinning of all fine art.

Ivor Abrahams.
Untitled Print On Paper From:
15 Lithographs To Edmund Burke, 1979.

Ivor Abrahams is primarily a sculptor, and many of his prints have the depth and magnitude of sculptures. His works are almost always figurative, rather than abstract. According to the Tate Modern, "Portions of buildings, gardens, domestic interiors and people - usually active - inhabit [Abrahams'] works that are fundamentally collages. These are built of photographic images that are cut, altered, painted over and turned into three-dimensional form." Contemporary advertising, especially signs and placards, hold a fascination for Abrahams, and as a struggling artist he once took a job creating shop window mannequins and displays for Adel Rootstein.

Ivor Abrahams.
Untitled Print On Paper From:
15 Lithographs To Edmund Burke, 1979.

Many of the images used in Abrahams' prints are taken from photographs in inexpensive magazines, such as the weekly publication, Amateur Gardening. Less frequently, he appropriated and altered high quality illustrations found in glossy periodicals from the 1920's, such as Country Life. This use of second-hand source material links much of his printed work to the Pop Art movement. Abrahams has donated much of the source material for his printmaking, including magazine clippings, photographs, sketches, and acetate stencils, to the Tate Gallery Archive.

Ivor Abrahams.
The Domain of Arnheim.
Print on Paper From The E.A. Poe Series, 1976.

The history of the Edgar Allan Poe portfolio is especially interesting to book collectors and readers. In late 1973, Abrahams was commissioned by famed New York City gallery owner Bernard Jacobson to illustrate a volume of selected tales and poems by Edgar Allan Poe. The book was to be published as a fine press, limited, signed, and numbered edition of 500 copies, with sixteen illustrations within the text, and four loose prints per volume. It took two years for Abrahams to complete the final collection of twenty prints for publication. Jacobson exhibited the prints in 1976, and announced the impending publication of the book at the show's opening.

Ivor Abrahams.
The Raven.
Print on Paper From The E.A. Poe Series, 1976.

Abrahams had admired Poe's writings since he was a teenager. For the fine press book, he chose to illustrate those stories or poems he felt he "could put an image to." Some were among Poe's most well-known works, such as The Raven. Others were much more obscure, and he commented that he "had a difficult time finding a truly complete edition of Poe's writings." The edition he finally worked from was the three-volume Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe, edited by Thomas Ollive Mabbott. (The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1969-1978.)

Ivor Abrahams.
A Dream Within A Dream.
Print on Paper From The E.A. Poe Series, 1976.

Noted British art-historian Norbert Lynton created an extended essay on Abrahams' illustrations intended as a preface for the book. In it he wrote, "I suspect that Poe's popularity through text, illustrations and films is part of his attraction for Abrahams. Yet, unlike all the films and most of the illustrations, his images show little desire to profit from the more thrilling aspects of Poe... Abrahams un-Hollywoods Poe but uses some of Hollywood's tricks to do so. His other means are astonishingly un-period, un-hagiographic, ahistorical - in short, devoid of nostalgia. He is a plastic artist, a sculptor whose primary means of expression are form and interval. His images show a marked response to the constructive artist in Poe and much less attachment to the incidents that others focused on."

Ivor Abrahams.
Ligeia .
Print on Paper From The E.A. Poe Series, 1976.

In what can only be seen as a tremendous missed opportunity, the planned limited edition of the works of Poe as illustrated by Abrahams was never published due to logistical and financial difficulties. A portfolio of the prints was produced, and it contained a few excerpts from Lynton's essay. In what seems to be the finally indignity related to the project, the manuscript of Norbert Lynton's essay has been lost, so only the brief passages of it included in the portfolio remain.

Ivor Abrahams.
The Conqueror Worm.
Print on Paper From The E.A. Poe Series, 1976.

Ivor Abrahams: Mystery and Imagination,The ‘Edgar Allan Poe’ and ‘Edmund Burke’ Print Portfolios, continues through May 22, 2011 at the Tennant Gallery of the Royal Academy of Arts.

Ivor Abrahams.
Silence, A Fable.
Print on Paper From The E.A. Poe Series, 1976.

Specifics of the published Poe portfolio:

Abrahams, Ivor.
E.A. Poe: Tales and Poems.
New York: Bernard Jacobson Ltd., 1976.
Portfolio of twenty screenprints, some with embossing and/or varnish, various sizes, on wove Crisbrook paper 495 × 362 (19 1/2 × 14 1/4); printed by Bernard Culls at Advanced Graphics and published by Bernard Jacobson Ltd in an edition of 100 plus 10 sets of artist's proofs, each inscribed ‘Ivor Abrahams 76’ below image...each stamped with the printer's stamp ‘ADVANCED GRAPHICS LONDON’ in circular device.

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City Of Brotherly Love Can You Spare A Dime? Philly Free Library To Close?

In a previous post Seattle Public Library's one week closure was noted as an example of the consequences of the desperate financial straits public libraries now face. But in a much more shocking development, the Free Library of Philadelphia's website now features a pop-up window telling visitors that it will close completely, forever on October 2, 2009 unless funding is forthcoming from the Pennsylvania State Legislature.

The Free Library of Philadelphia was established in 1891. By 1898 the Library had the largest circulating collection in the world, 1,778,387 volumes. The Central Library, originally housed in Philadelphia's City Hall, was relocated and renamed The Parkway Central Library when it opened in its present location on June 2, 1927.

The library is renowned for its Fine Art Prints and Photographs Collection. This archive includes thousands of graphic arts images dating from 1493 to the present. Included are prints by such artists as Dürer, Rembrandt, Warhol and Dali, as well as works by such photographers as Ansel Adams, Bernice Abbott, Ray Metzker, Eadweard Muybridge and Aaron Siskind.

The Free Library is also home to a bona fide literary celebrity. Charles Dickens' pet raven, Grip, stuffed upon his death in 1841, has had the bird's eye view of the place since it opened its doors. This famous raven must now be singing in chorus with the celebrated bird of Edgar Allan Poe, wondering if his home is soon to be "nevermore."

The closure, if implemented, will end all of the Free Library of Philadelphia's services. The library's website notes the following cuts:

•All Parkway Central Library programs, including children programs, programs to support small businesses and job seekers, computer classes and after school programs, will be canceled. We are exploring the possibility of relocating the Philadelphia Author Series programs to other non-library facilities.

•All community meetings at our branch and regional libraries, and the Park Centrail Library will be canceled.

Clearly a drastic and simply unacceptable scenario for the City of Brotherly Love. One can only hope that Pennsylvania's lawmakers are as watchful as Grip, and will see their way clear to supply the funds the Free Library of Philadelphia needs to stay aloft.

Posted by Nancy Mattoon

Playwright Puts The "Poe" In Poetry

The year 2009 marks the bicentennial of the birth of America's unrivaled genius of the Gothic horror genre, poet and short story writer Edgar Allan Poe. Angelenos, and those planning a visit to the City of Angels in the coming weeks, may mark the two-hundredth swing of Poe's pendulum by attending a performance of Nevermore, a one-man show now in a limited engagement at the Steve Allen Theater in Hollywood.

The play, written by Hunter College literature professor Dennis Paoli, is framed as an evening's lecture circuit reading by the Bard of Baltimore. Present among the listeners is one especially dear to Edgar Allan's tell-tale heart, Mrs. Sarah Helen Whitman. As the play opens, Mrs. Whitman is poised to become Poe's second wife. (The first having been his doomed cousin, Virginia, wed to the poet at age 13 and buried a scant 11 years later.)

Alas, despite the fact that the wedding of Mrs. Whitman and Poe came so close to happening that at least one newspaper published an announcement celebrating the marriage and wishing the couple happiness, the nuptials were never(more) to be. As Mrs. Whitman whiled away a pleasant afternoon at the library, she became the recipient of an anonymous letter detailing Poe's violation of a vow to abstain from alcohol, as well as rumors of his very recent courtships of two other sweethearts. Needless to say the honeymoon was over before it began.

Nevermore dramatizes all too painfully the shattering blow Mrs. Whitman's rejection inflicted on Poe's already fragile psyche. Less than a year after the broken engagement Poe was dead. The circumstances of his demise remain hauntingly mysterious to this day, variously ascribed to suicide, drug overdose, alcoholism, or a litany of diseases.

And one last enticement. Whether as a tribute to Poe's perpetual penury, or a sign of our own battles with depression of the financial variety, tickets to Nevermore are priced at a paltry ten bucks.

Posted by Nancy Mattoon

Edgar Allan Poe Lights Up the Ransom Center

Break out a cask of amontillado and let the pale sherry flow. Fans of Edgar Allan Poe are in for a treat this year, the bicentennial of the American poet, critic and inventor of the detective story’s birth.

The Harry Ransom Center, the humanities research library and museum at The University of Texas at Austin, is commemorating the two-hundreth birthday of Poe with the exhibition From Out That Shadow: The Life and Legacy of Edgar Allan Poe.

The exhibition is based upon the extensive holdings of the Ransom Center and the Harrison Institute/ Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library at the University of Virginia, and includes additional materials from the Free Library of Philadelphia and other museums.

The exhibition is on display at the Ransom Center Sept. 8, 2009, through Jan. 4, 2010.

As noted on the Ransom Center’s website, the exhibit features “manuscripts, books, art and personal effects, many of them displayed for the first time, documenting Poe's career as a writer, his romantic relationships and mysterious death, the decline and rehabilitation of his literary reputation and his profound influence on mystery and detective fiction and other genres.”

For the weak and weary on midnights dreary, this exhibit should strengthen, energize, and part the clouds of doom. It might even bring a smile to Poe's ghost and make that tell-tale heart of his swell with pride. But let's not push it; the man was seriously depressed. It'd be like asking Schopenhauer to be optimistic; it ain't goin' to happen.

Question: if Poe were alive today would he take Prozac? I suspect he'd pass on the prescription, afraid it might blunt the edge of death, knife of gloom attitude his work depended upon.
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