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'THE GIFT'
THE GIFT is an American annual of great typographical excellence, and
embellished with many beautiful engravings. It contains an article
which, for several reasons, appears to us so remarkable, that we leave
aside several effusions of our ordinary contributors to make room for an
abridgment oj it. [Italics supplied.] The writer, Mr. Edgar A, Foe, is
evidently an acute observer of mental phenomena; and we have him to
thank for one of the aptest illustrations which could well be conceived,
of that curious play of two minds, in which one person, let us call him
A., guesses what another, B., will do, judging that B. will adopt a
particular line of policy to circumvent A. [Poe:s "article" then
follows, with its title in smaller type.]
Certainly this unequivocal language would seem to dispose for all time
of the question of priority. Yet within the present decade a London
private press has had the effrontery to reprint the Chambers' abridgment
as a veritable reproduction of the "first publication" of the
story—significantly omitting the introductory paragraph l (This precious
bit of srj.uriosa even misquotes the source of its "find": ascribing the
story to "Chambers' Edinburgh Magazine, November, 1844.") Still more
puzzling is the passive support which has been given to the same fallacy
by several first-rank American Poe-scholars, when a little obvious if
tedious spade-work to ascertain the publication date of The Gift would
have removed any conceivable doubts left by the language of the
Chambers' note. The qualified authorities having neglected this duty, it
falls to the present writer to report that The Gift: 1845 was ."noticed"
in at least one American magazine (the Democratic Review} as early as
September, 1844; that on October 4, 1844, the New York Tribune honored
it with a laudatory first-page review more than a column in length; and
that its publication was chronicled in autumnal issues of virtually all
the leading American periodicals, among them the Knickerbocker,
Peterson's, Graham's, and Godey's, all published many week" before the
transatlantic readers of Chambers' were digesting their abridgment on
November 3oth. On the basis of these incontestable facts, it may now be
stated for the first time beyond any reasonable doubt that the
Philadelphia publication of "The Purloined Letter" preceded the
Edinburgh condensation by approximately two months.*
Bibliography aside, this third detective story of Poe's is far and away
the most satisfying, structurally and aesthetically, of the trio. It is
simpler, shorter, more compact, more certain of itself than the earlier
two. Its quiet superiority appears from the moment it begins. Here is no
delayed approach to the subject. A few lines suffice to set the stage,
and more plausibly, more naturally than before. DUPIN and his companion
sit in their book-closet, au troisieme (as Poe wrote it), No. 33, Rue
Dunot, Faubourg St. Germain, "enjoying the two-fold luxury of meditation
and a meerschaum." (How miraculously near is Baker Street!) Almost
immediately Prefect G—— enters. The give-and-take of. normal
conversation replaces the stiff press-cuttings of the earlier tales in
revealing the essential facts of the problem. (That is, in the American
original. The Chambers' abridgment has been squeezed almost as bloodless
as "Marie Roget.") DUPIN and the Prefect end their colloquy and the
latter goes
* For a more extended consideration of this matter,
together with some additional points of technical interest, the
bibliographically inclined reader is referred to the special Appendix at
the end of this volume.
his way. A month later he returns. DUPIN hands him the
letter and revels in his open-rnouthed astonishment. Du-PIN'S
explanation to his bewildered comrade follows. A little too detailed,
perhaps, for modern tastes ("a Htth too self-evident"), it is
nonetheless a true manual of detective logic. The conclusion, moreover,
has a mellow touch of humor and humanity lacking in the previous
stories. We discover a reluctant fondness for the originally glacial
Chevalier as he thaws to mortal vanity and malice for the first time.
To be completely fair, however, we must admit that the tale contains
also the one serious logical flaw committed by Foe in the series. As a
number of writers have pointed out, DUPIN could not possibly have seen
at one and the same time (as he claimed he did) both the seal and the
address, that is to say both the front and back, of the letter. Even
apart from this, the minuteness of his observations—seated as he was
across the room, and peering through green spectacles—bespeaks surely
one of the most remarkable visions ever recorded!
Our test must serve once more. This time the odds favor the author.
Almost every one who has ever read the story can recall something of
both essential phases— detection and event. Almost all readers remember
Du-PIN'S deduction that the letter was hidden by not being hidden at all
(still a favorite gambit of the craft); and his ruse of the staged
street disturbance to acquire the document (a plot-device directly
appropriated by Conan Doyle half a century later in "A Scandal in
Bohemia").
Here, at last, we have the balanced type—the detective story at its
best.
Few American authors have undergone such minute
inspection and dissection at the hands of scholarship as has Poe. Yet
the literary scalpel-wielders have been strangely neglectful of the
sources of his detective fiction. Aside from the obvious identifications
of "Marie Roget," only a few minor "points" have been established. In
Pauline Dubourg, the laundress of "The Murders in the Rue Morgue,"
Hervey Alien (that most readable of Poe biographers) has discovered the
name of the maiden-proprietresses of the boarding-school which Poe
attended during his boyhood stay in England. (But no one seems to have
noted the further occurrence of a Rue Dubourg in the latter part of the
tale: a repetition so foreign to Poe's usual meticulous workmanship as
to suggest a concealed significance.) And some scholars contend that the
episode of the escaped orang-outang in the same story grew out of a
contemporary incident reported in American newspapers, while others
believe that Poe drew on similar, material in Scott's Count Robert of
Paris. But one scans the academic journals in vain for light on so
intriguing a problem—for example—as the origin of the first fictional
detective's name. (Concerning DUPIN'S person there is no mystery. Unless
all perception fails, he can be only Poe's mental self-portrait of the
moment in French dress.)
How did Poe come to name his hero DUPIN? The question may never be
finally answered, but the author left at least one important clue when
he described his Chevalier as "of an excellent, indeed of an illustrious
family." For the name Dupin has in truth been a notable one in French
history. The reader may, if he chooses, discover in the standard French
encyclopedias no less than twelve prominent real-life Dupins dating
from- the fourteenth century to Poe's own years; including several of
the presumptive ancestors of George Sand—born herself, a trifle
dubiously perhaps, to the now. Of this substantial number of eminent
flesh-and-blood bearers of the name, two were even more outstanding
than- the rest. Both were, suggestively, contemporaries of Poe.
Furthermore, they were brothers: Andre Marie Jean Jacques (1783-1865)
and Francois Charles Pierre (1784-1873). Andre", the elder, was a
statesman of ministerial rank who held the office of Procureur-General
and other high governmental posts for the better part of a generation
despite turbulent changes of party and dynasty: a feat which called for
no slight degree of political agility—to employ the kindest phrase. As
President of the Chamber of Deputies from 1832 to 1840 he was at the
pinnacle of hi& career and consequently prominent in the native and
foreign prints during the years immediately preceding Poe's creation of
his fictional hero. Besides, Andre Dupin was a prolific writer on a
variety of subjects: among them, French criminal procedure. Several of
his works were translated into English; one translation, in fact, was
published in Boston in 1839. That his name was familiar to Poe can
hardly be doubted. The younger brother (commonly called Charles) was a
noted mathematician and economist who also held public office from time
to time and was created a baron for his services. His was an even more
versatile pen than Andre's, and he was known to the English-speaking
world through numerous translations covering a wide range of topics.
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