tinguished men and women who delighted in drawing about them the litterateurs of the day. Poe was the centre of these circles, his charm of manner and rare conversational powers winning general admiration. Mrs. Whitman through letters from New York friends gives charming pictures of him in these salons. One writes: "To hear him repeat 'The Raven' which he does very quietly, is an event in one's life. . . . . His smile is captivating!"
Poe's fame was now assured. In France public attention was first directed to his stories through a controversy between rival journals as to the authorship of "The Murders in the Rue Morgue." The plagiarism of the newspapers being exposed, and Poe acknowledged as the writer, "his best tales were translated by Mme. Isabelle Mennier."[1] From all this he received only the acclamations of those who became the members of his school, among them notably Gauthier and Baudelaire. In England his mesmeric studies excited profound interest. "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar" was published in pamphlet form by Short & Co., of London, 1846, under the title of "Mesmerism in Articulo Mortis," accompanied by press notices showing that it was accepted as a statement of events actually occurring.
"The Literati" naturally aroused some resentment, but no expression of this was voiced until Thomas Dunn Brown (English) was filled with so deep a sense of injury that he published a venomous and libelous reply. Poe sued him for defamation of character and received a verdict of damages of $225. In the spring of 1846, while the
- ↑ Eugene L. Didier: "The Poe Cult." 1909.
