That Motley Drama

In case you missed the news, a "newly-discovered" MS. of "The Conqueror Worm" sold for $300,000 at auction the other day--before it had even been authenticated.

Considering the really quite frightening number of Poe forgeries (many still undetected) out there, this seems like quite a financial gamble.  I have to admit, it would amuse the hell out of me if this turned out to be another example of Charles Hamilton's Law.

But then, I'm evil.

I'll update this post if and when the manuscript is fully vetted.

P.S. Anyone else remember this little debacle, described here by the Poe Society of Baltimore?

That "New" Poe Portrait

Evidently, this spring Cowan's will be auctioning off that watercolor portrait of Poe that was recently unveiled to the world. I will be--to paraphrase P. G. Wodehouse--watching this painting's future career with great interest. I am curious to discover--and, honestly, I'm not being snide, I genuinely want to know--how they can definitively authenticate a painting that has no known history before 1978. And that looks like it was whipped up by a nine-year-old using a paint-by-numbers kit.

OK, there I was being snide.

See you next week, my friends, when I am planning a post that I assure you will be snide beyond all previous imagining. Hope you like it.

OK, Who's the Big Spender?

The current big Edgar Allan Poe news is, of course, that auction held at Christie's yesterday. For those of you who failed to cough up the cash, I can inform you that a "Tamerlane" sold for over $660,000 and a manuscript copy of "For Annie" went for--I kid you not--more than $830,000.

Speaking of that manuscript--so help me, when I read about this auction, my first thought was, "It'd be a grand joke on everyone if this turns out to be another Joseph Cosey production, wouldn't it?"