CHAPTER XVIII 



FORDHAM MANOR 



Edgar Allan Poe and His Cottage at Fordham, Where He Won a Niche in 

 th<: Hall of Fame That He had Not Dreamed of — Frederick Philipse 

 Whose Ships Brought Fortunes to These Shores. 



HE Poe Cottage in Fordham has been the 

 shrine for many a pilgrimage. Edgar 

 Allan Poe was born in Boston, January 19, 

 1809, and died forty years later in Balti- 

 more. While he was one of the most tal- 

 ented and original literary geniuses, he was also 

 |§! one of the most unfortunate of men, and his 

 whole life was a struggle with want and poverty. 

 He was a man of varied moods, and gifted with 

 an extraordinary imagination. His writings have 

 been reproduced in many languages, yet his work 

 met with poor compensation. For "The Raven," which has been 

 read and recited wherever the English language is spoken, he 

 received the sum of ten dollars. This justly celebrated poem was 

 written at the old Brennan House on Riverside Drive, near West 

 Eighty-eighth Street, Manhattan. 



It was in the little cottage at Fordham, where he lived from 

 1845 to 1849, that he produced some of his literary gems, and 



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