End of ADS-L Digest - 14 Dec 1997 to 15 Dec 1997
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Subject: ADS-L Digest - 15 Dec 1997 to 16 Dec 1997

There are 18 messages totalling 535 lines in this issue.

Topics of the day:

 1. The Raven
 2. Sand Nigger
 3. The ephemeral Mudville (2)
 4. "sand nigger" + similar (2)
 5. sportswriters' disease (2)
 6. RE>Re: sportswriters' disease (2)
 7. American Tongues (again)
 8. sand nigger (2)
 9. P.S. (Re dialect videos) (3)
 10. "Mudville" Update (2)

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Date:  Tue, 16 Dec 1997 01:13:25 EST
From:  Bapopik <Bapopik[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]AOL.COM>
Subject: The Raven

   Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven" is perhaps the most celebrated American
poem. It's long been known that Poe "copied" or "borrowed" from other works.
I've identified two previously unknown pre-Poe "Raven" ravens. I found the
second, more important one today.
   A different poem called "The Raven" appeared in the February 1839 (I may
have the month wrong) CORSAIR. Poe probably read the CORSAIR, because the
editor was his friend, N. P. Willis. Willis later edited the New York Mirror,
where Poe's "The Raven" was printed on 29 January 1845.
  I think Poe's vasted overrated now (a "language maven" titled a book after
the poem, and there's even a football team called the Baltimore Ravens!), but
I've been to Poe homes in Richmond, Baltimore (where he's buried), and the
Bronx. A few years ago, I sent the CORSAIR "Raven" to Bronx Community College
Poe scholar Burton Pollin. He hadn't heard of the poem before, but he didn't
think that the vastly different "Raven" had much influence.
   I was going through the Public Ledger of Philadelphia today when--just a
minute, something just flew in.
THE RAVEN: Nevermore!
POPIK: You crap on my bust of Pallas Athena and I'll break your bones!
   This is from the Public Ledger, 28 February 1843, pg. 2, col. 3:

   _The Black Raven_, as produced now at the Walnut street Theatre, is a
decided improvement upon the former performances. Russell is a very nimble
fellow, a good dancer, and plays his part well. Miss Wallace, as Columbine,
does excellently, and her dancing is much admired. Davenport plays the part
of the Old Roue with much credit; and Barnes, the clown, grows more comical in
his tricks at every performance. It draws well, and is worth seeing.

THE RAVEN: Nevermore!
POPIK: Don't you say anything else?
THE RAVEN: Butter!
POPIK: Butter?
THE RAVEN: Parkay!
POPIK: Parkay is margarine!
THE RAVEN: Omnipoint! Omnipoint!
   In 1839, Poe became coeditor of Burton's Gentlemen's Magazine in
Philadelphia. In 1843, his story "The Gold Bug" won a prize of $100 from the
Philadelphia DOLLAR NEWSPAPER. I'm reading this from a book (which I bought
in Richmond) edited by Roscoe Brown Fisher, THE JAMES CARLING ILLUSTRATIONS OF
EDGAR ALLAN POE'S "THE RAVEN" (1982). Poe left Philadelphia for New York City
in April 1843. Had Poe seen _The Black Raven_ at the Walnut Street Theatre?
What was that production about, anyway? I'll have to do some more
checking--just a minute! I hear a gentle rapping, rapping, as if some visitor
was tapping, tapping at my chamber door.
LENORE: Hello, my name's Lenore, and I was looking for my--there he is!!
THE RAVEN: Nevermore!
   I gotta stick to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow poems.