A Source for the Immuration in "The Black Cat"

Author(s): John E. Reilly

Source: Nineteenth-Century Literature, Vol. 48, No. 1 (Jun., 1993), pp. 93-95
Published by: University of California Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2933943 .
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 A SOURCE FOR
THE IMMURATION
IN "THE BLACK CAT

On i6 July1842 the PhiladelphiaPub-

licLedgercarrieda two-paragraphnews itemthatmaywell have been
the source of the climacticepisode in Edgar Allan Poe's "The Black
Cat," the episode in whichthebody of the narrator'smurderedwifeis
discovered immured in the basement of his house. Headed simply
"Mysterious,"the item was reprintedby the PublicLedgerfromthe
GreenfieldDemocrat of Greenfield,Massachusetts:

Mysterious.-We are informed that Mr. George R. Stebbins,who keeps the South
Ferry,in Northfield,on taking down a cellar wall for the purpose of enlarging his
cellar, found the bones of a person in a good degree of preservation.They were
found in such a position that they must have been placed there afterthe wall was
firstbuilt-probably by takingdown a part of the wall, placing the body there,and
then stoningit up again. From an examinationby physicians,it is supposed thatthey
are the bones of a female from sixteen to twentyyears of age. On the back of the
skull there is a hole about the size of an ordinarysized bullet-and, judging from
the appearance, the probabilityis thatshe came to her death by being shot.
Who the person was, cannot be conjectured. Mr. Stebbinshas occupied the house
but a shorttime,and the cellar wall has been builtabout twenty-fiveyears.There is a
tradition,that from twentyto twentyfive years ago, a female about eighteen or
twentyyears of age, by the name of Kendall, who resided in that vicinity,disap-
peared verymysteriously, and was never afterwardsheard of. It was supposed at the
time that she was drowned in the Connecticut river,near where she lived, but her
body never was found. Suspicions at that day rested upon an unprincipled and
vicious man by the name of Mallory,who has since been in the State prison in
Vermont, but nothing was known of any certainty.Perhaps at this late hour the
murderer may be detected. Justice,though slow,is sure to overtake the wicked. Let
men learn wisdom fromthe dispensations of Providence.-GreenfieldDemocrat.l

nc icoar by The Revents of the Universityof California

no copy of the Green-
'Philadelphia PublicLedger,i6 July 1842, i. Unfortunately,
field Democrat,as such, seems to have survived. The identical news item was re-
printed by two other Greenfield newspapers, both of which also attributeit to the
GreenfieldDemocrat.The Gazetteand Courzercarried the itemwithoutcommenton i9
July (p. 2), and on i6 August (p. 2) printed a letter to the editor from an irate
correspondent,identifiedonly as "Anti Cryptamia,"who called for a coroner'sjury
to investigatethe matterand noted that"therehad been in formeryearsa continued
and veryoffensivesmell" issuing fromthe cellar where the bones were discovered.
The other paper, the FranklinDemocrat,reprintedthe itemon 12 July(p. 2). Unlike
the Public Ledgerand the Gazetteand Courier,the FranklinDemocratadded one bit of
informationafterreprintingthe story:"We learn thatthe bones above spoken of are

93
94 NINETEENTH-CENTURY LITERATURE

There are obvious differencesbetweenthe news itemand Poe's

tale. In "The Black Cat" the murdereris Poe's narrator;the victimis
the narrator'swife;thecause of death is an axe blow; theawfuldeed is
disclosedby thebehaviorof the murdererhimself;a cat playsa crucial
role in the disclosure;and the police are presentat the climacticmo-
tnent.These circumstancesnotwithstanding, the nucleus of Poe's epi-
sode and the nucleus of the news item are identical:the body of a
womanwho died bya punctureof theskullis discoveredimmuredin a
basement.
Identical,too, perhaps, are a possiblethemeof "The Black Cat"
and the moral appended by the anonymousauthor to the accountin
the Greenfield Democrat:"Justice,thoughslow,is sure to overtakethe
wicked.Let men learn wisdomfromthedispensationsof Providence."
One of the ongoingand unresolvedconsiderationsamong seriousstu-
dents of Poe is the question of the presence,or absence, of a moral
dimensionto his fiction.For those who argue that Poe's fictiondoes
contain a moral dimension,tales such as "The Black Cat," "William
Wilson,""The Tell-Tale Heart," and "The Imp of the Perverse"em-
body the principleof a providentialjustice operatingthrough"the
spiritof the Perverse," a spiritthat Poe identifiesin "The Imp of the
Perverse"to be "a radical, primitive,irreduciblesentiment"or "im-
pulse" governinghuman behavior.2AlthoughPoe's villainousnarra-
torssee thisimpulseas antagonisticto theirown well-being, the princi-
ple of perversity consistentlyand ironicallyoperatesin Poe's talesas an
instrumentfor the discoveryand punishmentof the evil perpetrated
by the narrators,in effectan agent of God's providential justice. And
so it is with"The Black Cat." This particularstory,however,stands
apart fromPoe's otherfictionto theextentthathere alone Poe's narra-
tor not only acknowledgeshis criminality but accepts "this spiritof
PERVERSENESS"as the instrumentof "my finaland irrevocableover-
throw," (Works,III, 852), much as the author of the news item in the

stillin the possession of Mr. Stebbins,who willexhibitthem to any one who has any
curiosityor interestin the matter."No furthermentionof the mysteriousdiscovery
seems to have been made thereafter.It is itselfsomething of a mysterythat two
newspapers published in the small town of Greenfieldshared the same name. Wini-
fred Gregory'sAmericanNewspapers,i821-1936: A UnionListofFilesAvailablein the
UnitedStatesand Canada (New York: H. W. Wilson, 1937), lists only the Franklin
Democrat(p. 287). Perhaps the solution is that two editions of the same Democrat
coexisted, one for the town of Greenfieldand one for FranklinCounty.
2Edgar Allan Poe, "The Imp of the Perverse,"in CollectedWorks
ofEdgar AllanPoe,
ed. Thomas Ollive Mabbott, 3 vols. (Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard
Univ. Press, 1969-78), III, 1223, 1219.
 A SOURCE FOR "THE BLACK CAT" 95
Greenfield Democratrestshis confidencethat'justice" ultimately
willbe
servedin "thedispensationsof Providence."
Parallelsbetween"The Black Cat" and the newsitemwould be no
more than coincidentalif Poe did not read the newsitemin thePublic
Ledgerbefore writinghis tale-ideally shortlybefore. And there is
good reason to believe thatthis is preciselywhat occurred. Not only
was Poe livingin Philadelphia(havingmoved therefouryearsearlier)
whenthePublicLedgerreprintedtheitemfromtheGreenfield Democrat,
but he enjoyed the good will and livelysupportof the PublicLedger
throughoutthesix yearsof his residencein thecity,so muchso thatitis
difficultto imagine he was not a regular reader of the newspaper.3
Although"The Black Cat" was not publisheduntilAugust 1843, we
know thatPoe wroteit more than six monthsearlier.The prominent
illustratorFelix 0. C. Darley reportedthat Poe read the tale to him
froma manuscriptearly in i 843 in connectionwiththe prospectof
Darley'sbeing engaged to illustratethe text.4On the basis of Darley's
testimony, Thomas Ollive Mabbotthas set the date of compositionof
"The Black Cat" at "late in i842," no more thanfivemonthsafterthe
news item fromGreenfieldwas reprintedin the PublicLedger(Works,
III, 848). If Poe wrotehistaleimmediatelyupon readingtheitem,then
we can date compositionat up to fouror even fivemonthsearlier,in
the summerof thatyear.

JOHN E. REILLY
CollegeoftheHolyCross

3For favorablecommentson Poe by the PublicLedgerbetween i 839 and i 844, see

Dwight Thomas and David K. Jackson,ThePoe Log: A Documentary LifeofEdgar Allan
Poe, I809-I849 (Boston: G. K. Hall, 1987), pp. 268, 279, 302,415-17,419-21,423,
426-27, 441, 448, 454-
4SeeThe Poe Log, p. 413.