Paul Hamilton Hayne

"THE FLAME-BORN POET" 99
Henry Timrod

"FATHER ABBOT" 125
William Gilmore Simms

"UNCLE REMUS" 151
Joel Chandler Harris

"THE POET OF THE FLAG" 175
Francis Scott Key

"THE POET-PRIEST" 201
Father Ryan

"BACON AND GREENS" 225
Dr. George William Bagby

"WOMAN AND POET" 253
Margaret Junkin Preston

"THE 'MOTHER' OF 'ST. ELMO'" 283
Augusta Evans Wilson

ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

THE HOME OF AUGUSTA EVANS WILSON, ASHLAND PLACE _Frontispiece_

EDGAR ALLAN POE 20

SIDNEY LANIER 58

HOUSE WHERE TIMROD LIVED DURING HIS LAST YEARS 116

WOODLANDS, THE HOME OF WILLIAM GILMORE SIMMS 126

JOEL CHANDLER HARRIS 156

SNAP-BEAN FARM, ATLANTA, GEORGIA 166

FRANCIS SCOTT KEY 194

FATHER RYAN 204

ST. MARY'S CHURCH, MOBILE. FATHER RYAN'S LATE
RESIDENCE ADJOINING 216

DR. GEORGE W. BAGBY 236

"AVENEL" 240

LITERARY HEARTHSTONES OF DIXIE

"THE POET OF THE NIGHT"

EDGAR ALLAN POE

"I am a Virginian; at least, I call myself one, for I have resided all
my life until within the last few years in Richmond."

Thus Edgar A. Poe wrote to a friend. The fact of his birth in Boston
he regarded as merely an unfortunate accident, or perhaps the work of
that malevolent "Imp of the Perverse" which apparently dominated his
life. That it constituted any tie between him and the "Hub of the
Universe," unless it might be the inverted tie of opposition, he never
admitted. The love which his charming little actress mother cherished
for the city in which she had enjoyed her greatest triumphs seemed to
have turned to hatred in the heart of her brilliant and erratic son.
In his short and disastrous sojourn in Boston, when his fortunes were
at their lowest ebb, it is not likely that his thought once