Talk:Edmund Clarence Stedman

The joys of researching outside of one's competence...
Way back in 1885, a young George Bernard Shaw sent off his first book review to the Pall Mall Gazette. It concerned a forgettable book (Trajan) by a forgotten writer (Henry F. Keenan), but allowed Shaw to deploy what we now call snark. I had decided to start working though Shaw's reviews to see what articles could be created, and began tracking down other reviews of Trajan. The publisher advertised the book with a blurb from one "E. C. Steadman", and not being familiar with the name I decided to do some research.

What emerged was an enigma: here was a poet mentioned in the same breath as Longfellow, Lowell, Holmes and Whittier, but who had never published a book of poetry. He corresponded with (and annoyed) Whitman, wrote for several leading magazines of the day (but the articles themselves were strangely absent), and was considered to be an anthologist without having ever published an anthology.

Several hours in I finally found a passing reference that mentioned one of his books. A quick trip to Worldcat ended the search: Edmund Clarence Stedman was indeed "all that and a bag of chips", and he also was in possession of a name that was misspelled often enough to create an intriguing alter-ego. Garamond Lethe t c  18:55, 2 March 2014 (UTC)