On showing this poem to Mr. J. H. Ingram he at once pronounced it a forgery, and from his remarkable collection of books relating to E. A. Poe he produced a small volume of 104 pages clad in green and gold, entitled _The Fire-Fiend and other Poems_, by Charles D. Gardette. Published in New York by Messrs. Bunce and Hartington in 1866. The book contains “The Fire-Fiend” and “Golgotha,” both written in imitation of E. A. Poe, and some poems entitled “War Echoes” and “Vagaries” of no particular interest. The account given of the origin of the hoax perpetrated on the public by the author of “The Fire-Fiend” is contained in the _PRE-NOTE._ “A few――and but a few――words of explanation seem appropriate here, with reference to the poem which gives title to this volume. The “FIRE-FIEND” was written some six years ago, in consequence of a literary discussion wherein it was asserted, that the marked originality of style, both as to conception and expression, in the poems of the late EDGAR ALLEN (_sic_) POE, rendered a successful imitation difficult even to impossibility. The author was challenged to produce a poem, in the manner of “_The Raven_,” which should be accepted by the general critic as a genuine composition of Mr. POE’S, and the “FIRE-FIEND” was the result. This poem was printed as “from an unpublished MS. of the late EDGAR A. POE,” and the hoax proved sufficiently successful to deceive a number of critics in this country, and also in England where it was afterwards republished (by Mr. MACREADY, the tragedian), in the _London Star_, as an undoubted production of its _soi-disant_ author. The comments upon it by the various critics, professional and others, who accepted it as Mr. POE’S, were too flattering to be quoted here, the more especially since, had the poem appeared simply as the composition of its real author, these gentlemen would probably have been slow to discover in it the same merits. The true history of the poem, and its actual authorship, being thus succinctly given, there seems nothing further to be said, than to remain, very respectfully, the Reader’s humble servant, THE AUTHOR.” The poem which follows “The Fire-Fiend” is nearly as clever an imitation of Poe’s verbal eccentricities, but is perhaps a trifle too ghastly to be pleasant reading:―― GOLGOTHA: A PHANTASM. While the embers flare and flicker, gathering shadows thick and thicker―― While the slender shaded lamplight sheds a glimmer gray and dull―― On my mantle, smoke encrusted, o’er two war-knives hacked and rusted, In my fascinated vision grins a dark and dented Skull!