April 4, 1959

Sherwin Cody (November 30, 1868 to April 4, 1959) was an American writer. He took an entrepreneurial approach to books and for almost 60 years published a variety of books designed to appeal to the ambitious American looking to improve himself. For instance he wrote a course in English designed as a self study and self grading set of work books. The advertising tag was, "Do You Make These Mistakes in English." After their appearance in 1918, they proved very popular.

And here is an excerpt from a book about literary history. entitled: Four famous American writers: Washington Irving, Edgar Allan Poe, James Russell Lowell, Bayard Taylor; a book for young Americans (1911).
A section on the Poe family includes this information:

They had a little cottage at Fordham, in the country just out of New York. It was a very humble place, but the scenery about it was beautiful. Poe himself became ill, and his dear Virginia was dying of consumption. They were so poor that friends had to help them. One of these friends wrote:

"There was no clothing on the bed, which was only straw, but a snow-white counterpane and sheets. The weather was cold and the sick lady had the dreadful chills that accompany the hectic fever of consumption. She lay on the bed wrapped in her husband's great-coat, with a large tortoiseshell cat in her bosom."

On one Saturday in January, 1847, Virginia died.

Cody helped a nation acquire a measure of self-knowledge.