 Within the contemporary American literary scene Griswold became known as erratic , dogmatic , pretentious , and vindictive . As historian Perry Miller wrote , " Griswold was about as devious as they came in this era of deviousness ; did not ample documentation prove that he actually existed , we might suppose him ... one of the less plausible inventions of Charles Dickens " . Later anthologies such as Prose Writers of America and Female Poets of America helped him become known as a literary dictator , whose approval writers sought even while they feared his growing power . Even as they tried to impress him , however , several authors voiced their opinion on Griswold 's character . Ann S. Stephens called him two @-@ faced and " constitutionally incapable of speaking the truth " . Even his friends knew him as a consummate liar and had a saying : " Is that a Griswold or a fact ? " Another friend once called him " one of the most irritable and vindictive men I ever met " . Author Cornelius Mathews wrote in 1847 that Griswold fished for writers to exploit , warning " the poor little innocent fishes " to avoid his " Griswold Hook " . A review of one of Griswold 's anthologies , published anonymously in the Philadelphia Saturday Museum on January 28 , 1843 , but believed to have been written by Poe , asked : " What will be [ Griswold 's ] fate ? Forgotten , save only by those whom he has injured and insulted , he will sink into oblivion , without leaving a landmark to tell that he once existed ; or if he is spoken of hereafter , he will be quoted as the unfaithful servant who abused his trust . " 
