Not in My Name

New Orleans, July 31, 1882 Editors of The Bee: I read in yesterday’s Bee “that Mr. Meyiner, Editor of the ‘Louisiana Biographies’ will begin tomorrow the publication of the first part or section, that of the ‘Governors of the State’ and ‘that following those biographies the reader will find that of Paul Morphy, the most celebrated chess player of the world, and that of Jean Lafitte’”.    My father, Judge Alonzo Morphy, of the Supreme Court, at his death left a fortune (the inventory of succession made in December 1856, which can be seen at the office of Theodore Guyol, Esq. Notary Public, amounts to $146,162.54) (one hundred and forty-six thousand and one hundred and sixty-two dollars and fifty-four cents), and the share of each heir being ample enough to allow him to decently defray all his expenses. I have followed no calling, and have given no cause for a biography. I have received a diploma as a lawyer.    I am ignorant of the spirit in which the “Louisiana Biographies” are conceived, but Louisianan by birth and in heart, son of a father who acquired a reputation of juris-consult at the Louisiana Bar, who was a member of the Legislature, Attorney-General and Judge of the Supreme Court, grandson of a grandfather who had the honor of representing Spain in New Orleans during the first quarter of the century, I could but approve of a work that would bring to light the services, recent or of old, rendered to our Louisiana.    I have the honor, Merrrs. Editors, of presenting you with my most distinguished sentiment. Paul Charles Morphy

Alfred Hrdlicka, Paul Morphy-Der Vater (1973)