Text: Margaret Fuller to Edgar Allan Poe — August 9, 1845


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To the Editor of The Broadway Journal.

I was much obliged to you for your ready acceptance of my article entitled “A peep behind the curtain” and I was very much gratified that you were not alone in your estimate of it, as it was copied very extensively into the public papers. I hope I shall always be equally fortunate.

The object of the present communication speaks for itself. It is to ridicule a style of writing very common in your sex, when discoursing of ours, but which deserves no better epithet than ineffable silliness. I am aware that Longfellow is a popular poet & deservedly so, but I am sure he will not be offended at such a mere piece of pleasantry, coming as it does from one of the party to whom such soft nonsense is addressed. I also wished to make some slight acknowledgment to the notice in the Whig review for this very flattering view he takes of the weaker sex.

X


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Notes:

This letter is signed with an “X,” possibly her “famous asterisk,” as noted by Mabbott, or perhaps just a mark made because the letter was written by an amanuensis. It is addressed “For the Broadway Journal [[/]] Care John Bisco Esq. [[/]] 136 Nassau St. [[/]] New York” and postmarked “U. S. City Despatch Post, Aug. 9 4 Oclock.” Also stamped “PAID.” There is a docket note, apparently by Poe, “Miss Fuller.” Although the salutation is to “The Editor of the Broadway Journal,” and Bisco’s name is specifically mentioned in the address, Poe was the chief of the two editors, Poe and Watson.

The article Miss Fuller apparently sent for publication was “The Whole Duty of Woman,” a poem printed in the Broadway Journal for August 23, 1845, with an introductory note by Poe.


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[S:0 - MS, 18xx] - Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore - Misc - Letters - M. Fuller to Poe (RCL555)