Text: Anonymous, “[Comment on the Southern Literary Messenger],” Daily Times Picayune (New Orleans, LA), vol. III, no. 120, June 13, 1839, p. 2, col. 2

[page 2, column 2, continued:]

The Southern Literary Messenger first gained its respectability and caste from the very clever and manly criticisms of Edgar A. Poe, its whilom editor. Since he gave up the control of the Messenger that department has only been so-so. The poetical pieces which have, from to time, been garnered there, have not exceeded in merit the common newspaper rhymes, and the variety of the Messenger has always been less than that of the Knickerbocker and Hesperian; yet a few good papers in every number and partial friends, together with beautiful typography, have upheld it.