[page 393, continued:]

[1843] JANUARY. BOSTON. The first number of the Pioneer contains Poe's story “The Tell-Tale Heart.”

[1843] JANUARY. PHILADELPHIA. Graham's Magazine contains Poe's poem “The Conqueror Worm.”

[1843] EARLY JANUARY? Poe enlists Thomas C. Clarke, Publisher of the Saturday Museum, as his partner in issuing his long-planned magazine, now entitled the Stylus and scheduled to appear on 1 July (31 January contract; Poe to Thomas, 25 February).

[1843] EARLY JANUARY? Poe reviews the Pioneer in Clarke's Museum:

[1843] EARLY JANUARY? Poe writes Frederick William Thomas in Washington, forwarding memoranda of his life. Poe will appear in the Saturday Museum's forthcoming series entitled “The Poets & Poetry of Philadelphia,” which will feature biographical sketches of the city's poets as well as excerpts from their poetry. He asks Thomas to write his biography for the series (Thomas’ 1 February reply). [page 395:]

[1843] 6 JANUARY. The United States Gazette reprints “The Tell-Tale Heart” from the Pioneer.

[1843] 7 JANUARY. NEW YORK. Nathaniel P. Willis notices the Pioneer in the Brother Jonathan:

[1843] 13 JANUARY. Horace Greeley reviews the Pioneer in the Daily Tribune: “Poe contributes a strong and skilful, but to our minds overstrained and repulsive, analysis of the feelings and promptings of an insane homicide. The painting of the terror of the victim while he sat upright in his bed feeling that death was near him is most powerful and fearfully vivid.”

[1843] 19 JANUARY. RICHMOND. Thomas Willis White, the proprietor of the Southern Literary Messenger, dies after a long illness.

[1843] 23 JANUARY. PHILADELPHIA. The Pennsylvania Inquirer and other papers report White's death.

[1843] 25 JANUARY. “The Tell-Tale Heart” is reprinted in the first number of the Dollar Newspaper, an oversize weekly published by A. H. Simmons & Co.

[1843] 28 JANUARY. The Saturday Museum contains Henry B. Hirst's blistering review of the third edition of Rufus W. Griswold's Poets and Poetry of America.

[Harrison reprinted this review in his Poe edition (W, 11:220-43); but it is unquestionably by Hirst, Poe's admirer and companion who repeated many of his opinions. See Thomas (1978), pp. 495-98.]

[1843] 31 JANUARY. An agreement is reached “between Felix O. C. Darley, on the one hand and Thomas C. Clarke with Edgar A. Poe on the other.” Darley, [page 396:] a young Philadelphia artist, “agrees to furnish original designs, or drawings (on wood or paper as required) of his own composition, in his best manner, and from subjects supplied him by Mess: Clarke and Poe; the said designs to be employed in illustration of the Magazine entitled ‘The Stylus’ .... Mess: Clarke and Poe agree to demand of Mr Darley not more than five of these designs in any one month .... And, for each design so furnished, Mess: Clarke and Poe agree to pay the said Darley the sum of Seven Dollars ($7).” The contract, in Poe's hand, bears the signatures of the principals as well as two witnesses, Henry B. Hirst and W. D. Riebsam (facsimile in Gill, after p. 118).

[1843] LATE JANUARY. Poe writes Thomas in Washington. He imagines that Thomas has postponed correspondence while waiting for the United States Senate to act on Thomas S. Smith's nomination as Collector of Customs in Philadelphia. Poe asks whether Thomas will be able to write the biographical sketch he requested several weeks ago; if not, he should return the memoranda, as Poe's biography and poems are scheduled for early publication in the Saturday Museum. Although Hirst wrote the review of Griswold's Poets and Poetry of America in the 28 January Museum, Poe emphasizes that he was responsible for the portion condemning the anthologer's treatment of Thomas and Robert Tyler (Thomas’ 1 February reply).

[Poe and Thomas were hoping that the Senate would reject Smith's nomination and that the Tyler administration would then replace him with a new Collector, who might be more willing to appoint Poe to a position in the Custom House.]

[1843] BEFORE FEBRUARY? Poe sits for a daguerreotype; apparently it is used in making the engraved portrait which is to accompany his biography in the Museum (“McKee” daguerreotype discussed by George E. Woodberry, Century Magazine, NS 26 [1894]: 725, 854; information supplied by Michael J. Deas, from his forthcoming book on Poe portraiture).

[1843] FEBRUARY. NEW YORK. Snowden's Ladies’ Companion contains the third and final installment of Poe's “Mystery of Marie Rogêt.”

[1843] FEBRUARY. BOSTON. The Pioneer contains Poe's poem “Lenore” and Nathaniel Hawthorne's humorous sketch of his contemporaries, “The Hall of Fantasy.” Hawthorne describes Poe's standing among American literati: “Mr. Poe had gained ready admittance [into the Hall of Fantasy] for the sake of his imagination, but was threatened with ejectment, as belonging to the obnoxious class of critics.”

[1843] 1 FEBRUARY. WASHINGTON. Thomas replies to Poe: [page 397:]

[1843] 4 FEBRUARY. PHILADELPHIA. Poe writes Lowell, thanking him for forwarding the Pioneer:

Poe received $10 on Lowell's account from George R. Graham: “I would prefer, however, that you would remit directly to myself through the P. Office.” About two weeks ago he sent his “Notes Upon English Verse” to Lowell by Harnden's Express Company; if the article proves “too long, or perhaps too dull,” for the Pioneer, he will be glad to “send something in its place” (L, 1:221-23).

[1843] 11 FEBRUARY. BALTIMORE. Joseph Evans Snodgrass reviews the Ladies’ Companion in the Saturday Visiter: “Mr. Poe's ‘Mystery of Marie Roget,’ founded on the murder of Mary Rogers, is concluded — and will add to his reputation for a sui generis play of imagination with an exercise of rare powers of analysis.”

[1843] BEFORE 16 FEBRUARY. BOSTON. Robert Carter, Lowell's partner on the Pioneer, writes Poe. Lowell is suffering from a serious eye ailment and has [page 398:] gone to New York for treatment; Carter will edit the magazine in his absence (Poe's reply).

[1843] 16 FEBRUARY. PHILADELPHIA. Poe writes Carter: “What you tell me about Mr Lowell's health, grieves me most sincerely — but we will hope for the best. Diseases of an opthalmic character, are, by no means, so intractable now, as they were a few years ago. When you write, remember me kindly to him.” Poe transcribes his poem “Eulalie” for the fourth number of the Pioneer (L, 1:223).

[1843] CA. 18 FEBRUARY. Poe writes his friend Thomas Wyatt, now in Washington, enclosing a letter of introduction to Thomas (Poe to Thomas, 25 February).

[1843] BEFORE 22 FEBRUARY. Graham's Magazine for March contains Poe's “Our Amateur Poets, No. I.— Flaccus.” He demolishes the poetic claims of Thomas Ward, a wealthy New Yorker who contributes to the Knickerbocker Magazine under the pseudonym “Flaccus.”

[1843] 22 FEBRUARY. John S. Du Solle reviews Graham's in the Spirit of the Times: “Poe's review of ‘Flaccus’ is really exquisite.”

[1843] BEFORE 24 FEBRUARY. The Saturday Museum for 25 February contains “The Poets & Poetry of Philadelphia, No. II: Edgar Allan Poe.” The article, apparently prepared by Poe in collaboration with Hirst, occupies the entire front page. It consists of a lengthy, often inaccurate biographical sketch accompanied by laudatory opinions on Poe's writings excerpted from newspapers and magazines, and from letters he received. The following poems, most of them revised, are reprinted: “To Helen,” portions of “Al Aaraaf,” “Sonnet — To Science,” “Romance;” “To the River ——,” “The Conqueror Worm,” “Lenore,” “Sonnet to Zante;” “The Sleeper,” “To One in Paradise” (formerly “To Ianthe in Heaven”), “Sonnet — Silence,” “Israfel,” “Song of the Newly-Wedded” (formerly “Ballad”), “To One Departed,” “The Coliseum,” and “The Haunted Palace.”

On its fourth page the Museum carries a prospectus for the Stylus, written by Poe and signed “CLARKE & POE”:

[1843] 24 FEBRUARY. In the Spirit of the Times Du Solle comments: “The Saturday Museum of this week contains a very fair likeness of our friend Edgar A. Poe, Esq., with a full account of his truly eventful life. We look upon Mr. Poe as one of the most powerful, chaste, and erudite writers of the day, and it gives us pleasure to see him placed, through the public spirit of our neighbor of the Museum, in his proper position before the world.” The Daily Chronicle, Pennsylvania Inquirer, and United States Gazette also praise the Museum's article on Poe.

[1843] 25 FEBRUARY. The Pennsylvanian reports: “ ‘THE PHILADELPHIA SATURDAY MUSEUM’ of to-day ... contains the second of a series of articles on ‘The Poets and Poetry of Philadelphia,’ giving a sketch of the life and writings of Edgar Allan Poe, accompanied by a portrait.”

[1843] 25 FEBRUARY. Poe writes Thomas in Washington:

Poe asks Thomas to furnish an article for his opening number and to solicit contributions from Robert Tyler and Judge Abel Parker Upshur, the new Secretary of the Navy. “About a week since I enclosed an introductory [page 401:] letter to yourself in one to a friend of mine (Professor Wyatt) now in Washington. I presume you have seen him” (L, 1:223-25).

[1843] 25 FEBRUARY. NEW YORK. James Kirke Paulding writes Rufus W. Griswold, editor of Graham's Magazine:

[1843] BEFORE MARCH? PHILADELPHIA. Poe writes a member of the Mackenzie family in Richmond, probably John Mackenzie. He asks his correspondent to determine whether the “subscription list” of the Southern Literary Messenger is for sale: “A capitalist of this place [Clarke] is anxious to purchase, if possible, and, as I am interested, I will take it as a very great favor if you will make the necessary inquiries .... Virginia is nearly recovered — indeed I may say quite so — with the exception of a slight cough .... Tell Rose [Rosalie Poe] I hope to see her before long, and that I will write her soon” (manuscript fragment in TxU-HRCL).

[The letter was mutilated in such a way that the date and the correspondent's first name were removed. Ostrom reconstructed the name as “[Willia]m Mackenzie” (L, 1:233); a more plausible reading would be “[Joh]n Mackenzie.” The elder William Mackenzie died on 7 June 1829; William Leslie Mackenzie, one of his sons, died on 5 June 1834 (Mackenzie Family Bible, ViHi).]

[1843] BEFORE MARCH? RICHMOND. Thomas Mackenzie, one of John Mackenzie's younger brothers, writes Poe that the heirs of Thomas Willis White have not yet decided upon a disposition for the Messenger (Poe to Thomas Mackenzie, 22 April).

[1843] MARCH. BOSTON. The Pioneer ceases publication because of financial difficulties; [page 402:] the third and final number contains Poe's “Notes Upon English Verse.”

[1843] 1 MARCH. JACKSON, TENNESSEE. John Tomlin writes Poe: “Since the death of Mr. White of the ‘Literary Messenger,’ I have often thought if you would take charge of it, what a great Journal it would become, under your conduct and supervision. With you at the head of the ‘Messenger,’ and Simms of the ‘Magnolia’ (my two most valued friends), we of the South would then have a pride in talking about our Periodical Literature” (W, 17:133).

[1843] BEFORE 3 MARCH. PHILADELPHIA. The Saturday Museum for 4 March features Poe's biography and poems on its first page, reprinted from the 25 February issue. Poe's prospectus for the Stylus appears on the third page. On the second page Thomas C. Clarke quotes Du Solle's report from the 24 February Spirit of the Times, commenting:

[Notwithstanding Clarke's announcement, Poe never officially joined the Museum staff (cf. Poe to Lowell, 27 March).]

[1843] 3 MARCH. The Pennsylvania Inquirer reviews this week's Museum: “E. A. Poe, Esq. is now associated in the editorial department. This is an important acquisition, Mr. Poe being an able and spirited writer, a profound critic, and well calculated to add interest to the columns of the Museum.” The United States Gazette also welcomes Poe's editorship: “His new position will afford another field for the exercise of his fine talents.”

[1843] 4 MARCH. The Pennsylvanian and the Spirit of the Times notice the Museum, both papers praising the announcement of Poe's editorship.

[1843] 4 MARCH. Samuel D. Patterson replaces Charles J. Peterson as one of the editors and proprietors of the Saturday Evening Post. The name of the firm [page 403:] is changed from “George R. Graham & Co.” to “Samuel D. Patterson & Co.”

[1843] 6 MARCH. WASHINGTON. The Daily Madisonian reports that on Friday, 3 March, the United States Senate rejected the nomination of Thomas S. Smith as Collector of Customs in Philadelphia. Judge Calvin Blythe has been confirmed in his place.

[1843] 6 MARCH. PHILADELPHIA. Du Solle comments in the Spirit of the Times: “The appointment of Hon. Calvin Blythe is everything we could wish. He is honest, capable, Democratic and popular. He was Collector under Van Buren, and the post was never filled to greater advantage, than on that occasion. ... Shocking long faces at the Custom House on Saturday. Strange! The officers there should look happy. Don’t they all intend to be Blythe as possible?”

[Blythe's confirmation was believed to signal another round of removals and appointments in the Custom House. Poe made a hasty trip to Washington in hopes of securing one of the anticipated vacancies.]

[1843] 7 MARCH. Poe writes Robert Carter in Boston: “Could you do me a very great favor? I am obliged to go on to Washington on Saturday morning — this is Tuesday — and am in sad need of means. I believe there is due me from ‘The Pioneer’ $30, and if you could, by any management, send me the amount so as to reach me, here, by that period, I would feel myself under deep obligation. If you cannot spare 30$ I would be exceedingly glad of $20” (L, 1:225-26).

[1843] 8 MARCH. WASHINGTON. Poe leaves Philadelphia in the morning and travels to Washington, taking lodgings in the evening at Fuller's City Hotel, where his friend Thomas rooms, on the north side of Pennsylvania Avenue between Fourteenth and Fifteenth Streets.

[1843] 8 MARCH. Thomas addresses a letter of introduction to Robert Tyler at the White House:

[1843] 8 MARCH. “On the first evening” Poe is “over-persuaded to take some Port wine” and seems to be “somewhat excited.” On the next day, 9 March, he avoids excessive drinking, keeping “pretty steady” (J. E. Dow to Clarke, 12 March).

[1843] 9 MARCH. PHILADELPHIA. The Spirit of the Times reports: “There are over twelve hundred applicants for situations in the Custom House, under the new Collector already.”

[1843] 9 MARCH. WASHINGTON. At Fuller's Hotel in the morning, Poe writes the scientist John Kirk Townsend, a leading contributor to Clarke's Saturday Museum: “I have the honor to enclose two letters, and the bearer will deliver a case containing an air-gun.” Poe promises to call on Townsend in “a day or two” (Thomas [1978], pp. 527-28).

[1843] CA. 10 MARCH. Poe begins to drink excessively; “at intervals” he becomes “quite unreliable” (Dow to Clarke, 12 March).

[1843] CA. 10 MARCH. The musician and journalist John Hill Hewitt encounters Poe on Pennsylvania Avenue: “He [Poe] was then un homme blasse — seedy in his appearance and woe-begone. He came boldly up to me, and, offering me his hand, which I willingly took, asked me if I would forget the past. He said he had not had a mouthful of food since the day previous, and begged me to lend him fifty cents to obtain a meal. Though he looked the used-up man all over — still he showed the gentleman. I gave him the money — and I never saw him afterwards” (Hewitt [1949], p. 19; cf. [1877], p. 43).

[1843] CA. 10 MARCH? Perhaps Poe is introduced to the photographer Mathew B. Brady (Mabbott [1969], 1:353).

[1843] 11 MARCH. BALTIMORE. In the Saturday Visiter Snodgrass comments:

Snodgrass predicts that the Stylus “will make a sensation” when it appears: “True criticism we need much — and of true criticism Poe has proved himself the only master in the land.” [page 405:]

[1843] 11 MARCH. WASHINGTON. Poe writes Clarke in Philadelphia:

[1843] CA. 12 MARCH. Poe's behavior is adversely affected by excessive drinking. He displays “petulance” toward Thomas and occasions “vexation” to Jesse E. Dow's wife Eliza. At a social gathering at Fuller's Hotel, Poe becomes drunk from the proprietor's port wine. While intoxicated he makes fun of Thomas Dunn English, a Philadelphia supporter of the Tyler administration who is visiting Washington on political business (Poe to Thomas and Dow, 16 March; see also Gravely, pp. 352-54).

[Thomas later recalled: “I was confined to my room by sickness when Poe came to Washington early in 1843. He was sober when I saw him, but afterward in the company of old friends he drank to excess. My physician attended him for several days, and he suffered much from his indiscretion” (quoted by Whitty [1911], p. xlvii).]

[1843] 12 MARCH. Jesse E. Dow writes Clarke in Philadelphia:

[1843] CA. 14 MARCH. PHILADELPHIA. Clarke replies to Dow (Poe to Thomas and Dow, 16 March).

[1843] 15 MARCH. Poe leaves Washington in the morning; he arrives in Philadelphia around 4:30 PM, finding Mrs. Clemm waiting for him at the train station. In the evening he visits Clarke at his residence, 56 South Twelfth Street (Poe to Thomas and Dow).

[Poe was understandably worried about the impression that his partner on the Stylus received from Dow's letter. Clarke's editorials in the Saturday Museum reveal him to have been a staunch temperance advocate. His daughter Anne E. C. Clarke recalled that “he never drank liquor nor used tobacco’ (Sartain, p. 217).]

[1843] 16 MARCH. Poe sends a single letter to Thomas and Dow, describing his return trip to Philadelphia yesterday. After “a warm bath & supper” he called on Clarke:

Poe has not yet received the payment for his Pioneer contributions he requested in his 7 March letter to Robert Carter: “Immediately upon receipt of it, or before, I will forward the money you were both so kind as to lend — which is 8 to Dow — and 3 1/2 to Thomas.” Poe addresses a paragraph to Dow alone: “My dear fellow — Thank you a thousand times for your kindness & great forbearance, and don’t say a word about the cloak turned inside out, or other peccadilloes of that nature. Also, express to your wife my deep regret for the vexation I must have occasioned her.” He similarly addresses his other correspondent:

Poe promises to join the Washingtonians, a national temperance society, if Robert Tyler can obtain “the Inspectorship” for him (L, 1:228-30; see also Quinn and Hart, pp. 16-18).

[1843] 16 MARCH. The Spirit of the Times reports that yesterday Calvin Blythe assumed his duties as the new Collector of Customs: “No removals have taken place as yet, though a great number we believe are in contemplation. ... In the meantime the Custom House is beset with an army of eager applicants for office, and name after name is diligently sought after to append to petitions and recommendations. All this indicates the hardness of the times. Thousands of men are ready and anxious to take a public office now, who, in ordinary times, would rather trust to their own independent exertions for a living.”

[1843] 24 MARCH. Poe writes Peter D. Bernard, the son-in-law of Thomas W. White, in Richmond. He is forwarding an issue of the Saturday Museum containing a prospectus of the Stylus, a magazine which he intends to begin “in connexion with Mr Thomas C. Clarke” on 1 July: “My object in addressing you is to ascertain if the list [of subscribers] of ‘The South: Lit: Messenger’ is to be disposed of, and, if so, upon what terms. We are anxious to purchase the list and unite it with that of ‘The Stylus,’ provided a suitable arrangement could be made” (L, 1:230-31).

[1843] 24 MARCH. BOSTON. Lowell writes Poe, promising to pay him for his contributions to the Pioneer as soon as possible: “The magazine was started on my own responsibility, & I relied on the payments I should receive from my publishers to keep me even with my creditors until the Magazine should be firmly established. You may conceive my distress when the very first note given me by my publishers has been protested for nonpayment, & the magazine ruined. For I was unable to go on any farther, having already incurred a debt of $1,800 or more.” Lowell is now making arrangements to borrow money to cover his debts. “The loss of my eyes at this juncture (for I am as yet unable to use them to any extent) adds to my distress” (W, 17:138-39).

[1843] 25 MARCH. The Saturday Museum contains Poe's “Original Conundrums” (Mabbott [1943], pp. 328-29). [page 408:]

[1843] 27 MARCH. WASHINGTON. Thomas replies to Poe's 16 March letter: “I would have answered it immediately, but my desk got so behindhand, during my illness when you were here, that every moment of my time has been engaged in bringing it up.” He hopes that Poe will yet receive a position in the Custom House:

[1843] 27 MARCH. PHILADELPHIA. Poe replies to Lowell's 24 March letter: “As for the few dollars you owe me — give yourself not one moment's concern about them. I am poor, but must be very much poorer, indeed, when I even think of demanding them.” He hopes that Lowell has overestimated his financial difficulties and will be able to continue the Pioneer: “I have looked upon your Magazine, from its outset, as the best in America, and have lost no opportunity of expressing the opinion. Herewith I send a paper, ‘The Phil: Sat. Museum’, in which I have said a few words on the topic.” Poe is not editing the Museum, “although an announcement was prematurely made to that effect,” but has the privilege of inserting what he likes. He hopes to begin the Stylus on 1 July: “I am anxious to get a poem from yourself for the opening number, but, until you recover your health, I fear that I should be wrong in making the request. ... When you find yourself in condition to write, I would be indebted to you if you could put me in the way of procuring a brief article (also for my opening number) from Mr Hawthorne — whom I believe you know personally. ... You will see by the Prospectus that we intend to give a series of portraits of the American literati, with critical sketches. ... Could you put me in possession of any likeness of yourself? — or could you do me the same favor in regard to Mr Hawthorne?” (L, 1:231-33).

[1843] 28 MARCH. The Spirit of the Times reprints Poe's “Original Conundrums” from the Saturday Museum of 25 March.

[1843] 29 MARCH. The Dollar Newspaper announces a literary contest, offering $100 for the best story submitted. The announcement is repeated in the 5 April issue (cf. Phillips, 1:793). [page 409:]

[1843] AFTER 29 MARCH. Poe retrieves his unpublished tale “The Gold-Bug” from George R. Graham, who had purchased it for $52, and enters it in the Dollar Newspaper contest (Poe to Graham, 10 March 1845).

[1843] 30 MARCH. The Spirit of the Times reports: “The Dollar Newspaper offers $200 premiums for first-rate tales.”

[1843] 31 MARCH. BALTIMORE. The Sun reports:

[The Sun was published by A. H. Simmons & Co., the same firm that issued the Dollar Newspaper and the Public Ledger in Philadelphia.]

[1843] 31 MARCH. WASHINGTON. Robert Tyler writes Poe: “I have received your letter in which you express your belief that Judge Blythe would appoint you to a situation in the Custom House provided you have a reiteration of my former recommendation of you. It gives me pleasure to say to you that it would gratify me very sensibly, to see you appointed by Judge Blythe. I am satisfied that no one is more competent, or would be more satisfactory in the discharge of any duty connected with the office” (W, 17:141).

[1843] CA. APRIL? PHILADELPHIA. The Poe family rents a small house at 234 North Seventh Street (now numbered 530) in the Spring Garden district, then a largely undeveloped suburb north of the city proper. Their landlord is William M. Alburger, a wealthy plumber.

[1843] CA. APRIL? The novelist Mayne Reid recalls:

[1843] 1 APRIL. The Saturday Museum contains Poe's tale “The Conversation of Eiros and Charmion,” reprinted under the heading “The Destruction of the World,” and a second installment of his “Original Conundrums.” An editorial by Poe on the second page calls attention to his story on the first:

[1843] 8 APRIL. NEW YORK. George P. Morris and Nathaniel P. Willis issue the first number of their New Mirror, a revival of the old New-York Mirror, which had expired in December 1842. [page 411:]

[1843] 17 APRIL. BOSTON. Lowell replies to Poe's 27 March letter. Hawthorne has agreed to contribute to the Stylus and will forward an article in a week or two: “His terms are $5 a page, but probably, as your pages will ‘eat up’ Copy with a less anaconda-like appetite than the fine print magazines, your best plan would be to pay him so much by the article. His wife will make a drawing of his head or he will have a Daguerreotype taken, so that you can have a likeness of him.” Lowell discusses a likeness of himself which Poe might use for the series on American authors to be published in the Stylus: “[William] Page has painted a head of me which is called very fine, & which is now Exhibiting (I believe) at the National Academy in New York. This might be Daguerreotyped — or I might have one taken from my head as it is now — namely in a more civilized condition — the portrait by Page having very long hair, not to mention a beard and some symptoms of moustache, & looking altogether, perhaps, too antique to be palatable to the gentle public” (W, 17:142-43).

[1843] BEFORE 22 APRIL? PHILADELPHIA. Poe writes his sister Rosalie in Richmond, discussing Virginia's health (implied by Poe to John Mackenzie, before March, and to Thomas Mackenzie, 22 April).

[1843] 22 APRIL. Poe writes Thomas Mackenzie in Richmond: “About a fortnight ago [on 24 March], I wrote to Peter D. Bernard, who married one of T. W. White's daughters, and made inquiry about ‘The Southern Literary Messenger’, but have received no reply. ... You wrote me, some time ago, that the heirs had not made up their minds respecting it.” Poe requests that Mackenzie call upon Bernard, “or upon some one of the other heirs,” and inquire about the Messenger's subscription list: “If the list is for sale I would make arrangements for its immediate purchase upon terms which would be fully satisfactory to the heirs. But do not let them suppose I am too anxious. By the bye, there may be some prejudice, on the part of the heirs, against me individually, on account of my quitting White — suppose, then, you get some one of your friends to negotiate for you and don’t let me be known in the business at all. ... Tell Rose that Virginia is much better, toe and all, & that she has been out lately, several times, taking long walks” (L, 2:702-03).

[1843] 29 APRIL. BOSTON. In the Boston Notion Robert Carter publishes an abridgment of the Saturday Museum biography of Poe, quoting as well a long excerpt from his prospectus for the Stylus (Pollin [1969], pp. 585-89).

[1843] 8 MAY. CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS. Lowell writes Poe: “I have been [page 412:] delaying to write to you from day to day in the expectation that I should have received an article from Hawthorne to send with my letter.” Hawthorne has not yet furnished the promised contribution for the Stylus: “I have got the idea of Hawthorne's article so fixed in my mind that I forgot that I did not send you a poem in my last. I have such a reluctance to go into the city that though I have been here nearly three weeks I have not even brought out my MSS. yet. But I mean to do it in a day or two & shall then send you something which I hope will be to your liking.” Lowell thanks Poe for forwarding a copy of the Saturday Museum with his biography and poetry: “Your early poems display a maturity which astonished me & I recollect no individual (& I believe I have all the poetry that was ever written) whose early poems were anything like as good. Shelley is nearest, perhaps” (W, 17:143-44).

[1843] BEFORE 15 MAY? PHILADELPHIA. Thomas C. Clarke withdraws his support from the Stylus (Poe to Lowell, 20 June).

[While Clarke may have felt uncomfortable with Poe's drinking, his decision was almost certainly prompted by the facts that his Saturday Museum was encountering financial difficulties and that his publishing experience had been limited to “family newspapers,” inexpensive and innocuous weeklies intended for mass circulation. See Thomas (1978), pp. 558-59, 624-27.]

[1843] BEFORE 15 MAY. Poe sends a despondent letter to his Georgia cousin William Poe, describing “many recent reverses” (William's 16 June letter).

[1843] 15 MAY. BALTIMORE? William Poe replies to Poe, admonishing him (William's 16 June letter).

[1843] 16 MAY. BOSTON. Lowell writes Poe: “I send you this little poem with some fears that you will be disappointed therein. But it is on the whole the most likely to please of any that I could lay my hands on .... You must tell me frankly how you like what I sent & what you should like better. Will you give me your address more particularly so that in case I have a package to send you I can forward it by express?” (W, 17:144-45).

[1843] 20 MAY. PHILADELPHIA. Lambert A. Wilmer writes John Tomlin in Jackson, Tennessee: “Edgar A. Poe (you know him by character, no doubt, if not personally), has become one of the strangest of our literati. He and I are old friends, — have known each other since boyhood, and it gives me inexpressible pain to notice the vagaries to which he has lately become subject. Poor fellow! he is not a teetotaller by any means, and I fear he is [page 413:] going headlong to destruction, moral, physical and intellectual” (Quinn, pp. 401-02).

[1843] 31 MAY. In the Citizen Soldier, a weekly of limited circulation, George Lippard commences “The Spermaceti Papers,” his satires aimed at Graham, Griswold, Peterson, and other literati connected with the editorship of Graham's Magazine and the Saturday Evening Post.

[1843] LATE MAY? The Saturday Museum carries Clarke's announcement that he cannot publish the Stylus (Tomlin to Poe, 2 July).

[1843] LATE MAY? CONCORD, MASSACHUSETTS. Hawthorne writes Lowell:

[1843] JUNE OR BEFORE. PHILADELPHIA. Felix O. C. Darley recalls Poe:

[1843] JUNE OR BEFORE. OAKY GROVE, GEORGIA. Thomas Holley Chivers writes Poe (Chivers to Poe, 15 June 1844).

[1843] JUNE. CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA. In the Magnolia William Gilmore Simms reports that Poe will soon establish a new magazine called the Stylus: “Mr. Poe is well calculated to conduct a literary magazine. He is acknowledged as one of our best writers and critics. If any fault is to be found with him, it is in the latter capacity. He is, we fancy, not unfrequently tempted into the utterance of a smart thing, without troubling [page 414:] himself to ask if it be a just one. But the error may well find its excuse, in a day of such lamentable magazine puffery as the present.” The Magnolia also contains a notice of Mrs. Caroline Lee Hentz written by the Alabama author Alexander Beaufort Meek, who favorably mentions Poe in passing.

[1843] BEFORE 10 JUNE. PHILADELPHIA. Thomas Dunn English completes The Doom of the Drinker, a temperance novel commissioned by Clarke for his Saturday Museum. The novel contains a malicious caricature of Poe under the influence of alcohol (Thomas [1979], pp. 259-60).

[1843] 10 JUNE. In the Museum Clarke announces that the serialization of English's novel has been postponed: “The DRUNKARD's DOOM, it would have afforded us great pleasure to have commenced with this No., but the sickness of Mr. R. S. Gilbert, who is to furnish the engravings from Mr. Darley's admirable designs [illustrating the novel], has prevented our opening the work in season.”

[1843] 14 JUNE. The Dollar Newspaper carries an announcement by the publishers:

[1843] 15 JUNE. Robert Morris reprints the announcement “from the ‘Dollar Newspaper’ of yesterday” in his Pennsylvania Inquirer: “We congratulate the successful competitor. The story alluded to will no doubt prove worthy the reputation of its gifted author, and the high distinction which has been conferred upon it by the Committee.”

[1843] 15 JUNE. The Spirit of the Times publishes a letter from the well-known balloonist John Wise of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, who describes his plan “to make a trip across the Atlantic Ocean in a Balloon, in the summer of 1844.”

[Wise's letter in the Times, a paper Poe read, is a probable source for “The Balloon-Hoax.”] [page 415:]

[1843] 16 JUNE. BALTIMORE. The Sun reports:

[1843] 16 JUNE. William Poe writes Poe:

William has seen a report in the Sun that Poe has been awarded a prize of $100 for “The Gold-Bug”; he hopes that this money will alleviate his cousin's financial problems. “Ought you ever to give up in despair when you have such resources as yr well stored mind to apply to? ... There is one thing I am anxious to caution you against, & which has been a great enemy to our family, I hope, however, in yr case, it may prove unnecessary, ‘A too free use of the Bottle.’ Too many & especially Literary Characters, have sought to drown their sorrows & disappointments by this means, but in vain, and only, when it has been too late, discovered it to be a deeper source of misery” (W, 17:145-46; Ostrom [1981], p. 212).

[1843] 17 JUNE. PHILADELPHIA. The Saturday Courier reports that Poe has won a prize of $100 “for a story entitled ‘The Gold Bug, which is said to be every way worthy his high reputation.”

[1843] 19 JUNE. The Public Ledger reports: [page 416:]

[Like the Dollar Newspaper, the Ledger was issued by A. H. Simmons & Co.: its report apparently represents the first official announcement by the publishers of the contest results and the names of the judges, though of course Poe's tale had been announced on 14 June. Robert T. Conrad was a playwright and jurist; Henry S. Patterson, a physician and author; and Washington L. Lane, managing editor of the Ledger.]

[1843] 19 JUNE. CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS. Robert Carter writes Poe, forwarding the abridgment of the Saturday Museum biography he published in the Boston Notion of 29 April: “I was absent from the city when it was printed and did not see the proof; consequently it is full of atrocious errors. What has become of the Stylus? I trust that it has not been found prudent to relinquish the enterprise though I fear that such is the case.” Carter discusses The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, which he read for the first time within the past week:

[1843] 20 JUNE. PHILADELPHIA. Poe writes Lowell in Boston: [page 417:]

[1843] 20 JUNE. Poe writes John Tomlin in Jackson, Tennessee, informing him that the Stylus has been postponed (Tomlin to Poe, 2 July).

[1843] 20 JUNE. Poe writes Miss Lucy D. Henry of Red Mill, Charlotte County, Virginia, a granddaughter of Patrick Henry. “It gives me pleasure to comply with the very flattering request [for an autograph] contained in your letter to my sister [Rosalie] of March 26th” (L, 1:234).

[1843] 21 JUNE. The Dollar Newspaper contains the first half of “The Gold-Bug.”

[Each installment was illustrated with an engraving by Darley; both designs are reproduced in Phillips, 1:790-91.]

[1843] 21 JUNE. The Public Ledger reports:

The Pennsylvania Inquirer also notices the Dollar Newspaper, which “contains the first part of ‘The Gold Bug’ .... Single copies may be obtained at the S. W. corner of Third and Chesnut streets [location of Ledger and Dollar Newspaper offices].”

[1843] 22 JUNE. John S. Du Solle comments in the Spirit of the Times: “We forgot to notice the ‘Dollar Newspaper’ yesterday, with its new prize tale by our friend Poe, entitled the ‘Gold Bug.’ The story is illustrated by an engraving, and is highly praised. We shall read it attentively, and advise others to ‘go and do likewise.’ ” The Public Ledger reports: [page 419:]

[1843] 23 JUNE. The publishers A. H. Simmons & Co. register “The Gold-Bug” for copyright in the United States District Court, Eastern District of Pennsylvania (Mabbott [1978], 3:804).

[1843] 24 JUNE. The Public Ledger reports:

THE PRIZE STORY OF THE GOLD-BUG. — “The Dollar Newspaper” of this week, containing this capital story, has been in unexampled request, and notwithstanding the large extra edition printed, the supply is nearly exhausted, and the publishers will probably be compelled to put the story to press in pamphlet form. With the view of protecting their own interest in this respect, they have taken out a COPY RIGHT for the Tale, and will endeavor to supply the public demand for it, be it ever so large.

The Saturday Courier comments: “We give to-day, the first part of Mr. Poe's Prize Tale. The conclusion will be immediately published, and will be sought for with great interest.”

[The Courier reprinted all three prize stories from the Dollar Newspaper, apparently by prior agreement with A. H. Simmons & Co. “The Gold-Bug” appeared in three installments (24 June, 1 and 8 July), Darley's two illustrations being reproduced in the 8 July issue.]

[1843] 27 JUNE. The editors of the Daily Forum comment:

[The communication, signed only with the initial “D.,” was written by Francis H. Duffee, a minor Philadelphia journalist and playwright.]

[1843] CA. 28 JUNE. Poe commences a libel suit against Duffee (Public Ledger, 4 July).

[1843] 28 JUNE. The Dollar Newspaper contains the second half of “The Gold-Bug.” The Public Ledger advises readers:

In the Citizen Soldier George Lippard comments:

[1843] 29 JUNE. In the Spirit of the Times John S. Du Solle reports: “We learn that [page 421:] an action for damages has been brought against Mr. F. H. Duffee, No. 3 South Third street, for publishing a communication in the Forum, in which it was insinuated that the publishers of the Dollar Newspaper had defrauded the public, by paying that talented writer, Edgar A. Poe, Esq., $15 for his admirable tale of the ‘Gold Bug,’ instead of paying the prize of $100, as announced, to the author of the best production offered them.” The Pennsylvania Inquirer observes that yesterday's Dollar Newspaper “contains the conclusion of the ‘GOLD BUG,’ ... which has excited much attention. The entire story, printed in an extra, may be obtained at the office of the ‘Newspaper’ .... A large edition will no doubt be called for.”

[1843] 30 JUNE. The Public Ledger reports:

[1843] 30 JUNE. NEW YORK. The New York Herald mentions Poe's suit against Duffee, basing its account on Du Solle's report yesterday (Mabbott [1978], 3:804).

[1843] JULY. In the “Editor's Table” of the Knickerbocker Magazine, Lewis Gaylord Clark quotes an anonymous correspondent who defends “Flaccus” (Thomas Ward) from Poe's attack in the March Graham's: “His [Ward's] ‘Epistle from my Arm-chair’ was in good hexameters, and his ‘Address to the President of the New-England Temperance Society’ had a TOM MOORE-ish spice of elegant wit about it, and might have been written by Mr. POE in about a century of leap-years.”

[1843] 1 JULY. PHILADELPHIA. The Spirit of the Times publishes a letter to its editor from Duffee, who retracts his assertion in the Daily Forum of 27 June that Poe did not receive $100 for “The Gold-Bug”:

In the same column Du Solle himself begins another controversy by facetiously accusing Poe of plagiarizing “The Gold-Bug” from a story written by a schoolgirl:

[The Tales of George Ann Humphreys Sherburne, a slender volume published in Washington in 1839, contained only two stories, “Imogine; or the Pirate's Treasure” and “The Demon's Cave.” In her preface the author stated that she had “numbered but thirteen summers.”]

[1843] 2 JULY. JACKSON, TENNESSEE. John Tomlin writes Poe: “I had seen, before I received your letter of the 20 ult, Mr. Clark[e]'s announcement in the ‘Museum,’ of his withdrawal from the Stylus proje[c]t; — and even before then, from your long and protracted silence, and in the absence of all evidence, save this, had the belief that the devilish machinations of a certain clique in Philadelphia, had completely baulked your laudable designs.” Tomlin had asked Simms to notice the Stylus in the Magnolia, which he did in the June number. “I had caused to be noticed in various newspapers of the South and West, your project; and did see thro’ these sources, the high admiration in which my friends in those places, held your Endowments. ... Have you not in your City, some, that thro’ a friendship which they feel not, are doing you much evil? I have had a letter quite lately [from Lambert A. Wilmer on 20 May], from one professing all friendship for you, in which some allusions are made to you in a manner greatly astonishing me” (W, 17:149-51).

[1843] AFTER 2 JULY. PHILADELPHIA. Poe replies to Tomlin, asking to be sent the [page 423:] letter containing the unflattering references to him (Poe to Tomlin, 28 August).

[1843] 4 JULY. NEW YORK. The New York Herald repeats Du Solle's charge that Poe plagiarized “The Gold-Bug” from Miss Sherburne's “Imogine” (Mabbott [1978], 3:802-03).

[1843] 4 JULY. PHILADELPHIA. The Public Ledger reports:

The Ledger criticizes the Daily Forum for publishing Duffee's “foul slander.”

[1843] 4, 6, 7 JULY. The Pennsylvania Inquirer reprints “The Gold-Bug” in three installments, without Darley's illustrations.

[1843] 6 JULY. The Daily Forum replies to the Ledger's editorial of 4 July, defending its decision to publish Duffee's communication: “We stated that the character of the gentlemen composing the committe[e] to award the premiums, precluded the possibility of any collusion between the editors of the Dollar Weekly and Mr. Poe, and as we were of this opinion, we rejected one communication from the same source, and even cut out sentences from the published one. The correspondent spoke with certainty, and having a responsible name, we felt it a duty to lend our colemns [sic] to expose what was characterized as a humbug. Upon the first application made to us, we gave the name of our correspondent.”

In another column the Forum publishes a long letter from Duffee: [page 424:]

[One of Poe's legal advisers was almost certainly Henry B. Hirst, who had been admitted to the Philadelphia bar on 4 February; another may have been the prominent lawyer and playwright David Paul Brown (see Thomas [1978], pp. 503-04, 607-08, and Miller [1979], p. 440). Poe's “caustic friend” was Lambert A. Wilmer, whose Recantation (1843) was a tongue-in-cheek denial of the satiric observations on American poets he had made in The Quacks of Helicon (1841).]

[1843] 8 JULY. BALTIMORE. In the Saturday Visiter Snodgrass reports: “E. A. POE has carried a prize of $100 from the proprietors of the ‘Dollar Newspaper,’ with a story entitled the ‘Gold Bug.’ It has had a tremendous run.”

[1843] 8 JULY. PHILADELPHIA. Clarke comments in the Saturday Museum:

[In this issue Clarke published a plot summary of Poe's tale, about one-fourth the length of the original. The Museum and the Dollar Newspaper were in direct competition with each other, both being weekly “family newspapers”; and the publishers of the latter presumably did not give Clarke permission to reprint the story which they had copyrighted.]

[1843] 12 JULY. The Public Ledger reports a third edition of Poe's tale: “ ‘THE GOLD-BUG’ AND ‘THE BANKER's DAUGHTER.’ — The second edition of this first prize story, and the first edition of the second, having been exhausted, an additional supply has been printed in extra sheets, and are now for sale at the Office of the Public Ledger. Price, three cents each, with or without wrappers.”

[1843] 13 JULY. The Daily Forum comments: “The third prize tale of the Dollar Weekly, ‘Marrying for Money,’ is delightfully written. It is worth a whole library of such entomological productions as the Gold Bug. We have not seen Mr. Morris’ production, which took the second prize.”

[1843] 14 JULY. The Forum adds: “We have read the second prize tale .... Having now read the three productions, with all deference to the Committee who adjudged the prizes, we think they were exactly reversed in the order of merit; the last should have been first, and the first last.” The Public Ledger reports: “ALL THE PRIZE STORIES TOGETHER. — The publishers of ‘The Dollar Newspaper,’ in order to supply the demand for the three prize stories, for which they recently paid two hundred dollars, have issued them together, on a large sheet, as a ‘Supplement’ to their regular paper, which will be for sale at the Ledger Office to-day. This sheet ... is sold at SIX CENTS .... this is the fourth edition of ‘The Gold-Bug.’ ”

[1843] 15 JULY. In the Spirit of the Times Du Solle retracts his accusation of plagiarism: “THE GOLD BUG. — We have read this prize tale by Mr. Poe carefully, and also the ‘Pirate's Treasure’ by Miss Sherburne, and while we confess that the Gold Bug pleases us much, is exceedingly well-written and ingenious, we are constrained to add that it bears no further resemblance to Miss Sherburne's tale, than it must necessarily bear from the fact of touching upon the same general grounds. Mr. Poe well deserved the prize of $100.” [page 426:]

[1843] 18 JULY. The Public Ledger observes that the New York Herald has perpetrated “one of the most barefaced plagiarisms,” its 16 July editorial “on the decline of the drama” being copied “word for word” from Blackwood's Magazine for June. “This same paper charged Mr. Poe with having committed plagiarism in writing the prize story for the Dollar Newspaper, the Gold-Bug, by stealing the plot from a tale by Miss Sherbourne [sic]. Even this idea of the Herald was stolen from another paper, which has since retracted the charge in a handsome manner; but the Herald holds on to the stolen idea as if it was its own and honestly come by, even after the owner himself has repudiated it as unjust to Mr. Poe. For shame!”

[1843] CA. 18 JULY. William H. Graham, No. 98 Chestnut Street, publishes a pamphlet with this title on the outside front cover:

THE / PROSE ROMANCES OF EDGAR A. POE, / AUTHOR OF “THE GOLD-BUG,” “ARTHUR GORDON PYM,” “TALES / OF THE GROTESQUE AND ARABESQUE,” / ETC. ETC. ETC. / [rule] / UNIFORM SERIAL EDITION. / EACH NUMBER COMPLETE IN ITSELF. / [rule] / No. I. / CONTAINING THE / MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE, / AND THE / MAN THAT WAS USED UP.

[1843] 19 JULY. In the Dollar Newspaper the editor Joseph Sailer compares “The Gold-Bug” and “Imogine,” exonerating Poe of plagiarism. Miss Sherburne's tale contains “not a word about Kidd — not a word about secret writing — not a syllable about a Gold-Bug — not a syllable about anything that is found in Mr. Poe's story; the only point of coincidence being the finding of money — a subject which has been handled not only by Miss Sherburne, but by some fifty, if not by some five hundred talewriters.” Sailer surmises that the accusation in the Spirit of the Times “was, no doubt, hurriedly written, before a full perusal of both tales”; he reprints Du Solle's 15 July retraction, “in which the amende honorable is magnanimously made” (Mabbott [1978], 3:802).

[1843] 19 JULY. In the Pennsylvania Inquirer Robert Morris comments:

The Daily Chronicle also notices “the first number” of Poe's Prose Romances: “The stories are very interesting, and writ[t]en in the peculiar graphic and forcible style of the distinguished author.”

[1843] 19 JULY? Poe signs a document in the District Court.

[The document cannot presently be located. According to an anonymous and often unreliable article on “Poe in Philadelphia” in the Philadelphia Press, 19 June 1892, p. 26, Poe “signed a blank form, and had himself registered ... as a student of law, with H. B. Hirst for legal preceptor.” It seems very unlikely that Poe would have chosen to study law under Hirst; perhaps the “blank form” was related to his current suit against Duffee, in which Hirst seems to have played a part. See 27 JULY.]

[1843] AFTER 19 JULY. Poe gives an autographed copy of his Prose Romances to Francis J. Grund, a politician and journalist holding an office in the Custom House (presentation copy in DLC-RB).

[1843] 20 JULY. The Daily Forum notices the Prose Romances: “We are pleased to have this opportunity of expressing our general admiration of Mr. P's writings, and although we cannot see the merit of the ‘Gold Bug,’ and esteem it entirely unworthy of his name and reputation, still every oyster we know does not contain a pearl. The tales in the present number are the ‘Murders in the Rue Morgue,’ and the ‘Man that was used up;’ — differing as they do most essentially in style, they evince the varied powers of the author, and the facility with which he travels ‘from grave to gay.’ ”

[1843] 21 JULY. Three daily papers notice the Prose Romances. The Public Ledger finds that the two stories in this first number “will repay anybody by entertainment for their perusal.” The Pennsylvanian comments: “Mr. Poe is a man of remarkable and peculiar ability, and his prose romances are not only original in style and conception, but, in the main, possess singular merit. They will be found well worth reading, and this edition gives them in a neat and agreeable form.” In the United States Gazette Joseph R. Chandler comments: “Whether Mr. Poe has been too much occupied, or too indifferent to his own fame, we do not know; but we have often, in our own mind, doubted which was the cause that prevented him from issuing a uniform edition of his interesting and vigorous writings. The number before us shows that the work has been well commenced, and we cannot doubt that it will be well received, and amply rewarded.”

[1843] 22 JULY. Two weekly papers notice the Prose Romances. In the Saturday [page 429:] Museum Clarke comments: “Those who have a relish for the wild and wonderful — who would ‘sup their full of horrors,” revel in mysteries and riot in the deep, dark, recesses which an iron intellect is capable of investing with intense interest, have a full feast spread for them in the pages of the Prose Romances. But above all has the man of legal lore an opportunity of acquiring an insight into his profession, more thorough than his long days and studious nights could ever glean from all the records of criminal practices in the courts, or the pages of Blackstone or Coke. Mr. Poe has the power, more than any other writer within our knowledge, not only of creating the most intricate mysteries, but unravelling them too.” The Saturday Evening Post welcomes “the commencement of a re publication of the Stories and Sketches of E. A. Poe, Esq, in a neat form, such as will make, when completed, a very handsome volume. ... To the readers of the Saturday Post, or indeed to any one acquainted with the periodical literature of our country, Mr. Poe requires no introduction.”

[1843] 24 JULY. In the morning Poe meets Duffee; they sign an agreement ending their dispute. Later in the day, Duffee sends a letter describing their meeting to the New York Cynosure (see 27 JULY).

[1843] 25 JULY. The Daily Forum publishes the agreement:

The editors of the Forum comment: “We are pleased ... that a very foolish quarrel has been amicably arranged. We do not believe in a resort to libel suits — the reputation that requires the law to mend it, is hardly worth tinkering, and we must all expect knocks and bruises in this world of politics and literature.”

[1843] 25 JULY. The Public Ledger, the Daily Forum, and the Spirit of the Times report that the bookseller J. R. Colon, 203 1/2 Chestnut Street, is now [page 430:] offering for sale Miss Sherburne's Tales, containing “Imogine” and “The Demon's Cave.”

[1843] 25 JULY. Rufus W. Griswold writes Fitz-Greene Halleck in New York, discussing the notice of this poet to be published in the “Our Contributors” series of Graham's Magazine: “Instead of attempting an illustrative sketch myself, I employed Mr. Edgar A. Poe to write an essay on your poetry and a sketch of your history. I have just read his manuscript, and think that your friends will be gratified with the article” (J. G. Wilson [1869], pp. 441-42).

[1843] 26 JULY. In the Pennsylvania Inquirer Robert Morris comments:

[1843] 26 JULY. In the Citizen Soldier George Lippard briefly notices Poe's Prose Romances: “The number before us, containing ‘The Murders in the Rue Morgue,’ and ‘The man that was used up, strikingly develope [sic] the analytic talent of the gifted author, as well as his powers of cutting and sarcastic humor. The first story is, like the ‘Gold Bug,’ unique, original and impressive in its style and character.”

The issue also contains the seventh installment of Lippard's “Spermaceti Papers,” in which the “Grey Ham” [George R. Graham] discusses his magazine with the engraver “Phelix Phillegrim” [possibly John Sartain], “Rumpus Grizzel” [Rufus W. Griswold], and “Peter Sun” [Charles J. Peterson]: [page 431:]

[1843] BEFORE 27 JULY. Graham's for August contains Poe's “Our Amateur Poets, No. III [No. II]: William Ellery Channing.”

[1843] 27 JULY. The Pennsylvanian reviews Graham's:

27 JULY. In the Spirit of the Times Du Solle reports:

[The “Petty-fogger” may well have been Henry B. Hirst. Duffee's second paragraph clearly refers to Hirst, whose red hair (“golden locks”) and vaunted knowledge of versification were frequently satirized in the city's newspapers.]

[1843] 27 JULY. The Daily Forum comments: “Miss Sherburne's Tales. — We have reperused the story of ‘Imogene, or the Pirate's Treasure,[’] with a view to detect whether Mr. Poe had borrowed any of its incidents for his Gold Bug. There are men and women, pirates and a concealed treasure in each, and there the resemblance ends. They are no more alike than the Gold Bug is like the ‘Man that was used up.’ ”

[In the Saturday Museum of 29 July Clarke also observed that the “supposed resemblance” between the two stories was “altogether imaginary.”]

[1843] 28 JULY. The Daily Forum reviews the August Graham's:

[1843] 29 JULY. The Saturday Courier notices the Prose Romances: [page 433:]

[1843] 29 JULY. BALTIMORE. The Saturday Visiter contains an abridgment of the Saturday Museum biography of Poe. Snodgrass comments:

[1843] BEFORE AUGUST? PHILADELPHIA. Samuel D. Patterson, editor of the Saturday Evening Post, pays Poe $20 for his tale “The Black Cat” (Poe to Ezra Holden, 26 August).

[1843] 3, 10, 17 AUGUST. MONTROSE, PENNSYLVANIA. The Volunteer reprints “The Gold-Bug” in three installments (Heartman and Canny, p. 271).

[1843] 5 AUGUST. BALTIMORE. In the Saturday Visiter Snodgrass briefly notices “number one of a neat serial issue of the prose romances of Edgar Allan Poe, ... containing the ‘Murders of the Rue Morgue’ complete — certainly one of his greatest efforts.”

[1843] 5, 7 AUGUST. PHILADELPHIA. The Public Ledger carries an advertisement for the Walnut Street Theatre, northeast corner of Ninth and Walnut, announcing the “FAREWELL BENEFIT” of the actor and playwright Silas S. Steele, “Prior to his departure for England,” on “TUESDAY EVENING, August [page 434:] 8th.” The benefit will feature a performance of Steele's drama Clandare: “To conclude with an entire new piece, entitled THE GOLD-BUG, Or, The Pirate's Treasure. Dramatized from the Prize Story of Edgar A. Poe, Esq., published in the DOLLAR NEWSPAPER, which for several weeks has had an unprecedented run. BLACK JUPITER by the celebrated COAL WHITE.”

[1843] 8 AUGUST. The Ledger carries a second advertisement for Steele's benefit which lists the casts of the two dramas: “THE GOLD-BUG. — Friendling, Mr. Charles; Legrand, Mr. Thompson; Jupiter, Mr. J. H. White; Old Martha of the Isle, Mrs. Knight.” A similar advertisement naming the actors appears in the Pennsylvanian.

[1843] 9 AUGUST. JACKSON, TENNESSEE. John Tomlin writes Poe, enclosing a letter in cipher which he received from Alexander B. Meek of Tuscaloosa, Alabama: “Believing that many things are possible with you, that is not believed in the World's Phylosophy [sic], I have taken the liberty, which you will excuse, of sending the letter to you, with the belief that you will make some thing out of it. In conclusion allow me to say, that very many of our learned Citizens, have endeavored, but in vain to solve it” (MB-G).

[1843] 10 AUGUST. PHILADELPHIA. In the Spirit of the Times Du Solle comments: “MR. STEELE had a good house at his benefit on Tuesday night, and the performances were generally good. The Gold Bug, however, dragged, and was rather tedious. The frame work was well enough, but wanted filling up.”

[1843] BEFORE 18 AUGUST. The Saturday Evening Post for 19 August features “The Black Cat” on its first page. On the second the editors comment:

[1843] 18 AUGUST. The United States Gazette reports: “A thrilling original tale, from the pen of Edgar A. Poe Esq, leads off this week in the Post.”

[1843] 18 AUGUST. LENOX, MASSACHUSETTS. The novelist Catharine Maria [page 435:] Sedgwick writes George R. Graham in Philadelphia: “Will you be kind enough through your magazine to inform Mr Poe & those who may have fallen into the error he has committed in his review of the Poems of William Ellery Channing that this young gentleman is not the son but the nephew of the illustrious Dr [William Ellery] Channing?” (MB-G).

[1843] BEFORE 26 AUGUST. PHILADELPHIA. Poe gives his tale “Raising the Wind; or, Diddling Considered as One of the Exact Sciences” to Ezra Holden, co-editor of the Saturday Courier.

[1843] 26 AUGUST. Poe has Mrs. Clemm deliver a letter to Holden: “I am obliged to go to Richmond for a few weeks, on pressing business, and all the money I can raise I am forced to take with me. ... If you can spare the amount for the article I left with you, please to do so .... Patterson, of The ‘Post,’ gave me, some weeks ago, for ‘The Black Cat’, 20$. I presume the article you have is worth as much — being longer &, I think, better” (Ostrom, [1974], pp. 521-22).

[1843] 28 AUGUST. Poe replies to Tomlin's 9 August letter, providing a translation of Meek's cipher. He explains that he was “at one time absolutely overwhelmed” by ciphers sent to test his powers and that consequently he has vowed to solve no more: “You will hardly believe me when I tell you that I have lost, in time, which to me is money, more than a thousand dollars, in solving ciphers.” Poe repeats his request for the slanderous letter Tomlin mentioned in his 2 July letter:

[1843] SUMMER? SARATOGA SPRINGS, NEW YORK. Poe reputedly visits the resort at Saratoga, where he makes the acquaintance of John Barhyte and his wife Ann, a minor poetess. Mrs. Barhyte offers Poe advice on a poem he is writing, “The Raven” (Thomas [1978], pp. 707-11, 856-57). [page 436:]

[1843] BEFORE SEPTEMBER? PHILADELPHIA. Poe sells an unfavorable review of Longfellow's dramatic poem The Spanish Student to George R. Graham (R. W. Griswold to Longfellow, 26 December 1843; Graham to Longfellow, 9 February 1844).

[1843] BEFORE SEPTEMBER? Rufus W. Griswold resigns the editorship of Graham's (announcement in October number).

[1843] SEPTEMBER. Graham's contains Poe's signed article “Our Contributors, No. VIII: Fitz-Greene Halleck.” In his unsigned review of A Brief Account of the Discoveries and Results of the United States’ Exploring Expedition, he praises Jeremiah N. Reynolds, who organized the expedition (attribution in Hull, pp. 386-87).

[1843] SEPTEMBER. Godey's Lady's Book reviews Poe's Prose Romances: “The reputation of this author is deservedly high for originality, independence, a perfect command of the English language, and a certain easy and assured mastery of every subject which he handles. The first number contains the ‘Murders in the Rue Morgue,’ and the ‘Man that was Used Up,’ stories in totally different styles, showing versatility of power, but affording only a glimpse of the rich resources of his invention.”

[1843] SEPTEMBER. In his Ladies’ National Magazine Charles J. Peterson favorably reviews the Prose Romances (Pollin [1980], p. 24).

[1843] 9 SEPTEMBER. NEW YORK. In their New Mirror George P. Morris and Nathaniel P. Willis welcome Poe's Prose Romances: “few writers of fiction are at all comparable with this fine author for clearness of plot and individuality of character.” The first number contains “a most thrilling story, entitled, ‘The Murders in the Rue Morgue,’ ” as well as “a laughable sketch.” Morris and Willis reprint “The Man that was Used Up” to demonstrate the truth of their “commendatory remarks.”

[1843] 10 SEPTEMBER. JACKSON, TENNESSEE. Tomlin answers Poe's 28 August letter. He is enclosing Wilmer's 20 May letter to him. Although he fears that he has “violated somewhat the rules that govern correspondents,” he believes that Poe's “great good sense” will protect his honor (W, 17:152).

[1843] 12-13 SEPTEMBER. PHILADELPHIA. In the Spirit of the Times Du Solle reprints “The Man that was Used Up” in two installments.

[1843] 13 SEPTEMBER. Poe writes James Russell Lowell in Boston: “Since I last wrote you I have suffered much from domestic and pecuniary troubles, [page 437:] and, at one period, had nearly succumbed. I mention this by way of apology to the request I am forced to make — that you would send me, if possible, $10 — which, I believe, is the amount you owe me for contribution. You cannot imagine how sincerely I grieve that any necessity can urge me to ask this of you — but I ask it in the hope that you are now in much better position than myself, and can spare me the sum without inconvenience” (L, 1:237-38).

[1843] LATE SEPTEMBER. BOSTON? Robert Carter writes Poe on Lowell's behalf, enclosing five dollars of the ten due for his contributions to the Pioneer (Poe to Lowell, 19 October).

[1843] EARLY AUTUMN? PHILADELPHIA. Horace Wemyss Smith recalls:

[Richard Harbord's “Decatur Coffee House” was located at 6 Decatur Street, about half a block south of High (or Market) Street, between Sixth and Seventh. According to an advertisement in the Daily Chronicle, 22 May 1840, the establishment featured the “choicest Liquors,” with “Mint Juleps, Cobblers, Egg Noggs, &c, served in a superior style.”]

[1843] OCTOBER. Graham's carries an announcement: “Mr. GRISWOLD ... withdraws after the present number from his editorial connection, but will continue to be an occasional contributor.”

[1843] OCTOBER. The Cold Water Magazine, a temperance organ, begins to serialize Thomas Dunn English's The Doom of the Drinker.

[The novel, containing a malicious caricature of Poe, was commissioned by Thomas C. Clarke for his Saturday Museum. Its publication in the Museum being delayed, Clarke, an ardent temperance advocate, permitted the prior serialization in the Cold Water Magazine, a monthly of limited circulation which was not in competition with his weekly. The novel occupied three entire numbers — October, November, December — with the attack on Poe appearing in October (Thomas [1979], pp. 261-62). See 25 NOVEMBER, 9, 23 DECEMBER.] [page 438:]

[1843] OCTOBER. NEW YORK. In the “Editor's Table” of the Knickerbocker Magazine, Lewis Gaylord Clark quotes George D. Prentice, the editor of the Louisville, Kentucky, Daily Journal:

[1843] 1 OCTOBER. SOUTH ATTLEBOROUGH, MASSACHUSETTS. Abijah M. Ide, Jr., an eighteen-year-old poet, writes Poe. He explains that he has received only a limited education “from the ‘Schoolmasters and Schoolma’ams’ of our District School,” and that by occupation he is a farmer:

[1843] 10 OCTOBER. PHILADELPHIA. Poe writes the attorney John B. Morris in Baltimore:

[1843] 11 OCTOBER. The Citizen Soldier contains an installment of George Lippard's “Walnut Coffin Papers,” a sequel to his “Spermaceti Papers.” Professor “Peter Sun” [Charles J. Peterson] describes his literary compositions to the engraver “Phelix Phillegrim”:

[1843] 13 OCTOBER. CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS. Lowell writes Poe, enclosing the remaining five dollars due for his contributions to the Pioneer (Poe's 19 October reply).

[1843] 14 OCTOBER. PHILADELPHIA. The Saturday Courier contains Poe's “Raising the Wind; or, Diddling Considered as One of the Exact Sciences.”

[1843] 19 OCTOBER. Poe replies to Lowell: “I was upon the point of fulfilling a long neglected duty and replying to Mr Carter's letter, enclosing $5, when I received yours of the 13th, remitting 5 more. Believe me I am sincerely grateful to you both for your uniform kindness and consideration.” Carter has written that Lowell has recovered his health, and Poe finds evidence in his correspondent's handwriting that his vision has returned: “I need not say that I am rejoiced at this — for you must know and feel that I am. When I thought of the possible loss of your eye-sight, I grieved as if some dreadful misfortune were about happening to myself.” Poe will await “with much anxiety” Lowell's forthcoming volume of poetry: “I am seeking an opportunity to do you justice in a review, and may find it, in ‘Graham,’ when your book appears. No poet in America has done so much.” Longfellow has genius, but he does not equal Lowell “in the true spirit.” Poe has written “quite a long notice” of Longfellow's Spanish Student for the December Graham's: “The play is a poor composition, with some fine poetical passages” (L, 1:238-40).

[1843] 19 OCTOBER. Poe replies to Ide's 1 October letter, giving him words of “friendship, approval and encouragement” (Ide to Poe, 2 November).

[1843] 23 OCTOBER. The Democratic Argus carries an advertisement announcing the “WILLIAM WIRT INSTITUTE LECTURES AND DEBATES” for the 1843-1844 [page 440:] season, “to be held in the usual place, viz, in the Juliana Street Church, between Fifth and Sixth, and Vine and Callowhill streets.” There will be “Eight Lectures and Two Debates, commencing on Tuesday Evening, October 24.” The advertisement lists the speakers engaged: “November 21 ... Lecture, by Edgar A. Poe, Esq. Subject — American Poetry.”

[1843] 24 OCTOBER. In the Spirit of the Times Du Solle reports the commencement of the lectures: “Several powerful names are on the list. We notice Edgar A. Poe.”

[1843] NOVEMBER. Graham's Magazine contains Poe's review of James Fenimore Cooper's novel Wyandotté.

[1843] EARLY NOVEMBER. NEW YORK. The Opal for 1844, edited by Nathaniel P. Willis, contains Poe's sketch “Morning on the Wissahiccon” (publication noticed in the Philadelphia Pennsylvanian, 8 November).

[1843] 2 NOVEMBER. SOUTH ATTLEBOROUGH, MASSACHUSETTS. Ide replies to Poe's 19 October letter: “I need not tell you that I am grateful for your willing friendship, approval and encouragement. You have given me some confidence in myself which I think may be a very good matter for a Poet.” Poe has apparently discussed his intention of establishing a magazine; Ide assures him: “I do not wish to pass judgment upon others, but no one has a more ardent wish than myself to see somewhat of a Revolution in American Literature. Our country supports too many of these Dish-water Magazines: — & reads too much blank paper! ... I am glad to learn that you intend to attempt the overthrow of Humbug! If my hand can aid in the deed, it shall labor willingly. ... I wish to learn something more of your plans whenever it pleases you to communicate them” (W, 17:156-57).

[1843] 15 NOVEMBER. PHILADELPHIA. George Lippard comments in the Citizen Soldier:

[1843] 16 NOVEMBER. Poe writes Joseph H. Hedges: “I presume the request you make, in your note of the 14th, has reference to my grandfather Gen. David Poe, and not to my father David Poe, Jr. I regret to say, however, that, owing to peculiar circumstances, I have in my possession no autograph of either” (L, 1:240).

[1843] 18 NOVEMBER. The Public Ledger and the Pennsylvania Inquirer carry an advertisement:

[1843] 21 NOVEMBER. The advertisement is repeated in the Ledger and the Inquirer, both papers also according Poe's lecture brief editorial notices. Robert Morris of the Inquirer observes: “A large and intellectual audience will no doubt be in attendance.”

[1843] 21 NOVEMBER. Poe lectures to an overflow audience, “hundreds” being “unable to gain admission” (United States Gazette, 8 January 1844).

[1843] 25 NOVEMBER. In the Saturday Courier the editors Ezra Holden and Andrew McMakin notice Poe's lecture: “We regret that we could not attend, but we are told it was a very learned critique, marked by the severity of illustration for which the author is so ably known.” In the Saturday Museum Clarke comments:

[1843] 25 NOVEMBER. The Museum commences a serial with this heading: “ORIGINAL TALE, / Written expressly for the ‘Philadel- / phia Saturday Museum.’/ [rule] / THE / DOOM OF THE DRINKER; / OR, / Revel and Retribution. / [rule] / ILLUSTRATED BY ENGRAVINGS ON WOOD, / AFTER ORIGINAL DESIGNS, BY FELIX O. C. / DARLEY.”

[English's long-awaited novel, which Clarke had repeatedly announced both in his Museum editorials and in paid advertisements in other Philadelphia papers, was published in eleven consecutive installments, being concluded in the 3 February 1844 issue (Thomas [1979], pp. 262-63).]

[1843] 28 NOVEMBER. WILMINGTON, DELAWARE. The Delaware State Journal reports:

In another column the Journal carries an advertisement for tonight's lecture, “Commencing at 1/2 past 7 o’clock ... tickets 12 1/2 [cts] — 2 tickets will admit a gentleman and two ladies.”

[On 6 January 1844 the Philadelphia Spirit of the Times published a letter from a Wilmington correspondent who remarked: “Edgar A. Poe, Esq., [page 443:] delivered a lecture here several weeks since, on ‘American Poetry.’ Good, but rather severe.”]

[1843] 29 NOVEMBER. PHILADELPHIA. In the Citizen Soldier Lippard comments on Poe's 21 November lecture:

[1843] DECEMBER. Graham's contains Poe's favorable review of Robert Tyler's poem Death (attribution in Hull, pp. 388-89).

[1843] 9 DECEMBER. The Saturday Museum publishes the third installment of English's The Doom of the Drinker, containing Chapter VI, entitled “The Revellers.” The novel's protagonist Walter Woolfe attends a fictional drinking party at the home of his father's friend John Purdon; one of the guests is Poe, unnamed but easily recognizable:

[1843] 23 DECEMBER. In the Museum Clarke discusses The Doom of the Drinker: “The effect of this narrative would be materially enhanced were we permitted to designate the different characters, and point out the particular scenes which are drawn from life. Among the daring adventures and exciting passages, there are more real, actual occurrences than we dare specify — far more, in fact, of painful, instructive reality, than is [are] to be found in the host of ordinary novels of the day.” The author is “one of the most remarkable men in the country, destined, at no distant period, to create a sensation.”

[The Museum never mentioned English by name, but his authorship was no secret. He had been identified in three numbers of the Cold Water Magazine, as well as in the influential Washington Daily National Intelligencer and in two important Philadelphia papers, the Pennsylvania Inquirer and the Public Ledger (Thomas [1979], pp. 266-68).]

[1843] 23 DECEMBER. NEWARK, DELAWARE. In the evening Poe delivers his lecture on “American Poetry” at the Newark Academy, a boys’ preparatory school (Moyne, pp. 1-19; see 2 JANUARY 1844).

[1843] 26 DECEMBER. PHILADELPHIA. Rufus W. Griswold writes Longfellow in Cambridge, Massachusetts:

[Graham actually paid $30 for Poe's review of The Spanish Student. He never intended to publish it; but in this letter, and his own 9 February 1844 letter to Longfellow, he used the implicit threat of its publication to prod a valued but reluctant contributor.]

[1843] 29 DECEMBER. READING, PENNSYLVANIA. John C. Myers, Samuel Williams, and William Greaff, Jr., write Poe, inviting him to deliver his lecture on “American Poetry” before the Mechanics’ Institute of Reading (Poe's 1 March 1844 reply). [page 445:]

[1843] CA. 1843. PHILADELPHIA. Clarke's young daughter, Miss Anne E. C. Clarke, frequently visits the Poe home, amusing Virginia by singing “the old song of Gaffer-Poe” (Miss Clarke quoted by Sartain, p. 216; cf. T. C. Clarke quoted by Gill, pp. 100-03).

[1843] CA. 1843. Miss Clarke recalls the visitors to her father's residence at 56 South Twelfth Street: “Among the callers or stoppers-in would be ‘Tom’ as he was called, Dr. Thomas Dunn English, who, after being bon camarade with Hirst and Poe, quarrelled with one or both. All three of them happening in early one evening, they had to be kept apart lest they come to deadly strife. English was put in the parlour, Hirst in the library, where he was in the habit of lying prone on a lounge by the hour, dreaming dreams and seeing visions, and Poe was shown as usual into the dining-room” (quoted by Sartain, p. 226).

[1843] CA. 1843. A schoolgirl in the Spring Garden district recalls the Poe family:

[1843] CA. 1843. Miss Lydia Hart Garrigues, a young girl living on North Seventh Street, recalls Poe:

[1843] CA. 1843. The artist A. C. Smith, 86 Chestnut Street, paints a portrait of Poe, which is then engraved for use in the “Our Contributors” series of Graham's Magazine (Poe to Lowell, 30 March 1844).