Text: Edgar Allan Poe to Nourse, Semple and Thompson — early September 1836 (LTR-073a)

Notes:

This fragment is all that was preserved when Dr. Maurice E. Wilson, as a 14 year old student, came across Poe's letter among the papers of the Franklin Literary Society in 1869. Unfortunately, he cut out Poe's signature and discarded the rest of the letter, the contents of which he recalled only as “thanking the Franklin Literary Society of Jefferson College for having elected him an honorary member.” (Dr. Wilson's comments are recorded in an article by Ross Well, “Franklin Society of Jefferson Made Him Honorary Member,” The Richmond Times Dispatch, October 6, 1935, p. 3) Although Dr. Wilson felt that the letter “must have been written between 1846 and 1849,” the minutes of the Franklin Literary Society record a September 9, 1836 entry stating, “A. E. Poe [[sic]] Honorary member Nourse, Semple & Thompson Jr. com. —.” In Poe's list of subscribers for his proposed magazine, there is an entry for “Franklin Lit. Soc. Jefferson Col. Canonsburg, Pa. / see let.” (See Alexander G. Rose III and Jeffrey A. Savoye, Such Friends as These, Baltimore: E. A. Poe Society of Baltimore, 1986, p. 24.)