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My Dear Sir,
I send you the above trifle, in hope that I may be in time for your fourth number.
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.
When you have leisure, it will give me great pleasure to hear from you at all times. With the warmest wishes for your success, I am, dear Sir,
Yrs truly,
Edgar A Poe.
R. Carter Esqr
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Notes:
Although Thomas Ollive Mabbott questioned the authenticity of the present letter, the editors of the revised edition of The Collected Letters of Edgar Allan Poe (2008), accept it as genuine. An examination of the manuscript shows no reason to be suspicious of the letter or the copy of “Eulalie” that accompanies it. According to Harry Stone, who sold the letter to J. K. Lilly in August 1930, the previous owners were John Boyd Thatcher and W. H. Lauderdale, the latter collector having consigned the letter to a dealer from whom Stone obtained it (see Randall, 1964, p. 30). J. B. Thatcher died in 1909, suggesting a provenance that would date the existence of the letter some years before the active period of Josephy Cosey, the only forger likely to have been able to create such a skillful fake. In the absence of further evidence against it, the letter should be accepted.
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[S:0 - MS, 18xx] - Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore - Works - Letters - Poe to R. Carter (LTR152/RCL415)