Text: Edgar Allan Poe to Unknown — about January 20, 1844 (LTR-167)

Notes:

Ostrom argues for a date of “after January 31, 1844 or early 1846” based on the information that Poe might have lectured in Baltimore in 1844 or 1846. Notices in the Baltimore Sun from January 1844 clearly indicate that the lecture on “American Poetry” was publicized by January 24, 1844 and occurred on the evening of January 31, 1844 at the Odd Fellows Hall at 30 North Gay Street in Baltimore, Maryland. If this letter referred to a later lecture in Baltimore, the opening sentence seems oddly silent of the success of the 1844 lecture. Ostrom makes no further comment about the dating of this letter in his supplements, but in his revised checklist of 1981, lists the item as “before January 31, 1844,” without the additional note of “or early 1846.”