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June. 12th — 1846
My Dear Heart, My dear Virginia! our Mother will explain to you why I stay away from you this night. I trust the interview I am promised, will result in some substantial good for me, for your dear sake, and hers — Keep up your heart in all hopefulness, and trust yet a little longer — In my last great disappointment, I should have lost my courage but for you — my little darling wife you are my greatest and only stimulus now, to battle with this uncongenial, unsatisfactory and ungrateful life — I shall be with you tomorrow P.M. and be assured until I see you, I will keep in loving remembrance your last words and your fervant [fervent] prayer!
Sleep well and may God grant you a peaceful summer, with your devoted
Edgar
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Notes:
This letter is the only one Poe wrote to his wife for which there is surviving text, though it would appear from his July 7, 1842 letter to Elizabeth R. Tutt that he wrote others: “She [Virginia] began to fret . . . because she did not hear from me twice a day” (Ostrom, p. 209). The original of the letter is apparently lost. The contents are recorded in a copy made by Mrs. Shew for John Ingram in 1875, in which she comments that “it was a good specimen of his notes to her” (Miller, Building Poe Biography, p. 111).
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[S:0 - MS, 18xx] - Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore - Works - Letters - Poe to Mrs. V. Poe (LTR232/RCL635)