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Fordham June 21 48
I have been spending a couple of hours most pleasantly, my dear <Stella> >>Mrs Lewis<< , in reading and re-reading your “Child of the Sea.” When it appears in print — less enticing to the eye, perhaps, than your own graceful MS. — I shall endeavor to do it critical justice in full; but in the meantime permit me to say, briefly, that I think it well conducted as a whole — abounding in narrative passages of unusual force — but especially remarkable for the boldness and poetic fervor of its sentimental portions, where a very striking originality is manifested. The descriptions, throughout, are warmly imaginative. The versification could scarcely be improved. The conception of Zamen is unique — a creation in the best poetic understanding of the term. I most heartily congratulate you upon having accomplished a work which will live.
Yours most sincerely,
Edgar A. Poe.
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Notes:
This letter was first printed by J. H. Ingram in Edgar Allan Poe, 1880, II, pp. 219-220. It was reprinted from that source by J. W. Ostrom, Letters, 1948. When the original manuscript was discovered in the British Museum, Dr. Ostrom printed corrections to his prior text in an article in Poe Newsletter (later Poe Studies) , II, No. 2, pp. 36-37.
On the reverse side of the manuscript appears the note: “Purchd of J. H. Ingram Esq [[/]] 12 Nov. 1881.”
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[S:0 - MS, 18xx] - Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore - Works - Letters - Poe to S. A. Lewis (LTR272/RCL714)