Text: Stuart and Susan Levine, “Second Philadelphia Prospectus - Note,” The Collected Writings of Edgar Allan PoeEAP: Critical Theory (2009), p. 27 (This material is protected by copyright)


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[page 27, continued:]

Note on the Second (Philadelphia) Version of the

Prospectus of “The Penn Magazine”

Poe's phrase in the fourth paragraph — “regarding the world at large as the true audience of the author” — echoes a famous letter he wrote on December 22, 1828, from Fortress Monroe in Virginia to his stepfather John Allan. Poe pleads with Allan to consent to Poe's discharge from the army:

— I only beg you to remember that you yourself cherished the cause of my leaving your family — Ambition. Richmond & the U. States were too narrow a sphere & the world shall be my theatre — [.] (Poe, Letters)

Poe reused the idea elsewhere as well; see, for example, “Exordium” (¶3 and our note).

 


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Notes:

None.


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[S:0 - SSLCT, 2009] - Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore - Editions - EAP: Critical Theory (S. and S. Levine) (Second Philadelphia Prospectus - Note)