Text: J. W. Ostrom, B. R. Pollin, and J. A. Savoye, “Chapter 03,” The Collected Letters of Edgar Allan Poe — Vol. I: 1824-1845 (2008), pp. 171-224 (This material is protected by copyright)

Note: William Henry Carpenter (1814-1899) [[(1813-1899]], along with Timothy Shay Arthur (1809-1885), edited The Baltimore Book of 1838, published by Bayly & Burns (of which James Burns was presumably the latter partner). John Saurin Norris (1813-1882) contributed the poem “The Cherub Watcher,” but his connection with the book is otherwise undocumented. Norris seems to have been a businessman with very prominent Baltimore connections, including Johns Hopkins and Benjamin Banneker. In this volume appeared Poe's greatly admired tale “Siope — A Fable” (later renamed as “Silence — A Fable”). In addition to the submissions of various authors, the editors used their own works to fill out the book, Carpenter including two poems and a tale of his own, and Arthur doing [page 174:] the same. (One can only wonder if they are also authors of any of the several unsigned items.) Of related interest also are contributions by N. C. Brooks, John McJilton, and John Hill Hewitt. The Baltimore Book was an unsuccessful attempt to capitalize on the market for annuals and gift books, and it has a somewhat curious history. It is recorded by TOM [T&S, 2:194] as issued late in 1837 for the Christmas trade, but he does not address a confusion which Heartman & Rede explain in their Census of First Editions, 2:77-85 (repeated in Heartman & Canny, 1943, pp. 40-41). Poe's contribution received a reissue in 1838-1839 when the remainders of the annual were bound in a different cover with new dates on the back-strip, half title, and printed title page. Poe never alluded to the second issue. He may have been unaware of it, in spite of his Baltimore connections, having recently established himself in Philadelphia. (The story appeared in the same year with a new subtitle in Poe's own Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque, dated 1840, but published late in 1839.) Mary Phillips (1:570) noted this widely overlooked oddity when she cited Harrison's mention of seeing “a faded and time-stained copy of the ‘Baltimore Book’ for 1839 ... [in which] we find: Siope — A Fable” (H [Works], 1:134). Clearly, Harrison saw the second issue, of 1839. For facsimiles of the title page and initial text page of the book and tale, see Robertson, Bibliography, 1:224-225, without any mention of the second issue. Jacob Blanck, in his extensive and far-reaching BAL (7:116, item 16129), does give a brief summary of the essential facts, generally not noted elsewhere.

Source: photocopy of the original MS (1 p.) in the University of Iowa libraries, Mabbott Collection. The letter is addressed on a separate leaf: “For. / Mess^rs / W. Henry Carpenter / J. S. Norris / James Burns / Care of Mess^rs Bayly & Burns / Booksellers 132 Market S^{t /} Baltimore M^d.” The letter was first printed in an undated newspaper clipping, supplied by TOM to Heartman & Rede for their Poe Census. The same unidentified newspaper clipping mistakenly gave the name of the third gentleman as Brown, an error which has been repeated in subsequent printings. The current text is the most accurate and complete to date, including the correction of this name, and the introductory sentence missing in the 1948 and 1966 editions of The Letters. Poe seems to be replying to a letter from Carpenter, Norris, and Burns, datable before February 28, 1837 (CL-172). Since Poe did contribute to the volume, it seems reasonable to suppose that Carpenter or his co-editor answered the present letter, though no reply is known. [page 175:]

Note: James Kirke Paulding (1778-1860) was a prominent and voluminous writer of the early decades of the nineteenth century. He [page 176:] belonged to the New York group of which Washington Irving was the leader. In 1815 President Madison appointed him to the Board of Navy Commissioners. After eight years in Washington, he returned to New York as navy agent for that city, and on July 1, 1838 he was appointed Secretary of the Navy by President Van Buren. Paulding's great importance as writer and political force assured him a place, as no. 223, in Such Friends (pp. 32-33). The braggadocio with which Poe dismisses the “habit” of drinking falters in the face of what would remain a lifelong struggle for him. (In this regard, see LTR-156 and LTR-259.) Poe's need of a clerkship was apparent; he had been in New York from February 1837, after leaving the SLM, until about July of 1838. During this time Poe is not known to have written any new poems or short fiction for publication, and only one critical article (on John L. Stephens’ Incidents of Travel in Egypt, Arabia, and the Holy Land for the New York Review, October 1837). Part of this apparently small output may reflect Poe's focus on the major portion of his only novel, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1838). Poe's desperation is clear when one contrasts his phrase “mere literature as a profession” with his later and more typical sentiment that “literature is the most noble of professions” (LTR-304).

Poe's use of italics in the phrase “any thing, by sea or land “ seems to imply some sort of quotation, perhaps dimly remembered. The dual reference to “sea or land” certainly seems to be a commonplace one, but it scarcely enters quotation indices for most readers until Longfellow's prominent usage in “Paul Revere's Ride” of 1863 (with composition not many years earlier), ll. 7 and 10: “One, if by land, and two, if by sea.” Longfellow, of course, was more likely than Poe to have borrowed the phrase from the minor work of Ovid, Heroides, “Epistle,” 7:88: “Per mare, per terras,” but Poe certainly might have seen it in Latin tags of frequent usage. Although the word “impolicy” is given a meaning of “inexpediency” by the OED, a half dozen citations for eighteenth and nineteenth centuries confine it to aspects of government rather than to “bad conduct” or “inutility” in general. The first quarter-century edition of the Merriam-Webster New International Dictionary gives the meaning of “unsuitableness for the end proposed,” suggesting the implication of Poe's phrasing in this appeal.

Source: original MS (fragment) in the Free Library of Philadelphia, Gimbel Collection. The original letter was one leaf written on both sides. [page 177:] The top section of the present MS has been cut off, and several lines are missing from the top of pages 1 and 2. The inside address and date at the head of the original were cut out and pasted to the lower left corner of page 2, opposite Poe's signature. On the verso of this cutting appear the words: “to this / my luck favor [...] / that I do expect it. [... ].” The cutting bears the same ink as the letter. There is no outside address. The present letter is the only extant one by Poe between May 27, 1837 (CL-174) and September 4, 1838 (CL-178), and is important as evidence of the earliest known date that Poe was living in Philadelphia. Poe appears to be including a response to Paulding's letter of after June 7, 1836 (CL-148a), which seems to have been a reply to a letter from Poe, June 7, 1836 (CL-147a). Poe printed part of Paulding's letter in the SLM (July 1836), 2:517. (An intervening letter, of course, is also possible.) This is the only surviving Poe MS-letter in the Poe-Paulding correspondence. No reply by Paulding is known.

Note: Nathan Covington Brooks (1809-1898) started the American Museum of Literature and the Arts in Baltimore in September 1838 (American Magazines, 1:345). Poe contributed “Ligeia” to the first number; “The Psyche Zenobia” and “The Scythe of Time” to the November number; “Literary Small Talk” to the January and February 1839 numbers; and “The Haunted Palace” to the April 1839 number — all first printings of these works. The magazine died abruptly with the June 1839 issue (see the note to LTR-81). The $10 was undoubtedly payment for “Ligeia,” at about eighty cents a page. Like Poe's Tales of the Folio Club, the Spectator was presented as the work of several fictitious gentlemen, of whom the baronet Roger de Coverley was offered as the chief contributor. Poe's awareness of Joseph Addison, author with Richard Steele and a few others of the Spectator papers, was frequently exhibited; see eleven separate allusions and comments noted in Pollin, Dictionary of Names and Titles (p. 1), and several relevant annotations in TOM [Poems and T&S]. Poe was always deferential when dealing directly with Irving (see LTR-67a, LTR-83a, and LTR-113), but his tone in this letter seems to reveal his genuine feelings about America's most prominent author. Despite Poe's statement about not having read Irving recently, he had written a long and detailed review of Astoria (SLM, January 1837, 3:59-68; Writings, 5:345-354) and before that a short notice of The Crayon Miscellany (SLM, December 1835, 2:64-65; Writings, 5:70). He also used Astoria extensively in Pym for incidents, characters, and names as well as Irving's Bonneville, Knickerbocker's History, and possibly Salmagundi (see Writings, 1:21, and the index, for over a hundred specific instances in the three long works included). Since Poe was clearly more acquainted with Irving's works than he seems willing to admit, it may be that he was reluctant to attack Irving publically and in print, at least under his present circumstances. Brooks wrote the review of Irving's works for the first number of the Museum.

“Ventured” is an aphetic form of the earlier “adventured” (and “aventured”); as a substitute for “ventured” in contemporary usage, among over a hundred citations, the OED gives none like Poe's obsolete usage.

Source: transcript as given in an unidentified newspaper clipping from an issue of the Baltimore Gazette, undated but probably its first full printing. The location of the MS is unknown; the clipping from the newspaper is in University of Virginia, Ingram Collection (item 490). Ingram (1880, 1:154-155) apparently printed his text from this same source, but omitted the allusion to Neilson Poe, who was still alive in 1880 and who Ingram thought might yet be a valuable source of information and therefore did not wish to alienate. Poe is replying to a letter from Brooks datable as before September 4, 1838 (CL-177). Poe seems to have written at least one other letter to Brooks, ca. January 1, 1841 (CL-265), which was not answered (see LTR-107). [page 180:]

Note: Early in 1838, Poe, Virginia, and Maria Clemm rented rooms from Mrs. C. Jones, at 202 Arch Street. Based on the address, it is likely, then, that John C. Cox was a fellow renter at that boardinghouse (see The Poe Log, p. 248). In Poe in Philadelphia, D. Thomas identifies Cox as a merchant, although he lists Cox's address as 64 North Eleventh Street (p. 33), at least as of 1840 (p. 94). This debt of $50 is listed on the bankruptcy papers Poe filed in 1842 (see the notes to LTR-135). At the time of this letter, Poe's only novel, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym (1838), had just been published, but he was clearly in deep financial difficulties, ultimately resulting in his involvement with Thomas Wyatt and The Conchologist's First Book, a small volume which was somewhat [page 181:] successful and ran through three editions. In later years, and long after his death, this book would haunt Poe's reputation with charges of plagiarism (see LTR-249). The Sotheby's (NY) auction catalog (June 1, 1995) identifies John Huffnagle as a merchant located at 177 ½ High Street. His connection to Poe is otherwise unknown, but he may well have been another boarder. One can only speculate if the man Poe describes as “the old Dutch hog” might have some secret role in “The Devil in the Belfry,” set in the quaint Dutch village of Vondervotteimittiss and written early in 1839. See also Poe's only other known letter to John Cox, December 6, 1839 (LTR-85).

Source: photocopy of the original MS (1 p.) in the collection of the “California Collector.” The letter is addressed to: “John C. Cox Esq^r / 202 Arch S^t.” It bears no postmark, suggesting that it was delivered by hand. The remains of a wax seal are still evident.

Note: “Old Ironsides” is the nickname of the USS Constitution, a 44-gun frigate built in 1797. It became famous for surviving numerous encounters unscathed and for winning more battles than any of her sister ships. (By 1830, it was no longer considered seaworthy, but was saved by a public campaign which rallied around a poem by Oliver Wendell Holmes.) The article to which Poe refers was part of an extended series published in Burton's Gentleman's Magazine as “Sketches from the Log of Old Ironsides,” beginning in July 1839 (5:13-17) Most of the series is unsigned, with the only acknowledgment being: “By the author of ‘Old Ironsides off a Lee Shore’ ” (the earlier article having been printed in the [page 182:] Democratic Review of April 1839). The installment containing a section called “The Levanter” appears in the August 1839 issue (5:101-104), with subsequent installments in the issues for September (5:138-144), October (5:179-181), November (5:272-276), and December (5:300-303). The series continued through the end of the year, and resumed for three final articles in 1840. At the time of the present letter, Jesse Erskine Dow (1809-1850) held a clerkship in Washington. (For Dow's time serving aboard the USS Constitution, and a connection to Commodore J. D. Elliott, see the notes to LTR-156.) Dow was a friend to Poe and F. W. Thomas, and is often mentioned in their correspondence.

Source: photocopy of the original MS (1 p.) in the Massachusetts Historical Society. The letter is addressed to: “J. E. Dow Esq^r / P. Office, / Washington / D. C.” It bears a postmark of “PHILA / JUNE 25.” The remains of a wax seal are still evident.

Note: George Washington Poe (ca. 1800-1844) was one of the six children of George Poe, Jr. (see LTR-53). John Poe, Edgar's great-grandfather, was the son of a tenant-farmer in Dring, Ireland (see Quinn, p. 13); he came to America about 1750, and settled first in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and later in Baltimore, where he died in 1756 (Quinn, p. 14). The full resources of the New York Public Library fail to verify Poe's statements about the origins of the family name. “Poe” is not German, nor does this posit a French accent on a terminal “e.” Moreover, no bibliography or index of Germanic scientists indicates a “naturalist” or scientist of that name. As for the “name of much note in the financial history,” there is no evidence that this applies to Poe's Irish great-great-grandfather David or to his son John Poe, both being uneducated and living in merely comfortable circumstances (see Bewley, The Origin and Early History of the Family of Poe or Poë, pp. 51-68). Edgar's great-grandmother, Jane McBride, married to John in Cavan County, Ulster province, January 19, 1741, was the sister rather than the daughter of the man who became an admiral in the Royal Navy forty-eight years later. Her actual father was a clergyman (for details, see Brannan, The Poe Family Line, p. 16). Poe is obviously trying to “gentrify” himself through somewhat peripheral and inflated forbears and relationships. The rest of the many ensuing alterations of the facts in Poe's biography need not be specified to any students of Poe. For the importance of “status” or “caste” to Poe, with its many ramifications in the letters, see the note to LTR-108. “W. P.,” of course, is “West Point.” By giving his age as 26, Poe, for the first time, is incorrectly implying a birth date of 1813. The “letter to Gen. Houston” was probably a letter of introduction to General Sam Houston (1793-1863). G. W. Poe served in Houston's army in 1835 as a captain, and was nominated by Houston in 1838 as Stock Commissioner of the Republic of Texas. Houston was on a trip East in May 1839. Although there is little documentation for this trip, Houston's passport, dated February 1839 survives, a curious document required since Texas was not part of the U. S. at this point. Houston may have intended to visit New York and Philadelphia, in which case Poe might have had an opportunity to meet the iconoclastic general. [page 187:] Poe is answering a letter from George Poe, before July 14, 1839 (CL-191), presumably forwarded to Philadelphia from Richmond.

Source: photocopy of the original MS (1 p.) in the Free Library of Philadelphia, Gimbel Collection. The address reads: “George W. Poe / Houston, / Texas / via N. Orleans.” It bears a circular postal mark for Philadelphia, partly overlaying the “Geor” of the address, and a larger oval postal mark for New Orleans. There are also two “FWD” marks indicating that it was forwarded. The letter was, for some time, kept in a more modern envelope, bearing the note: “Edgar Allen [sic] Poe's letter to my <great, great> grandfather. / E. P. Marrill / This letter has been in the family for a long time. Please do not lose.” The Letters [1966] relied on a photocopy of a transcript of the letter, with various minor errors, which is in the Library of Virginia. Page 2 of the copy carries the following notation: “This letter and family tree, is a copy of an original one from Edgar A. Poe to my father Geo. W. Poe which is now in my possession, and was copied by me for J. T. Poe. (Signed) Geo. M. Poe, Mobile, Ala.”

Note: John Beauchamp Jones (1810-1866) was a Baltimore journalist, and an occasional contributor to the Gentleman's Magazine. His essay “Thoughts on the Literary Prospects of America” (Burton's, November 1839, 5:267-271) reveals deeply nationalistic interests. During the Civil War he was a government employee in Richmond, and published his experiences: A Rebel War Clerk's Diary of the Confederate States Capital (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1866). Poe and Jones apparently never met. In June, Poe had become associated with Burton's Gentleman's Magazine, and the August number contained several of Poe's writings. The Baltimore Sun for August 6, 1839 printed a notice of William Burton's lengthy theatrical engagement in New York: “It is evident that the senior editor [Burton] has been busied elsewhere, and consequently, although this number contains many excellent articles, there is a palpable want of tact in the manner in which it has been gotten up.” This apparent [page 189:] insinuation about his severity in reviewing seems to have rankled in Poe even a month later as expressed in the first paragraph of LTR-81 (written to Snodgrass). For an earlier reference to the Athenaenum, see LTR-58.

Source: original MS (2 p.) in the Humanities Research Center of the University of Texas at Austin. The letter is written on a double letter-size sheet, the contents of the postscript being on the verso of page 1. On the verso of the second leaf is the address: “J. Beauchamp Jones Esqr / Baltimore / M^d”. The postal cancellation reads: “Philadelphia / P^a / Aug 9.” Jones, presumably, wrote across the top of the letter: “Edgar Allen [sic] Poe Privately Squelches His Critics In Baltimore”; and at the foot of the page added: “over.” Poe is replying to Jones’ letter of August 6, 1839 (CL-194). No reply to Poe's letter is known.

Note: Dr. Joseph Evans Snodgrass (1813-1880), a Baltimore physician and minor literary figure, had known Poe probably since Poe's association with the “City of Monuments” in 1831-1835. With Nathan C. Brooks, Snodgrass edited the American Museum of Science, Literature and the Arts in 1839. He succeeded John B. Jones as editor of the Baltimore Saturday Visiter on November 13, 1841, and became the proprietor on January 15, 1842 (see The Poe Log, pp. xlii and 349). He also contributed essays and poems to Burton's, Graham's, Godey's, and the SLM. Snodgrass saw Poe during his last illness in Baltimore and was present at his burial. Eighteen years later he wrote “The Facts of Poe's Death and Burial” for Beadle's Monthly (March 1867, 3:283-287). The Museum died in May 1839, after only ten issues. Brooks’ editorial farewell, dated May 16, 1839 and printed at the end of the June issue, announced the passing of the editorship to Snodgrass, but Snodgrass printed just below the announcement that financial inducements more interesting called him elsewhere. L. A. Wilmer, in Our Press Gang (p. 29), says that Snodgrass succeeded T. S. Arthur as publisher of the Visiter, but “judiciously permitted it to expire” because “it would not pay him for his trouble.” Wilmer's comment implies the demise of the Visiter shortly after Snodgrass became the proprietor, but the paper was still active at least as late as 1846. (Heartman & Canny [1943], p. 151, give a speculative termination date of 1847; and Mott, American Magazines, 1:801, suggests 1850.) As requested, Snodgrass wrote the “puff” for Poe (see LTR-84). Samuel Harker was editor of the Baltimore Republican (see Jackson, “Four Poe Critiques,” MLN, 50:252). The advertisements for Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque (1840) include a long set of excerpts with an attribution only to the St. Louis Commercial Bulletin. These excerpts, presumable from the same extract sent to Thomas, were highly favorable, including the comment: “There are few writers in this country — take Neal, Irving, and Willis away, and we would say none — who can compete successfully in many respects with Poe.” (See LTR-104 for an inquiry as to who edited the Bulletin.) Charles Alexander's Weekly Messenger (January 1836?-1848; see American Magazines, 1:803) was published in Philadelphia, and to its December 18, 1839 number Poe contributed “Enigmatical and Conundrum-ical,” which included his offer to solve any letter substitution type cryptograms submitted by the readers (see Quinn, p. 326). For Poe's “profitable engagement” with Blackwood's Magazine, see LTR-95. The Literary Examiner (Pittsburgh), edited by E. Burke Fisher and William Henry Burleigh, was first issued in May 1839. It seems not to have died with the July issue, as Poe suggests, but later [page 192:] became the Examiner and Hesperian, though this lasted only until February 1840 (see American Magazines, 1:390). Poe wrote two articles for the Examiner: the review of N. P. Willis’ Tortesa (July 1839), 1:209-213; and an article on “American Novel-Writing” (August 1839), 1:316-320 — both were unsigned, with the latter one appearing under the “Editor's Table.” TOM first identified Poe's authorship of the second contribution, the material of which was extensively reused in Poe's review of The Quacks of Helicon, in Graham's (August 1841, 19:90-93; reprinted in H [Works], 10:182-195). Poe's discussion of the novel was to serve as an introduction to a series of papers; beginning with one on Charles Brockden Brown. The first volume of the Examiner, in the New York Historical Society, includes the numbers May-December 1839. In connection with other requests for puffs, to be inserted in the Baltimore papers, see LTR-43.

Source: facsimile of the original MS (2 pp.) in Bixby, pp. 6-7. The MS of this letter is in poor condition, with text missing from the lower right portion of page 1, from the lower left of page 2, and other damage. All restorations have been applied from a collation with William Hand Browne's transcript made for Ingram. Poe's reference to his forthcoming Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque (December 1839) and to his review of Willis’ Tortesa in the Literary Examiner and Western Monthly Review (July 1839), identifies the year as 1839. (The Literary Examiner began in May 1839, the third number being that for July; see American Magazines, 1:390.) The present letter, Poe's first known correspondence with Dr. J. E. Snodgrass, probably was not a reply to a letter from the Baltimore friend; it is highly likely, however, that Snodgrass sent Poe a note in connection with his forwarding the St. Louis Bulletin (CL-197a), but that note is unlocated.

Note: Philip Pendleton Cooke (1816-1850) was a minor Virginia writer who contributed to the SLM and Burton's during the respective periods of Poe's editorship. On several occasions Poe expressed his favorable opinion of Cooke as a poet and critic (see “Autography,” in H [Works], 15:234; also LTR-52). Irving's letter of November 6, 1840 (CL-214) makes it clear that Poe sent him the issue of Burton's containing “The Fall of the House of Usher.” In the present letter, Poe is obviously commenting on an earlier correspondence (CL-201), which may survive only as an excerpt in the “advertisements” for Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque: “I am much pleased with a tale called ‘The House of Usher,’ and should think that a collection of tales, equally well written, could not fail of being favorably received ... Its graphic effect is powerful.” LTR-84 reveals that Poe was actively soliciting Irving's praise for some sort of public purpose. No correspondence between Isaac D’Israeli and Poe is known, though the above reference, if true, implies at least one letter. For Willis, Poe probably means a review, such as the comment on “Ligeia” from the New-York Mirror (December 1, 1838), which states that the tale “has a touch of D’Israeli's quality” (see The Poe Log, pp. 258-259). For the reference to Beverley Tucker, see Tucker to T. W. White, November 29, 1835 (Wilson, “Unpublished Letters of EAP,” Century Magazine, 107:652-653); see also LTR-52, in which Poe implies having received a letter from Cooke (CL-109) giving an intelligent criticism and appreciation of certain tales published by Poe in the SLM. In addition, there are MS notes in the Manuscript Division of the New York Public Library which suggest that Poe intended to add a long passage of praise, adapted from Cooke to Poe, December 19, 1839 (CL-226), to the “advertisements” for his Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque, perhaps for his much anticipated but fruitless revised edition as Phantasy Pieces. Poe's “To Ianthe in Heaven” appeared in the July number of Burton's Gentleman's Magazine; his “The Man that was Used Up,” in August; his “The Fall of the House of Usher,” in September; and his “Morella,” in November, reprinted from the SLM, April 1835. “The Pittsburg[h] Examiner” was E. B. Fisher's Literary Examiner and Monthly Review (see LTR-81 and notes); Poe also reviewed Willis’ Tortesa in Burton's, August 1839 (5:117). The Gift for 1840, containing Poe's tale “William Wilson” (pp. 229-253), was copyrighted May 1839. For Poe's Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque (December 1839), see the note to LTR-87. For a follow-up of his comments about “Ligeia,” see LTR-240, where Poe notes that he has improved it. Lord Verulam was Sir Francis Bacon, mentioned in “Ligeia.” Following the advice from the postscript of [page 196:] Cooke's letter (CL-200), Poe changed “saith Verulam, Lord Bacon” (from the first version) to the more direct “says Bacon, Lord Verulam” (see TOM [T&S], 2:311).

The phrase “dust in the balance” is from Isaiah 40:15 (more accurately “small dust of the balance”), and also quoted in “Marginalia” M-85 (Writings, 2:188-189). The boating term, oddly given by Poe as “remain upon my oars,” is more typically “rest on my oars.” In the letter to Wyatt of 1841 (LTR-109a), he phrases it as “lay on my oars.” The shift from “the magazine” to “Maga” (without the article “the”) is of special interest. The term “Maga” for “magazine,” especially with a capital, was sometimes used as an abbreviated reference to Blackwood's Magazine, but Poe's usage is less consistent and perhaps occasionally works intentionally as a kind of double-entendre. (Failing to see the significant undercurrents in this letter, Woodberry editorially rendered “Maga” as “magazine.”) See Poe's two other epistolary instances (LTR-84 and LTR-205) and his desire to impress young Cooke, of a prominent family, with overtones of Poe's editorship of a burgeoning “Maga” reminiscent of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine. That influential British journal, edited by Christopher North (the pseudonym of John Wilson) was widely read and known in America (see this extensively discussed by M. Allen, Poe and the British Magazine Tradition, 2:20-42). Poe was then possibly deluding himself about being a contributor from abroad to the British “Maga”; see his letter of September 11, 1839 (LTR-81), and also his “follow up” (LTR-95), especially the end and note. His “awakening” into disillusionment and hostility to “North” was bluntly demonstrated in his utterances in the BJ (see The Poe Log, pp. 574-576; and Writings, 3:239-240 and related notes, 4:190, plus other items given in the index).

Source: photocopy of the original MS (2 pp.) in the Houghton Library, Harvard University. No envelope or address accompanies the MS. Poe is replying to Cooke's letter of September 16, 1839 (CL-200), postmarked September 19. Cooke's letter was an answer to one from Poe which asked Cooke's opinion of “Ligeia” and encouraged Cooke to contribute to Burton's, of which Poe was editor from June 1839-June 1840. “Ligeia” had appeared in the American Museum, September 1838. Thus Poe's first known letter to Cooke may be dated July-August, 1839 (CL-193), since Cooke (September 16) speaks of its having been received “a long time ago.” Cooke's answer of December 19, 1839 (CL-226) implies an unlocated follow-up letter (CL-205) to Poe's present one. [page 197:]

Note: Poe's strong charge here against Neilson Poe, dismissed as “the little dog,” is a more outspoken attack than that in LTR-81. It was prompted, perhaps, by Neilson's objections, on uncertain grounds, to Edgar's marriage to Virginia Clemm, and bolstered by Poe's feeling that [page 198:] Neilson, as editor of a Baltimore daily (H [Works], 17:70), could assist in building up Poe's reputation but would not do so. The “gymnastic article” was part of the unsigned series “A Chapter on Field Sports and Manly Pastimes” that began in February 1839 and ended with the February 1840 issue. Somewhat presumptuously, Heartman & Canny [1943, pp. 189-195] attribute the whole series to Poe, but only this one article is certainly his. Poe's “book,” Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque, was published in December 1839 (see LTR-87 and notes). The issues of the SLM requested by Poe included those from March 1835 (vol. I, no. 7) through May 1836 (vol. II, no. 6), and contained, besides other contributions, thirteen of his tales: “Berenice,” “Morella,” “Lionizing,” “Hans Phaal,” “Bon-Bon,” “Loss of Breath,” “King Pest the First,” “Shadow. A Fable,” “MS. Found in a Bottle,” “Metzengerstein,” “Duc de L’Omelette,” “Epimanes,” and “A Tale of Jerusalem.”

See the compound word “well-doing” (sometimes without the hyphen) also in LTR-84, LTR-155, and LTR-189. Although rare today, the word was then common for “good action [biblical sense] or valor, and for thriving condition, health, prosperity [secular sense]” in the OED; both are probably rooted in and derived from 1 Peter, 3:17: “better ... that ye suffer for well-doing, than for evil-doing”; and 2 Thessalonians, 3:13: “But ye, brethren, be not weary in well doing.”

Source: transcript by William H. Browne for J. H. Ingram, from the original MS. The transcript is in the University of Virginia, Ingram Collection (see APXA-Snodgrass); Poe's MS letter is probably lost. In the margin of Browne's transcript Ingram made the notation to omit sentences 3-8; at the end of his transcript, Browne penciled this note: “In the original this P.S. is written lengthwise on right hand margin.” Poe is answering a letter by Snodgrass, dated as before October 7, 1839 (CL-208).

Note: In connection with the present letter, see LTR-84 and notes. For Washington Irving's encomiums of Poe's “Fall of the House of Usher” and “William Wilson” see notes to LTR-82. Poe's reference to Irving's “An Unwritten Drama of Lord Byron” as a source for “William Wilson” is significant. In 1825 Irving had been given notes, made by Byron's friend Captain Thomas Medwin, of a dramatic work he identified as the play El Embozado, but more accurately called El Purgatorio de San Patricio (see TOM [T&S], 2:424), written by Spanish playwright Pedro Calderón de la Barca (1600-1681). Long ago TOM discovered that this story was used by Irving for his article in The Gift for 1836 (see TOM's introduction to An Unwritten Drama of Lord Byron; see, also, S. T. Williams, The Life of Washington Irving, 1:466-467). Poe's own “MS. Found in a Bottle” appeared in the same issue of The Gift. In the present letter Poe admits his indebtedness. For the publication date of Poe's Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque, see LTR-85 and note as well as the notes to LTR-87. Poe's admission of Irving's article as a source of “William Wilson,” which was also available to Hawthorne for “Howe's [page 201:] Masquerade,” effectively negates Poe's 1842 claim about plagiarism (H [Works], 11:112-113). The charge is cogently argued on grounds other than this one by Robert Regan in “Hawthorne's ‘Plagiary’; Poe's Duplicity,” Nineteenth-Century Literature. The source is also important for reducing the often over-emphasized autobiographical nature of the story. Those who see Poe as describing himself as “self-willed, addicted to the wildest caprices, and a prey to the most ungovernable passions” should consider Irving's words in describing Alfonso, the “hero” of the “Unwritten Drama,” noting that “His passions, from early and unrestrained indulgence, have become impetuous and ungovernable, and he follows their impulses with a wild and heedless disregard of consequences” (The Gift for 1836, pp. 166-167). Greatly indebted to Irving for a source used in “William Wilson,” acknowledged in the present letter, and for much in “The Journal of Julius Rodman” (see Writings, 1:index, p. 659, under “Irving”); Poe wished more tangible aid in entering him into Such Friends, as no. 222, with an intriguing note of “see him” (p. 27).

Source: color photograph of the original MS (2 pp.), formerly in the collection of H. Bradley Martin, and now in the collection of Mrs. Susan J. Tane. The third page of the letter paper is blank; on the fourth is the address: “Washington Irving Esq^r / New-York / N.Y.” and the postmark: “Philadelphia, Oct. 13.” The letter is readdressed: “Tarrytown, Westchester County,” and in the lower left corner, where Poe had written “Paid,” someone has added, below, “to New York”; a second postmark reads: “New-York, Oct. 14.” In the upper left corner of one folded portion of the cover appears Irving's notation: “Edgar A Poe / Oct 12th 1839 / answd. Nov. 6th.” The present letter verifies CL-196 and CL-201.

Note: Poe is thanking Snodgrass for an unlocated notice in the Baltimore Post, which Snodgrass apparently signed only with his initials, and out of order (perhaps intentionally, but more likely a typographical error). Poe was to quote from this notice as part of the “advertisements” of his Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque, and to give Snodgrass’ full name in acknowledgment. Poe's comment about “a false sense of modesty” is curious given the fact the he did not generally hesitate to publicize private laudations as though publicly printed, as Quinn admits (p. 674) and Woodberry charges, noting them as “much altered and somewhat garbled” [1909, 1:216-217]. For examples of this practice, see the SLM (especially January and April 1836, quoted in The Poe Log, pp. 185-188 and 200-204) and the comments from “noted literary men” in the long biographical article in the Philadelphia Saturday Museum of February 25, 1843 (see LTR-153). Another example is the very same “advertisements” for Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque mentioned by Poe in the present letter, including comments from Paulding and Anthon, as noted. Adapting a statement from Paulding's letter to T. W. White (December 7, 1840), these advertisements give: “Mr. Poe is decidedly the best of all our young writers — I don’t know but that I may say, of all our old ones.” The source of Anthon's simple “facile princeps,” appearing directly after the quote from Paulding, has not been located. Regarding Irving's two letters, see notes to LTR-82 and LTR-113. For another reference to “quietists,” see LTR-149. “Literary Small Talk” appeared in the January and February 1839 issues of the American Museum, edited by Nathan C. Brooks and Joseph E. Snodgrass (Writings, 2:454-464) and published in Baltimore (also see LTR-90 and note). For Poe's contributions to the American Museum, see the note to LTR-78. For the linkage of the first paragraph of the present letter to the national “Panic of 1837” see Whalen's discussion in Poe and the Masses (pp. 198-199).

The hyphenated form of “vain-glory” is given in the OED for several nineteenth century instances but not in most modern dictionaries. For [page 204:] “well-doing” see the notes to LTR-83. For Poe's use of the term “Maga,” see the note to LTR-82.

Source: photocopy of the original MS (2 pp.), formerly in the collection of William H. Koester, and now in the Humanities Research Center of the University of Texas at Austin. The envelope, a separate leaf, is posted at Philadelphia, Pa., Nov. 12, and is addressed to: “D^r J. Evans Snodgrass / Baltimore / M^d.” Poe's reference to two letters from Irving, the second of which was dated November 6, 1839 (CL-214) and addressed to Burton and the Gentleman's Magazine, places the letter in 1839. The content of the letter, especially in connection with that of LTR-81, identifies the Snodgrass as the person addressed. Poe is answering two unlocated letters from Snodgrass: one, “... perdu in the P. Office for some 10 days,” with the possible dating of November 1-2, 1839 (CL-213), and the second with the possible dating of before November 11, 1839 (CL-215).

Note: For information on Mr. Cox and Mrs. Jones, see LTR-78a. Poe, with his little family, was apparently living in a small house on Sixteenth Street, to which he went from his Arch Street quarters late in 1838 (see Quinn, p. 273). Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque was published in two slender volumes by Lea & Blanchard in Philadelphia, December 1839, as evidenced by the present letter, but with an 1840 dating on the title page.

Source: facsimile of the original MS (1 p.) in the Anderson Galleries catalog (No. 2029), February 1-3, 1926, item 514. The letter is addressed to Mr. J. C. Cox, Philadelphia. The present item was doubted by TOM [Iowa] on internal grounds and also because of its short “history” (then known only back to 1926, but now traceable to 1908), with no evidence of any known cause for Poe's gratitude and book gift. It is now validated, however, by Poe's letter to Cox of September 11, 1838 (LTR-78a), giving details of the two-part “loan” made to Poe. No reply by Cox is known.

Note: Poe's correspondent here is Edward L. Carey or Abraham Hart, these gentlemen being the eponymous owners of the firm of Carey & Hart, the publishers of many books, including The Gift for 1836, which contained a reprint of Poe's “MS. Found in a Bottle” (see LTR-50). (In the 1948 and 1966 editions of The Letters, Mr. Hart's first name is given incorrectly as John.) No chapter by Captain Marryat, as implied by the present letter, appeared in Burton's for January, February, or March 1840; there is, however, a review of his Diary in America, First and Second Parts (Philadelphia: Carey & Hart, and T. K. & G. P. Collins) in Burton's (February 1840, 6:103-105). A notice in Alexander's Weekly Messenger (January 29, 1840) attributes this review to Burton (see Brigham, “EAP's Contributions to Alexander's Weekly Messenger,” pp. 27-28.)

Source: photocopy of the original MS (1 p.) in the New York Public Library, Berg Collection. Poe's editorial connection with Burton and the Gentleman's establishes the year date as 1839. The present letter was rejected by TOM [Iowa], possibly because of the request for the new work by Captain Frederick Marryat, whose now long-forgotten novel Joseph Rushbrook Poe later condemned as “mediocre” and “vulgar” (Graham's, September 1841, 19:142-143; reprinted in H [Works], 10:197-202). No reply from Carey or Hart is known.

Note: Poe's Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque (2 vols., Philadelphia: Lea & Blanchard) carried an 1840 imprint date, but was out by December 6, 1839 (see LTR-85). On September 28, 1839, Lea & Blanchard wrote Poe (CL-207) that 750 copies were to be printed. Figures quoted by Charvat in Publishers’ Weekly for November 23, 1946, p. 2958, show conclusively that Woodberry gave the number correctly (W [1909], 2:376), but Quinn (p. 287) curiously prints a far greater number of 1750 copies, perhaps a simple typographical mistake or an error in reading a note. John L. Carey of the Baltimore American was the author of Domestic Slavery (see LTR-90, and note). Poe probably inscribed the copy intended for Snodgrass, but if so, that set has not been located.

Source: transcript by William H. Browne for J. H. Ingram, from the original MS (see APXA-Snodgrass). Poe's MS letter is probably lost; the transcript is in the University of Virginia, Ingram Collection. According to Spencer, the letter was postmarked December 13, a date that fits the content of the letter and the text of the subsequent one, December 19 (LTR-88).

Note: Regarding Burton's dubious offer of premiums for contributions to the Gentleman's Magazine, see LTR-95. Burton's fraudulent “scheme,” as Poe rightly considered it, was advertised in Alexander's Weekly Messenger on November 20, 1839 and on the back wrapper of Burton's for January 1840 (see The Poe Log, pp. 277-278, especially p. 291 for a photograph of the ad from Burton's). The matter was to cause Poe in part to leave his position at the magazine. For a fine summation of the Poe-Burton relationship, with much evidentiary data, see D. Thomas, Poe in Philadelphia, pp. 724-727. (See also Silverman's terse appraisal of Poe's distress about Burton's manoeuvres as affecting his friend and others, p. 156.) For “Scenes of Childhood,” see LTR-90. John Frost (1800-1859), a professor of belles-lettres in the high school in Philadelphia, is included in Poe's “Chapter on Autography,” Graham's, December 1841 (reprinted in H [Works], 15:242-243). The New World, a monster folio fiction weekly, edited by Park Benjamin and R. W. Griswold, did not appear until June 6, 1840 (American Magazines, 1:359-360). Poe's postscript was either fanciful or based upon a misunderstanding. On August 16, 1841, Lea & Blanchard, the publishers, wrote him that the 1840 edition of his Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque had neither “been got through,” nor even returned the expense of publication (CL-321).

Source: transcript for William H. Browne for J. H. Ingram, from the original MS (see APXA-Snodgrass). Poe's MS letter is probably lost; the transcript is in the University of Virginia, Ingram Collection. According to Ingram's note on the transcript, the holograph was worn and mutilated in several places. Bracketed portions reflect Browne's emendations. Poe is replying to Snodgrass’ letter postmarked December 16, 1839 (CL-224). Poe errs in saying his own was “dated 2 days before [the 16],” for it was actually dated December 12 (LTR-87). The letter was first printed in W [1909], 1:237-239, where Woodberry interpreted “brôt” (for brought) and “cd” (for could) as “bro’t” and “c’d.” Whether he saw the MS or was making his own editorial changes to Browne's transcript is not certain.

Note: Concerning Joseph B. Boyd, see LTR-100 and note. “Silence — A Sonnet” was first published in the Philadelphia Saturday Courier, January 4, 1840. A comparison of the present version of the poem with that printed in Campbell, Poems, pp. 104-105 and TOM [Poems], 1:320-323, shows variations in a few words and in punctuation. See TOM [Poems] also for a discussion of its sources (especially in two sonnets by Thomas Hood), its deliberate experimental 15-line form, all the variants, and its themes, plus Campbell's verbal revision of his published comment. Note Poe's graciousness and effort in writing out the entire poem for Boyd's autograph collection, as he was to do with the sonnet “To Zante” in 1840 (LTR-103) and with the very long “For Annie,” copied out for A. [page 211:] G. Chester on April 1, 1849 (LTR-309a). (Poe also copied “The Raven” for Dr. Whitaker, LTR-278a, and “Ulalume” for Miss Ingram, LTR-331.)

Source: original MS (1 p.) in the New York Public Library, Berg Collection. Poe is replying to Boyd's letter of November 15, 1839 (CL-217).

Note: The poem Poe refers to in the present letter as “Friends of Childhood” he called “Scenes of Childhood” in his letter of December 19, 1839 (LTR-88). It appeared in Burton's as “Childhood Scenes” (February 1840, 6:99). John L. Carey (not Henry C. Carey, as Woodberry misidentified him) wrote Domestic Slavery; it was published anonymously in Baltimore (1838), but carried his name as author in the second edition, 1839. (Henry Carey's The Slave Trade was not published until 1853.) Concerning Poe's receipt of the book and his unpublished review of it, see LTR-95. Joseph Robinson was a printer in Baltimore. Among other items, Robinson published Robinson's Magazine (1818-1819), and E. C. Pinckney's Rodolph, a Fragment in 1823 and Poems in 1825 (see also the note to LTR-90a). Poe's reference to the American Museum of Science, Literature and the Arts here is curious, for that magazine died in May, 1839, with the June number (see notes to LTR-81); at the time of the present letter, Snodgrass was editing the Baltimore Saturday Visiter. Perhaps the demise of the American Museum was attended by a misunderstanding between Snodgrass and his former partner Nathan Covington Brooks, and Snodgrass’ bid for Poe's editorial assistance in revitalizing the Visiter was frustrated by Burton's friendship with Brooks. (Interestingly, “Childhood Scenes” is credited in Burton's as “by J. E. Snodgrass, late editor of the Baltimore Museum.”) Poe's abbreviation for verbum sat sapienti (est) means “A word to the wise (is) sufficient.”

Source: William H. Browne's transcript for J. H. Ingram, from the original MS (see APXA-Snodgrass). Poe's MS letter is probably lost; the transcript is in the University of Virginia, Ingram Collection. Though Snodgrass’ name does not appear in the letter, his poem “Childhood Scenes” identifies him as Poe's correspondent. Poe is answering Snodgrass’ letter (CL-228).

Note: Poe's correspondent in the present letter is presumably Reverend Joseph Clarkson Passmore (1818-1866). He published, under the initials J. C. P., a volume of poetry, Footprints, or, Fugitive Poems (Philadelphia: John Penington, 1843). The contribution that Poe describes only as “The Lectures” was probably religious in nature, and may have been related to Passmore's An Essay on the Life and Writings of Bishop Butler (Baltimore: Joseph Robinson, 1850), apparently republished as the introduction of William Whewell, ed., Bishop Butler's Ethical Discourses (Philadelphia: C. Desilver, 1855). At some point, Rev. Passmore moved to Milwaukee, Michigan, where he was associated with Racine College. Although Poe seems to be politely rejecting an unwanted contribution, LTR-92a suggests that he was expressing a genuine policy. Many magazines of the period did not pay for contributions, and the Gentleman's Magazine had already proven itself more expensive to run than Burton had hoped. By the end of the year, he would sell the magazine to G. R. Graham, for personal or financial reasons.

Source: color photograph of the original MS (1 p.) from Christie's (NY) catalog, April 8, 2003, item 197. The letter is addressed to “J. C. Passmore Esqr / Lancaster / Pa.” and postmarked “PHILA / FEB 15 / PD.” The letter is in remarkably fine condition, with nearly the full red wax seal still intact. Poe is replying to Passmore's letter of January 23, 1841 (CL-229a). [page 214:]

Note: John Kearsley Mitchell (1793-1858), father of the novelist Silas Weir Mitchell, was a prominent physician and lecturer at various Philadelphia medical institutes. Dr. Mitchell's poem “The Brilliant Nor-West” appeared in Graham's Magazine (April 1841, 18:149), but his literary ambitions seem to have been quite modest. He was also Poe's physician. For their common interest in poetry, popular song, the Chess Player “automaton,” and ballooning, see The Poe Log, pp. xxxiv, 313, and 538; with additional information in D. Thomas, Poe in Philadelphia, pp. 852-854. According to Mitchell's grandson, Poe borrowed money from Dr. Mitchell, money which was never returned (see Phillips, 1:684). Phillips also notes that Mitchell lived at 288 Walnut street. The reason for the invitation cannot be reliably determined, but it is possible that Poe was asked to attend a gathering to examine Maelzel's Chess-Player, which had been sitting in a warehouse and collecting dust since Maelzel's death in 1838 and was purchased by Mitchell about the time of the present letter (see Standage, The Turk, p. 188).

Source: facsimile of the original MS (1 p.) in the William D. Morley catalog, May 19, 1941, item 289. The letter carries no inside address or year date, but only 1840 and 1844 are possible, since the letter was written in a leap year and only in those two years were both Poe and Mitchell in Philadelphia, where Dr. Mitchell practiced medicine from 1822 until his death in 1858 (see the DAB, 13:54-55). It seems impossible to determine which year date is correct, and the earlier has been chosen tentatively. TOM [Iowa] first rejects this letter, but later inclines toward accepting it, placing it in 1844. He then cancels his rejection, when it is confirmed “by history,” he wrote, referring to the sale as “papers of family of Dr. S[ilas] Weir Mitchell.” Poe seems to be replying to a note from Dr. Mitchell, before February 29, 1840 (CL-230). [page 215:]

Note: This letter is the last known to have been written by Poe to Hiram Haines. (For more information on Haines, see notes to LTR-72). Haines’ letter probably thanked Poe for the “puff” of the Virginia Star which he wrote for Alexander's Weekly Messenger (Philadelphia), March 18, 1840, p. 2, col. 4 (see C. S. Brigham, “EAP's Contributions to Alexander's Weekly Messenger,” 52:100-101). TOM informed Ostrom that Poe was [page 216:] “contributing to the [Weekly] Messenger regularly at this time.” There is no evidence that the fawn was sent, or that it reached Philadelphia. Poe's proposed visit to Petersburg undoubtedly concerned the establishment of the Penn Magazine.

Source: original MS (1 p.) in the Poe Foundation. The envelope is cancelled at Philadelphia, April 27, and addressed to “H. Haines Esq^r / Editor of “Virginia Star” / Petersburg / Va.” The MS is worn in the folds and browned with age. The one-leaf letter is folded once, with page 1 serving for the communication, pages 2 and 3 blank, and the address occurring on part of page 4. The chirography is unusually large, clear, and neat. Poe is replying to Haines’ letter of March 24, 1840 (CL-232).

Note: This is the only known letter to Roland S. Houghton (died 1876), who married Marie Louise Shew in November of 1850. Poe and Mrs. Shew corresponded during 1847-1848, and it was she who encouraged Poe to compose “The Bells” (see LTR-248 and LTR-273 notes; also Quinn, p. 563). Contrary to Ostrom's contention in the 1966 edition of The Letters (2:691), Poe does not seem to be rejecting the article. Indeed, [page 217:] “John A’ Combe, A Character” appeared in Burton's for September 1840 (7:137-139), where it is credited only as “by an undergraduate,” although it is also signed “H.” (At this time, Houghton was fifteen, and a student at the University of Vermont.) Curious in the present letter is Poe's reference to one of his favorite topics, the condition of copyright laws in the United States. (For a similar letter, in which Poe does not blame copyright laws, see LTR-90a.) Regarding the “Premiums,” see LTR-88 and LTR-95.

Neither the OED nor the Merriam-Webster International Dictionary sanctions the addition of a hyphen as “copy-right.” Poe varies his spelling, with fifty-nine instances of a fused “copyright,” about six of separated “copy right” and twenty-two with the hyphen.

Source: photocopy of the original MS (1 p.) in the Free Library of Philadelphia, Gimbel Collection. The letter is addressed to “R. S. Houghton Esq^r / University of Vermont, / Burlington, / V^t”, and is postmarked at Philadelphia, April 27. The letter was written on page 1 of a folded sheet, address and postmark are on page 4; pages 2-3 are blank. About the present letter, TOM [Iowa] says: “Of doubtful authenticity.” TOM, however, was aware only of the fragment, and the specifics of the rest of the letter should negate his concerns. Poe appears to be answering a letter from Houghton, before April 27, 1840 (CL-233a). No reply from Houghton is known, although the article was presumably printed with the permission of the unpaid author.

Note: William Evans Burton (1802-1860) was a popular stage comedian who decided to try his hand at running a magazine, but seems to have found it neither as interesting nor as profitable as his theatrical career. “George” probably refers to Burton's clerk, George Morrell (see LTR-109). The popular “Victorine; or, I’ll Sleep on it,” described in notices of the time as a “Domestic Burletta,” was written by John Baldwin Buckstone (1802-1879). Beginning in 1831, it was still running in such venues as the Adelphi Theatre as late as 1845. Burton himself had adapted Buckstone's “Ellen Wareham” in London in 1833, and in Philadelphia in 1837 and 1840 (see DP, 139). Poe joined Burton's as an assistant editor in May of 1839, announced on the back cover of the June 1839 issue (see Quinn, p. 278). His listing of duties is supported by a letter from Burton to Poe, July 4, 1839 (CL-188), in which Burton, absent in New York, gives Poe orders concerning the August number and exhorts him to see that Morrell and the others get the issue out on time. Park Benjamin's paper, the New World, mentioned by Poe on December 19, 1839 as if soon to be published (see LTR-88), had just appeared in June 1840 (American Magazines, 1:359). Six installments of “Rodman's Journal” ran in Burton's, vol. VI (January-June 1840). The content of Poe's letter implies that Burton's “letter of Saturday,” after making certain accusations against Poe, fired him, but asked about his continuing the “Journal of Julius Rodman.” Possibly the letter implies some new arrangement whereby Poe would contribute but not remain as a full-salaried editor. In any event, Poe probably had not resigned when he received Burton's letter. Burton seems to have answered Poe's letter, and Poe then wrote his resignation (see LTR-95), or he left Burton's and let Snodgrass believe the resignation had been voluntary. Burton's exclusion of reviews (cited in the letter to Snodgrass) may have been due, not to Poe's resignation, but to matters set forth in Burton's “Saturday letter.”

The chief importance of the present letter has been the useful but problematic list of pages for which Poe accepts authorship in each issue of Burton's. Various scholars, including Hull, have attempted to support the numbers — all in vain. Using the passage about “Plate articles, Field Sports, &c.,” and a phrase from “Some Words with a Mummy,” TOM [T&S, 3:1200 n. 34] assigns a plate article on the Washington Capitol to Poe. It is highly unlikely that Poe is the author of all of the installments in the “Sports” articles since that series (February 1839-February 1840) exceeds Poe's association with Burton's. Only the one article on Gymnastics can be granted to Poe with confidence (see LTR-83), and [page 222:] Poe may intend to accept only editorial supervision of the others. Of course, Poe could credit his “balance” with various inclusions as he himself saw fit to do, and he apparently counted as full pages those not quite full (see Hull, pp. 151-187). It is also possible that Rouse misread the MS, or that Poe changed the numbers in a final draft. “A Visit to a Mad-House,” by Miss Mary E. MacMichael of Philadelphia appears in Burton's Gentleman's Magazine for May 1840 (6:230-234). “A Night Among the Dead,” by Joseph R. Chandler, editor of the United States Gazette (Philadelphia), appears in Burton's for June 1840 (6:253-254). The debt Poe owed Burton was still not resolved more than two years later. In the bankruptcy papers he filed in 1842, Poe lists an entry of $100 to Burton, with the note “disputed claim.”

Poe's statements in this letter about his only novel, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, are often disregarded or considered as though he was being insincere or was simply jesting about Burton's disparaging remarks, although the whole letter shows no display of tact, conciliation, or light-heartedness. Burton's (September 1838, 3:210-211), reviewed Pym (published by Harper & Brothers, July 1838, according to Quinn, p. 263); the criticism was derogatory and said, in part, “We regret to find Mr. Poe's name in connexion with such a mass of ignorance and effrontery.” Ironically, his novel has become the focus of more pages of criticism than any other single Poe work — accounting for literally thousands of articles, extended passages, and entire critical volumes. Burton's response must have signified to Poe the blunt nonacceptance by educated readers, who were simply not those he aimed at (teen-agers and mechanics fond of mariners’ chronicles, adventure stories, explorations into unknown lands, tales of violence and strangeness, with characters of obvious and simple emotions and motives). The introductory material for Pym in the Imaginary Voyages volume of the Writings (1:4-45) draws upon almost all commentaries from the novel's publication up to 1981 and explains why many of the adult readers and reviewers, like Burton, might call the book “silly” and Poe acknowledge that such “criticism was essentially correct.” Poe might have alluded to the “half banter, half satire” element in his earlier tales, as in his letter to Kennedy (LTR-57). Poe failed even later to take pride in the work, according to Duyckinck (Writings, 1:14). The many issues often raised receive a particularly thorough, judicious, and well-organized treatment in Ronald C. Harvey's Critical History of EAP's Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym.

Poe's apparent misspelling of the second word in “bonâ fiede” seems highly unlikely, but cannot be verified in the absence of the MS. The [page 223:] intrusive first “e” may easily be the “reading” of a flourished off-stroke of the preceding “i,” misinterpreted as a separate letter. As for the circumflex used for a macron (in Latin), this is an oddity in Poe's Latin words, which is rarely but occasionally seen in other authors of the period, such as in Bulwer's 1841 Miscellanies (of earlier published essays; see 2:119), reviewed by Poe. It occurs in the works of the SLM period to that of the BJ: see “bonâ fide” in “Loss of Breath” (TOM [T&S], 2:62); review of Paul Ulric (SLM, February 1836, 2:173-180; reprinted in H [Works], 8:185, and Writings, 5:107-114); “primâ facie” in “Mystification” (TOM [T&S], 2:303), and “Marginalia” M-165, of 1846 (Writings, 2:274). It may derive from the possible lack of a standard type font macron and the substitute use of the French accent mark, becoming a habit for Poe as editor, as well as writer.

The comment fairly early in the present letter, that Poe is not to be “insulted with impunity,” must remind some readers of a similar line in “The Cask of Amontillado,” Poe's tale of a long-simmering revenge, written six years later.

Source: transcript of the original MS made by William Rouse for Ingram from the original MS. The original MS is unlocated; the transcript is in the University of Virginia, Ingram Collection. Annie Richmond wrote Ingram, May 27, 1877, that the copy was exact in every detail, “... a perfect copy, for he is most reliable and he assured me that every erasure was precisely like the original.” According to Mrs. Richmond's letter to Ingram, October 8, 1877, she had given the original to her friend, Mr. Rouse, as a souvenir. The Poe MS in Rouse's possession was undoubtedly a draft; the clean copy, if written and sent to Burton, is unknown. Mrs. Richmond probably got the MS from Mrs. Clemm after Poe's death. The Rouse copy gives no year date, but 1840 cannot be doubted. Bracketed readings, illegible in the Rouse copy, are from Ingram's printing (EAP: His Life, Letters, and Opinons, 1:175-179). Poe is replying to Burton's letter of Saturday, May 30, 1840 (CL-234).