Text: J. W. Ostrom, B. R. Pollin, and J. A. Savoye, “Chapter 07,” The Collected Letters of Edgar Allan Poe — Vol. I: 1824-1845 (2008), pp. 483-546 (This material is protected by copyright)

Note: John Augustus Shea (1802-1845) was connected with the New-York Daily Tribune (see Campbell, Poems, p. 248), which reprinted “The Raven” on February 4, 1845, incorporating Poe's requested changes (see TOM [RAOP], pp. xxv-xxvi). Poe's famous poem was widely carried in periodicals of the day, both with and without the expressed permission of the author. For Poe's friendship with Shea see Phillips, 2:938-939; H [Works], 1:218-219; and especially TOM [Poems], 1:170, n. to ll. 1:9-10, 1:362, and 1:542. According to an obituary notice in the August 16, 1845 Tribune, Shea died at age 42. For successive alterations in “The Raven,” including this one, see TOM [Poems], 1:363-374.

Source: photocopy of the original MS (1 p.) in the Morgan Library. The year is certainly 1845; the month date probably February 3, since the corrected lines were used in the New York Tribune for February 4. The letter was not mailed but delivered by hand; on the cover appears: “J. Augustus Shea Esq^r / To be delivered as soon as he comes in.” [page 486:]

Note: Evert Augustus Duyckinck (1816-1878) and Cornelius Mathews had edited Arcturus, December 1840-May 1842, in New York (American Magazines, 1:711). It was probably through Mathews that Poe became acquainted with Duyckinck (see LTR-172). As a prominent editor and a frequent contributor to various periodicals of the day, Duyckinck was well connected in the literary world, and would serve as a very useful contact for Poe. The present letter concerns preparation for the 1845 collection of Poe's Tales, printed in June as the second volume in Wiley & Putnam's Library of American Books. Although it did achieve some popularity, Poe was disappointed in the final selection (see LTR-240). The somewhat ornate appearance of the letter suggests that Poe was intently aware of the importance of his correspondent.

Source: color photograph of the original MS (1 p.) owned by Bauman Rare Books and Peter L. Stern Books. The note is written on a half sheet of blue, lined paper. The verso is blank, and there is no address sheet. Instead, as suggested by the opening sentence, the letter was delivered by hand. The signature appears to be the model for the woodcut version reproduced in Duyckinck's Cyclopedia of American Literature (1856, 2:537), its most distinctive features being the downward curving paraph and last name, and the strangely pointed “o” in “Poe.” Although the letter itself was unknown until it appeared for sale in 2006, the signature has achieved a certain amount of fame for being reproduced as part of the frontispiece in many editions of Poe's poetry and as a gilt ornament on the front cover of various collections of his works. There is some evidence that the page was at some point pasted down to another piece of paper, perhaps tipped into a book. Although it lacks a provenance, the paper, ink, contents, and handwriting all attest to its authenticity. [page 487:]

Note: Early in 1845, Griswold was preparing the sixth edition of his Poets and Poetry of America, published later in the year (Neu, “Rufus Wilmot Griswold,” p. 133). Griswold's January 14 letter to Poe (CL-516) mentions the preparations for Prose Writers of America (Philadelphia: Carey & Hart, March 3, 1847), requesting “a list of all your works, with the dates of their production.” Poe's conciliatory reply of January 16 (LTR-190) asked for a meeting with Griswold, with Poe's phrase “soon after seeing you” indicating that such a meeting actually took place. George B. Zieber was a bookseller, according to Phillips, 2:1685 (see also [page 488:] DLB, 49:502). Burgess & Stringer were publishers, and presumably had a special system of distribution to agents in various cities. Poe's “3d interest in the ‘Broadway Journal’ ” dated from February 21, 1845, when the contract with Bisco, the publisher, was signed (see Quinn, p. 751). For Poe's aversion to Thomas Ward (1807-1873), author of verse tales under the pen-name of “Flaccus” (the family name of Horace) in the Knickerbocker Magazine, see Poe's altogether “flippant” review (the word of The Poe Log, p. xlvii) of his Passaic in the March 1843 Graham's (H [Works], 11:160-174). Poe strenuously attacks this one of “Our Amateur Poets,” who he says is “characterized by Griswold” in his anthology as being a “gentleman of elegant leisure.” This phrase, however, does not actually appear in Griswold's Poets and Poetry of America. Instead, it presumably originated in Poe's own resentment of that group's wealth, privilege, and ready access to publishers and editors (see Writings, 2:243). Possibly foreseeing aid or a contribution from “Flaccus” for his magazine, Poe included him in Such Friends, as no. 3 (p. 37). It is interesting to note that Poe had no copies of “The Gold-Bug” on hand for Griswold. That story had been his second most popular work, after “The Raven.” (See LTR-197 for Poe's own comment on the relative status of these two works.) Although demand for “The Gold-Bug” in 1843 necessitated an unusually large run of the Dollar Newspaper, and was reprinted again in an extra issue, Poe may have already relinquished his remaining copy as part of the proposed edition of Tales then under consideration by Wiley & Putnam, or he may have sent his last copy to Lowell (in LTR-179). The two tales Poe did send, “Murders in the Rue Morgue” and “The Man that was Used Up,” suggest that Poe included a copy of his 1843 volume of Prose Romances, which contains only those two works. Despite Poe's recommended inclusions, Griswold published only “The Fall of the House of Usher,” which first appeared in Burton's (September 1839, 5:145-152), and which Poe did not mention in his letter (although, see SPR-7 for Griswold's forged version of the letter).

Source: photocopy of the original MS (1 p.) in the Boston Public Library. The letter is addressed to Rev. Rufus W. Griswold, Philadelphia, PA, and posted February 25. Griswold printed his manipulated form of the text (see SPR-7) in his “Preface” [Works, 1850] with the statement that this letter was Poe's next after that of January 10, 1845. The January entry, however, was forged and the statement invented to cover his not printing Poe's letter of January 16 (LTR-190). Griswold's reply, if made, as Poe requested, is not known. [page 489:]

Note: Benjamin Blake Minor (1818-1905) was the editor and proprietor of the SLM during the period 1843-1847. The best account of the present letter fragment is given in his book: “ ‘The Raven’ had appeared in the American Review, and the Evening Mirror in New York; but Mr. Poe wrote to the editor and requested him to relax this rule in regard to republications, and let ‘The Raven’ come out ‘in the beautiful typography of the Messenger.’ He also said that he wished to make some changes in it. His request, quite diplomatically presented, was complied with in March, 1845, p. 186. He did make a few changes, which were, with his careful criticism, improvements” (Minor, The SLM 1834-1864, pp. 138-139). Minor previously gave a similar statement in an 1895 article, also quoting only the same short phrase. It is unfortunate that Minor chose not to record more fully what would surely have been a letter of considerable interest to modern scholars, but he may no longer have had the letter itself by this time and was relying on his memory. There are several references by Poe to typography in his criticism, including one stating that the SLM's “outward appearance and typography is [sic] unexceptionable” (the Baltimore Republican, June 13, 1835; reprinted in Jackson, “Four of Poe's Critiques,” MLN, 50:255). A similar phrase even appears in Poe's tale “The Literary Life of Thingum Bob” (printed in the SLM for December 1844), where the narrator mentions, “the beauty of its typography and paper.... ” The story, of course, is a satirical one, and the comment made about a magazine called “The Lollipop,” can hardly be taken as serious praise, but it is perhaps more than entirely coincidental that Poe makes the statement about the same time that he is writing to Minor. Further endorsing the existence of such a letter is the fact that “The Raven” did indeed appear in the March 1845 issue of the SLM, with a number of changes.

Source: fragment as quoted by B. B. Minor in “Who Wrote ‘The Raven’ — Poe or Hirst?,” Richmond Times, Feb. 17, 1895. (A clipping of this article is in the Ingram Collection at the University of Virginia, item 886.) The bracketed text is an approximated reconstruction based on the description of the context provided by Minor. [page 490:]

Note: William Mitchell Gillespie (1816-1868), according to Poe in “The Literati of New York City” (Godey's, May 1846; reprinted in H [Works], 15:19-20), apparently aided Park Benjamin in editing the New World. In 1845, Gillespie became Professor of Civil Engineering at Union College, Schenectady, NY (see the DAB, 7:288-289). Gillespie seems to have given the present letter to “Mrs O” (Mrs. Frances Sargent Osgood), who in turn gave it to her grand niece, Miss Helen I. Tetlow. See LTR-125 and note for Poe's use of contre-temps.

Source: photocopy of the original MS (1 p.), formerly in the collection of Miss Helen Ingersoll Tetlow. At one time on deposit in the Longfellow House, the MS is currently unlocated. The envelope, a separate leaf, is addressed to “Mr. W. M. Gillespie / 30 Dey St.” Reference to the BJ dates the letter as 1845; the month date must remain uncertain, though late spring is possible. This letter was initially printed in The Letters [1948], numbered as LTR-220b and dated only as “1845.” TOM [Iowa] jotted notes in his copy of that edition suggesting “Early March,” and then: “[March, 5] Mar 6” — thus according with Ostrom's note concerning the date for CL-526a in his “Revised Check List” (1981) and the corresponding renumbering as LTR-193a. The advent of the “new” Poe letter to B. B. Minor, however, requires a slight adjustment to the scheme, bumping the present letter to LTR-193b. No other letters to Gillespie are known, but Gillespie wrote to Poe, March 1, 1845 (CL-526). If Poe was answering a letter from Gillespie, it is unlocated. [page 491:]

Note: This editorial letter is intended to publicize Poe's denigration of the American literary clique, and especially Griswold's anthology of American poetry, continuing his denunciations through print and lectures, to attract future wider audiences and ever more praise for his forthright stand on critical and aesthetic standards. Poe's inclusion of Willis among “the magnanimous few” was the result of his favorable review of Poe's lecture, one of many professional favors which led to the listing of Willis in Such Friends as no. 245 (pp. 38 and 18), amidst prominent authors. N. P. Willis reviewed the lecture favorably in the Weekly Mirror of March 8, 1845, 1:347 (see Quinn, pp. 457-458). John L. O’Sullivan was editor of the Democratic Review (see American Magazines, 1:677 ff.); Poe seems not to have held him in high regard. For Evert A. Duyckinck, see the notes to LTR-192a and LTR-201. Among the unfavorable reviews was the rather harsh comment in the Daily Atlas (Boston), calling him “A chap named Poe” and asserting that “We should much prefer a dancing dog, or sommerseting monkey, to the man who could utter such remarks as this Poe is said to have made, in reference to the poetry of Sprague and Longfellow” (see The Poe Log, p. 513). At the time of the present letter, Poe was an editor of the BJ, though his name did not appear on the title page until the following week, March 15, when for the first time the names of the editors were given. The practical importance to Poe of the lecture circuit is reflected in the press reports. (Concerning the lecture, see LTR-195, especially the postscript and note. For further commentary, see also Writings, 4:35-36.) A good study of Poe as a lecturer is much needed; TOM intended to present his relevant gatherings in his series of Poe's works, apart from those comprising his published essays, but regrettably did not live long enough to make much progress on that plan. The Poe Log (index entries, p. 898) usefully supplies an extensive list of “lectures and readings” with basic data not otherwise quickly available. [page 493:]

The word “villifiers” is Poe's mistaken spelling, as shown in LTR-182 (villification); a letter to Mrs. S. H. Whitman, LTR-277 (villify); and a letter to C. F. Hoffman, LTR-290 (villify). All of these coinages are probably wrongly based on analogy with “villain,” which derives from Latin “villa,” not “vilis” meaning “cheap, paltry, valueless and vile.”

Source: letter printed under “Correspondence” in the BJ (March 8, 1845, 1:159). The original MS is probably lost. The date of the letter is taken from the issue of the BJ in which it appeared. Though the letter is not strictly a personal one, it is here reprinted to make it more accessible, and to be consistent with previous editions of The Letters.

Note: On October 19, 1843, Poe wrote J. R. Lowell: “I have written quite a long notice of [The Spanish Student] for Graham's December [1843] number” (LTR-164). On July 2, 1844 (LTR-179), he tells Lowell that Graham has had the review for nine months. Graham was apparently almost as reluctant to return the review as he had been to publish it. On March 11, 1845, Graham wrote to Longfellow: “What has ‘broke loose’ in Poe? I see he is down on you in New York papers and has written demanding return of Review I mentioned he had written for me. If he sends money or another article I shall be obliged to let him have it” (Phillips, 2:978). Poe ultimately incorporated its material in his critical paper, “The American Drama,” which was published in the American Review (August 1845; see H [Works], 13:33-73). Why Poe chose to print the article in a periodical other than the BJ is uncertain. At the time, he was not yet the sole proprietor of the BJ and may have bowed to the disapproval of his partner, John Bisco. Alternatively, he might have felt that his comments on Longfellow would find a broader audience in a publication with a larger circulation, or carry additional weight in an established periodical of greater prominence. The amount of Poe's indebtedness suggests something more than this one article. Poe apparently received $4 per page for reviews in Graham's, and LTR-164a specifically notes the price of the review as $20. The same letter shows Poe owing Graham $37.50 in the last quarter of 1843. A few minor contributions in 1844 must have adjusted it. How Poe's indebtedness to Graham was finally met is not known; an examination of the BJ shows numerous notices of Graham's Magazine, but no advertisement. Graham was generally forgiving in his dealings with Poe, and it is possible that in spite of his reservations about the attack on Longfellow, he permitted the author to reclaim his manuscript without making formal arrangements for payment. Poe's intermittent pique against such men as Graham, whether from real or imagined causes, was characteristic, especially when they failed to act in accordance with his wishes. G. R. Graham's brother was William H. Graham, who had published Poe's Prose Romances on July 18, 1843.

Source: photocopy of the original MS (1 p.) in the Humanities Research Center of the University of Texas at Austin. The MS is very fragile and is in two pieces held together by tape. The address leaf is lost. No reply from Graham is known. The Letters [1966] presents a conjectural argument for merging this letter with former LTR-187, but see the note to that letter, now renumbered as LTR-164a, for internal evidence which clearly establishes these as separate items. [page 495:]

Note: Jedediah Hunt, Jr. (1815-1860) was editor of the National Archives (Ithaca, NY). Poe is replying to a criticism of his BJ article “Imitation” (March 8, 1845, 1:147-150), by Hunt (March 13, 1845). The Poe Log prints Jedediah Hunt, Jr.'s adverse comments on Poe's sharp critiques and his disinclination to receive the same graciously, although Poe is the “best of his class” on “general topics” (p. 516). Ironically, Hunt's National Archives ran only from February 6 to March 13, 1845, and was dead about the time Poe wrote his letter. Following the demise of his periodical, Hunt quickly established himself as editor of a new journal, the Bainbridge Eagle, issued from a town about forty miles from Ithaca. He published Poe's present letter with his own comments: that Poe is “a too severe critic” but a “star in [our] literary galaxy” (The Poe Log, p. 529). Poe's “four chapters” in the BJ series (in addition to the first, already cited) were: “Plagiarism” (March 15, 1:161-163); “Mr. Poe's Reply to the Letter of Outis” (March 22, 1:178-182); “A Large Account of a Small Matter” (March 29, 1:194-198); and “A Voluminous History of the Little Longfellow War” (April 5, 1:211-212; Quinn, p. 454). “Outis,” literally Greek for “nobody,” was the name Odysseus gave in The Odyssey to disguise his real identity from Polyphemus, the giant one-eyed son of Poseidon. (The extent to which this association might have been intended by the writer of the New-York Mirror letter may be debated.) The hypothesis that Poe was himself “Outis” was initiated by Phillips (2:956-961 and 970-975) and accepted by TOM [Poems, 1:372 n. and 557 n. and [T&S], 3:1387 n. See also Pollin's various notes in support of “Outis” as a Poe pseudonym: Writings, 2:242 and 2:327-330; BJ volume, 4:32-33, 37-38, 43, 49, and 55-56; and “Poe as the Author of the ‘Outis’ Letter and ‘The Bird of the Dream’,” PS, 1987, 20:10-15. The attribution, although tantalizing and certainly possible for Poe, is not [page 498:] universally accepted. In The Mind of Poe and Other Studies, Campbell commented, “The Suggestion is an ingenious one, but ... there is no direct evidence to support it, and circumstantial evidence, also, seems to me to tell strongly against it” (p. 229). (See also Campbell, “Who Was Outis?,” University of Texas Studies in English, 8:107-109.) For other opposing views, see Ljungquist and Jones, “The Identity of ‘Outis’: A Further Chapter in the Poe-Longfellow War,” American Literature, 60:402-415 (where it is argued that “Outis” was Lawrence Labree). In addition, see D. Thomas, “Outis: A Gordian Knot Still Beckons,” PSA Newsletter, 16:3-4, with a response from Ljungquist, and a subsequent reply from D. Thomas, PSA Newsletter, 17:6.

Poe lectured on “Poets and Poetry of America,” announced in the Evening Mirror (February 27, 1845) for the evening of February 28 (Quinn, p. 457). The lecture was delivered in the library of the New York Historical Society. (See Alexander Crane in the Omaha Sunday World Herald, July 13, 1902, p. 24, reprinted in part by Quinn, p. 458; also Allen, 2:635 [1926], or p. 508 [1934]. Crane also states that the lecture was repeated, but does not give the date.) The date is confirmed by a letter from W. M. Gillespie to Poe (CL-526), Saturday morning, March 1, 1845, asking permission to copy the characterization of Mrs. Osgood given by Poe in his lecture “last night.” For Poe's hostility to Hudson and his lectures, see the note to LTR-280; also Writings, 4:236, for item 307A/51-62, corresponding to the same page and lines in vol. 3 for the text of BJ. Poe's war with the Boston Transcendentalists is well documented. About the time of the present letter, for example, Margaret Fuller, formerly of the Dial, was lampooned through an unflattering engraved portrait in the March 8, 1845 BJ, along with a satirical word sketch by Poe (see Writings, 3:34 and 4:34). For the Daily Atlas and the Evening Transcript (both of Boston), see The Poe Log, p. 513 (and notes to LTR-194).

Neither the full noun “squirmishness” nor the implied adjective “squirmish” can be found in the OED. Poe's coinage here, based on “wriggling or writhing movement,” seems to mean indecisiveness or evasiveness. The OED documents the adjectival “squirmy” as particular to the USA.

Source: photocopy of the original MS (3 pp.) in the Huntington Library. The MS has a torn portion in the postscript. In the MS, the word “principles” is divided across pages 2 and 3 as “princi-ples.” There is no evidence of a letter from Hunt in reply to Poe's. [page 499:]

Note: Mrs. Mary Elizabeth Moore Hewitt (1807-1894) was one of the New York Literati whose poetry Poe complimented and printed in the BJ. She was also part of the circle of literary women with whom Poe began to socialize in 1845, and was a friend of Mrs. Osgood and Mrs. Whitman. She wrote at least six letters to Poe (see the “Check List”; all six letters were reprinted by TOM, A Christmas Book, December, 1937, pp. 116-121). The package and note referred to are Mrs. Hewitt's “The Tale of Luzon,” based on a white bird in which she saw a resemblance to Poe's raven, and an explanatory letter. Poe printed her poem in the BJ, March 22, 1845 (1:186), setting it in type before receiving her permission. Under “To Readers and Correspondents” appears the comment: “We return our warmest acknowledgments to the author of the ‘Tale of Luzon’ ” (1:191). Mrs. Hewitt later approved of the printing, replying to Poe on March 21, [page 500:] 1845: “I certainly intended to place the ‘Tale of Luzon’ quite at your disposal — and beg you to believe that I appreciate highly the kindness that has prompted your favorable notice of my lines” (CL-533). According to her letters, Mrs. Hewitt lived at the Athenaeum Hotel, New York City. Poe entered her name in Such Friends as no. 236 (p. 26). Her brother was Josiah Moore, to whom she dedicated her Songs of Our Land and Other Poems (Boston: Ticknor, 1845), reviewed by Poe in the BJ, October 25, 1845 (2:247-248; reprinted in Writings, 3:288-290). Her friendly association with Poe seems to have been genuine; writing to him on April 14, 1846, she commented: “All Bluedom misses you from its charmed circle, and we often ask when are we to have Mr Poe back again among us” (CL-618). For a note about Mrs. Hewitt collecting money for Poe's benefit later in 1846, see The Poe Log, p. 672; and for an 1848 visit Poe made to Mrs. Hewitt, see The Poe Log, pp. 777-778.

Source: facsimile of the original MS (1 p.) in the Charles Hamilton Gallery catalog (no. 60), August 3, 1972, item 123-A. The MS is unlocated. This is Poe's first known and only extant letter to Mrs. Hewitt. He is replying to her note, dated March 15, 1845 (CL-528), the first item in the Poe-Hewitt correspondence. Her subsequent letter, March 21 (CL-533), is noted above. (Former LTR-195a has been renumbered as LTR-195b to allow the insertion of this “new” letter.)

Note: The address given by Poe may well be an otherwise unidentified residence in New York. It is hardly to be confused with 130 Greenwich Street, where he lived when he came to New York in April, 1844 (see LTR-174 and Quinn, p. 407). Quinn suggests (pp. 414 and 435) that Poe [page 501:] was living on the Brennan farm in January, 1845, and that he moved from there to 195 East Broadway about May, 1845 (pp. 461 and 463). Poe seems to have moved to 85 Amity Street by October, 1845 (see the note to LTR-215). He may have moved to 154 Greenwich Street from the Brennan farm sometime after January and before March 20, 1845, staying there until he went to 195 East Broadway. Poe's address is not listed in the 1844, 1845, 1846 New York City directories, and who or what occupied the building at the new Greenwich Street location cannot be determined.

Source: photocopy of the original MS fragment (probably from a one-page A.L.S.) in the Humanities Research Center of the University of Texas at Austin. There is no accompanying cover or address with the MS. The complimentary close and signature of a Poe letter was often cut off by his feminine correspondent and given to a friend (see LTR-214), just as was done with Mrs. Mowatt's signature in her reply to Poe cited above. Since this fragment is typical of numerous cuttings of Poe letters and was purchased by a prominent Poe collector through a reputable dealer, it may be reasonably assumed that it is genuine. In The Letters [1948], Ostrom suggested Mrs. Hewitt as possibly the person addressed in the present letter, for she had written Poe, March 15 (CL-528), enclosing a poem, “The Tale of Luzon,” which he liked and printed in the BJ, March 22 (see LTR-195a). The subsequent sale and facsimile printing of the MS letter of Poe to Hewitt, March 20, 1845, required that the present fragment be assigned a new identification. A likely substitute for Poe's correspondent would be Mrs. Anna Cora Mowatt. Poe wrote Mrs. Mowatt for a MS copy of her new play “Fashion,” which was to open at the Park theater in New York on Tuesday, March 25, 1845, and she responded promptly by sending him a handwritten copy without “the corrections made at the suggestion of critical advisers,” regretting at the same time that Poe's “criticisms ... could not have been made before preparations for the performance of the Comedy had progressed so far” (Mowatt to Poe, CL-532). Poe's review of “Fashion” was based, as he says, on “the author's original MS” and was written “before the comedy's representation at the Park” (H [Works], 12:120). It appeared in the BJ, Saturday, March 29. Since Mrs. Mowatt writes as if the play has not opened and dates her letter “Thursday evening,” its date must have been March 20 (CL-532). Thus Poe's present letter, which preceded it and bears the same date [Thursday] March 20, 1845, was probably delivered by hand to Mrs. Mowatt, whose reply may have been delivered by messenger the same evening. TOM [Iowa] had said: [page 502:] “fragment — doubtful! appendix at best. I see little reason to reject this fragment. The address given means no more than that Poe had arranged to receive a letter there by some acquaintance. To Mrs. Mowatt or some one else?”

Note: At the time of the present letter, Poe was in New York, as the postal cancellation indicates; and Griswold was in Philadelphia, as the address shows. In its first published forms (New York Evening Mirror, January 29, 1845 and the American Review, February 1845), “The Raven” was printed in long lines, as it was in The Raven and Other Poems (New York: Wiley & Putnam, November 19, 1845 — see TOM [RAOP], “Introduction.”). The discussion of the format to be used in printing the poem was presumably for the new edition of Poets and Poetry of America (the 6th appearing in 1845, although “The Raven” did not actually make its first appearance until the 8th edition, 1847). The constriction of hexameters was required by the two-column format of pages in that book. TOM [Poems, 1:363] acknowledges it in his list without comment, for he did not regard as a substantive alteration of the text the mere printing of a verse line with the characteristic of being divided. Poe's willingness to consider the short-line version receives support in the introduction printed with the poem as it appeared in the American Review, including the comment: “In regard to its measure, it may be noted that if all the verses were like the second, they might properly be placed merely in short lines .... ” TOM [Poems, 1:360-361] quotes the paragraph, noting “it is thought Poe had a hand [in it].” Poe's statement that he included nothing “offensive” about Griswold in his “Lecture” in New York may well be sincere. Reviews of the lecture as it was previously presented in Philadelphia (November 21, 1843) and in Wilmington Delaware (December 23, 1843) show that Poe specially criticized Griswold: “The subject ‘American Poetry,’ was handled in a manner that placed all the pseudo-critics, the Rev. Mr. Rufus Griswold, Esq. among others, to the blush ... ” (The Poe Log, p. 443) and “This book [Poets and Poetry of America] and its author [Griswold] were handled by the critical Lecturer in not the most gentle manner” (The Poe Log, p. 447). Reviews of the [page 504:] New York version of the lecture suggest that Poe did indeed drop Griswold as a target for attack. Poe continued what the Daily Tribune for March 1, 1845 called “indiscriminate and unjust censure on whatever has hitherto aspired to be criticism in this country” (The Poe Log, p. 580), and the Evening Mirror for the same date mentions that the “Copperplate Five” (Bryant, Halleck, Longfellow, Sprague, and Dana, so-named because they appeared in the engraved frontispiece of Griswold's Poets and Poetry of America) “were taken to represent the country's poetry, and dropped into the melting-pot accordingly” (The Poe Log, p. 510). Although the general tone of the lecture seems unchanged, Griswold himself is merely mentioned as being editor of the anthology.

Source: photocopy of the original MS (1 p.) in the Boston Public Library. (See also SPR-8 for Griswold's forged version.) The envelope was cancelled at New York, April 19. The lecture establishes the year as 1845 (see the note to LTR-195 for the date of publication of Griswold's book; see also the note to LTR-193 for the date of the lecture in New York). If a letter from Griswold accompanied the proof, its location is unknown.

Note: On February 11, 1845, Poe entered into a contract with John Bisco, publisher of the BJ, in which Poe agreed to assist Charles F. Briggs in editing the magazine, to lend his name as one of the editors, to furnish at least one page of original matter each week, and to “give his faithful superintendence to the general conduct” of the Journal. In exchange, Bisco agreed to give Poe one third of the profit and to settle with him “as often as every four weeks.” The agreement was to last for one year (see a printing of the contract in Quinn, p. 751). “The Raven” was reprinted in the BJ, February 8, 1845, the sixth number of the magazine. “The Gold-Bug” had originally appeared in 1843 in the Dollar Newspaper, June 21 (part I) and 28 (parts I and II), with an extra reprint of the full tale a few weeks later, on July 12. Poe's humorous comment that “the Raven beat the bug” is a complicated pun on a race, theatrical popularity (for stage presentations), and on reprintings in the periodical press; see these themes given in some detail in TOM [T&S], 3:803-805. “Hollow” in the expression “beat all hollow” for “completely” may be a corruption of “wholly,” as Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable suggests.

On the third page of the letter, Thomas wrote concerning Jesse E. Dow, author of “many beautiful fugitive poems.” He explained Poe's reference to “dunning” as due to Dow's “pressing need of the money which he had lent to Poe” (see LTR-156). Thomas then added, clearly at a later date, “Dow is now dead ... It was delightful to hear the two talk together, and to see how Poe would start at some of Dow's STRANGE notions as Poe called them.” (The full note is given in H [Works], 17:205, with some inaccuracies. Dow died in 1850.) In offering to provide a “series of letters” for the Madisonian, Poe is following his prior procedure of 1844, in which he met his immediate financial needs by writing weekly accounts of “doings in New York City” for the Columbia Spy, a country newspaper in Columbia, PA. The seven weekly letters from May 18, 1844 to July 6, 1844, with his observations on his environment, were found, collected, edited, and published by Jacob E. Spannuth and TOM as Doings of Gotham. The series furnishes valuable insights into Poe's casual, informal style and varied interests. Unfortunately neither Jesse Dow nor his paper was in a flourishing condition then, and nothing came of the offer.

Source: photocopy of the original MS (3 pp.) in the Boston Public Library. The envelope is directed to F. W. Thomas in “Washington City,” and postmarked at New York, May 4. Thomas endorsed the envelope: “Recd May 5. 1845.” Poe is replying to at least two letters from Thomas, written between January 5 and May 3 (CL-515). [page 507:]

Note: On the verso of this letter Thomas wrote: “A gentleman in the land office in Washington inspecting a [illegible] in some papers in which he [page 508:] found a letter in cipher, and having heard me speak of my knowledge of Poe's skill in cryptography, asked me to get him to decipher it which I did. T.” (Moldenhauer, Descriptive Catalog, p. 60, suggests “grant” for the illegible word.) Thomas’ letter of May 12, 1845 (CL-536) said that Dow had gone to New York for a visit, and asked if Poe ever saw Willis. Though Poe promises to write in a “day or two,” no letter is known until after September 29, 1845 (CL-569a). In connection with Poe's cryptanalysis of “Brewster's” item, see Wimsatt, “What Poe Knew About Cryptography,” 58:765-766, in which he says Poe was hasty in his solution and made errors, the original cypher not being done by an ignorant person.

Source: photocopy of the original MS (1 p.), 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 addressed: “F. W. Thomas Esq^r / Washington D. C.” and postmarked at New York, May 15. On the envelope Thomas noted: “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the Wilderness, even so must the son of man be lifted up, That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life — John III 14 15” (John 3:14-15). He endorsed the letter: “Recd May 18, 1845.” Poe is answering Thomas’ letter of May 12, 1845 (CL-536), in which Thomas says the secret writing is sent at the request of C. S. Frailey. In The Letters [1948], the two sentences “I have ... next month” in the final paragraph are given in parentheses. Moldenhauer, Descriptive Catalog, p. 60, states that: “The parentheses ... are penciled and hence probably extraneous to the text.” Following his advice they have been omitted. In the MS, both instances of “Office” seem to begin with a small “o,” but Poe's capitals are not always easily distinguished.

Note: John Keese (1805-1856) edited The Opal: A Pure Gift for the Holy Days for 1846. Keese also edited the 1847 Opal, but neither has any contribution by Poe. (In this connection, see LTR-200). Two items by Poe had appeared in previous editions of The Opal: “Morning on the Wissahiccon” (for 1844, edited by N. P. Willis) and “A Chapter of Suggestions” (for 1845, edited by Mrs. S. J. Hale). The Opal for 1846 was briefly noted in the BJ, December 27, 1845 (2:386), but with the comment, “we have received no copy of this year's Opal, and have no opportunity, therefore, of speaking of it in full” (Writings, 3:349). For Poe's review of the poetry of Elizabeth Oakes Smith, see the BJ, August 23, 1845 (reprinted in H [Works], 12:228-233, and Writings, 3:221-222). Keese was Mrs. Smith's editor, and Poe's attempt to laud “The Sinless Child” in her newly gathered Poetical Writings may stem in part from his vain hope to find acceptance for his offering of a “brief article.” The review gives high praise to her 16-line poem “The Water,” obviously printed as a contrast to Longfellow's later poem “Rain in Summer.” (In this case, Poe's charge of “bold plagiarism” against Longfellow rings true.) A very brief review of Mrs. Smith's True Child volume was included in the September 6 issue of the BJ (Writings, 3:242-243). A review of Keese's Poets of America appears in Burton's Gentlemen's Magazine, December 1839 (5:331), but has not been attributed to Poe with certainty. TOM [Iowa] gives Poe as the possible author, equivocally, but W. D. Hull assigns the review to Burton. In Poe's Boston Miscellany review of Griswold's Poets and Poetry of America (November 1842), Keese is mentioned in a list of compilers of similar volumes (H [Works], 11:149-50). In the first sentence of LTR-229, Poe refers to Duyckinck's linking the two men. However minor Poe's relations with John Keese may seem now, Poe considered them significant enough to give his name entrée into Such Friends as no. 94 (p. 28).

Source: photocopy of the original MS (1 p.), formerly in the collection of William H. Koester, and now in the Humanities Research Center of the [page 510:] University of Texas at Austin. The envelope, a separate leaf, is addressed to “Mr John Keese / 254 Pearl Street,” postmarked “City Despatch Post, May 27, 9 oclock.” Poe's June 9, 1845 letter to Keese (LTR-200), serves to establish the year date of the present letter. Poe is replying to Keese's letter of May 24, 1845 (CL-539).

Note: Poe often used the word “article” to refer to a tale, further implied in the present letter by the other description as a sketch. Whatever it was, Poe's “brief sketch” was either too late or deemed unsuitable, for no contribution by Poe appears in The Opal for 1846, edited by Keese, either in the New York or in the Greenfield, MA printings (copy in the Newberry Library, Chicago). A possible candidate is “The Imp of the Perverse,” which might not have pleased Keese, nor seemed appropriate for an annual subtitled “A Pure Gift for the Holy Days.” Although this story was first printed in Graham's for July 1845, where it fills just over two pages, it was quickly reprinted in another annual, The May Flower for 1846, edited by Robert Hamilton and published by Saxton & Kelt.

Source: photocopy of the original MS (1 p.), formerly in the collection of William H. Koester, and now in the Humanities Research Center of the University of Texas at Austin. The address appears on a separate leaf, used as an envelope. The year date is established by the reference to the BJ (see also LTR-199 and notes). [page 511:]

Note: Charles Edwin West (1809-1900) was principal of Rutgers Female Institute, New York City, retiring in 1851. For an account of his invitation to Poe to serve as a judge of compositions by members of the Institute, see TOM [Poems], 1:397-398. Rufus W. Griswold and William Davis Snodgrass (1796-1886) were the gentlemen referred to, though Griswold did not serve. TOM's footnote tells of the substitution for Griswold of Henry T. Tuckerman, constituting Poe's first meeting with the man who had brusquely rejected his “The Tell-Tale Heart” in 1842 (see LTR-149, and especially the notes). W. D. Snodgrass was primarily a writer on religious subjects. Poe read the winning poem at the commencement exercises on July 11, 1845.

Source: photocopy of the original MS (1 p.) in the New York Society Library. The envelope is postmarked: “City Despatch Post, U. S., Jun 20, 1 o’clock,” and is addressed: “To/ Charles E. West / Principal of the Rutgers Institute, / New-York.” It is docketed, probably in West's hand, “M^r. Poe / accepts.” The paraph or flourish under Poe's signature is pro [page 512:] forma and to be ignored. Poe is replying to West's letter, before June 20, 1845 (CL-544a). Poe's acceptance suggests a possible note from West shortly after June 20 (CL-544c).

Note: At the time of the present letter, Duyckinck was an editor of the New York Morning News (see LTR-220). He later became the editor of the Literary World, beginning about February-April 1847, which he and his brother, George Long Duyckinck, edited and published from October 1848 until December 1853 (see American Magazines, 1:766). E. A. Duyckinck also selected and edited the collection of Poe's Tales that Wiley & Putnam had just published (see the note to LTR-192a). The advance of $50 on the “American Parnassus” was apparently made (see LTR-215). (The project was later reconsidered as The Living Writers of America and Literary America, but ultimately abandoned — see the note to LTR-240, and Pollin, “The Living Writers of America,” SAR 1991, pp. 151-211.) Poe's sudden resolve to “give up the B. Journal” may not have been his own decision. On June 27, Charles F. Briggs wrote to Lowell [page 513:] (see The Poe Log, p. 542) that he would make “a fresh start” with the journal. He goes on to disparage Poe's abilities and temperament, declaring that he will “haul down Poe's name.” In the end, Poe would remain and Briggs would leave.

Source: photocopy of the original MS (1 p.) in the New York Public Library, Manuscript Division. The year date is established by the reference to the BJ, and what seems to be the month date is supported by “June 26,” first noticed by TOM [RAOP, p. xii], which is entered in pencil on the original MS. Misdatings of the letter have probably been due to the “Nov. 13, 1845?” entered on the mounting of the MS. The envelope is addressed: “E. A. Duyckinck Esq^r / 20 Clinton Place / 8^th St.” The June date would seem more reasonable given the fact that Poe had a third interest or share in the BJ at that time, but in November was full owner (see LTR-211 and note). Contributory evidence to the acceptance of this dating for the letter is also to be found in the similar tone of despondency cited in Miss Lynch's letter to Poe, June 27, 1845 (CL-547). The bearer was probably Mrs. Clemm, but no written reply is known.

Note: Dr. Chivers was in New York to make arrangements for the publication of his volume of poems, The Lost Pleiad (see Davis, Chivers’ Life of Poe, p. 11). Poe favorably reviewed the book in the BJ for August 2, 1845 (see the note to LTR-140). For Chivers’ interesting and detailed, [page 514:] although perhaps not entirely reliable, account of his meeting Poe in New York, see Davis, pp. 57-62.

Source: transcript of the letter in the only surviving copy, in the Duke University Library, Chivers Collection. The copy is on the back of the fourth page of “Orfeo: A funeral Oration on the Death of a Beautiful Son of Song.” According to Chase and Parks, “Chivers presumably made this copy from memory when he was working on his ‘Life of Poe,’ which was not sent to a publisher until at least seven years later” (The Complete Works of T. H. Chivers, 1:37-38). Although Chivers gives the date as August, and Poe still lived at this address until about September 1845, Chase and Parks speculate that it must be June since Poe and Chivers met later that month.

Note: In Godey's for July 1846, Poe belittled the abilities of Thomas Dunn English, poet and editor of the Aristidean (1845). In his reply in the New York Evening Mirror, June 23, English attacked Poe's character, stating that “a merchant of this city had accused him [Poe] of committing forgery.” Poe's rejoinder identified the “merchant” as “a gentleman of high respectability — Mr. Edward J. Thomas, of Broad Street.” But Thomas’ letter (CL-549) makes clear that he merely repeated the rumor of forgery, that he traced it to the originator, who is unidentified, and [page 515:] found it without basis. Apparently, Park Benjamin was in no way responsible for making the charge, and the “common friend” is identified as Mrs. Frances S. Osgood (see E. J. Thomas’ letter to her, in Quinn, p. 505; see also, Ingram, 2:85, n.).

Source: text of letter as printed in the Spirit of the Times (Philadelphia), July 10, 1846, (no. 164, 16:1, cols. 4-6), in “Mr. Poe's Reply to Mr. English and Others” (dated New York, June 27). (For the full article, as well as considerable documentation concerning the context of the present letter, see Moss, Poe's Major Crisis, pp. 50-59.) The MS is presumably lost. It is undated, but elicited Thomas’ reply of July 5, 1845 (CL-549). Poe's note is difficult to date; if actually written and sent, it probably reached Thomas after June 27, the date on which, according to his letter to Poe, he saw the person “from whom the report [of forgery] originated,” though it may have been written earlier. Thomas’ letter contains no reference to the receipt of Poe's note.

Note: Neilson Poe (1809-1884), son of Jacob Poe, was Maria Clemm's cousin, and Poe's second cousin. Poe's relationship with Neilson was generally strained, and Poe's gratitude for Neilson's “kind interest in my welfare” is considerably at odds with his description of Neilson as “the little dog” (LTR-83). More interesting may be Poe's accusations in that same letter that he is “the bitterest enemy I have in the world” and criticizes him for being “the more despicable in this, since he makes loud professions of friendship.” Whatever his personal feelings about his cousin, Poe's tone in the present letter clearly suggests that he probably made an effort to be pleasant when dealing with Neilson directly. Virginia's “sisters” would be her half-sisters, daughters of her father by a former marriage. Josephine Poe (1808-1889), Neilson's wife, was one of these “sisters” (see Quinn, p. 726). Mrs. Clemm's sister, Elizabeth, had married Henry Herring (see Quinn, p. 17). For more on Poe's grandfather, “General” David Poe, see LTR-64 and note. The “memoranda” presumably dealt with David Poe's claims against the U. S. government. Records of David Poe's military service, and his failed efforts to obtain reimbursement for vouchers, were housed in the state capital in Annapolis. Poe and Virginia apparently did not visit Baltimore in the fall, perhaps due to Virginia's continuing poor health and Poe's increasingly desperate attempts at keeping the BJ going. He may have visited alone about March of 1846 (see The Poe Log, p. 628). For Virginia's illness, see LTR-132, LTR-135, LTR-141 and notes. The BJ was certainly not flourishing at this point, and Poe's routinely cheery comments about its prospects are easily dismissed as wishful thinking or a kind of desperate public relations campaign. In January, the Journal itself was gone, and Poe did not establish a magazine. [page 517:]

It may seem odd that Poe is claiming success for the BJ while simultaneously pursuing plans for a separate magazine. The answer lies in the fact that in addition to its financial troubles, the BJ was simply not the kind of periodical Poe wanted to run. A subscription to the BJ was $3 per year, while Poe sought a higher class product costing $5 per year. The BJ was also a weekly, with a tighter schedule and four times the attendant difficulties of producing a monthly. More importantly, Poe wanted a magazine of a fundamentally different character in terms of content. In an advertisement in the Democratic Review for March 1845, the BJ is described as “devoted mainly to the interests of Literature and Art, but will discuss all topics of interest to the people, with as much freedom as consists with decorum,” noting also that it is “to be known as an organ of sincere and unbiassed opinion.” Poe's prospectus for the Stylus, printed in the Philadelphia Saturday Museum, March 4, 1843, sets the following goals: “It will endeavor to be at the same time more varied and more unique; — more vigorous, more pungent, more original, more individual, and more independent. It will discuss not only the Belles-Lettres, but, very thoroughly, the Fine Arts, with the Drama: and, more in brief, will give, each month, a Retrospect of our Political History. It will enlist the loftiest talent, but employ it not always in the loftiest — at least not always in the most pompous or Puritanical way. It will aim at affording a fair and not dishonorable field for the true intellect of the land, without reference to the mere prestige of celebrated names. It will support the general interests of the Republic of Letters, and insist upon regarding the world at large as the sole proper audience for the author. It will resist the dictation of Foreign Reviews. It will eschew the stilted dulness of our own Quarterlies, and while it may, if necessary, be no less learned, will deem it wiser to be less anonymous, and difficult to be more dishonest, than they.” Although there is a sense of similarity in these two statements, there is a considerable difference in degree. While the BJ would be bound by “decorum,” the Stylus was to be “known as a journal wherein may be found, at all times, upon all subjects within its legitimate reach, a sincere and a fearless opinion.” For convenient reprints of three of Poe's prospectuses, as well as a discussion of Poe's shifting view of his magazine, see DP, pp. 213-229. For relevant comments by Poe on the nature and course of magazines and journalism, see “Marginalia” entries M-143 and M-182 in Writings, 2:248 and 2:308-309.

Source: photocopy of the original MS (1 p.) in the Enoch Pratt Free Library. The MS is a one leaf quarto, with the letter on page 1 and the address: “Neilson Poe Esq. / Baltimore / Md.” on page 4. The letter was [page 518:] postmarked at New York, August 8. Poe is replying to Neilson Poe's letter of ca. July 1845 (CL-552).

Note: Thomas Warren Field (1820-1881) was a florist, schoolteacher, and poet who lived in Brooklyn and is mentioned in the DAB (6:376). The present letter is presumably the item referred to by a short comment in the BJ of August 16, 1845: “Mr. Thomas W. Field will find a letter for him at the office of the ‘Broadway Journal’ ” (Writings, 3:220). One can only speculate about the purpose and outcome of the “interview,” and only one other connection is known between Poe and this minor literary figure. The gracious tone of Poe's letter surely anticipates his reception of Field and intention of adding his name to Such Friends, as no. 132 (p. 24). The present letter shows Poe's address on August 9, 1845; he moved to 85 Amity Street before October 1 (see the note to LTR-215). For Poe's comment that he merely boarded at the present address, see LTR-239.

Source: photocopy of the original MS (1 p.), formerly in the collection of H. Bradley Martin, but currently unlocated. Poe is replying to a note from Field, ca. July 15, 1845 (CL-551). [page 519:]

Note: In connection with the plea for $50, see LTR-207. LTR-211 includes a similar request only a few months later, directed towards R. W. Griswold. The financial situation of the BJ was more dire than Poe suggested in the present letter. Rather than needing the $50 for Bisco, Poe may have already been preparing to purchase Bisco's interest in the struggling journal, as he was to do more overtly by early October. In any case, he was being less than fully honest with his friend Chivers. Poe's proposed visit with Chivers in Georgia apparently was not made. For the review of Chivers’ The Lost Pleiad (New York: Edward O. Jenkins, 1845), see the note to LTR-140. The once familiar term “Maga,” a short reference to Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, may here reveal the extent of Poe's ambitions or dreams (see the note to LTR-82). For Poe's relations with Chivers in this regard, especially through the letters, see Savoye, “An Addendum to Ostrom's Revised Check List,” EAP Review, 2:19-21. See also, LTR-201a, and LTR-216. [page 520:]

Source: photocopy of the original MS (1 p.) in the Huntington Library. The MS is badly ink-stained from some composition written by Chivers on both recto and verso of the leaf; the postscript is especially illegible, but a collation with James Grant Wilson's printing of the letter in the Observer (New York, April 26, 1900) provides the above restorations. Both Wilson and the contents of the letter establish Chivers as the “Friend.” Chivers had written Poe three letters since Poe's last reply, thirteen months before: August 6, 1844 (CL-492), September 24, 1844 (CL-497), and before August 11, 1845 (see Chivers to Poe, September 9, 1845, CL-564).

Note: In the present letter, Poe is attempting to placate Osborn's anger over a comment in the BJ of March 15, 1845. The slight appeared in an anonymous review of Park Benjamin's “Infatuation,” under the title of “Satirical Poems” (reprinted in H [Works], 12:107; Writings, 3:36-37). Poe had recently given a set of the journal to Osborn, not anticipating that Osborn would see this particular article and react with such intensity. Osborn's letter (CL-559), to which Poe is replying, reads in part: “With the copy of ‘Arthur C[arryl]’ (1841) which you had permitted me to present you, I took the liberty of enclosing, otherwise, ‘The Confessions [page 522:] of a Poet’ ... I was under the delusion that Mrs. Poe would take an interest in them ... You may judge my surprise when the first thing that struck my eyes on opening the nos. of the Journal was that delightable and very dainty passage ‘What is the Vision of Rubeta but an illimitable gilded swill trough overflowing with Dunciad and water,’ above which stands with its associates's names, the name of ‘Edgar A. Poe’ as editor. Who was the writer of this squill ... ” The BJ for March 8, 1845 (vol. I, no. 10) carried for the first time the names of its three editors: Charles Frederick Briggs, Edgar A. Poe, and Henry C. Watson. Though Poe privately disclaimed responsibility for this “squill” to Osborn, he was unquestionably the author. In addition to the fact that Poe signed the article with his initial in the copy of the BJ that he gave to Mrs. Whitman, other evidence would already be persuasive. A comparison of the BJ article with the other Poe writings clearly shows the same author. (See the opening paragraph of Poe's review of Wilmer's The Quacks of Helicon in Graham's, August 1841, reprinted in H [Works], 10:182; and the fifth paragraph of Poe's entry on Laughton Osborn in “The Literati” (Godey's Lady's Book, June 1846, reprinted in H [Works], 15:47). See also the first three paragraphs of Poe's review of Lowell's A Fable for Critics, in the SLM, March 1849, where the “squill” is repeated in nearly identical terms.) For more on Osborn's Confessions, see LTR-43. The “attack on ‘Alnwick Castle’ ” to which Poe refers in the letter appeared in the BJ, May 3, 1845 (1:281-283). The marked copy of the BJ, given to Mrs. Whitman in 1848, carries Poe's inscription of “J. R. Lowell” at the end of the Halleck critique. The style, being totally different from Poe's, also supports omitting this item from the canon. Under the circumstances, Poe is being overly suspicious or somewhat sly in charging Briggs with “malicious instigation.” Osborn's letter of August 16, 1845 (CL-561) shows that he accepted Poe's explanation. Their correspondence continued for at least several more months. Osborn contributed “The Magnetizer, or, Ready for Any Body” (a comedy in three acts) to the BJ for September 6, 13, and 20 (noted only as “by the author of ‘The Vision of Rubeta’ ”). He then sent Poe several translations of Italian sonnets, which Poe did not use, thus earning Osborn's anger anew (see CL-582).

Source: original MS (2 p.) in the Free Library of Philadelphia, Gimbel Collection. The address leaf has a small oval postmark, stamped “Aug. 16” and marked “Paid.” The Anderson catalog of December 7-8, 1909, part 2, item 1316, describes it as “the scarce 2 cents green Boyd's City Express” stamp. In the MS, the word “estimate” is broken across pages [page 523:] 1 and 2 as “esti-mate.” The Osborn letter (4 pp. 4to), which Poe is answering and which accompanied the Poe MS letter at the same sale, was written from 219 Eighth Avenue [New York], and was dated “Thursday morning, August 14, 48” (CL-559).

Note: At the time of the present letter, Poe was preparing his The Raven and Other Poems, published by Wiley & Putnam on November 19, 1845 (see TOM [RAOP], p. xi). By coincidence, Poe's well-known poem “Dream-Land” was issued in the June 1844 Graham's, and reprinted in the June 28, 1845 BJ. Concerning Poe's expectation of $500, see LTR-215. The reference to “broken” money concerns Chivers’ request that Poe find the Commercial Bank of Florida, in Wall Street, and obtain certain securities so that Chivers will not lose $210 on October 1 (Chivers to Poe, September 9, 1845, CL-564). The Southern Patriot reviewed Chivers’ The Lost Pleiad (see LTR-140), as Poe had previously cited in the postscript of LTR-205. Washington, GA, was near Oaky Grove, Chivers’ home. Chivers placed a cross after the “L. R.” on page 2, and noted at the end of the letter: “Alluding to a M.S. on Poetry, entitled Lyes Regalio, then in his possession”; he also placed a cross after “ashes” in the postscript, and explained: “This was written in allusion to my having asked him in one of my letters touching his intemperance — ‘What would God think of that Angel who should condescend to dust his feet in the ashes of Hell?’ ” Colton's Magazine was the American Review, which did not notice Chivers’ book of poetry. Poe had mentioned the $50 in LTR-205.

Source: photocopy of the original MS (2 pp.) in the Huntington Library. The year date is established by Chivers’ letter to Poe, September 9,1845 (CL-564): “I have just received your letter, dated the 29th of August.” The “Friend” is identified by his letter, just cited, and by the contents of the present one. Poe is replying to Chivers’ letter of August 25, 1845 (CL-562). [page 525:]

Note: The growing fame of “The Raven,” and the moderate success of his Tales (New York: Wiley & Putnam, June 1845; see also the note to LTR-233) encouraged the same publishers to bring out Poe's poems as no. VIII in their series, Library of American Books (see TOM [RAOP], opposite p. xiv). The “Dramatic Scenes” were five scenes from “Politian,” the same selections printed in the SLM, December 1835 (2:13-16) and January 1836 (2:106-107). Poe borrowed the necessary volume of the SLM from Griswold (see LTR-210). Under the section called “Poems Written in Youth,” both “Al Aaraaf” and “Tamerlane” were reprinted from Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane, and Minor Poems (Baltimore: Hatch and Dunning, 1829), along with seven other poems from the same volume. Also included was “To Helen,” which had been reprinted in Lowell's article on Poe from Graham's (February 1845). In using the 1829 volume as his basic text, Poe ignored the extensive changes made to several of these poems in his 1831 collection. TOM [RAOP, p. x] says Poe “rejected the new versions of 1831,” but whether he actually preferred the older versions or was simply unable to secure a copy of the scarce 1831 Poems is uncertain. In LTR-179, Poe had already written Lowell that “I have been so negligent as not to preserve copies of any of my volumes of poems,” adding “nor was either worthy of preservation.” He had to borrow Al Aaraaf from his cousin, Elizabeth Herring, a copy which still carries his corrections (New York Public Library, Berg Collection). To emphasize the “juvenile” origins of the poems, Poe carefully modified the [page 526:] imprint date on the title page of this copy from 1829 to 1820. The precise time this alteration was made is unclear; it may have been done for the sake of showing Duyckinck, or for the Boston Lyceum presentation just a month later. In either case, Poe must have been unusually confident that the rarity of the volume would help to protect his secret.

Source: photocopy of the original MS (1 p.) in the New York Public Library, Manuscript Division. On the mounting of the MS is written “Sept. 10, 1845?” written in an unknown hand. The date is further established by the appearance of the cited poetic passages in The Raven and Other Poems, printed by November 19, actually published November 12, and first reviewed in the Evening Mirror, November 26, 1845 (see TOM [RAOP], pp. xi and xiv, and passim). Since “Wednesday 10th” in 1845 fell only in September and December, the letter can be dated with confidence as September 10, 1845.

Note: Poe is replying to Duyckinck's note of September 10, 1845 (CL-566), which is one of only a few letters Duyckinck is known to have written to Poe, though other notes or letters were probably sent.

Source: text of letter as first printed in TOM [RAOP], p. vii, from a transcript by TOM in the New York Public Library. The original MS was offered for sale in the Anderson Galleries catalog, May 15, 1922, item 512, as an a.l.s., 1 p. octavo, n.d. The date of the present letter was suggested by TOM [RAOP], and it seems justifiable, given its plausible relation to Poe's letter of September 10 (LTR-208) and in the absence of any contradictory evidence in the Poe-Duyckinck correspondence. [page 527:]

Note: Since the dramatic scenes from “Politian” were included in The Raven and Other Poems (pp. 31-51), Griswold must have sent the volume of the SLM as Poe requested. The contents of Poe's letter suggest either a conference with Griswold during one of his visits to New York, or an earlier letter from Poe, for which there is no other evidence. For Poe's need of the volume, see LTR-208.

Source: photocopy of the original MS (1 p.) in the Boston Public Library. Someone docketed the MS with “[1845?].” The envelope was cancelled in New York, September 29, and was addressed to Griswold in Philadelphia. The year is established by the fact that Griswold was living in Philadelphia in 1845, and by the obvious connection with LTR-208.

Note: Griswold (“Memoir,” Works, 3:xxii [1850]) established the context for the present letter thus: “When he accepted the invitation of the [Boston] Lyceum he intended to write an original poem, upon a subject which he said had haunted his imagination for years; but cares, anxieties, and feebleness of will, prevented; and a week before the appointed night, [page 528:] he wrote to a friend imploring assistance.” After quoting the letter, he continues, “The lady wrote him kindly, advising him judiciously, but promising to attempt the fulfilment of his wishes. She was, however, an invalid, and so failed.” His asterisked footnote follows: “This lady was the late Mrs. Osgood, and a fragment of what she wrote under these circumstances may be found in the last edition of her works under the title of ‘Lulin, or the Diamond Fay.’ ” As the editor of Mrs. Osgood's Poems (issued in December 1849), Griswold knew “Lulin” to be a complete poem of over 125 lines (pp. 89-94), but he may have wished to forestall conjectures by the reader of the “Memoir” about the efforts of Mrs. Osgood. Although she had grown seriously ill by the time the volume of her Poems was published, and died young (May 12, 1850), Griswold invented the claim of her invalidism in 1845. At that time, she was extremely active in literary gatherings, making frequent magazine contributions (often involving published verse and prose exchanges with Poe), and seems to have travelled with some frequency. Griswold, however, was accurate in speaking of the “cares” and “anxieties” of Poe as driving him to this entreaty, for he was desperately trying to raise money for the declining BJ and engaged in much “manoeuvring” for his sole “control” of the journal. See his letters of August through October, LTR-205, LTR-207, LTR-211, and especially LTR-213. In spite of his desperation, Poe declined to use the poem. Instead, he read part of his own “Al Aaraaf,” re-titled “The Messenger Star of Tycho Brahe,” later bragging, falsely, that he had written it when he was but 10 years old (TOM [Poems], 1:559). Silverman notes that Osgood's poem “echoed Drake's ‘The Culprit Fay,’ which Poe loathed” (p. 496). She apparently was unaware of Poe's aversion to this “sublimely ridiculous” poem (see SLM, 2:318-26; Writings, 5:166-171). Ironically, it may have been Poe's short “parody” of section XXV of Drake's poem, included in his April 1836 SLM review (2:330), that inspired Osgood to pattern her offering in title, theme, and general tone after Drake's then still popular poem (see Silverman, p. 286).

Source: text of the fragment as quoted by Griswold in his “Memoir,” Works, 3:xxii [1850]. Ostrom labels this letter “questionable” in his “Revised Check List” (1981), but TOM [Iowa] accepts it. Following the note of Phillips (2:1050-1051), he dates it first “After September 1, 1845,” and then “Perhaps early October?” — a week before the Boston Lyceum performance of October 16, 1845. LTR-214 seems to offer further confirmation of the authenticity of the present letter. [page 529:]

Note: The present letter is but one of several in a similar vein, written to various correspondents (Chivers, Kennedy, E. A. Duyckinck, George Poe, and Halleck) from whom Poe sought to borrow money with the goal of keeping the BJ alive. Of these men, only Greeley, Halleck, and perhaps Chivers are known to have actually loaned him money. (For the loan from Greeley, see Poe's promissory note, PN-4 in APXB.) Poe came into full possession of the BJ on October 24, 1845 (see Quinn, pp. 752-753), but it continued to be plagued with financial problems and in a few months would cease publication entirely. Although Griswold also claimed to have sent the requested money, he does so by forging a letter from Poe of November 1, 1845 (see SPR-9).

Source: photocopy of the original MS (1 p.) in the Boston Public Library. The envelope, a separate leaf, is directed to Dr. Rufus W. Griswold, Philadelphia, PA, and cancelled at New York, October 27.

Note: Poe lectured before the Boston Lyceum on October 16, 1845. In addition to the usual effort of preparing the magazine, and tending to the matters of subscribers, distribution, and advertising, his “business” included raising money to buy the BJ (see the beginning of LTR-216). Mrs. Hale's “sweet poem” may have been her Alice Ray: A Romance in Rhyme (Philadelphia: A. Scott, 1845), which Poe reviewed in the BJ, November 1, 1845 (2:256-257), calling it “truly beautiful” and praising it generously for “delicacy and fancy,” “truthful simplicity and grace of manner,” and “point and force of expression” (reprinted in Writings, 3:292-294). Regarding the “proposed volume,” perhaps a projected collection of Mrs. Hale's poems, see LTR-225. In the BJ of November 1, 1845 (2:263) appears the comment, “Mrs. Sarah Josepha Hale is preparing for press a collection of her poems. Messrs. Clark & Austin will, most probably, be the publishers.” In 1845, Clark & Austin printed volumes of poems by N. P. Willis and Alfred B. Street, and another of poems by Mrs Osgood (reviewed in BJ, December 13, 1845, 2:353-355; Writings, 3:350). Poe's “acquaintance” with these publishers may have been chiefly through his reviews in the BJ of their books.

Source: photocopy of the original MS (1 p.), formerly in the collection of William H. Koester, and now in the Humanities Research Center of the University of Texas at Austin. The envelope is postmarked at New York, October 27, and is addressed to “Mrs. S. J. Hale / Philadelphia / Pa.” Poe is replying to Mrs. Hale's letter of ca. October 20 (CL-573). [page 531:]

Note: At the time of Kennedy's October visit to New York, Poe made at least one attempt to see his old friend, but finding him absent, left a card. Poe was obliged to travel to Boston to participate in a lecture (see LTR-212 and note). Poe asked loans of various friends at this time, with only partial success. Kennedy did not send the money, saying, “Good wishes are pretty nearly all the capital I have for such speculations” (Kennedy to Poe, December 1, 1845, CL-593). He closed his letter, however, with a warm invitation to Poe to visit him at any time he came to Baltimore. As usual, Poe speaks of “manoeuvres” with a military sense, or to imply a stratagem, perhaps a trace of his experiences as a soldier. (See LTR-107 for a more overt reference of this sort.) Poe normally uses the Gallic spelling of “manoeuvres,” and never with the customary American ending in “er.” (For seventeen instances in the tales see Pollin, Word Index, p. 207.) Poe's own “manoeuvres” to secure control over the BJ have been thoroughly studied and analyzed, acknowledging the force of the present letter, by Heyward Ehrlich (“The B J: Briggs’ Dilemma and [page 532:] Poe's Strategy,” Bulletin of the NYPL, 73:74-93; reprinted in Writings, 4:xii-xxxii). In the present letter, and in LTR-211 and LTR-217, Poe uses the word “fortune” with an eagerness and conviction that approach a “Gold-Bug” type of fiction. For Poe's claim that the BJ “flourishes” only a few months before the present letter, see LTR-203; for the ultimate failure of the BJ, see LTR- 225, and note.

Source: photocopy of the original MS (1 p.) in the Peabody Institute Library. This is the last known letter from Poe to Kennedy.

Note: Along with the MS of his valentine to Mrs. Osgood (1846), this small, gracious note is a rare surviving relic of what were presumably many discreet but flirtatious exchanges between the two friends, also evident through several pseudonymously signed poems printed in well-known public journals. The last half of October was a very stressful period for Poe: the return from the much publicized and criticized Lyceum performance on October 16 (Quinn, p. 485), the transfer of the BJ control to Poe (as of October 24, 1845; see Quinn, pp. 752-753, and also LTR-213), and the burgeoning friendship with “Ellen King,” the pen name of Fanny Osgood. Although “The Divine Right of Kings” was never acknowledged by Poe, the poem has been attributed to his pen by various scholars, including TOM [Poems, 1:382-385], Whitty (second edition, 1917, p. 150), and Pollin (“Alexander Pope and His Works in the Writings of EAP,” EAP Review, 4:56). Poe, of course, entered Mrs. Osgood's name into Such Friends as no. 251 (p. 32). [page 533:]

Source: photocopy of the original MS (fragment, 1 p.) in the Humanities Research Center of the University of Texas at Austin. The address leaf is lost. Poe's reference to the BJ fixes the place and year, and “late October” is suggested by his lecture engagement before the Boston Lyceum, and by the press of business incident to his taking over the control of the BJ, as well as the period of his preparations for The Raven and Other Poems (see LTR-208 and LTR-210). Though the letter is unsigned, the handwriting is definitely Poe's. The original letter seems to have been a small single leaf, folded once, the message being written on page 1, the lower portion of which has been removed. It is possible that the letter was continued beyond what has survived, since the signature is lacking and pages 3 and 4 have been torn off. The most likely place for additional text would be the verso of page 1, but there are no ink marks to support this contention. A floral design appears just above the salutation. Someone, perhaps Griswold, has written at the head of page 1, “Poe to Mrs Osgood,” a reasonable conjecture given the content of the note, which seems to fit with LTR-210a. Assuming that this identification is correct, the poem mentioned was probably “Lulin; or, The Diamond Fay,” offered as a substitute for the poem Poe had promised but found himself unable to produce for the reading. Mrs. Osgood's note, cited by Poe, is otherwise unknown, its date being merely before late October, 1845 (CL-579).

Note: Poe's “embarrassments” probably had to do, in part at least, with his securing loans for the purchase of the BJ (see the note to LTR-211 and LTR-216). The detailed accounting of debits and credits is typical of Poe's apparently scrupulous care in such matters (see LTR-164a). Poe lectured in Boston, October 16, 1845 (see the note to LTR-185). Concerning the “Parnassus” (Poe's projected Literary America), see LTR-201; also LTR-240 and note). For the publication of the “Poems,” see the note to LTR-208. This is Poe's earliest surviving reference to his Amity [page 535:] Street address in New York (see the note to LTR-239), but a letter from Laughton Osborn to Poe, October 1, 1845 (CL-572), speaks of Poe as living at 85 Amity Street. In 1999 New York University made known its plan to demolish this building (by then reclassified as 85 W. 3rd Street, at Washington Square) to erect a large Law School structure. For accounts of the subsequent efforts to save the dwelling, with details of the negotiations and graphic illustrations, see the EAP Review, Spring 2000, 1:72-77; Fall, 2:89-91; and Spring 2001, 2:97-107.

Source: photocopy of the original MS (2 pp.) in the New York Public Library, Manuscript Division. On the mounting of the letter, in an unknown hand, appears: “Nov. 13, 1845.” Since the thirteenth fell on Thursday only in February, March, and November in 1845, and the reference to the Tales necessitates a date after June of that year, November seems the obvious choice. The envelope is addressed: “Evert A. Duyckinck Esqr./ 20 Clinton Place.” No reply to the present letter is known.

Note: For Poe's purchase of the BJ, see the note to LTR-214; for his loss of it, see Quinn, p. 494. In the postscript to Chivers’ letter of October 30 is a promise of $45, to be sent “soon”; whether it ever came is unknown. “Orion” was a poem by the Englishman R. H. Horne, and was lengthily reviewed by Poe in Graham's, March 1844 (24:136-141; reprinted in H [Works], 11:249-275). Poe's “Poems” refers to The Raven and Other Poems (see the note to LTR-207); what he sent Chivers was apparently an advance copy. Poe is incorrect about the pronunciation of the name [page 537:] Archytas, with a long “y” in the second syllable, which does have the main ictus of the word (see the Oxford Companion to Classical Literature). Oddly enough, the name of this Greek philosopher from Tarentum, of the 4th century B.C., does not appear in Bolles’ Explanatory and Phonographic Pronouncing Dictionary which Poe had favorably and lengthily reviewed in the June 14, 1845 BJ (see Writings, 3:148-149). Poe's rudeness in this “correction” of Chivers’ accentuation may stem from his frustrated hopes for monetary aid, often promised by Chivers, but always dashed by his well-to-do correspondent's denials.

Source: photocopy of the original MS (3 pp.) in the Huntington Library. The identity of Chivers as the “Friend” is established by Chivers’ letters to Poe, September 9 (CL-564, concerning the “Florida bank” and the “broken money”), and October 30, 1845 (CL-577, concerning the pronunciation of “Archytas”).

Note: No previous letter is known from Poe to George Poe, Jr. requesting a loan of $50, suggesting an unlisted exchange (CL-585a and CL-585b) between Poe and George Poe prior to November 30, 1845 and after the present letter. Concerning Poe's purchase of the BJ, and the associated flurry of attempts to secure various loans, see LTR-211. For more about George Poe, Jr. and his previous financial assistance to Mrs. Clemm, see LTR-53.

Source: photocopy of the original MS (1 p.) in the Enoch Pratt Free Library. The envelope (page 4 of a folded leaf) is addressed to “George Poe Jr Esqr / (late of Mobile) / Georgetown / D. C.” and is postmarked at New York, December 1. George Poe endorsed the letter: “Edgar A. Poe / 30th Nov 1845 / recd 3 Decr / [blot, probably “not”] ans.” The holograph has been cut off at the bottom of page 1, although probably not more than one line and the signature are missing. This is the last known letter from Poe to George Poe, and no reply is known.

Note: Charles Campbell (1807-1876) was an author and historian. He contributed a number of articles to the SLM, beginning shortly after Poe left the magazine (see Jackson, Poe and the SLM, pp. 26, 33, 41 and other references in the index). The present letter (postmarked December 5, 1845) is but one of several which were made from some facsimile copying process, probably anastatic printing. (For the full text, see LTR-218.) These letters were made from Poe's autograph, and look essentially as if Poe wrote them all by hand, but are the result of a process which permitted a kind of “mass” production. The original letter from which the printing was done is undoubtedly lost. There are at least five other copies of this circular letter extant, recorded here as LTR-218, LTR-218a, LTR-218b, LTR-218c, and LTR-218d. Each letter carries a different address, but are identical in wording, lining, and dating, and, except for LTR-218d, alike in punctuation. Each is printed on page 1 of a quarto leaf, and [page 539:] addressed on page 4 (except, again, LTR-218d, which was not available for direct inspection, but probably conforms to the others). See Poe's article on “Anastatic Printing” in BJ, April 12, 1845 (reprinted in H [Works], 14:153-159, and Writings, 3:83-86). In the essay, Poe gives an enthusiastic endorsement of the process, predicting that it “will revolutionize the world” by providing a cheap, personal, quick, and widely available means of reproducing anything hand written or printed or sketched in ink. Ultimately, he hoped to use this process to achieve freedom from exploitive publishers. (See Writings, 4:64-65, for his sources and the link to the essay as well as his interest in avoiding typographic blunders by using expressive and fine autography.) For Poe's early comments on the connection between handwriting and temperament or character, see “Autography” (SLM, February 1836, 2:205-206). For his continued interest, in a less jocular tone, while preparing his notes for “The Living Writers,” see Pollin, SAR 1991, p. 169, n. 98.

Source: photocopy of the original anastatic letter (1 p.) in the Morgan Library. The letter is addressed to Charles Campbell, Petersburg, VA, and postmarked New York, December 5. No letter from Campbell to Poe is known. Since the letter text was originally given in The Letters [1948] as LTR-218, it has been allowed to remain there.

Note: George Watterston (1783-1854), novelist and critic, contributed to the SLM (see Jackson, Poe and the SLM, pp. 52-54), and was the third librarian of Congress (1815-1829). Poe also shared other interests with Watterston, chiefly the construction of a Washington Monument, aborted by 1845 in New York City, as Poe's satirical “Mellonta Tauta” of 1847-1848 shows. See the article on Watterston in the DAB, and also Pollin, “Politics and History in Poe's ‘Mellonta Tauta,’ ” Studies in Short Fiction, 8:627-631. The printed date of November, the same on all of the extant copies, is misleading since each specifically bears a dated postmark in early December, perhaps showing Poe's anxiety about the moribundity of the BJ with an attempt to stir up public concern and a fresh influx of helpful cash or loans in the words “support ... solicit your subscription and influence.” We may assume that the printing was part of his “desperate measures,” along with his appeal to Halleck (see LTR-219) at the start of the month. Everything typifies his undying hopes.

Source: photocopy of the original anastatic letter (1 p.) in the Library of Congress, Watterston Papers. The letter was addressed to “Geo. Watterston Esqr./ Washington/ D.C.,” and was postmarked at New York, December 2. The address appears on page 4 of the folded leaf, and the inner two pages are blank. No letter from Watterston to Poe is known.

Note: The present letter is another copy of LTR-218 (postmarked December 5, 1845). Poe's correspondent is presumably the same William Green (1806-1880) who prepared appendix material for an edition of George Wythe's Decisions of cases in Virginia, by the High Court of Chancery [1788-1799]: with remarks upon decrees of the Court of Appeals, reversing some of those decisions (Richmond: J. W. Randolph, 1852). The memoir of Wythe in the same volume was written by B. B. Minor, who edited the SLM (1843-1847). Green seems to have been associated with the University of Richmond, School of Law.

Source: photocopy of the original anastatic letter (1 p.) in the Huntington Library. The letter is addressed to “Wm. Green Esq. / Culpepper C. H. / Va.” and postmarked New York, December 8. It differs from the Watterston letter only in having a silverfish hole in the lower right portion of the text. No letter from Green to Poe is known. [page 541:]

Note: Yet another copy of LTR-218 (postmarked December 8, 1845). The identity of William P. Smith is unknown beyond the presumption that he was a subscriber to the SLM.

Source: original copy of the anastatic letter in the Lilly Library, Indiana University. No letter from Smith to Poe is known.

Note: Another copy of LTR-218 (postmarked December 8, 1845), sent to John B. Morris. A successful lawyer and businessman, Morris wrote Memorial to the Legislature of Maryland (Baltimore: Lucas & Deaver, 1836), concerning the financial collapse of the Bank of Maryland. For more information on Morris, see LTR-163c.

Source: original copy of the anastatic letter in the Library of Congress, Banteholder Collection. No letter from Morris to Poe is known, and there is only one other letter from Poe to Morris (LTR-163c).

Note: This one copy of LTR-218, which may be the same item as LTR-218c, shows slightly differing accidentals. On p. 324 this letter shows the following variants (first in each entry) from the others: respect = respect, / York. = York / Edgar A. = Edgar A:. The most likely cause of these discrepancies is that the plate used for the facsimile was retouched. When Robertson's impressive collection was given to the Poe Museum in Richmond, no copy of Poe's anastatic letter was present, clearly indicating that he had reproduced it from some other source, regrettably one now not readily identifiable.

Source: facsimile of the anastatic letter appearing in the Robertson volume of 1921, properly called EAP: A Study (San Francisco: Bruce [page 542:] Brough, 1921; reprinted, NY: Haskell House, 1970). See Dameron and Cauthen, Bibliography of Criticism, pp. 209-210, items R83-R85, for variant editions, with major shifts of large sections of Robertson's psychological plus bibliographical materials (1921, 1923, 1934).

Note: According to James Grant Wilson (Life and Letters of Fitz-Greene Halleck, pp. 430-431), Halleck sent the money, but it was never repaid. Wilson states: “The unfortunate Poet's unpaid note for one hundred dollars is in the hands of one of Hallock's [sic] surviving friends, to whom it was given as an autograph ...  .” (Observer, New York, April 26, 1900, p. 528). No letter from Halleck enclosing the loan is known. For Poe's various attempts to borrow money to save the BJ, see his letters for the closing months of 1845. In spite of all of his efforts, the magazine died in January 1846 (see LTR-225, and note).

Source: transcript of the letter as printed in James Grant Wilson's Life and Letters of Fitz-Greene Halleck, p. 431. The original MS is probably lost. This is Poe's third and last known letter to Halleck. Poe's spelling of “imbittered” was an early form, accepted into the 19th century. [page 543:]

Note: The request in the present letter is similar to others made of Duyckinck; also there seems to be some connection to the letters from Mrs. Ellett to Poe of the same period (see the note to LTR-290). John L. O’Sullivan (a leader of the Young American group and inventor of the phrase “Manifest Destiny”) asked Duyckinck to join the editorial staff of the Morning News, an arrangement which lasted from 1844 through 1846. Like N. P. Willis, Duyckinck's prominence in literary circles, and his generally amiable personality, made him a valuable asset for Poe.

Source: color photograph of the original MS (1 p.), sold by MastroNet on Nov. 14, 2002. The letter is addressed on the verso as “E. A. Duyckinck Esq.” and was apparently delivered by hand. The letter undoubtedly belongs to 1845, for by December 1846, Poe and Elizabeth F. Ellett were not on friendly terms.

Note: This note seems to refer to a recent publication by Wiley & Putnam, sent for review by Poe in the BJ. Though the correspondent is not identified, he may well have been Evert A. Duyckinck, friend of Poe and reader for the Wiley & Putnam firm. The book is probably Laughton Osborn's Handbook of Young Artists and Amateurs in Oil Painting (New York: Wiley & Putnam, 1845). Although it was published anonymously, as “by an American Artist,” Poe refers to it in his “Literati” entry on Osborn as a “Treatise on Oil Painting,” commenting: “This work is highly spoken of by those well qualified to judge, but is, I believe, principally a compilation or compendium” (Godey's, June 1846, 32:272). “Mr English” refers to Thomas Dunn English, who at this time was on friendly terms with Poe. For Poe's keen interest in Eugène Sue's popular book The Wandering Jew, see Pollin, “The Living Writers of America” in SAR 1991, pp. 151-211, which includes Poe's long review of Henry W. Herbert's translation of the book (pp. 201-211); note, also, p. 199, n. 151 for his interesting life and Poe's varying views of the man. See also Savoye, “A Lost Roll of Marginalia,” EAP Review, 3:52-72 for the same item, but in the correct context and with a small fragment missing from the previous printing.

Source: facsimile in the Anderson Galleries catalog, January 17-18, 1928, item 369. Neither place, date, nor correspondent is given, but the reference to the BJ almost certainly identifies the year as 1845. E. A. Duyckinck seems a reasonable suggestion since he was associated with Poe and also Wiley & Putnam. The original MS (probably 1 page) is unlocated. No reply to the present letter is known.

Note: This letter has been reassigned as LTR-193b.

Note: This item is now considered a forgery, and has been moved to, SPR-10. [page 545:]

Note: Given the nature of this fragment, without context or even a correspondent, little can be speculated about the question for which the writer seems so eager to have an answer. During the last few months of 1845, Poe was deeply engaged in efforts first to purchase the BJ and later to keep it afloat. (The debts connected with the BJ, which Poe assumed in acquiring ownership, ultimately contributed to the collapse of the enterprise.) Either of these circumstances might explain the slightly desperate tone of the present letter. Poe's request for a reply “by despatch” may indicate the City Despatch Post, a special delivery service operating in New York and marked on several of Poe's letters of this period (see LTR-188, LTR-199, and LTR-200a). Started in February 1842 by Alexander M. Greig and Henry T. Thomas, the City Despatch Post was absorbed by the US Postal Service in September of the same year. Unlike regular postal service, the Despatch charged slightly more but delivered directly to addresses, up to three times a day. It remained in business until 1854.

Source: color photograph of the MS (fragment, 1 p.) in the collection of Michael J. Deas. The letter was apparently trimmed and glued to the front inside cover of a book, perhaps a nineteenth century copy of Poe's poems. The type of glue suggests that this was done before 1900. This board was later removed, with the fragment still attached, and framed. Opening the frame to examine the note shows that it is regrettably cut off just above the text printed above, losing as much as 1/3 to 1/2 of the original letter. Also removed is the name of Poe's correspondent, which was presumably given in the salutation, or written on the back. Although the provenance for the fragment is sparse, and the content of the note somewhat inconclusive, expert analysis of the handwriting, ink, and especially of the paper supports its authenticity. The dating is established [page 546:] by the reference to 85 Amity Street (where Poe was living from about October 1845-March 1846) and the probable connection to the BJ, which effectively ceased publication at the end of 1845.