Text: J. W. Ostrom, B. R. Pollin, and J. A. Savoye, “Chapter 09,” The Collected Letters of Edgar Allan Poe — Vol. II: 1846-1849 (2008), pp. 615-684 (This material is protected by copyright)

Note: Charles Astor Bristed (1820-1874), grandson of John Jacob Astor and one of the trustees of the Astor library, was a writer of some prominence, though his chief publications came at a date later than the present letter. The gift of ten dollars may have been prompted by the general publicity in the press and among Poe's friends concerning the poor health of both Poe and Virginia (see LTR-246 and note). George H. Colton was the editor of the American Review. The phrase “such friends,” also occurring in LTR-101, seems ironic in view of Griswold's famous first paragraph in the Tribune obituary with its “Few will be grieved by [his death]” and “He had few or no friends.” (reprinted in Walker, EAP: The Critical Heritage, pp. 294-302).

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 leaf is lost.

Note: Marie Louise Shew (1821-1877) acted as a nurse to the ailing Virginia, and befriended Poe until J. H. Hopkins encouraged her to disassociate herself from the poet over concerns about pantheism in Eureka. Mrs. Shew later became Mrs. Roland Houghton and corresponded extensively with Ingram while he was preparing his biography of Poe. About the present letter, she wrote to Ingram, February 16, 1875 (original MS in the Ingram Collection, University of Virginia, item 197): “I had told him in all candor that nothing would or could save him from a sudden death, but a prudent life, of calm, with a woman fond enough — and strong enough to manage his work ... ” (reprinted in Miller, BPB, p. 102-111). Only the part about being calm, however, would have been written before Virginia's death (January 30, 1847). This letter is the first known surviving item in the Poe-Shew correspondence.

Source: photocopy of the original MS (1 p.) in the Huntington Library. Poe is probably replying to a letter from Mrs. Shew, dated before January 29, 1847 (CL-669).

Note: In the present letter, Poe says that he sent two papers to Eveleth, but in a letter of February 21, 1847 (CL-674), Eveleth acknowledges receiving only one, the Home Journal of January 9, 1847. In LTR-252, Poe admits that he is not sure he sent two papers. On July 9, 1848, Eveleth returned certain “slips” — perhaps those requested by Poe in the present letter and in that of January 4, 1848 (LTR-259). The Poe Log [page 620:] suggests that the slips were announcements of Virginia's death (p. 688), which were printed in various New York newspapers. The Conchologist's First Book (1839) was published under Poe's name for the benefit of Thomas Wyatt. The body of the work, as described in the present letter, is largely a paraphrase of Wyatt's A Manual of Conchology (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1838), and Poe's own contribution is a close paraphrase of Thomas Brown's The Conchologist's Text-Book (Glasgow: Archibald Fullarton, 1833) and, as he says, a translation from Cuvier (see W [1909], 1:194-198; for the title page, see Quinn, p. 276). Poe never carried out his threat to prosecute the Post for charges of plagiarism. (See LTR-252, where Poe says the comments in the Post are not “actionable.”) For a good overview of the dealings between Poe and Wyatt, see D. Thomas, Poe in Philadelphia, pp. 947-956 as well as the ten entries in the index for specific discussions. For “Professor McMurtrie” (properly without a space in the surname) see Poe in Philadelphia, pp. 29-30, 848, and also 950. See also the note to LTR-111 for the Harpers’ grudge against Poe over his aid in the Conchologist's First Book.

Source: photocopy of the original MS (2 pp.) in the New York Public Library, Berg Collection. The envelope is addressed to “G. W. Evelett Esqre / Phillips / Me” and postmarked “New York 17 Feb.,” page 4 of the folded leaf being used as the cover. Poe is replying to Eveleth's letter of January 19, 1847 (CL-668).

Note: Poe's “19th ult.” certainly refers to the Tribune article of February 19, 1847, “ult.” meaning “last issue,” not “last month.” Poe's case against Fuller and Clason was settled February 17, 1847. On October 24, 1845, Greeley signed a sixty-day promissory note made out to Edgar A. Poe to the value of $50 (see PN-4), which, endorsed by Poe, was turned over to John Bisco on the same day as the down-payment on Poe's purchase of the BJ (see W [1909], 2:151-152, and Quinn, pp. 489-490). Greeley never collected the loan. The editorial article in the Tribune, reprinted in The Poe Log, p. 690, does not use the word “personality” but says that the sketch of English in the “Literati” in Godey's “seemed to us impelled by personal spite.” Poe, almost by a play on words, tries to deflect the Tribune's charge by citing, with a slight change, his sentence in Godey's, “I do not personally know Mr. English” (see H [Works], 15:66). This version of Poe's statement does not clearly mean “I wished to decline his acquaintance for the future” nor does it deny the well-known fact that both men had been close friends and were almost co-editors on the Aristidean, published from March through December 1845. For a useful [page 623:] explanation of the Greeley-Poe relationship see Moss, Poe's Major Crisis, pp. 133-135 and 186-192, including this letter, which he says shows Poe's distress and attempt to reestablish his fallen reputation by Greeley's softening his charge. The lack of response, however, reveals Poe's naiveté‚ or illusions about his alienated fellow New Yorkers.

Source: photocopy of the original MS (2 pp.) in the Morgan Library. The envelope is directed to “Horace Greeley Esq^re / Washington / D.C.” It bears a note of “paid,” but no postal cancellation. The remnants of a wax seal can be seen.

Note: Mrs. Jane Ermina Starkweather Locke (1805-1859), a relative of Mrs. Frances Sargent Osgood, lived at Wamesit Cottage, Lowell, MA. If corrected and sent, the present letter is Poe's first known correspondence to her. At her invitation, Poe delivered his lecture on the “Poets and Poetry of America” in Lowell, July 10, 1848 (see Quinn, pp. 565-566, and The Poe Log, pp. 741-742). It is possible that Hunt gave Mrs. Locke's letter to Willis, who transmitted it to Poe. Mrs. Locke's “beautiful lines” seem to have been enclosed in Willis’ letter to Poe, December 23, 1846 (CL-661), which included also, apparently, a letter from her to Willis, and Willis’ editorial on Poe's health and character printed in the Home Journal, December 26, 1846, available in advance of date (see the note to LTR-246). See John E. Reilly, “Ermina's Gales: The Poems Jane Locke Devoted to Poe,” in Papers on Poe, pp. 206-220, for “An Invocation for Suffering Genius” as the probable poem, from her 1854 published collection. Poe's letter to Willis (LTR-246) was printed in the Home Journal, January 9, 1847, and alludes to these matters in its attempt to deny the seeming hopelessness of his situation. His “sorrow so poignant” refers to the death of Virginia, January 30, 1847. For relevant information on Freeman Hunt, see the note to LTR-243. Poe's ending comment about his misfortunes bringing some compensating benefit is repeated in his letter to Bristed (LTR-247). Only at the beginning of their association, early in 1847, would Poe have entered Mrs. Locke and her attorney husband, John G. Locke, as nos. 159 and 103 respectively, in [page 626:] Such Friends (p. 30). Poe later became embittered toward both, even crossing out the husband's name from his list. Concerning Mrs. Locke, see the notes for Poe's other letters to her, and LTR-306 and LTR-309 to Annie Richmond.

Source: photocopy of the original MS draft (3 pp.) in the Boston Public Library. No clean copy MS is known; the original draft is unsigned and was not delivered through the mail, though there is a strong presumption that Poe sent a corrected version. The printings of the letter by Ingram and Harrison are undoubtedly corrected versions by the respective editors, as collation with the above printing will show. Harrison's claim to have used the Griswold MS, which as far as the Boston Public Library knows could refer only to the draft, and the uncertainty of the nature of his printing, expressed in his footnote, tend to confirm his use of the draft rather than a final MS. The identity of Poe's correspondent is to be found in the last paragraph. Her letter, to which Poe is replying, is from February 21, 1847 (CL-675).

Note: Arcturus, edited by Evert A. Duyckinck and Cornelius Mathews, was founded in New York, December 1840, and merged with the Boston Miscellany, June 1842 (American Magazines, 1:713-714). Duyckinck edited the Literary World for its first three issues, February-April 1847 (see also the note to LTR-320). For Poe's reference to the Philadelphia Saturday Evening Post, and for the “slips,” see LTR-249. Concerning the suit against the Mirror, see the notes to LTR-253a, the Poe-English controversy in H [Works], 17:233-255, and the very detailed account in Moss, Poe's Major Crisis. Eveleth's promise in regard to the Stylus was that on its appearance he would immediately subscribe, and drop three or four other publications. For what Eveleth wrote to Godey, see Eveleth to Poe, February 21, 1847 (CL-674). Poe's article on Hawthorne appeared in Godey's, November 1847 (reprinted in H [Works], 17:141-155). For further comment on the Hawthorne review, see LTR-241, and the notes to LTR-158 and LTR-259. For the “Valdemar Case,” see LTR-245.

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 addressed to “Geo. W. Evelette [sic] Esqr / Phillips / Me,” and initialed in lower left [page 628:] corner “E A P.”; it is postmarked New York, March 12. Poe is answering Eveleth's letter of February 21, 1847 (CL-674).

Note: In various letters Poe speaks of his serious illness before and after Virginia's death (on January 30, 1847). On the transcript that Wm. H. Browne sent to Ingram (see source note below), he confirmed that Poe had accepted an honorary membership in the society. Poe also entered the name of the “Philosophian Society, Wittenberg Col. Springfield, O,”with a comment of “see letter,” in Such Friends as no. 163 (p. 33). For a full round-up of Poe's designated eleven institutions (chiefly academic), with associative data, see Savoye, “An Addendum to Ostrom's Revised Check List,” EAP Review, 2:19-29.

Source: transcript made by William Hand Browne from the original MS for J. H. Ingram (now in the University of Virginia, Ingram Collection, item 36). The present location of the original MS is unknown, and it is probably lost. Poe is replying to a letter from Reinman and Walker, February 24, 1847 (CL-676), concerning which Browne wrote on the verso of the transcript: “Copy of Edgar A. Poe's letter of acceptance of honorary membership of the Philosophian Society of Wittenberg College, Springfield, Ohio. He was elected (as the Cor. Secy. informs me) Feby. 19, 1847.” [page 629:]

Note: Enoch L. Fancher was the lawyer Poe retained to try his libel case against Hiram Fuller and Augustus W. Clason, Jr., respectively editor and publisher of the Evening Mirror. The Mirror had printed an article by Thomas Dunn English, June 23, 1846. In this article, English took Poe to task for his “Literati” entry, in which Poe had stated: “I do not personally know Mr. English” (Godey's, July 1846, 33:17-18). English went further, claiming that Poe had been “guilty of some most ungentlemanly conduct, while in a state of intoxication,” and, more importantly, accusing Poe of forgery. In reply, Poe threatened to sue, and in his next article, July 13, English dared Poe to proceed — Poe did. The case was instituted in the Superior Court of New York, July 23, 1846, and since the defense could not produce witnesses to support English's charges, Poe was awarded $225 damages on February 17, 1847 (Quinn, p. 505). The Poe-English controversy was of the violent, name-calling type, and Poe was as guilty of ungentlemanly action as was English, but Poe was not guilty of forgery, as charged (see the whole controversy in H [Works], 17:233-258). The most informative and cogent presentation of the legal suit's details and the contemporary effect upon Poe's status is Poe's Major Crisis by Sidney P. Moss. Mrs. Clemm frequently served as a messenger for Poe.

Source: photocopy of the original MS (1 p.), formerly in the Marietta College Library, Slack Collection. The MS was sold at auction in 1992, but is currently unlocated. Poe's year-date is wrong; it should be “1847,” for the case was not settled until February, 1847. [page 630:]

Letter 254 — 1847, May [CL-683] Poe (New York, NY) to Mrs. Marie L. Shew (New York, NY):

Sunday night

My dear Friend Louise

Nothing for months has given me so much real pleasure as your note of last night. I have been engaged all day on some promised work — otherwise I should have replied immediately, as my heart inclined. I sincerely hope you may not drift out of my sight before I can thank you. How kind of you to let me do even this small service for you, in return for the great debt I owe you. Louise — my brightest — most unselfish of all who ever loved me, I should return the money, if I did not know it would grieve you, as I shall have so much pleasure in thinking of you & yours, in that Music Room & Library. Louise — I give you great credit for taste in these things, & I know I can please you in the purchases. During my first call at your house after my Virginia's death, I noticed with so much pleasure the large painting over the Piano which is a masterpiece indeed deserving a place in a palace or church & I noticed the size of all your paintings[.] The scrolls, instead of set figures — of the drawing room carpet — the soft effect of the window shades also the crimson & gold &c & I was charmed to see the Harp & Piano uncovered. The pictures of Raphael & the Cavalier I shall never forget — their softness & beauty. The Guitar with the blue ribbon, music stand & antique jars. I wondered that a little country maiden like you had developed so classic a taste & atmosphere. Please present my kind regards to your uncle & say that I am at his service any or every day this week & ask him please, to specify time & place.

Letter 254a — 1847, June [CL-685a] Poe (Fordham, NY) to Cotesworth P. Bronson (New York, NY):

Letter 255 — 1847, August 10 [CL-687] Poe (New York, NY) to Robert T. Conrad (Philadelphia, PA):

New-York August 10. 1847.

Dear Sir,

Permit me to thank you, in the first place, very sincerely, for your considerate kindness to me while in Philadelphia. Without your aid, at the precise moment and in the precise manner in which you rendered it, it is more than probable that I should not now be alive to write you this letter. Finding myself exceedingly ill — so much so that I had no hope except in getting home immediately — I made several attempts to see Mr Graham and at last saw him for a few minutes just as he was about returning to Cape May. He was very friendly — more so than I have ever known him, and requested me to write continuously for the Mag. As you were not present, however, and it was uncertain when I could see you, I obtained an advance of $10 from Mr G. in order that I might return home at once — and thinking it, also, more proper to leave you time in which to look over the articles.

I would be deeply obliged if you could now give me an answer respecting them. Should you take both, it will render me, just now, the most important service. I owe Mr G. about $50. The articles, at the old price ($4 per page) will come to $90 — so [page 2] that, if you write me that they are accepted, I propose to draw on Mr G. for $40 — thus squaring our account.

P.S. I settled my bill with Arbuckle before leaving Phil. but am not sure <whether it included> how much I owe yourself for the previous bill etc. Please let me know. [page 633:]

Letter 256 — 1847, August 31 [CL-688] Poe (New York, NY) to Robert T. Conrad (Philadelphia, PA):

New-York Aug. 31 — 1847

My Dear Sir,

It is now a month since I wrote you about the two articles I left with you — but, as I have heard nothing from you, I can only suppose that my letter has not reached you — or, at all events, that, in the press of other business, you have forgotten it and me.

In it, after thanking you (as I do again most sincerely) for your late kindness to me in Phil^a, I begged an answer in respect to the articles — mentioning $40 as the sum in which the Magazine would be indebted to me in case of their acceptance, and asking permission to draw for that amount. — I owed Mr Graham $50 (as nearly as I can remember) and the papers, at the old price, would come to 90.

May I beg of you to reply, as soon as convenient, and oblige

Hon R. T. Conrad.

Letter 256a — 1847, October-November [CL-688a] Poe (Fordham, NY) to Cotesworth P. Bronson (New York, NY):

Monday —

My Dear Sir,

I am anxious to see you for many reasons — not the least of which is that I have not seen you for so long a time — but among other things, I wish to ascertain if the poem which, at your suggestion, I [page 635:] have written, is of the lenth [sic], the character &c you desire: — if not, I will write another and dispose of this one to Mrs Kirkland. Cannot Miss Bronson and yourself, pay us a visit at Fordham — say this afternoon or tomorrow?

Prof. C. P. Bronson

Letter 257 — 1847, November 27 [CL-691] Poe (New York, NY) to Mrs. Sarah A. Lewis (New York, NY):

Nov. 27.

Dear Mrs Lewis —

A thousand thanks for your repeated kindness, and, above all, for the comforting and cheering words of your note. Your advice I feel as a command which neither my heart nor my reason would venture to disobey. May Heaven forever bless you and yours!

A day or two ago I sent to one of the Magazines the sonnet enclosed. Its tone is somewhat too light; but it embodies a riddle which I wish to put you to the trouble of expounding. Will you try? [page 637:]

My best regards, with those of Mrs Clemm, <to Mr Lewis,> and believe me, with all the affection of a brother,

Notes: For information on Mrs. Lewis, see LTR-246a. “The sonnet enclosed” refers to Poe's “An Enigma,” printed as “Sonnet” in the Union Magazine (March 1848, 2:130; see TOM [Poems], 1:424-426). The “riddle” consists of reading Mrs. Lewis’ name out of the poem by extracting the first letter of the first line, the second letter of the second line, the third of the third line, and so on. Poe often enjoyed the role of guest in the Lewis’ comfortable Brooklyn home. In connection with Mrs. Shew's report to Ingram in a letter of April 3, 1875 (University of Virginia), that Poe avoided such persons as Mrs. Lewis (quoted by Quinn, p. 563), one must keep in mind the apparent gratitude he felt toward her for the care she frequently provided to Mrs. Clemm while Poe was off travelling. One such example was during his absence from New York in the summer of 1849 (see The Poe Log, p. 823). Poe actively worked to promote Mrs. Lewis’ literary career, including articles he wrote for the Western Quarterly Review (April 1849), Graham's (April 1849), Democratic Review (August 1848), and a revision of the notice in Female Poets of America. (See also LTR-304 and note.) His interest was perhaps also influenced by financial matters. TOM [Poems, 1:424] notes, “Mrs. Lewis or her husband gave Poe (or more probably Mrs. Clemm) a hundred dollars for Poe's services as her press agent.”

Source: photocopy of the original MS (1 p.) in the Yale University Library. In Ingram's “Memoir” to The Works of EAP (Edinburgh: A. & C. Black, 1874-1875), 1:lxxxii, it is dated as “1848.” In Ingram, 2:127-128, however, it is dated 1847. The earlier year of 1847 is validated by the sonnet, “An Enigma,” referred to in the letter, and published in the Union Magazine, March 1848 (see Campbell, Poems, p. 276, and TOM [Poems], 1:425). In the unpublished MS revision of his Life of Poe (Ingram Collection, University of Virginia), Ingram says: “M.S. presented to me by Mrs. Lewis together with other letters and autograph writings by Poe” (p. 627c). Who made the deletion in the final paragraph can scarcely be determined. There is no evidence of a postmark on the letter, though it may have been on a lost cover. Poe is replying to Mrs. Lewis’ letter of before November 27, 1847 (CL-690). [page 638:]

Note: Willis, in accordance with Poe's request, reprinted “Ulalume” in the Home Journal, January 1, 1848, anonymously, with an introductory paragraph in which he spoke of the poem as an “exquisitely piquant and skilful exercise of rarity and niceness of language ... Who is the author?” Subsequently, the poem was reprinted and commented upon by various publications, and finally Poe saw to it that he was identified as its author (for a full discussion, see Campbell, Poems, pp. 267-269, and TOM [Poems], 1:409-415). In first giving it the title “To — — — . Ulalume: A Ballad,” Poe reveals his hope not only for dramatic and elocutionary interest but also for musical settings, for the poem. F. W. Thomas had made him aware of his profitable early songs, “‘Tis Said that Absence Conquers Love” and “War Song of Seventy-Six” (see CL-326, and the article on Thomas by B. F. Fisher in DLB, pp. 259-263). Thomas even involved Poe, in August-September 1841, in arranging to have a new lyric issued as sheet music by Willig, a major music publisher in Philadelphia (CL-323 and the first paragraph of LTR-127). Poe admired the skill of George Pope Morris, lyricist for many popular and lucrative songs, and welcomed the inclusion of his own “To Ianthe in Heaven” (later “To One in Paradise”) in Morris’ anthology of 200 song lyrics. This small book, copyrighted as 1840 and carrying the title American Melodies (see TOM [Poems], 1:214), was reviewed by Poe in Burton's (December 1839, [page 639:] 45:332-222), under the “wishful” title of National Melodies of America. His effort to become a song writer is examined in Pollin, “Poe as a Writer of Songs,” American Renaissance Literary Report, 6:58-66. See also Pollin, “Poe's ‘Eldorado’ Viewed as a Song,” Prairie Schooner, 46:228-235. Interestingly, over the years there have been no fewer than ten musical settings of “Ulalume.”

Source: photocopy of the original MS (1 p.) in the Houghton Library, Harvard University. The year date is lacking, but is established by the appearance of the poem in the American Review, December 1847. Willis’ ”note” of “three or four weeks ago” is unlocated (CL-689b).

Note: Poe's long study of Hawthorne (previously mentioned in LTR-252) appeared in Godey's, November 1847 (reprinted in H [Works], 17:141-155). It is far less favorable than Poe's early reviews of Twice-Told Tales from Graham's (April and May 1842). In the second of these reviews, Poe states, “Mr. Hawthorne's distinctive trait is invention, creation, imagination, and originality,” but in the Godey's article Poe emphasizes that “He is peculiar and not original.” “Ulalume” was first published in Colton's American Review, December 1847, and reprinted in the Home Journal in the issue of January 1, 1848 (see LTR-258 and notes). “Frogpondium” refers especially to Boston, center of the Transcendentalists. Poe satirically uses the term “pundits” for a pretentious intellectual, naming the foolish feminine narrator of “Mellonta Tauta” (1848), in part taken from Eureka, “Pundita” — also the companion piece, “A Remarkable Letter” (see TOM [T&S], 3:1299-1304, and 1314). At the end of “Rationale of Verse” (H [Works], 14:265), Poe calls Longfellow and Felton “Frogpondian Professors.” The “Rationale of Verse,” under its earlier title of “Notes Upon English Verse,” appeared in Lowell's Pioneer, March 1843. The elaborated form was published in the SLM, October-November 1848 (see head-note and reprinting in H [Works], 14:209-265). For Poe's “book,” see the note to LTR-240. For Longfellow's popular poem “Evangeline,” praised as exemplar of proper English hexameters, see H [Works], 14:262-265, and the gloss to the “Rationale of Verse” in the edition of J. Arthur Greenwood (1968), p. 148. The Poe-English controversy is reprinted in H [Works], 17:233-255; see also LTR-253a. Margaret Fuller's criticism of Poe appeared in the New York Tribune, November 26, 1845 (see Quinn, p. 538, n.), prior to [page 643:] her Papers on Literature and Art, 1846 (see Cambridge History of American Literature, 1:343). For Poe's extreme dislike of Miss Fuller, see the notes to LTR-180 and LTR-195a. Poe based “Marie Rogêt” on the real life murder of Mary Rogers, but his claim of special information may be dismissed (see TOM [T&S], 3:715-722, and the note to LTR-145a). Graham bought “The Gold-Bug” for $52, apparently returning it later, at Poe's request (see LTR-164a). Poe probably intended to print it in one of the early copies of his proposed Stylus, even having two woodcut engravings prepared of illustrations by F. O. C. Darley. When his magazine plans failed, an unusually fortunate opportunity presented itself in the form of a contest sponsored by the Dollar Newspaper — which Poe won, receiving a much needed $100. The story was published in the issues for June 21 (part I) and 28 (parts I and II), 1843. The popularity of the tale demanded a reprint on July 12, 1843 (see TOM [T&S], 3:803-804). “The American Library,” which praised Poe's Tales (1845), appeared in Blackwood's (November 1847, 62:574-592).

One might find Poe's comment “I loved [Virginia] as no man before” echoed in “Annabel Lee,” lines 6, 9, and 27, in both versions, for which see TOM [Poems], 1:477-479. Poe's widely disseminated story about Virginia as suffering from a burst throat blood-vessel through singing has penetrated into numberless accounts of his life. Even after her death he was apparently unwilling, or unable, to admit the diagnosis of tuberculosis. (For elaboration on Poe's denial of the inevitable nature of her illness see Silverman, pp. 179-183, 287-288, 295, and 303.) Poe's determination to create his own magazine was similarly doomed. He had been compiling a list of willing or potential subscribers in a dilapidated notebook, edited and published by Rose and Savoye as Such Friends. Their names, many with addresses, now number 253, about 25 having been lost through mutilation of some pages. Poe refers to “advance subscriptions” (see LTR-262, and the note to LTR-106a) and on the first page of his notebook, two names are credited with “pd 6 years” and one of “4 years.” Evidence given in two letters to Patterson (LTR-316 and LTR-328) suggest that while the journal was never published, these payments were not returned; instead, they were used to defray expenses of travel or for ordinary subsistence. For Poe's income from all his writings and lectures, for his last three years, see Ostrom, “EAP: His Income as Literary Entrepreneur,” PS, 15:1-7; also Ostrom, “Poe's Literary Labors and Rewards,” in Myths and Realities, pp. 37-47. A few additional items might be added to those Ostrom gives, such as $50 out of a promised $100 from Patterson, noted in LTR-316. [page 644:]

Source: original MS (2 pp.) in the Humanities Research Center of the University of Texas at Austin. The address leaf is lost, and the MS is lacking the postscript, which is printed from the Anderson Galleries catalog, January 21-24, part 2, 1929, item 934. Based on a letter from Eveleth to J. H. Ingram (October 30, 1878, University of Virginia, Ingram Collection), Wilson incorrectly suggested that these lines made up a separate letter, although he did correct Eveleth's improper dating (PE, pp. 2-3). They were instead written in pencil on the verso of a prospectus of the Stylus, sent with the present letter. Eveleth had given it to a friend who requested a specimen of Poe's handwriting. Evidence that identifies these lines as the supposed “lost” letter is combined in Eveleth's replies to Poe, January 11 (CL-695), March 9 (CL-702), and July 9, 1848 (CL-717). In the MS, the word “criticizing” is broken across pages 1 and 2 as “criti-cizing.” Poe is answering Eveleth's eighth letter, dated July 27, 1847 (CL-686). Although Poe gives the date as July 26, Eveleth's MS is dated “27 Tues. eve.” and is postmarked July 28.

Note: Henry Dwight Chapin (1794-1862) was a wealthy lawyer, and seems to have been a friend of the Poe family in New York (see Such Friends, with Chapin's name as no. 2 on the list, p. 21). He is probably the “Mr. C.” spoken of by Mrs. Clemm in her letter to Mrs. Shew, Friday Evening [1847], printed in Miller, BPB, pp. 23-24. “Mr. Neal of Portland” was John Neal, former editor of the Yankee, with whom Poe had some correspondence. Early in 1848, Poe planned a trip through the South in the interest of launching his Stylus. See LTR-262 for Poe's comment that his lecture was to be delivered at the New York Society Library on February 3. (Although coexistent, the New York Historical Society is a separate institution.) Col. James Watson Webb (1802-1884) was the editor of the Morning Courier and Enquirer (New York). He unfavorably reviewed Poe's Poems (1831) on July 8, 1831, but collected 50 or 60 dollars for the Poe family about December 1846. A copy of The Raven and Other Poems in paper wrappers, with Poe's signature, appears as item 81 in an Anderson Galleries auction of March 29, 1928. The provenance printed there seems rather dubious, but identifies the recipient as Edward Dexter Webb, who may have been a relative of Col. Webb.

Source: transcript of the letter as first printed in Ingram, 2:135.

Note: The article was probably “Mellonta Tauta” (a reworking of the satirical depiction of the future used as the introduction to Eureka), which would be Poe's last contribution to Godey's, appearing February 1849. According to LTR-227, Poe received $5 for each page his writings occupied in Godey's, and his estimate of “5 pp.” is reasonably accurate in this instance. The article, or more accurately the tale, is dated April 2848, as if Poe in sending it in January 1848 expected it to be published in the April number for 1848, but being an imaginative article it is dated ahead a thousand years. In his letters to Conrad, August 10 and 31, 1847 (LTR-255 and LTR-256), Poe speaks of having been in Philadelphia during the summer of 1847 and having received the $5 loan at that time.

Source: photocopy of the original MS (1 p.) in the Free Library of Philadelphia, Gimbel Collection. There is no envelope or postmark. Under Poe's signature is a notation, presumably by Godey: “Ans^d Jany 19 / 48,” which identifies an unlocated letter from Godey to Poe (CL-697a). The present letter is the last known item in the Poe-Godey correspondence, although Godey probably replied to the present letter. The paragraph published over Poe's signature in Godey's, December 1849, is a hoax (see SPR-20).

Note: For similar remarks on the Stylus, see the last paragraph of LTR-259. Poe delivered his lecture on “The Universe” on February 3, 1848 at the Society Library in New York, with a small audience (see Quinn, p. 539). The lecture he read was later published as Eureka. Willis wrote a very friendly notice of the forthcoming lecture in the Home Journal, February 5, 1848 (see The Poe Log, pp. 719-720).

Source: transcript of the letter as printed by Willis in “Death of Poe,” Home Journal, October 20, 1849, p. 2.

Note: Apparently Poe did not leave for Richmond until July, probably on the 17th (see LTR-265 and LTR-274). George H. Colton, first editor of the American Review, was sketched by Poe in “Literati,” May 1846 (see H [Works], 15:7-9). Colton died December 1, 1847, at the age of 29. “The Rationale of Verse” did not appear in Graham's (see the note to LTR-259). Louis Antoine Godey was the owner and publisher of Godey's Lady's Book. The comment about this important associate being “a good little man” who “means as well as he knows how” echoes the mixed tone Poe takes in the MS notes for The Living Writers of America. There, Poe describes Godey as “a little round oily man with a fat head,” although he admits “no animosity — treated me, on the whole, better than any” (reprinted by Pollin, SAR 1991, p.163). The editors of the New York Weekly Universe wrote Eveleth, August 17, 1847, praising Poe as a writer, critic, and gentleman, and adding that any magazine conducted by him “could hardly fail of success”; but they also commented that “his habits have been shockingly irregular” (see Phillips, 2:1236-1237). Poe's identification of E. A. Hopkins is slightly incorrect, since John Henry Hopkins, Jr. was the author (see LTR-265 and note). Poe makes the same error in LTR-264. For almost all the reviews then available, both of the lecture and later of the book, specified and summarized, see Pollin, “The Contemporary Reviews of Eureka,” ATQ, 25:26-30, and PS, “Poe Viewed and Reviewed,” 13:17-28; also The Poe Log, pp. 719-725. Concerning “Eiros and Charmion,” see TOM [T&S], 2:451-455 for the headnote. For additional details concerning the initial portion of the postscript, see TOM [T&S], 3:1320-1323, where it is printed as “A Prediction.”

Poe's use of the phrase “trucks of Venus” may strike the modern reader as odd. According to the OED, a truck is a wooden wheel or roller, pierced by a central hole, controlling the halliards of the sails and also in gunnery, used for underpinning or moving the ship's guns. Poe is [page 658:] probably recalling his own military service, where he studied artillery, and also his reading of the many “mariner's chronicles” which served as source material for his Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym. Also in the “Prediction” portion of the present letter, Poe uses the words “vortical” and “vorticial,” the latter representing a Poe coinage. (Poe uses “vorticial” three times toward the end of Eureka, the first time in italics, indicating a consciously created word.) For a reference to “lonesome latter days,” see TOM [T&S], 3:1323. Poe's use of gender for astronomical bodies (“him” for the Sun, “her” for Venus, and “his” for Mercury) suggests an influence from an article on the Moon in Rees’ Cyclopedia (London, 1802-1819). For more on Poe's connection to this source, see Writings, volumes 1 and 3, and Levine, Eureka, p. 148 (n178) and p. 167 (n2).

Source: photocopy of the original MS (2 pp.) in the Morgan Library. The surviving MS does not contain the long postscript, printed here from Eveleth's transcript of the full letter (in the University of Virginia, Ingram Collection). Eveleth shows himself to have been a fairly careful copyist in the main body of the letter, and it may therefore be presumed that his text for the missing portion is reasonably accurate. Eveleth apparently sent another transcript to Richard H. Stoddard, who printed it as an endnote in his edition of Poe's Works (New York: Armstrong, 1884, 5:150-156). It is impossible to determine if differences between the two texts are the result of editorial choices or errors in transcription. Poe is replying to Eveleth's letter of January 11, 1848 (CL-695).

Note: Poe has misspelled the name of his correspondent, who was “Isbell” rather than “Irbey.” Isbell had sent him the New World review by “Decius” (February 12, 1848, see The Poe Log, p. 723) of Poe's lecture of February 3, 1848 on “The Universe.” This eight-paragraph review ascribes some of the ideas expressed by Poe to a book by Robert Chambers (and also to works by Sir William Herschel and the Marquis de Laplace). Chambers’ The Natural History of the Vestiges of Creation was frequently reprinted (Harper, 1847; Wiley & Putnam, 1845, 1846, and 1846-1848). It had been reviewed, in its third American printing, in the American Review, which also published Poe's “The Raven.” It seems difficult to believe that Poe would not have made even the slight effort needed to locate a copy of this prominent book, especially one which dealt with a subject clearly of considerable interest to him. Although it is possible that he was familiar with the book only from reviews, as he suggests, Poe's denial has not been entirely convincing to readers and scholars. Chambers’ study is again noted in reviews of Eureka from the Evening Transcript (July 20, 1848) and the Home Journal (August 12, 1848), the second of these noting not only a similarity of ideas but a “correspondence of tone” between the works. It is duly listed as a “source or possible source” by Richard Benton in his facsimile edition of Eureka (Hartford: Transcendental Books, 1973, p. 2), along with two books by John Pringle Nichol: The Phenomena and Order of the Solar System (New York, 1842) and Views of the Architecture of the Heavens (London, 1838). Nichol was lecturing on these subjects the very same week as Poe, [page 661:] who might have been even more protective than usual about the perceived originality of his ideas. The present prospectus was printed prior to January 4, 1848 (see LTR-259). It implies that Poe will have correspondents in “London, Paris, Rome and Vienna,” but does not say when the magazine will be first published. For Poe's lecture, see LTR-262 and note. For his mistake in identifying John H. Hopkins as “E. A. Hopkins,” see LTR-263 and the note to LTR-265. For the publication of the lecture as Eureka, see the note to LTR-269. Poe recorded Isbell's name, correctly spelled, in Such Friends as no. 99 (p. 27).

For Poe's “principal results,” he essentially lists the same items as in LTR-263, but with notably different language and emphasis. A few examples may be relevant. In item 2, Poe omits the final phrase that gravity “is but the reaction of the first Divine Act.” Item 4, made to Eveleth as a simple statement that the universe is limited, is now given greater significance. Poe's long explanation in item 5 is reduced merely to the final sentence.

Source: photocopy of the original MS (2 pp.), formerly in the collection of J. K. Lilly, Jr., and now in the Lilly Library, Indiana University. For the letter, Poe used a printed prospectus of the Stylus, dated “New York City, April, 1848”; the advertisement appears on page 1, the letter on pages 3 and 4, and the address: “George E. Irbey [sic] Esq / Binghampton, [sic] / Broome Co. / New-York” occupies page 2. The letter is postmarked: “New York /, Mar 3 / 5 cts.” In the salutation of the letter, an unidentified hand has struck out “Irbey” and written above, “Isbell”; the same change was not made on the envelope. Poe is replying to Isbell's letter of February 10, 1848 (CL-699). No letter from Isbell returning the “printed slip” is known.

Note: For his intended trip to Richmond, see LTR-259 and LTR-269 (also see LTR-274). The “important matters” referred to his preparation of Eureka for publication by George P. Putnam (June 1848). John Henry Hopkins, Jr. (1820-1891), son of Bishop Hopkins and a student at the General Theological Seminary in New York. Hopkins had reviewed for the Express Poe's lecture on “The Universe” at the Society Library, February 3 (see LTR-263). In general, his comments should have struck Poe as highly favorable, beginning with an assessment of the presentation as “beyond all question the most elaborate and profound effort we ever listened to in the shape of a lecture; one evincing a more extensive investigation, a more original train of thought, a greater complexity of detail, all subjected to the one great unity of fundamental thought, than we ever had thought it possible to compress into one evening's discourse.” After an admittedly condensed abstract of Poe's main thesis, the review ends with: “seldom is there an opportunity to hear a production like this; a production which proves not only that its author is a man of uncommon powers, but that those powers are growing stronger and deeper as they are further developed .... ” (Evening Express, February 4, 1848). According to a letter in the Ingram Collection (University of Virginia), dated February 9, 1875 (published in full by Miller, BPB, pp. 100-101), Hopkins wrote to Mrs. Shew (later Mrs.Roland Houghton) that he visited Fordham in 1848 at Poe's request. Poe was planning to publish Eureka at the time, and that they argued about what Hopkins interpreted as pantheism. A letter from Hopkins to Poe, dated May 15, 1848 (CL-706), speaks of having seen, a few days before, the MS of Eureka in Putnam's office, and protests against a “new development” (probably concerning the pantheistic aspects against which he had argued at Fordham), which, if left in, he would be forced to attack. Thus Hopkins visited Poe at Fordham, perhaps alone, prior to May 15, and possibly on the Sunday suggested in the present letter. [page 663:]

Source: color photograph of the original MS (1 p.) in the Free Library of Philadelphia, Gimbel Collection. The year date is assigned based on two key pieces of evidence. March 30 fell on Thursday in 1848, but not in 1847 or 1849. Also, Poe wrote Eveleth, February 29, 1848: “I mean to start for Richmond on the 10th March” (LTR-263).

Note: This minor letter is one of several in which Poe replies to a request for an autograph.

Source: transcript of the letter as printed in Sotheby's (NY) sale catalog, December 4, 1996, item 167.

Note: There is no evidence that Hirst visited Poe at Fordham, and Poe's correspondence of this period does not indicate that he went to Philadelphia. Endymion, a Tale of Greece, a poem in four cantos, was published in 1848 (DAB, 9:68-69). For Poe's repeated use of the sarcastic comment about falling asleep while Hirst read “Endymion,” see the Griswold edition of Poe's Works, 3:211 [1850], for the article on Henry Hirst prepared in 1848 or 1849 for his expanded volume (also in H [Works], 13:211 and Savoye, “A ‘Lost’ Roll of Marginalia,” EAP Review, 3:52-77). Poe entered Hirst's name into Such Friends, as no. 243 (p. 26). TOM [Poems, 1:317] mentions Poe having been greatly angered by a parody Hirst wrote on “The Haunted Palace.” Previously, Poe had favorably reviewed Hirst's The Coming of the Mammoth in the BJ, although he calls the title poem “the most preposterous of all the preposterous poems ever deliberately printed by a gentleman arrived at the years of discretion” (July 12, 1845; see Writings, 3:162-167). Whatever difficulties may have existed between these two men, Hirst rose to the defense of his old friend with an obituary beginning: “Edgar A. Poe is no more. We knew him well, perhaps better than any other man living, and love him, despite his infirmities,” and includes the interesting observation that “his philippics against pretenders in literature, which he loved as an art, and for its own sweet sake, have been misunderstood; they were the expression of the artist, not the man” (McMakin's Model American Courier, October 20, 1849; reprinted in Walker, EAP: The Critical Heritage, pp. 313-317). The Home Journal was edited by N. P. Willis, and the Union Magazine by B. Taylor (see LTR-271). The Poe Log (p. xxix) sadly notes that in his later years, “Hirst became addicted to absinthe” and was confined to the Blockley Almshouse in Philadelphia as insane (see also Sartain, Reminiscences, pp. 224 and 226). [page 665:]

Source: photocopy of the original MS (1 p.) in the Huntington Library. Poe is replying to Hirst's letter to Poe, before May 3, 1848 (CL-704).

Note: For information on Jane E. Locke, see the note to LTR-251. The indiscretion of the present letter contributed to unfortunate circumstances, about which he wrote to Annie (see LTR-306). These circumstances were further encouraged by Poe's July trip to Lowell to deliver a lecture, at Mrs. Locke's invitation (see Quinn, p. 565), and his later interest in Annie L. Richmond. The volume of poems may be Mrs. Locke's Miscellaneous Poems (Boston: Otis, Broaders & Co., 1842). Poe's book of “scientific detail” was Eureka, published by Putnam, probably in July 1848 (see the note to LTR-269). Poe's statement that he has been living “for the last three years” in Fordham is incorrect (see the note to LTR-215). The critical article on Poe in Graham's (reprinted in H [Works], 1:367-383) was by James R. Lowell (see LTR-173). The one in the Philadelphia Saturday Museum appeared with a portrait, February 25, 1843 (see LTR-153; and Quinn, p. 370), and was reprinted on March 4, 1843. Poe's forgetting that it carried a portrait suggests that he had given away his last copy. The one in the Boston Times and Notion, an abridgement by Robert Carter of the sketch in the Saturday Museum, appeared April 29, 1843 (see Carter to Poe, June 19, 1843, CL-440). Another abridgment, by Joseph E. Snodgrass, appeared in the Baltimore Saturday Visiter, July 29, 1842 (see The Poe Log, p. 433). The article in the SLM for January 1848, was by P. P. Cooke (24:34-38; reprinted in H [Works], 1:383-392). The character Glyndon, from Bulwer's Zanoni, was prominently mentioned in a long June 1842 review in Graham's, which Poe specifically, and perhaps falsely, denied writing in his letter of June 4, 1842 (LTR-137). See the portion of the review (reprinted in H [Works], 11:121) where Glyndon is described as being a “weak, vacillating, yet aspiring man.” For the complicated relationship between Poe and the New Englander Carter, including Carter's friendship with Griswold, see Pollin's articles on “Poe in the Boston Notion,” in the New England Quarterly, 42:585-589, and “Poe and the Boston Notion,” in English Language Notes, 8:23-28.

Source: photocopy of the original MS (4 pp.), formerly in the collection of William H. Koester, and now in the Humanities Research Center of the [page 668:] University of Texas at Austin. The envelope is directed to “Mrs Jane E. Locke / Wamesit Cottag[e] / Lowell / Mass: /.” The letter was written on two leaves, the verso of leaf 2 carried correspondence at both top and bottom, with the address in the center; the address portion of the leaf is badly ink-stained, some of the ink soaking through on the recto, but not obscuring the words. Poe's first sentence suggests at least two letters from Mrs. Locke (CL-707). The statement “your last,” however, may refer to a letter of some time past, and Poe's present letter may be in answer to a follow-up note just received.

Note: Poe's correspondent may have been Charles Henry Marshall (1792-1865), a sea captain and later owner of the Black Ball Line, mentioned in the DAB, 12:305-306. The present letter is interesting for the only reference in Poe's writings to the name of his family physician during his New York period. A careful search of medical lists in NYC and Westchester County and nearby areas, however, has not produced a Doctor Freeman of this period. The Poe Log (p. 733) seems to base its mention solely on this letter.

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 cover, a separate leaf, is not [page 669:] postmarked but bears the direction: “To / Charles H. Marshall Esqre.” The folds of the MS are considerably frayed. TOM [Iowa] declares this letter to be “of most doubtful authenticity” in his copy of The Letters [1948] and “Surely a forgery!” in his notes, but without further explanation. Perhaps his concerns were based on the fact of hand delivery with no evidence of postal cancellation (see Moldenhauer, Descriptive Catalog, p. 67, for the latter fact); or perhaps because there is no other mention of this doctor in studies of Poe, despite the “two years” span indicated in the letter. It should be noted, however, that there are several other letters that were also sent by messenger, often Mrs. Clemm (see, for example, LTR-269).

Note: In “Marginalia” (Graham's, January 1848), Poe commented about Bristed's long article on “The Scotch School of Philosophy and Criticism”(printed in the American Review, October 1845, 2:386-397). “Marginalia” M-191 (see Writings, 2:317-320), contains Poe's sharp charges of a “singular admixture of error and truth ... after a fashion which is novel”; further stating that “it is a gross mistake to suppose that the Greek dactylic line is ‘the model in this matter ... of the English Alexandrine ... I have no space to show what the reviewer will admit I have shown in [my ‘Rationale of Verse’]”. Moreover, Poe, adopting an authoritative tone, scornfully condescends to “instruct” Bristed, the “reviewer,” on “general and immutable principles” which “govern all verse,” whether English or Greek. Poe's dictum is obviously and substantively incorrect. An entreaty now, in June, for a donation from Bristed, after the still-recent admonishing of Bristed's article, is yet another example of Poe's ill-timed, tactless bravado. Accompanying the present letter in the sale (cited in CL-711), was one of Poe's calling cards with black mourning border (reproduced in Quinn, p. 567). Below his name on this card, Poe wrote: “Will M^r Bristed honor Mr Poe with a few minutes’ private conversation?” (The facsimile in Quinn fails to show the apostrophe after “minutes’.”) The card was probably left at Bristed's house by Poe, in person, and may have resulted in a “chat” promoting the forthcoming magazine (The Poe Log, p. 717), but Bristed's name does not appear in Such Friends. The Humanities Research Center of the University of Texas at Austin, which has the original letter, also includes the original MS of a receipt that explains the postscript of the above letter (see PN-9). The “distant connexion near Richmond” is probably John R. Thompson, or possibly John Mackenzie (see LTR-275a). The publication of Eureka, clearly delayed beyond Poe's expectation, was about July 15, judging from the dates of numerous reviews in New York between July 14 and July 22 (a few in Boston and Philadelphia). These are briefly noted in Pollin's “Contemporary Reviews of Eureka: A Checklist” in the ATQ, 26:26-30 — New York: Albion, Commercial Advertiser, Express, Mirror, Journal of Commerce, Literary World, Post; Boston: Saturday Rambler, Transcript; and Philadelphia: Dollar Magazine. Jacob Blanck, BAL (vol. 7) also gives July 15, 1848, for publication and July 31, 1848 for deposit date, according to the Literary World.

The 1996 Fowler-Burchfield Modern English Usage “tolerates” but does not recommend the substitution of “loan” for the verb “lend,” as an Americanism, in ordinary or literary usage, save under certain conditions, [page 671:] even in nineteenth century ambiance. See, however, page 3 of LTR-186 for Poe's “gladly lend their influence.”

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 letter, addressed on a separate leaf, but unpostmarked, was probably sent by messenger — Moldenhauer, Descriptive Catalog, p. 68, suggests Mrs. Clemm, which would be consistent with other examples (see LTR-231a).

Note: Anna Blackwell (1816-1900) and her sister, Elizabeth (1821-1910), were born in England, but emigrated to the United States with the rest of their family in 1831. Poe met them in New York during their visit in 1847-1848. He had no correspondence with Elizabeth. Curiously, when John Ingram contacted Anna Blackwell for information about her reminiscences of Poe, she responded very unfavorably: “you are entirely mistaken in supposing that I can be of any use to you in the work you have in hand.... I never saw him but twice, and really know nothing about him, except from hearsay.... You say you have a copy of a letter addressed to me by Mr. Poe; I do not think I ever received a line from him; I am convinced that there must be some mistake in the matter, & that the letter must have [been] written to some one else ... during my sojourns in the United States, I never, for one moment contemplated publishing my poems in a collection over there.... So persuaded am I that the letter you refer to was not written to me, that I must particularly request you not to allow my name to appear in connexion with it, or, indeed with the subject of your labours in any way” (Anna Blackwell to [page 673:] Ingram, February 12, 1877, University of Virginia, Ingram Collection, reprinted in Miller, “Poe and Miss Anna Blackwell,” PS, 12:28-29). Clearly, she was indeed Poe's correspondent, and the tone of her reply suggests something more than mere forgetfulness. (It must be remembered that in 1877, Ingram had only begun to reclaim Poe's reputation from the widely-circulated calumnies of Griswold.) Of some interest is the first mention in Poe's letters of Mrs. Sarah Helen Whitman, who was soon to play a prominent role in his life (see LTR-276, LTR-278, and APXA-Whitman). What Poe refers to as “Painters of America” was an annual, or gift book, edited by John Sartain and properly titled American Gallery of Art, from the works of the best artists, with poetical and prose illustrations by distinguished American authors (Philadelphia: Lindsay & Blakiston, 1848). Poe was no doubt well informed about the forthcoming book since he was personally connected with the editor and several of its contributors (including Mrs. Osgood, Mrs. Hale, John Tomlin, and C. Chauncey Burr). Although not strictly speaking an “American author,” Miss Blackwell's poem “Legend of the Waterfall” was part of the collection, pp. 30-50. Anna Blackwell's Poems was published in London by John Chapman in 1853.

Source: transcript by John R. Bartlett (3 pp.), formerly in the collection of J. K. Lilly, Jr., and now in the Lilly Library, Indiana University. On the verso of sheet 2 of the Lilly copy appears “To Anna Blackwell,” and below, in an unidentified hand, “J R Bartlett^s copy.” Bartlett lived in New York, and was a friend of Sarah Helen Whitman (see Phillips, 2:951). On March 30, 1875, Mrs. Whitman wrote to Ingram, “You ask about Anna Blackwell's letter from Poe. I gave the letter many years ago to Mr. John R. Bartlett for his large & valuable collection of autographs. The copy which he made for me is still in my possession” (Miller, Poe's Helen Remembers, p. 268). A transcript of the present letter, made by Mrs. Whitman for Ingram, records the address given by Poe: “Miss Anna Blackwell / care of Prof. de Bonneville / Providence / R. I.” (University of Virginia, Ingram Collection). Poe is replying to Miss Blackwell's letter of ca. May 24, 1848 (CL-709). No reply by Miss Blackwell is known. Why Mrs. Whitman had the original MS of the letter in the first place is established by her letter of February 14, 1875 to Ingram: “Anna B[lackwell] came to Providence in the spring of 1848 to pass the summer, and often spoke of her visit to Fordham. She was at my mother's house one evening in June, I think, when Miss Maria J. McIntosh happened to be present.... Miss Blackwell then said that she had received a letter [page 674:] from Poe to much the same effect [asking about Mrs. Whitman] two or three weeks before, but had not thought to speak of it to me. She afterwards at my request gave me the letter, which she said she had not answered” (Miller, Poe's Helen Remembers, pp. 255-256). Poe's statement that he had been “absent from home” for an extended period of time has suggested that the present letter might belong to 1847. TOM [Iowa], for example, writes: “On the whole I favor 1847.” Poe seems to have been in Fordham during May-June 1848, but his whereabouts during May-June 1847 are less certain. Available evidence, however, though none of it absolutely conclusive, tends to support the 1848 dating. Poe saw but did not meet Mrs. Whitman during his visit to Providence with Mrs. Osgood in 1845 (Quinn, pp. 572-573); and in the first half of 1848, Mrs. Whitman sent Poe, indirectly, some valentine verses, and Poe replied with his two poems entitled “To Helen.” Mrs. Whitman's recollection of the events seems more plausible than Miss Blackwell's, and her date of 1848 is therefore accepted.

Note: Bayard Taylor (1825-1878) was a poet, novelist, traveller, and occasional editor. Israel Post sold his Union Magazine of Literature and Art to James L. DeGraw in 1848. It was edited by Mrs. Caroline Kirkland (see American Magazines, 1:769); but Poe's present letter suggests that Taylor was at least an occasional co-editor. (For Mrs. Kirkland's jest that her “world has been turned upside down ... — the Union is dissolved for Sartain [certain],” see Derby, Fifty Years Among Authors, p. 582). John S. Hart was the regular co-editor (see Heidi M. Schultz, “EAP Submits ‘The Bells’ to Sartain's Magazine” in RALS, 22:178, n. 11). According to Quinn (p. 573), the “lines” referred to above were the second version of “To Helen,” in blank verse, appearing as “To — — — “ in the Union, November 1848. Taylor's Views A-Foot was published in 1846 (see Walter C. Bronson, American Literature, p. 262). For two comments by Poe on Taylor, see “Marginalia” M-212 (SLM, April 1849; Writings, 2:352-353) and M-290 (SLM, September 1849; Writings, 2:417-418). Clearly a promising popular author, particularly one with editorial connections, and potentially serving as a good source of contributions and support for the Stylus, Taylor is listed as “J. B. Taylor” in Such Friends, no. 239 (p. 36), though not identified until later (see Savoye, “An Addendum to Ostrom's Checklist,” EAP Review, 2:19-32). In a May 3, 1875 letter to Dr. Josiah G. Holland, Taylor explains that the first initial of “J.,” dropped in later years, was invented and adopted informally by Taylor himself as a boy and erroneously expanded to “James” by Rufus W. Griswold, who edited an early volume of Taylor's poems (see Wermouth, ed., Selected Letters of Bayard Taylor, p. 430).

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. Poe's “P.S.” suggests that he is replying to a possible letter from Taylor (CL-712a), and the acceptance of Poe's poem implies a letter, perhaps from Taylor, Mrs. Kirkland, or J. S. Hart (CL-729a). About the authenticity of the present letter, TOM [Iowa] says: “Although published by Woodberry in 1909, this letter I regard with grave suspicion” plus (separately): “There is no evidence that Taylor had any editorial connection with the Union Magazine except this letter.” He again condemns the letter in TOM [Poems], 1:444, n. 3, and there denies Ostrom's footnote statement that Quinn shows “Taylor as editor” through publishing the “lines enclosed” in the Union, namely the second “To Helen [Whitman].” TOM's further marginal note in his copy of The [page 676:] Letters [1948] says: “Quinn does nothing of the kind.” Neither Phillips nor Quinn offers evidence of Taylor's role as editor beyond the present letter, but it must be admitted that the apparent acceptance of the poem, published in November, does indeed imply the co-editorship. More importantly, TOM was apparently unaware that Taylor edited the journal during Caroline M. Kirkland's absence, while she was in Europe (see J. C. Derby, Fifty Years Among Authors, Books and Publishers, pp. 597-599; Hansen-Taylor and Scudder, eds., Life and Letters of Bayard Taylor, pp. 122, 127, and 128; also The Poe Log, p. 738). Taylor's presence in Such Friends, among prominent literary people, and with the comment “write see let,” provides a direct connection to Poe and establishes Taylor as a correspondent of at least one letter (CL-712a), as does LTR-287a.

Note: Poe reviewed The Child of the Sea and Other Poems, published by Putnam, in the SLM, September 1848 (see the note to LTR-275a), and again in Graham's, April 1849 (34:270-271) (see also the note to LTR-321). [page 677:] Apparently no second edition appeared, though Poe suggested that Putnam bring it out (see LTR-315). Zamen and Mynera are dewy-eyed lovers in Mrs. Lewis’ poem.

Source: original MS (1 p.) in the British Museum, London. The correct year date is not 1849, as given in the various biographies. In the Democratic Review (August 1848, 23:160), Poe says that the volume “is now in press.” Thus, the present letter, which speaks of the MS of the work, belongs to 1848. Ingram (2:219-220) identifies the letter as to Mrs. Lewis, and the content corroborates the identity. Examination of the MS showed that someone, perhaps Ingram, attempted to obliterate the “48” in the date, although the reason for doing so remains unknown. Relevant to the history of the present letter is a statement by Ingram in a letter to Mrs. H. M. Thomas (the niece of Amelia F. Poe), July 14, 1913: “I offered three very interesting letters from Poe to the British Museum they would only buy one and only gave me £ 2. 2/ — about $10 1/2” (quoted by Quinn & Hart, p. 80). In a PS article (“Poe's MS. Letter to Stella Lewis,” 2:36-37), Ostrom comments that “A notation on the verso of the manuscript reads: ‘Purchd of J. H. Ingram Esq / 12 Nov. 1881.’ This manuscript letter must be the only one purchased by the British Museum from the three that Ingram offered to sell.”

Note: In the first paragraph, the one-line quotation is from Poe's own poem “The Raven,” with an especially poignant change of tense (ll. 63-64): “unmerciful Disaster / Followed fast and followed faster.” According to her letter to Ingram (see the source note, below), Mrs. Shew, “a mere country-girl,” became alarmed at Poe's eccentricities and decided to define her position. Thus, she added, the letter was written “after my visit with Mr. Hopkins, the last time.” The clarification of her position was due not so much, as the biographies imply, to Poe's “romantic” tendencies, but to the insistence on the part of the Reverend John H. Hopkins, Jr., who objected vigorously to Poe's ideas expressed in Eureka (see the note to LTR-265) and who felt that Mrs. Shew's duty to family and church was endangered by a continued association with Poe (see the Shew- Houghton-Ingram correspondence in the University of Virginia; reprinted in Miller, BPB, pp. 88-145). In the same letter to Ingram, Mrs. Shew said, “Mr. Poe always treated me with respect and I was to him a friend in need and a friend indeed ... and after he was dead I deeply regretted my letter to him.” Poe's “Muddie” was, of course, Mrs. Clemm, and “Catarina” (or “Catterina”) was the family cat. The “Parson” was the Reverend John H. Hopkins, Jr. According to Mrs. Shew's letter to Ingram, April 3, 1875 [page 680:] (?), Hopkins “went twice to see Poe” (for the first visit, see the note to LTR-265). The “friend of my boyhood” was Mrs. Craig Stith Stanard, the mother of Poe's “school fellow” Robert Stanard. Poe's composition that “hurt” Mrs. Shew must refer to Eureka. Poe's unpublished poem to Mrs. Shew was “Beloved Physician,” also called “The Beautiful Physician.” Unfortunately, the full text is lost, probably destroyed by Mrs. Shew for reasons of privacy. For the fragments of the final, revised poem to Marie Louise, first published by Ingram in 1909 and reprinted by TOM in 1928, see TOM [Poems], 1:401-404.

Source: transcript of the original MS made by Mrs. Roland S. Houghton (formerly Mrs. Marie Louise Shew) for John H. Ingram (see her letter to him, April 3 [1875?] in the Ingram Collection, University of Virginia). The original MS is probably lost. The highly irregular punctuation and spelling of the transcript are almost certainly Mrs. Shew's rather than Poe's, as various editors have recognized. (The problem is partly compounded by her careless style of handwriting.) She gives, for example, the locution “you was deserting” instead of “you were deserting,” an error Poe surely would not have made. A few other examples will suffice: perogative / sacrifise / your self / Louse / releave / loose sight. She also omits the apostrophe in all instances of possessive words. Since there seems no reason to faithfully preserve these mistakes, or to attribute them to Poe, they have been silently corrected in the text. One possible misspelling has been retained, the name of Poe's cat. In a note on one of the pages of her letter, Mrs. Shew is insistent that Poe spelled it “Catarina,” although he twice spelled it as “Catterina” in LTR-174. On her transcript, just preceding her quotation from “The Raven,” Mrs. Shew interpolated the direction that Poe copied, at this point, a “whole stanza” from the poem. Apparently she quoted only enough to identify the stanza for Ingram. The accuracy of her quotation is highly questionable (see Campbell, Poems, p. 112, lines 63-66). Ingram's printings of the letter (with omissions) in Appleton's Journal, May 1878, and in his Life (1880), which are followed by most subsequent biographers, assign the letter to 1848; Quinn, pp. 609-611, without authority dates the letter June 19, but gives “1849,” the date on Mrs. Shew's transcript. In her letter to Ingram cited above, Mrs. Houghton said, “The following [letter] was his last and was written in June / 49.” She was clearly wrong, however, as the contents of the letter point to June 1848 (assuming her month date is correct). Poe is replying to Mrs. Shew's letter of June (?) 1848 (CL-715). [page 681:]

Note: Poe's “excursion to Lowell” was the occasion of his lecture on “Poets and Poetry of America,” July 10, 1848 (see Quinn, p. 565, and The Poe Log, pp. 740-742). Poe's trip to Richmond was for the purpose of furthering his efforts for establishing the Stylus. He hoped this trip through the South and West would add enough names to secure a subscription list of 500 (see LTR-259).

Source: photocopy of the original MS (1 p.) in the Huntington Library. Though the letter is dated July 13, the reference to “tomorrow and Sunday” points clearly to its having been written on Friday, July 14. The envelope is directed to “Dr Thomas Holley Chivers / New-York City.” Though no letter from Chivers to Poe is known for 1848, the present letter suggests a note of recent date (CL-717a). Between Poe's letter of July 22, 1846 (LTR-239) and his present one, there must have been another letter, before February 16, 1847 (CL-670b). The missing item is implied in Chivers to Poe, February 21, 1847: “I received the paper, containing your letter and the notice of your writings, some time ago. I was delighted with your letter — that is, with the idea that you had got well again ... from what you say, she [Virginia] is nigh to the angels ... ” (CL-673). The lost letter was undoubtedly a note that accompanied the enclosures. Virginia [page 682:] Poe died January 30, 1847. Two letters from Chivers followed Poe's lost letter: February 21 (just cited), and April 4, 1847 (CL-681). Surely Poe is not replying to either of these in the present letter. At the top of the MS, Chivers noted: “The following is the last letter that I ever received from him.” Though the present letter is Poe's last known one to Chivers, Poe wrote Mrs. Clemm, ca. August 28-29, 1849, “I got a sneaking letter today from Chivers” (LTR-330, in reference to CL-820).

Note: Mrs. Mary Osborne lived in Fordham, and at her house Poe met Maria Jane McIntosh (1803-1878), of Providence (see Phillips, 2:1287). Miss McIntosh was a friend of Sarah Helen Whitman. In a letter of February 14, 1875 to Ingram, Mrs. Whitman recalled Miss McIntosh as saying, in June of 1848, “on just such a night as this one month ago I met Mr. Poe for the first time at the house of a gentleman in Fordham — a Mr. Lindsay ... & his whole talk was about you [Mrs. Whitman]” (Miller, Poe's Helen Remembers, p. 256). Among the flood of didactic fiction pouring from Miss McIntosh's ever active pen are Praise and Principle: [page 683:] or, For what shall I live? (1845, 1848, 1854); Charms and counter-charms [sic] (1848, 1864); Two lives; or, To seem and to be (1855, 1881), etc., for a rough total of at least fifty separate titles. Her books and name are otherwise unmentioned by Poe, but she did send an adroit note introducing Poe to Helen Whitman, her good friend, on September 15, 1848 (The Poe Log, p. 754). Poe's Eureka had recently been published (see LTR-269). The copy of Eureka Poe inscribed for Mrs. Osborne is now in the Alderman Library, University of Virginia. The corrections made by Poe in this copy are diligently recorded by Nelson, “Apparatus for a Definitive Edition of Eureka,” SAR 1978, pp. 161-204.

Source: original MS (1 p.), formerly in the collection of J. K. Lilly, Jr., and now in the Lilly Library, Indiana University. The letter carries no postmark and is merely addressed: “Mrs. Osborne.” It is also inscribed, in an unknown hand: “My aunt who was at the country seat of my brother in law Max [?] Lindsay near that of Poe's cottage at Fordham.”

Note: Mr. Thompson was John R. Thompson, editor of the SLM (see LTR-292a and note). The article he accepted was “The Rationale of Verse,” which appeared, in two parts, in the SLM for October-November of 1848. The “article about Mrs. Lewis” was a review of a book of her poems (The Child of the Sea and Other Poems), printed in the SLM for September 1848 (14:569-571; Writings, 5:371-374). Eureka, Poe's grand “prose poem,” was available to the public about July 15, 1848 (see notes to LTR-269). The person Poe refers to as “John” was John Hamilton Mackenzie, whose wife was Louisa Lanier Mackenzie. “Mrs. M” was presumably John's mother, Mrs. Jane Scott Mackenzie (1783-1865). Poe had gone to Richmond in yet another attempt to breathe life into the Stylus (see LTR-262, LTR-263, and LTR-269).

Source: photocopy of the original MS (1 p.) in the Fales Library of New York University, Robins Collection. The year date is established by the appearance of “The Rationale of Verse” in the SLM, the review of Mrs. Lewis, and the comment concerning notices about Eureka. On the reverse of this one-page letter is a note, presumably in the hand of Maria Clemm: “Do not return this. Do not let Saturday pass without writing to me.” Also on the obverse is another note, also by Mrs. Clemm: “Eddie did not reply to the article of English. But put it into the hands of a Lawyer, English had to contradict his base falsehoods, and as he had nothing, the Editor of the Mirror had to pay heavy damages. [a horizontal line] I think Annie would have no objection to your copying what you mention provided you do not mention her name —.” Contrary to Mrs. Clemm's statement, Poe did indeed reply to English (see LTR-237). Mrs. Clemm gave this letter to Sarah Elizabeth Robins (1838-1866), to whom both of the notes just cited were almost certainly addressed. “Sallie” Robins, who seems to have generally signed her name only as “S. E. R.,” was busily planning to publish a defense of Poe about 1860, although she went mad in 1861 and spent her remaining days in an asylum. So ardent was Miss Robins in her task that she invited Mrs. Clemm to stay with her in Ohio, an offer which the opportunistic Mrs. Clemm eagerly accepted (see Miller, BPB, pp. 54, 216, and 220-221; also, Robbins, “Edgar Poe and His Friends,” Indiana U. Bookman, pp. 35-38).