∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
1. Source: photostat of original MS. (1 p.) in the Virginia State Library, Richmond. The letter was first printed in the Calendar of Virginia State Papers, X (1892), 518. The envelope is addressed to “His Excellency the Governor/ and/ Executive Council/ of/ Virginia.” Endorsement on the envelope reads: “Application of Junior/ Volunteers for Arms/ Recd 17 Nov 1824.” There is no postmark. No reply is known.
2. Source: photostat of original MS. (2 pp.) in the Virginia State Library, Richmond. The letter was written by Poe and addressed to “Mr. Peter V. Daniel/ Council Chamber/ of/ Virginia.” There is no postmark. No reply from Daniel is known.
3. Source: facsimile in Edgar Allan Poe Letters till Now Unpublished, edited by Mary Newton Stanard (hereafter referred to as VL), pp. 41-42, from the original MS. (2 pp.) in the Valentine Museum, Richmond, Virginia, where it is first printed. The letter is not fully dated, but postmarked May 25, and directed to “John Allan Esqr/ Richmond,/ Va/ care Wm & Wm Galt Jr.” Poe may be answering an unknown letter, which accompanied the clothes sent by John Allan.
The Poe-Allan correspondence between February 21 (?), 1826-April 12, 1833, includes 42 known letters, probably 43, and undoubtedly others for which there is no specific evidence. Of the known items, Poe wrote 30, Allan, 12-13. The collection in the Valentine Museum contains 27 holographs from Poe to Allan, and 2 from Allan to Poe. Mrs. Stanard (VL, p. 5 ) states erroneously, “There is, after Poe left the University, evidence of one missing letter, and one only [June 10, 1829]”; but there is at least one more, that cited by Allan, May 18, 1829 (VL, p. 121): “I duly recd your letter from Baltimore on Saturday ... [May 14 (?), 1829]”; she adds that there is but one missing letter in the whole correspondence. On the contrary, Quinn (Poe, p. 71) quotes from Allan's letter to George Dubourg, August 14, 1817: “Enclosed is a letter for Edgar ... ”; thus Poe received at least one letter from John Allan, unless it was from Mrs. Allan, while the family was in England and Edgar was attending the Misses Dubourg's boarding school; also there are undoubtedly two letters to be added to those written at the University: one, about February 21, 1826, shortly after Poe's matriculation (see Letter 28); and another in December 1826, requesting money, which Allan sent (Letter 28). Although the Valentine Museum has but two MS. letters from Allan to Poe, at least ten or eleven others must have been written (see allusions in Poe's letters). Fourteen of Poe's known letters, and seven of Allan's were written during 1829 while Poe was in Baltimore, struggling to establish himself independently in life. A glance at Poe's salutations shows that the intimacy of “Dear Pa” prevailed from March 10, 1829, through November 6, 1830, with the exception of “Dear Sir,” August 4, 1829, when Poe felt strongly that John Allan was offended. From January 3 until November [page 466:] 18, 1831, Poe begins with “Sir” or “Dear Sir.” The successive letters of November 18 and December 15, 1831, have “Dear Pa,” that of December 29, 1831, “Dear Sir,” and his last letter, April 12, 1833, no salutation. John Allan's first extant letter to Poe, March 20, 1827, begins “Sir,” and that of May 18, 1829, “Dear Edgar.” On the evidence of known letters, the Poe-Allan correspondence during the second quarter of 1829 possessed an intimacy that was never again enjoyed; moreover, it is interesting to note that this intimacy first appears in Poe's letter of March 10, 1829, following the death of Frances Keeling Allan, from whose funeral Poe had just returned to Fortress Monroe (Poe arrived in Richmond too late to attend the services). The extant correspondence does not reveal in full the business and personal relations existing between Poe and Allan for the period covered by their letters; but the written words do not tell the whole story: inferences to be drawn from ideas expressed or half-expressed, chirography and pointing, salutations and closes — all these form the strange compound that represents the young Poe, a compound that must be read intelligently and sympathetically before one can pass fair judgment. Poe's letters to Allan are often careless in spelling and pointing; especially difficult to read correctly are his commas, periods, and dashes. Questionable readings in the facsimiles were collated with the MS. letters; all the original letters were examined for postmarks, addresses, and endorsements by John Allan. Notes to the Poe-Allan letters have been kept to a minimum; for fuller treatments, see the VL and the various biographies, especially Quinn's Poe.
The following letters comprise the known correspondence between Poe and John Allan; the starred items are those for which MSS. exist (possible additional items are treated in the preceding notes) :
Poe to Allan Allan to Poe
1826 February ca 21
1826 February post 22
* 1826 May 25
1826 September 21
1826 ca. December
* 1827 March 19
* 1827 March 20
* 1827 March 20
1828 December 1
* 1828December 22
* 1829February 4
* 1829 March 10
1829 May 14
* 1829 May 18
* 1829May 20
* 1829May 29
1829 June 8
1829 June 10 [page 467:]
* 1829 June 25
* 1829 July 15
1829 July 19
* 1829July 26
* 1829August 4
1829 August 7
* 1829 August 10
1829 August 19
1829 October 27-28
* 1829October 30
* 1829November 12
1829 November 15
* 1829 November 18
1830 May 21
* 1830 June 28
* 1830 November 6
1830 December 27-28
* 1831 January 3
* 1831February 21
* 1831 October 16
1831 ante November 18
* 1831 November 18
* 1831 December 15
* 1831 December 29
* 1833 April 12
4. Source: facsimile in VL, pp. 47-48, from original MS. (2 pp.) in the Valentine Museum, Richmond. The letter was first printed in VL. The envelope is lacking, but the letter is unquestionably to John Allan.
5. Source: facsimile in VL, pp. 59-61, of original MS. (3 pp.) in the Valentine Museum, Richmond; first printed in VL. The bracketed readings on page 3 indicate tears in the MS. The letter was dated by Mrs. Stanard (see VL, pp. 51-52). John Allan's reply, undated but probably written on March 20 before receipt of Poe's letter of the same date (Letter 6), is printed in VL, pp. 67-68.
6. Source: facsimile in VL, p. 65, of original MS. (1 p.) in the Valentine Museum, Richmond; first printed in VL. The letter was dated by Mrs. Stanard (see VL, pp. 51-52, and the notes to Letter 5). The present letter was written before Poe received Allan's of March 20.
7. Source: facsimile in VL, pp. 79-81, of original MS. (3 pp.) in the Valentine Museum, Richmond; first printed in VL. The envelope is postmarked “Dec. 3” (the envelope-address forms the verso of page 3 of the letter). Leaf two of the MS., comprising page 3 of the correspondence and [page 468:] the cover, is worn at the folds, and a fragment missing from the left margin had been restored incorrectly at the right margin. This is Poe's first known letter to Allan since that of March 20, 1827. However, even if Poe did not write to Allan concerning his publication of Tamerlane in Boston, 1827, the tone of the present letter suggests some kind of communication, perhaps a lost letter, to his foster-father since the letter of March 20, 1827.
8. Source: facsimile in VL, pp. 91-94, of original MS. (4 PP-) in the Valentine Museum, Richmond; first printed in VL. The address is on page 4; postmarked December 24 from Old Point Comfort. The bracketed reading on page 3 indicates a section torn from the MS.
9. Source: facsimile in VL, pp. 103-106, of original MS. (4 pp.) in the Valentine Museum, Richmond; first printed in VL. Bracketed readings on page 3 represent tears in the MS., and the editorial asterisks indicate the possible number of letters in an indistinct word. The address appears on page 4, with the postmark February 9 at Old Point Comfort. John Allan had not answered Poe's last two letters, nor is there any evidence that he replied to the present one.
In connection with the correspondence between Poe and John McKenzie, cited in the present letter, Poe states that McKenzie wrote to him prior to Poe's reply. Poe probably refers to the son of Mr. and Mrs. William Mackenzie of Richmond, who at the time of Mrs. Poe's death took Rosalie Poe, Edgar's sister. No letter from John Mackenzie to Poe is known to be extant, but a letter from Poe to “MacKenzie” is listed for sale in Henkel's sale catalogue, November 20, 1935. This catalogue letter and Poe's “John McKenzie” letter are not the same, the Henkel item being an undated quarto asking about the possibility of buying T. W. White's subscription list of the Southern Literary Messenger (see Letter 159). Thus the letters exchanged between John Mackenzie and Poe early in 1829 have apparently been lost.
10. Source: facsimile in VL, pp. 115-116, of original MS. (2 pp.) in the Valentine Museum, Richmond; first printed in VL. The holograph is badly burned at both sides, bottom, and center fold; however, the wording of the first paragraph is complete, and probably only one line is missing at the foot of the leaf. The present printing of the letter is the most complete to date, the emended readings being based upon a close examination of the original manuscript. In all probability, Poe is not answering a letter from Allan, but reporting the progress of plans made while Poe was at home.
11. Source: facsimile in VL, pp. 127-128, of original MS. (2 pp.) in the Valentine Museum, Richmond. The letter was first printed in the VL. The envelope is postmarked May 20. John Allan recorded on the versa of the cover: “Answered in anticipation/ to Washington/ gave Edgar $50/ remitted him 100/ pd his draft so/ [total] $200.” On page 1, bracketed reading indicates tear in MS. Poe is answering Allan's letter of May 18, 1829, which was a reply to a lost letter from Poe, probably dated May 14, from Baltimore (see Allan's letter in the VL, p. 121).
12. Source: photostat of original (3 pp.) formerly in the Drexel Institute (MS. sold by Parke-Bernet Galleries, October 17-18, 1944, Drexel Institute [page 469:] sale, item 199); also reproduced in Quinn, Poe, pp. 139-141. The autograph MS. has ink blots and smears. The envelope is directed to I. Lea, Esq., and was delivered by hand. Lea's address is on the back of the last page. The letter is folded and sealed with wax; it probably accompanied the MS. of the poem. There is no positive clue to the date except Lea's note at the top of page 1: “Ans’ May 27.” At the bottom of page 3 appears in pencil: “at City Hotel” (not in Poe's hand).
13. Source: facsimile in VL, pp. 137-140, of original MS. (4 pp.) in the Valentine Museum, Richmond; first printed in VL. The letter is addressed on page 4, and postmarked from Baltimore, May 31. The MS. is torn at the right edge of page 3, but no words are lacking.
The third and fifth paragraphs of the letter suggest an exchange of letters between Poe and Robert Walsh. Their location is unknown. They would have been written between Poe's letter to Wirt, May 11, and Poe's letter to Isaac Lea, ante May 27, 1829.
14. Source: facsimile in VL, pp. 149-152, of original MS. (4 pp.) in the Valentine Museum, Richmond; first printed in VL, with the omission of part of paragraph three on page two, alluding to Edward Mosher (the line is here first printed). The envelope is postmarked from Baltimore, June 25. The postmark and address appear on page 4, center, with the correspondence above and below; at the right margin appears Allan's notation: “Edgar A Poe/ June 25th 1829.”
15. Source: facsimile in VL, pp. 155-156, of original MS. (2 pp.) in the Valentine Museum, Richmond; first printed in VL. The extra leaf, used as an envelope, was postmarked from Baltimore, July 17.
16. Source: facsimile in VL, pp. 163-166, of original MS. (4 pp.) in the Valentine Museum, Richmond; first printed in VL. Page 4 carries a Baltimore postmark of July 26, and in the center of the page, the address. The MS. is slightly torn at several places. Poe is replying to Allan's letter of July 19, which is unlocated.
17. Source: photostat of original MS. (2 pp.) in the Berg collection, New York Public Library. The letter was first printed by Charles Brombach ofPhiladelphia in a limited edition of 25 copies, 1917; also in A, I, 250-251, and P, II, 335, both in 1926. Beneath Poe's dating is a notation, presumably by Isaac Lea: “Recd July 30/ Ans Aug. 3” (the location of the MS. reply is unknown, nor has it ever been printed).
18. Source: facsimile in VL, pp. 175-176, of original MS. (2 pp.) in the Valentine Museum, Richmond; first printed in VL. The outside cover carries the address and a Baltimore postmark of August 4.
19. Source: facsimile in VL, pp. 185-187, of original MS. (3 pp.) in the Valentine Museum, Richmond; first printed in VL. The letter is postmarked at Baltimore, August 10. John Allan notes on the cover: “Answd Aug 19, 1829/ inclosed him $50.” Poe is replying to a lost letter from Allan, dated probably August 7-8, 1829.
20. Source: facsimile in VL, pp. 197-198, of original MS. (2 pp.) in the Valentine Museum, Richmond; first printed in VL. The envelope carries the [page 470:] postmark of Baltimore, October 30. Poe is answering Allan's letter of October 28 (?), 1829, the location of which is unknown.
21. Source: transcript made by Neal in a letter to Ingram, May 10, 1875, now in the Ingram collection, University of Virginia; lining and mechanics are Neal's. The letter was first printed in full by Neal (with poetic selections submitted by Poe) in The Yankee and Boston Literary Gazette, VI (December 1829), 295-298 n.s. The existence of Poe's original is unknown. The dating of this letter was established by the inclusive issues of The Yankee cited above. In a letter to Ingram, supra, Neal admitted Poe's letter was directed to him. It is possible that a concluding portion of the original letter was omitted by Neal in his printings of it in The Yankee and in the Portland Advertiser, Friday, April 26, 1850, and in his letter to Ingram. It seems probable, also, that the above letter to Neal is Poe's second, at least, an earlier one accompanying the verses “Heaven” noted in The Yankee in September (see Neal's introductory comment, Quinn, Poe, 152).
22. Source: facsimile in VL, p. 205, of original MS. (1 p.) in the Valentine Museum, Richmond; first printed in VL. The letter is postmarked Baltimore, November 12. For Allan's prompt reply, see Letter 23.
23. Source: facsimile in VL, p. 215, of original MS. (1 p.) in the Valentine Museum, Richmond; first printed in VL. The letter is postmarked at Baltimore, November 19. Poe is replying to John Allan's letter of November r5-16 (?), 1829, the location of which is unknown.
24. Source: photostat of original MS. (fragment of one (?) leaf) in the William H. Koester collection, Baltimore; also, for the material enclosed in daggers, W, I, 369. The present printing is the fullest known, former versions using either the Portland Daily Advertiser, April 26, 1850, or reprints from it; the Advertiser omitted everything before “I thank you, Sir” and for “anxiously,” in the last line of page 1 of the MS., printed “consciously.” The passage used from Woodberry is an exact reprinting of the passage in the Advertiser. The MS. being undated, the only available dating is that of the Advertiser, which places “Dec. 29, 1829,” though without authority, at the end of the letter.
The Poe-Neal correspondence of 1829 seems to include at least three letters from Poe and at least one from Neal: Poe to Neal, ante September 1829, and October-November 1829 (see the latter letter and notes), and the present letter, December 29, 1829; Neal to Poe, ante December 29, 1829, in which he not only suggested corrections for some of the poems sent him but also refused to have the volume dedicated to him (see Neal's article in the Portland Advertiser, April 26, 1850, “... E. A. P. had written me a letter, offering to dedicate a volume of these poems [Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane and Other Poems, Baltimore: Hatch and Dunning, December 1829] to me — and that I said, no for his sake ... ”; see also a restatement of the foregoing in Neal's letter to Mary Gove, November 30, 1846, in Quinn, Poe, p. 153). If there is a missing portion to Poe's letter to Neal, October-November, 1829 (Letter 21), it may have contained an offer to dedicate the forthcoming volume of poems to Neal; if not, there must have been another letter from Poe that made the [page 471:] offer. Also, it seems probable that Neal would have replied to the present letter, or at least to a presentation copy of a volume of poems dedicated to him.
25. Source: facsimile in VL, pp. 225-227, of original MS. (3 pp.) in the Valentine Museum, Richmond; first printed in VL. The letter is postmarked Richmond, May 3, and addressed, on page 4, to Samuel Graves, Old Point Comfort, Virginia. The MS. is written in an unusually large hand for Poe; and there is a portion of page 3 torn away, though no words are missing. Poe is apparently replying to two letters from Graves, one of which was not received: the letter Bully said was sent to Washington never reached Poe, and may be dated conjecturally as April 1830; the letter Poe received was directed to him, probably, in Richmond, and may be dated May 1, 1830, though it may have been written at Fortress Monroe and not postmarked at Old Point Comfort station until later, May 1, therefore, being the latest date for Poe to answer it on May 3. Both letters from Graves are unlocated.
26. Source: facsimile in VL, pp. 237-238, of original MS. (2 pp.) in the Valentine Museum, Richmond; first printed in VL. Though the year date is not given, the references to West Point indicate 1830; moreover, Allan's note on the cover reads: “Edgar A Poe/ June 28th 1830/ West Point.” The letter was postmarked from West Point, June 28. Allan's letter of May 21, 1830, which Poe is answering, was the first since November 15-16 (?), 1829 (see Letter 23 and notes).
27. Source: facsimile in VL, pp. 247-248, of original MS. (2 pp.) in the Valentine Museum, Richmond; first printed in VL. The letter is postmarked at West Point, November 10. John Allan, apparently, has not written since May 21, 1830.
28. Source: facsimile in VL, pp. 259-262, of original MS. (4 pp,) in the Valentine Museum, Richmond; first printed in VL. Poe dated the letter incor rectly 1830; its content proves 1831, as well as its postmark: West Point, January 5. The address appears in the center portion of page 4, the last paragraph of the letter coming at the bottom of the page. According to the editor of the VL, a portion of leaf 2 of the MS. broke off and was improperly restored (see VL, p. 2.61). Below the address, John Allan wrote: “I recd. this on the loth, & did not from its conclusion deem it necessary to reply. I make this note on the 13th. & can see no good Reason to alter my opinion, I do not think the Boy has one [tear] good quality. He may do or act as [he] [tear] pleases, tho’ I wd have saved him [tear] but on his own terms & conditions since [tear] I cannot beleive a word he writes, His [tear] letter is the most barefaced one sided statem[ent].” The torn part of the MS. seems due to the breaking off of the sealing wax; therefore no words are lacking in Allan's note, for he was forced to write on both sides of the wax. The letter that Poe is answering cannot be dated exactly, but a conjectural date would be December 27-28, 1830; its location is unknown.
29. Source: facsimile in VL, pp. 271-273, of original MS. (3 pp.) in the Valentine Museum, Richmond; first printed in VL. The letter is postmarked at New York, February 21. The MS. has an ink blot in the center of each [page 472:] page and a piece torn from the right margin of leaf 2. On page 3, just below the postscript, John Allan wrote: “Apl 12, 1833 it is now upwards of 2 years since I received the/ above precious relict of the Blackest Heart & deepest ingratitude/ alike destitute of honour & principle every day of his life/ has only served to confirm his debased nature — / Suffice it to say my only regret is in Pity for/ his failings — his Talents are of an order that can/ never prove a comfort to their possessor.”
30. Source: photostat of original MS. (1 p.) at the U. S. Military Academy Library at West Point. The letter was first printed in the New York Sun, October 30, 1902 (see L and L, n, 449). The envelope, postmarked March ro at New York, is addressed to “Lt. Col. S. Thayer, Superintendent, U.S.M.A., West Point.” Also on the envelope is a memorandum which reads: “Edgar A. Poe / New York March 10.1831 / Wishes a letter respecting him, / addressed to Genl Lafayette / &c. as he wishes to join the / Polish Army.” No reply by Colonel Thayer is known.
31. Source: photostat of original (1 p.) in Pennsylvania Historical Society. First printed in full in Woodberry (1885), pp. 63-64
32. Source: facsimile in VL, pp. 283-284, of original MS. (2 pp.) in the Valentine Museum, Richmond; first printed in VL. The letter is postmarked at Baltimore, October 16. The letter is rather carelessly written: words are over-written, certain letters ill-constructed, and “altho” appears to have had its t put in last. John Allan has not written to Poe since December 27-28, 1830.
33. Source: facsimile in VL, p. 293, of original MS. (1 p.) in the Valentine Museum, Richmond; first printed in VL. The letter is postmarked at Baltimore, November 18. Though Poe does not seem to be answering a letter from John Allan, his allusion to a “late kindness” suggests a recent letter with some sort of assistance, perhaps financial, from his foster-father, though the letter is unlocated.
34. Source: facsimile in VL, pp, 303-304, of original MS. (2 pp.) in the Valentine Museum, Richmond; first printed in VL. The letter is postmarked at Baltimore, December 15. Though Allan did not mail any reply to Poe's letter of November 18, nor to Mrs. Clemm's letter of December 5 (see VL, p. 295 ), he wrote on the present letter, just below Poe's signature: “Wrote on the 7th Decr 1831 to John Walsh/ to procure his liberation & to give him $20 besides to keep him out of farther/ difficulties & value on me for such/ amt as might be required — neglected/ sending it on till the 12th Jany 1832/ Then put in the office myself.” Allan's last statement is confusing; but if he sent a letter to Poe with the money, it is unlocated.
35. Source: facsimile in VL, p. 307, of original MS. (1 p.) in the Valentine Museum, Richmond; first printed in VL. The letter is postmarked Baltimore, December 29. Allan had not answered Poe's last two letters.
36. Source: facsimile in VL, p. 315, of original MS. (1 p.) in the Valentine Museum, Richmond; first printed in VL. The letter is postmarked at Baltimore, April 12.
** [[section II: May 1833 - Jan. 1837]] **
37. Source: photostat of original (4 pp,) in the Bradley Martin collection, New York. Page 1 of the MS., comprising all the letter except the “P.S.,” is [page 473:] reproduced by Quinn (Poe, p. 200), from a facsimile of the original. The letter was first printed in full in a French translation by Andre Fontainas in his Edgar Poe Lettres à John Allan, pp. 10-11, though he dates it “1823” (probably a typographical error). The letter covers the top third of page one of a four-page MS. that includes Poe's print-like copy of “Epimanes”; at the foot of p. 4, Poe added his “P.S.” In the center of p. 4 appears: “Messrs. Buckingham/ Editors of the N. England Magazine/ Boston, Masstts.”
38. Source: photostat of original MS. (1 p.) in the Peabody Institute Library, Baltimore. The letter was first printed in the Century Magazine, XLVIII (August 1894), 573-574. In his letter to Kennedy, December 19, 1834, Poe says: “About four weeks ago I sent you a note respecting my Tales of the F. Club ... ”; thus the date of the present letter may be placed at ca. 19 November. The present letter is a MS. of a single sheet, written on one side only; therefore Quinn's statement (Poe, p. 204, n. 36) that Kennedy wrote a note on “the third leaf” is incorrect.
The Poe-Kennedy correspondence consists of 12 known letters from Poe and 5 known and two probable letters from Kennedy; the starred items below indicate letters known to be or to have been extant. Nine of Poe's original MSS. are in the Peabody Institute, Baltimore, to which they came in a sealed chest some forty years ago.
Poe to KennedyKennedy to Poe
* 1834November ca. 19
* 1834 December 19
* 1834 December 22
* 1835 March 15
1835 March 15
* 1835 March 15
1835May 21-25 (?)
* 1835September 11
* 1835 September 19
* 1836 January 22
* 1836 February 9
* 1836 February 11
* 1836 April 26
* 1836 June 7
* 1840 December 31
* 1841June 21
* 1844 February 1
* 1845 October 26
* 1845 December 1
39. Source: an auctioneer's transcript in the collection of Thomas O. Mabbott; the original MS., a half-page octavo, was offered for sale in Sotheby's Catalogue, December 18-19, 1934, and at present is unlocated. The letter is here first printed. [page 474:]
40. Source: photostat of original MS. (1 p.) in the Peabody Institute Library. The letter was first printed in the Century Magazine, XLVIII (August 1894), 574. That 1835, the year date usually assigned to this letter, is correct, is established by the following advertisement in the Baltimore Patriot, Thursday, March 12, 1835, p. 3: “A Teacher Wanted — At male Public School No. 3 Aisquith St. The commissioners of Public Schools will appoint on Wednesday next, the 18th inst. a Teacher to supply a vacancy which has occurred at Male School No. 3. Satisfactory recommendations as to character, with testimonials of capacity for conducting a School on the Monitorial System, will be required. Salary one thousand dollars per annum, payable quarterly. Applications addressed to the commissioners, may be left with either of them or the Secretary, No. 8 Courtland Street [a list of the commissioners then follows].” The present letter is one of those MSS. that came to the Peabody Institute in the sealed chest containing the Kennedy papers (see Note 38).
41. Source: photostat of original MS. (1 p.) in the Peabody Institute Library. The letter was first printed in the Century Magazine, XLVIII (August 1894), 574. For the year date, Harrison (H, XVII, 2) suggested 1833; subsequent editors give 1835. In a letter to Ingram, March 2, 1909, Amelia Poe assigns the letter to March 15 (see Ingram collection, University of Virginia) ; in the unpublished MS. revision of his Life of Poe (Ingram collection), Ingram places Poe's letter concerning the teaching vacancy (Sunday, March 15, 1835) first, with the present letter next, dating both 1835. Poe's last sentence, above, especially “I must submit to my fate,” suggests very strongly that the present letter is a follow-up of the one dated “Sunday, 15th March” [1835]. Kennedy's invitation was probably a written note, same date, unlocated.
42. Source: photostat of original (1 p.) in Huntington Library (HM 21868). The letter is here first printed in full. It is an undated fragment, written on one side of a quarto leaf measuring at present 9 1/4 x 8 1/2 inches; both top and bottom are torn off, about equally, with text missing definitely at the top. The leaf is folded twice, into envelope shape, and addressed to T. W. White; the postal cancellation is Baltimore, April 30, and White wrote on back of letter: “April 30, 1835.” The MS. a little split in folds and the right center edge is damaged. Poe is replying to certain criticisms and queries by White, as the content indicates.
I am of the opinion that the bracketed fragment missing at the head of the present MS. letter is to be identified with the paragraph concerning a swimming feat printed in the SLM, I (May 1835), 468. The paragraph, which is unsigned, alludes to a swimming adventure by the writer, the allusion being an answer to a passage in an article entitled “The Doom,” which appeared in the SLM, January 1835, and in which “E — P — “ is cited as making the swim. Biographers have accepted testimonials of early Richmonders to Poe's dexterity and strength in the water. The paragraph printed in the May issue is headed: “A valued correspondent, who was the bold swimmer alluded to [in “The Doom”] writes to us as follows ... ” The paragraph could have been the first six lines of the present letter, which is a quarto leaf [page 475:] measuring at present 9 1/4 x 8 1/2 inches. The original size of the leaf must have been at least 10 x 8 1/2 inches, if not more than 10 inches in length. Poe's letter to White, May 30, 1835, measures 9 1/4 x 7 3/4 inches; his letter to White of June 12, 1835, 7 5/8 x 6 inches; and that of June 22, 1835, 9 5/8 x 7 1/2 inches; thus the length of leaves increased in proportion to the width. A leaf 8 1/2 inches wide would be at least 10, if not 10 1/2 or 11 inches in length. Poe's April 30, 1835, letter is closely written, and averages about 2/3 of a line for each 1/8 inch. Thus if the original leaf were to 10 1/2 or 11 inches, the missing fragment could be six lines long, still allowing space for the date and salutation. There seems to be no way of proving that the paragraph in the SLM is printed from the missing portion of the present letter. However, since a few lines have been torn from the MS. and since the paragraph appeared in the issue of the SLM following the date of the present letter, and since the present editor believes the missing fragment could have contained the number ‘ of lines represented by the wording of the printed paragraph, the paragraph is printed at the head of the present letter. Following “Calais” there were probably a few words suggesting that White add the present comment to what was said in the January article. If the present hypothesis is correct, White probably tore off the lines from the head of the letter and used them for printing the paragraph.
43. Source: photostat of original MS. (3 pp.) in the Boston Public Library. The letter was first printed in H, XVII, 4-6. The envelope is postmarked at Baltimore, May 31. Poe is replying to White's letter of May 2o, 1835 (unlocated).
44. Source: photostat of original (1 p.) in the Boston Public Library. The letter was first printed by Woodberry in the Century Magazine, XLVIII (August 1894), 575, Poe is replying to White's letter of June 8, the location of which is unknown.
45. Source: photostat of original (2 pp.) in the Boston Public Library. The letter was first printed in H, XVII, 8-10. The postal cancellation is Baltimore, June 23, Poe is replying to White's letter of June 18, the location of which is unknown.
46. Source: the original MS. (2 pp.) in the private collection of Merrill Griswold, Boston. The letter was first printed by Woodberry in the Century Magazine, XLVIII (August 1894), 575-576 The envelope is directed to “Thos. W. White, Esqr., Southern Messenger, Richmond, Va.,” and cancelled July 20, Paragraph two of page two shows one faded portion of MS. and several smears. Poe is replying to White's letters of July 14 and 16, locations of originals unknown.
47. Source: photostat of original MS. (2 pp.) in the Berg collection, New York Public Library. The letter was first printed in Gulf States Historical Magazine, I (January 1903), 281-283 (Harrison's printing, XVII, 13-16, is less full). The envelope is postmarked Richmond, August 20, and is directed to William Poe, Augusta, Georgia. A Portion of the MS. has been torn out and the bracketed emendations, above, are suggested restorations. Poe is replying to William Poe's letter of ca. August 17 (?), 1835, which is unlocated. [page 476:]
48. Source: original MS. (3 pp,) in the Enoch Pratt Library, Baltimore. The letter was first printed (with facsimile) in Pratt, facing p. 6. The year date was established by internal and external evidence: Poe was in Richmond in August 1835, and Mrs. Clemm was in Baltimore; the postal cancellation shows Richmond, Virginia, August 29; and the envelope is directed to Mrs. William Clemm, Baltimore, Maryland. Mrs. Clemm and Virginia joined Poe in Richmond on October 3, 1835, according to a letter from Mrs. Clemm to William Poe, October 7, 18 (see Quinn, Poe, p. 230, n.16). The MS. is badly torn and worn, page three especially. Poe is replying to Mrs. Clemm's letter written sometime between August 20-26 (?) after receipt of one from Poe saying William Poe had written him offering to assist her; and to a letter just received from her (probably dated Aug. 27-28?).
49. Source: photostat of original (1 p.) in the William H. Koester collection, Baltimore. The letter is here first printed.
50. Source: photostat of original MS. (2 pp.) in the Peabody Institute Library. The letter was first printed in H, XVII, 16-18. It is written on both sides of a single leaf; there is no cover extant. Poe is not replying to a letter from Kennedy; but Kennedy seems to have written Poe a note to accompany some money that he forwarded from Thomas W. White to Poe (see Letter 43); the note or letter, unlocated, may be dated May, ca. 21-25, 1835.
51. Source: Anderson Galleries Catalogue, November 13-14, 1916, item 71, where the letter is first printed; the location of the original is unknown. The American Art Association Catalogue, April 20-21, 1921, part 3, item 493, cites a Poe to Bird letter that solicits contributions to the SLM under the date of October 6, 1835; this date is undoubtedly an error: at times Poe's 8's are like his 6's, but his 6's are less likely to resemble his 8's; furthermore, the Thomas Madigan Catalogue, November, 1923, No. 145, p. 19, gives the letter under the later date. The letter, a 1 page quarto was addressed to Dr. R. M. Bird, Philadelphia.
51a. Source: printed fragment in the Anderson Galleries sale catalogue, April z5-27, 1916, item 465. The Merwin-Clayton sales catalogue, January 18, 1911, item 255, described the MS. as a 1 page octavo. Both catalogues agree that the letter was written by Poe but signed by Thomas W. White, and that Poe addressed the envelope to Lucian Minor, the Anderson Galleries catalogue giving his address as Charlottesville, Virginia. The original MS. is unlocated.
52. Source: photostat of original MS. (2 pp.) in the George P. Coleman collection in Colonial Williamsburg Architectural Department, Williamsburg, Virginia. The letter was first printed in the Century Magazine, CVII (March 1924), 653-655. The envelope is addressed to “Judge Beverly Tucker/ Williamsburg/ Va:” and is postmarked at Richmond, December 3, Poe is replying to Tucker's letter to T. W. White, November 29, 1835 (MS. in the Boston Public Library; printed in part in Quinn, Poe, pp. 234-235). Tucker replied to the present letter, December 5, 1835 (MS. in the Boston Public Library; printed in H, XVII, 21-24).
53. Source: photostat of original MS. (1 p.) in the Enoch Pratt Library, [page 477:] Baltimore. The letter was first printed in Woodberry (1885), pp. 78-79. The envelope is postmarked Richmond, January 12, and directed to George Poe, Mobile, Alabama. The signature, including the complimentary close, and perhaps part of the postscript have been cut away, but Poe is obviously the writer. This is the first known letter between Poe and George Poe.
54. Source: photostat of original MS. (2 pp.) in the Peabody Institute Library. The letter is here first printed in full. Poe is replying to Kennedy's letter of September 19, 1835 (the MS. is in the Boston Public Library; printed in H, XVII, 19-20).
55. Source: photostat of original (1 p.) in Boston Public Library. The letter was first printed in W, II, 370-371. The envelope is directed to Charlottesville, Virginia, shows a postal cancellation of February 13, and has a note, in Minor's (?) hand: “recd 16th Feb. 1836.”
56. Source: data in American Art Association catalogue, May 4-5, 1925, item 466, where the letter is listed and where the above unbracketed phrase is quoted. The letter is described as a r page quarto, signed, with the address on last page of sheet. The catalogue states that the letter is addressed to “an author of Savannah, Ga.” and states in the next item for sale, No. 467, that the correspondent in each letter is the same. Evidence from the Poe letter in No. 467 tends to show the correspondent in the present item is Stephen G. Bulfinch, not of Savannah, but of Augusta, Georgia (see Letter 69, and notes). Location of the present manuscript is unknown.
57. Source: photostat of original MS. (2 pp.) in the Peabody Institute Library. The letter was first printed in H, XVII, 29-31, though he omits Hubard's name and places the postscript just before the complimentary close. Poe is replying to Kennedy's letter of February 9, 1836 (MS. in the Boston Public Library, not at Peabody as Quinn states — Poe, p. 241 n.; printed in H, XVII, 28-29).
58. Source: printed letter in Armistead C. Gordon's Memories and Memorials of William Gordon McCabe, I, 16-17. The original MS. is now owned by William Gordon McCabe, Charleston, South Carolina, but is inaccessible. Poe is answering McCabe's letter of February 24, 1836, which is unlocated.
59. Source: photostat of original MS. (1 p.) in the William H. Koester collection, Baltimore. The letter was first printed in facsimile in Anderson Galleries Catalogue (No. 1906), January 14-15, 1925, item 380, p. 61. The original is a one-page letter, with inside and postal cancellation dated the same. Minor's name does not appear in the letter itself, but does appear on the envelope; further identification is made by reference to “Liberian Literature,” which was by Minor (see Letter 55; see also the letter of T. W. White to Minor, November 9, 1835, in Jackson's Contributors to the Southern Literary Messenger, 1834-1864, p, 14). Poe, acting as White's amanuensis, is answering Minor's letter to White, March 6, 1836; location of the original of which is unknown.
60. Source: letter printed in W, I, 377-378 (though he gives the New York Times, February 15, 1908, as his source, which would also be its first printing, the letter does not appear in that number). The original MS. is [page 478:] unlocated. Poe is replying to William Poe's letter of March 29, 1836, also unlocated. Washington Poe's letter to Poe, ante March 29, 1836, and Poe's reply, March 30 (?), 1836, are both unlocated.
61. Source: photostat of original MS. (2 pp.) in the William H. Koester collection, Baltimore. The letter was first printed in full in Quinn, Poe, pp. 238-239. The envelope is addressed to “Mrs. L. H. Sigourney/ Hartford/ Connect” and is postmarked Richmond, April 12. The envelope is endorsed, presumably by Mrs. Sigourney, “Edgar A. Poe. Richmond. April 12, 1836./ ansd April 25th”; but the original MS. letter from Mrs. Sigourney in reply to Poe's, above, is clearly dated “April 23d” (a.l.s. in Boston Public Library). Poe is replying to a letter from Mrs. Sigourney to Thomas W. White, owner of the Southern Literary Messenger. For Mrs. Sigourney's answer to Poe's present letter, see H, XVII, 33-35
62. Source: photostat of original MS. (1 p.) in the George P. Coleman collection in Colonial Williamsburg Architectural Department, Williamsburg, Virginia. The letter was first printed in the Century Magazine, CVII (March 1924), 655-656. No reply to the present letter is known.
63. Source: photostat of original (1 p.) in Harvard College Library. The letter is here first printed. Poe is acting for White in replying to Sparks's letter of May 17, 1836, location of original of which is unknown.
64. Source: photostat of original MS. (1 p.) in the William H. Koester collection, Baltimore. Reproduced in facsimile in the Anderson Galleries Catalogue (No. 4073), January 4-5, 1934, item 350. The letter was first printed in the Daughters of the American Revolution Magazine, LXVII (September 1933) 539-546. The location of Causten's reply is unknown, but on Poe's MS. is this note: “Ans Dec 9 J H C.”
65. Source: photostat of original MS. (1 p.) in the William H. Koester collection, Baltimore. The letter was first printed in New York Independent, March, 1901, p. 940. The envelope is addressed to “Dr Robert M. Bird / Philadelphia / Pa,” and is postmarked from Richmond, June 7. Bird's reply is unlocated.
66. Source: letter as first printed in Correspondence of James Fenimore Cooper, edited by James Fenimore Cooper, I, 356-357. A copy in pencil, probably by Cooper's grandson, James Fenimore Cooper, is in the Yale University Library; the original MS. is apparently not in the Cooper collection, Cooperstown, New York.
67. Source: photostat of original MS. (1 p.) in the William H. Koester collection, Baltimore. A facsimile appears in the American Art Association catalogue, December 16-17, 1929, item 105. The letter was first printed in James Grant Wilson's Life and Letters of Fitz-Greene Halleck, pp. 396-397. Poe's letter is one of several seeking contributions to the Southern Literary Messenger (see Letters 65, 66, 68).
68. Source: photostat of original MS. (2 pp.) in the Bradley Martin collection, New York. The letter was first printed in Ingram, I, 140-141.
69. Source: letter in American Art Association catalogue, May 4-5, 1925, item 467, where it is first printed. It is described as an a.l.s., 1 page quarto, [page 479:] with the address on the last page of the sheet; and addressed to the Georgia author whose contributions were solicited in a letter from Poe, February 9 (see letter 56). The present location of the original MS. is unknown. The letter to which Poe is replying is also unlocated.
70. Source: original MS. (1 p.) in the J. K. Lilly, Jr., collection, Indianapolis. The letter was first printed in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Sunday, November 11, 1923, pt. 7, p. 3. The letter carries no postmark but is addressed to “Littleton W. Tazewell Esqr/ Norfolk/ Va.” It is also endorsed in an unknown hand: “Edgar A Poe/ July 16, 1836.” No reply from Tazewell is known.
71. Source: photostat of original MS. (2 pp.) in the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. The letter was first printed in W, II, 371-372. Poe's apology implies a letter from Carey, probably dated in latter half of July; location of the original unknown.
72. Source: original (1 p.) in the Poe Foundation, Richmond. The letter was first printed by John W. Ostrom in Americana, XXXVI, No. 1 (January 1942), pp. 67-71. The letter is undated, but postal cancellation shows “Aug. 19”; the year is established as 1836 by Poe's review of Willis’ Inklings of Adventure in SLM, II (August 1836), 597-600. The envelope is addressed to “H. Haines Esqr/>Constellation=/Petersburg.”
73. Source: photostat of the letter as printed in the Richmond Courier and Daily Compiler, p. 2, cols. 4-5, September 2, 1836, from files in the Virginia State Library, Richmond. The original MS. was probably destroyed by the Compiler editor. The printed letter was reproduced in L and L, II, 458-460, but with numerous changes. Poe was replying to a paragraph in the Courier of August 31, 1836, p. 2, col. 4 (also in file of Virginia State Library); thus the letter is reasonably dated August 31 or September 1. Though the letter is signed “Editor of the Messenger,” Poe certainly wrote it.
74. Source: photostat of original MS. (3 pp,) in the Haverford College Library. The letter was first printed in the Sewanee Review, XXXVI (April 1928), 172-174. The text appears on pages 1-3 of a folded leaf, the address on page 4; the envelope shows “To / Harrison Hall Esqr / Philadelphia / Pa.”; and was postmarked Richmond, September 2.
75. Source: photostat of original MS. (1 p.) in the Bradley Martin collection, New York. Reproduced in facsimile in the Anderson Galleries Catalogue, No. 1956, April 27, 1925, item 224, p. 27. The letter was first printed in the Nation, LXXXIX (July 1, 1909), 9-10. Poe's year date is incorrect; it should be 1836, which is established by the copyright date of the Ladies’ Wreath. Though Poe is not answering a letter addressed to him, he cites a recent letter to Mrs. Hale: probable date about June 7, since he wrote to Bird, Halleck, Cooper, Mrs. Sigourney, and, as he tells Kennedy (June 7, 1836), “many others,” soliciting contributions for the SLM; for her probable response to this June letter, see the note to Letter 75.
76. Source: letter printed from MS. in W, II, 372-373, its only other printing. The present location of the MS. (probably 1 p.) is unknown. Poe is replying to Magruder's letter of December 24, 1836, which is unlocated. [page 480:]
Very little is known of Poe's correspondence in 1837; only two letters in MS. or printed form have been preserved: this one to Magruder and that to Carpenter, Norris, and Brown, February 28. However, others seem to have been written, both by and to Poe. White's letter of January 17, cited in the note to the letter, implies a note from Poe; and White's letter to Tucker suggests other notes from Poe to the publisher of the SLM. Lambert A. Wilmer (Our Press Gang, pp. 35) 39; see also, Merlin, edited by T. O. Mabbott, pp. 26-27, where Wilmer's statements are reprinted) refers to letters between him and Poe, though none is extant or known to be in print; however, the most datable is that in which Wilmer says, “Poe gave me to understand that he was preparing to leave Richmond [as editor of the SLM] and advised me to come hither without delay — as he was quite sure I could obtain the situation he was about to vacate.” Charles Anthon, in his letter to Poe, June 1, 1837 (see H, XVII, 42-43), speaks of “... yours [Poe's] of the 27th [May],” which is unlocated; Poe used the material supplied by Anthon's letter in his review of John L. Stephens’ Incidents of Travel in Egypt, published in the New York Review, October 1837. On the authority of Henry B. Hirst, Woodberry (I, 378) accepts a letter from Dr. Francis L. Hawks to Poe; but the letter, supposedly an invitation to write for the New York Review, could hardly have been written by Hawks in 1837, for Hawks did not join the editorial staff of the magazine until January 1838 (see Mott, History of American Magazines, I, 669). Moreover, in his unpublished MS.-revision of his Life of Poe (p. 234), Ingram quotes from a letter from Caleb S. Henry, founder and editor of the Review in 1837, to the Reverend Mr. Hopkins: “Poe was never engaged as a writer on the New York Review. He contributed of his own accord. It was a review of Stephen's Incidents of Travel in Egypt, Arabia, Petrea, and the Holy Land, etc... . in the 2d number ... Oct. 1837.” Thus, with the single exception of his letter to Brooks, September 4, 1838, Poe is not known to have written a letter between May 27, 1837, and May 1839. Still, Poe must have dashed off notes to editors to accompany his MSS., submitted for publication; for example, in the Aristidean (October 1845, p. 318) appears the following, as if Poe had written the article or had supplied the information: A >The Haunted Palace,’ ... was originally sent to O’Sullivan, of the ‘Democratic Review,’ and by him rejected, because ‘he found it impossible to comprehend it.’” [This passage supplied by T. O. Mabbott] The passage suggests not only an unlocated letter to Poe from O’Sullivan, but probably a note from Poe, as was his custom frequently, to offer the MS.; many such notes surely have been lost.
** [[section III: Feb. 1837 - June 1840]] **
77. Source: letter printed in the Poe Census by Charles F. Heartman, II, 78-79, from an undated newspaper clipping supplied by Thomas O. Mabbott; the original MS. is advertised in the American Art Association Galleries catalogue, April 21, 1910, item 2595, but is at present unlocated. The letter was first printed in the unidentified newspaper clipping, cited above. Poe seems to be replying to a letter (unlocated) from Carpenter, Norris, and Brown, datable ante February 28, 1837.
78. Source: letter reprinted in an unidentified newspaper clipping from an [page 481:] issue of the Baltimore Gazette, undated; the clipping is in the Ingram collection, University of Virginia. Ingram (I, 154-155) apparently printed from the same clipping, but omitted the allusion to Neilson Poe. The source of the present letter is probably its first full printing; the location of the MS. is unknown, but is probably lost. Poe is replying to a letter from Brooks, unlocated, but datable ante September 4, 1838. Poe seems to have written at least two other letters to Brooks, June 2.6, 1839 (the letter is lost, but the envelope is in the New York Public Library) and ca. January 1, 1841, which were not answered (see Letter 107).
79. Source: fragments of a letter as printed by Sir Edmund T. Bewley in an article entitled “The True Ancestry of Edgar Allan Poe,” in the New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, XXXVIII (1907), 55-69, the excerpts from Poe's letter appearing on pages 57-58. Bewley says: “I am indebted for a copy of this letter to Mrs. E. D. Latta of Dilworth, Charlotte, North Carolina, whose maternal grandmother was a member of the American branch of the Poe family.” He also says he quotes from “an unpublished letter, dated 14th July, 1839, written to his [Poe's] cousin, George W. Poe, of Mobile, Alabama.” The present location of the MS. is unknown. Poe seems to be answering a letter from George Poe, ante July 14, 1839, which is unlocated.
80. Source: facsimile of the original MS. in the Parke-Bernet Galleries catalogue, February 25, 1947, item 239, where it was first printed, with the exception of page 2. The present location of the MS. is unknown. The catalogue describes the letter as a 1 page quarto (apparently ignoring the postscript on verso of page 1) of about 280 words addressed to J. Beauchamp Jones, Esgr., Baltimore, Maryland. Jones, presumably, wrote across the top of the letter: “Edgar Allen Poe Privately Squelches His Critics In Baltimore”; and at the foot of the page added: “over.” Partial reconstruction of the content of the postscript on the verso of page 1 is made possible by portions of the letter as printed in The Collector, LVIII, No. 7 (November 1945),185-187, and is bracketed in the present letter under page 2. Completeness and order of the text of the postscript are, of course, conjectural. Poe is replying to Jones's letter of August 6, 1839, which is unlocated. No reply to Poe's letter is known.
81. Source: facsimile of original (2 pp.) in Bixby, pp. 6-7. The text is missing from the lower right portion of page 1 and the lower left of page 2, the verso; numerous other portions of the MS. are damaged; all restorations in the body of the letter have been made from a collation with William Hand Browne's original transcript made for Ingram. The letter was first printed in W, I, 218-221, from the Spencer press-copy. Poe's reference to his forthcoming Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque (December 1839) and to his review of Willis’ Tortesa in the Literary Examiner and Western Monthly Review, July 1839, identifies the year as 1839. (The Literary Examiner began in May 1839, the third number being that for July: see Mott, History of American Magazines, I, 390.) The MS. letter is now owned by Thomas Ollive Mabbott, New York. This letter, Poe's first known correspondence with Joseph Evans Snodgrass, probably was not a reply to a letter from the Baltimore [page 482:] friend; it is possible, however, that Snodgrass sent Poe a note in connection with his sending the St. Louis Bulletin, but, if so, it is unlocated.
Following Snodgrass’ death in 1880, his wife released Poe's letters to her husband. She lent to William H. Carpenter, editor of the Baltimore Sun, the following nine holographs: the letters for September 11, October 7, December 12, and December 19, 1839; January 20, and June 17, 1840; January 17, July 12, and September 19, 1841. Carpenter permitted William Hand Browne, a professor of English at Johns Hopkins University, to make transcripts for John H. Ingram, who received them too late for inclusion in his edition of the Life of Poe (1880), but kept them with his MS. revision of the Life, now in the Ingram collection, University of Virginia. At Carpenter's request, Browne made from his transcripts press-copies, which he lent to Edward Spencer, who six months later edited and published them in the New York Herald for March 27, 1881. Woodberry's source for his printings of the letters was the press-copies themselves, and Harrison used Spencer's printed article. Harvey Allen and Mary E. Phillips depended upon both Woodberry and Harrison. In Americana for July 1940, the present editor in an article entitled “A Poe Correspondence Re-edited” presented in full for the first time the twelve known letters from Poe to Snodgrass, including the nine items in the Browne transcripts, an April 1, 1841, letter later found by Mrs. Snodgrass and published in the Baltimore American, April 4, 1881, a letter dated November 11, 1839, found in the W. K. Bixby collection, and a twelfth letter, dated June 4, 1842, sold with the Frank Maier library, New York, November 22, 1909. A collation of Spencer, Harrison, and Woodberry with Browne's transcripts shows that the transcripts were not followed in detail, and though a collation of Browne's transcripts with available original MSS. or facsimiles reveals that even Browne made a few minor errors, chiefly in punctuation, the transcripts, in the absence of Poe's original letters, must serve as the basic text. For a more detailed discussion of the Poe — Snodgrass series, see Americana, XXXIV (July 1940), 409-446.
82. Source: letter as first printed in the Century Magazine, XLVIII (September 1894), 726-729, from a MS., which at present is unlocated. Poe is replying to Cooke's letter (MS. in the Boston Public Library) of September 16, 1839, postmarked September 19. Cooke's letter was an answer to one from Poe (unlocated) which asked Cooke's opinion of “Ligeia” and encouraged Cooke to contribute to Burton's, of which Poe was editor from June 1839-June 1840. “Ligeia” had appeared in the American Museum, September 1838. Thus Poe's first known letter to Cooke may be dated August (?), 1839, since Cooke (September 16) speaks of its having been received “a long time ago.”
83. Source: William Hand Browne's original transcript (Ingram collection) for J. H. Ingram (see Note 81); Poe's MS. letter is probably lost. The letter was first printed in full by the present editor in Americana, XXXIV (July 1940), 420, all biographers having omitted the second paragraph. In the margin of Browne's transcript Ingram made the notation to omit sentences 3-8; at the end of his transcript, Browne penciled this note: “In the original this P.S. is written lengthwise on right hand margin.” The location [page 483:] of the Snodgrass letter that Poe is answering is unknown, but undoubtedly is to be dated October 1-6 (?), 1839.
84. Source: facsimile of the original (2 pp.) in Bixby, pp. 24-25, where the letter is first printed. The present location of the MS. letter is unknown. (See also notes to Letter 81.) Poe's reference to two letters from Irving, the second of which was dated November 6, 1839 (see W, I, 216-217), and to Burton and the Gentleman's Magazine place the letter in 1839; though Snodgrass is nowhere mentioned by name, the content of the letter, especially in connection with that of Letter 81, identifies the Baltimore friend as the one addressed. Poe is answering two unlocated letters from Snodgrass: one, “... perdu in the P. Office for some 10 days,” with the possible dating of November 1-2, 1839, and the second with the possible dating of ante November 11, 1839.
85. Source: facsimile of original MS. (1 p.) in the Anderson Galleries Catalogue (No. 2029), February 1-3, 1926, Part 2, item 514, p. 61, where the letter was first printed. The original MS. is unlocated. The letter is addressed to Mr. J. C. Cox, Philadelphia.
86. Source: photostat of original MS. (1 p.) in the Berg collection, the New York Public Library. The letter is here first printed. Poe's connection with Burton and the Gentleman's establishes this December letter as written in 1839. No reply from Carey or Hart is known.
87. Source: William Hand Browne's original transcript (Ingram collection) for J. H. Ingram (see Note 81); Poe's MS. letter is probably lost. The letter was first printed in W, I, 222, from the Spencer press-copy. According to Spencer, the letter was postmarked December 13, a date that fits the content of the letter and the text of the subsequent one, December 19.
88. Source: William Hand Browne's original transcript (Ingram collection) for J. H. Ingram (see Note 81); Poe's MS. letter is probably lost. According to Ingram's penciled note on the transcript, the holograph was worn and mutilated in several places. The letter was first printed in W, I, 237-239. Bracketed portions are Browne's emendations. Poe is replying to Snodgrass’ letter postmarked December 16, 1839, which is unlocated. Poe errs in saying his own was “dated 2 days before” [the 16], for it was actually dated December 12 (Letter 87).
89. Source: facsimile of original MS. (1 p.) in the American Art Association catalogue, April 20-21, 1921, Part 3, item 494, where it is first printed. The original MS. is in the Berg collection of the New York Public Library. Poe is replying to Boyd's letter of November 15, 1839, which is unlocated.
90. Source: William Hand Browne's original transcript (Ingram collection) for J. H. Ingram (see Note 81) ; Poe's MS. letter is probably lost. The letter was first printed in W, I, 239-240. Harrison (XVII, 73) does not date the letter, and Woodberry dates it January 21, an error that Ingram corrected to January 20 in his personal copy of Woodberry's Life of Edgar Allan Poe, now in the University of Virginia library. Snodgrass’ letter, date unknown, which Poe is answering, is unlocated.
91. Source: facsimile of original MS. (1 p.) in the William D. Morley [page 484:] Catalogue, May 19, 1941, item 289; present location of the MS. is unknown. The letter carries no inside address or year date, but only 1840 and 1844 are possible, since the letter was written in a leap year and only in those two years were both Poe and Mitchell in Philadelphia, where Dr. Mitchell practiced medicine from 1822 until his death in 1858 (see the Dictionary of American Biography, XIII, 54-55). It seems impossible to determine which year date is correct, and the earlier has been chosen tentatively. Poe seems to be replying to a note from Dr. Mitchell, ante February 29, 1840.
92. Source: original MS. (1 p.) in the Poe Foundation, Richmond. The letter was first printed in Quinn, Poe, pp. 273-274 (see also Ostrom, Americana, XXXVI (January 1942), 70-71). The envelope is cancelled at Philadelphia, April 27, and addressed to “H. Haines Esq’/ Editor of “Virginia Star” / Petersburg /Va.” The MS. is worn in folds and browned with age; is a one-leaf letter, folded once: page 1 serves for the communication, with pages 2 and 3 blank, and the address occurs on part of page 4; the chirography is unusually large, clear, and neat. Poe is replying to Haines's letter of March 24, 1840, location of original unknown.
93. Source: copy of original made by William Rouse for J. H. Ingram. The location of the original is not known, but Rouse's copy is in the Ingram collection, University of Virginia; Annie Richmond wrote Ingram, May 27, 1877, that the copy was exact in every detail, “... a perfect copy, for he is most reliable and he assured me that every erasure was precisely like the original.” According to Mrs. Richmond, in letter to Ingram, October 8, 1877, she had given the original to her friend, Mr. Rouse, as a souvenir. The Poe MS. in Rouse's possession was undoubtedly a draft; the clean copy, if written and sent to Burton, is unknown. Mrs. Richmond probably got the MS. from Mrs. Clemm after Poe's death. The letter is here first printed in full (Quinn, Poe, pp. 297-300, as earlier biographers, prints with omissions). The Rouse copy gives no year date, but 1840 cannot be doubted. Bracketed readings, illegible in the Rouse copy, are from Ingram's printing (Ingram, I, 175-179). Poe is replying to Burton's letter of Saturday, May 30, 1840, location of the original unknown.
**[[begin Section IV]]**
94. Source: facsimile of original MS. (1 p.) in the Parke-Bernet Galleries catalogue, November 6 and 8, 1944, item 549. The letter was first printed in John Neal's Wandering Recollections of a Somewhat Busy Life, p. 2.56. No year date is given, but 1840 is established by Neal's reply, June 8, 1840, the original of which is in possession of Mr. Edwin B. Hill, Ysleta, Texas, who printed it in the New York Times Book Review, June 17, 1917, p. 233. Neal's letter, fully dated, begins, “Yours of June 4, directed to New York, reached me but yesterday [in Portland].” On the MS. below Poe's signature appears: “Portland February 3/67-This autograph the last / I have of Hon Poe / [signed] John Neal.” Neither the facsimile nor the catalogue indicates that the letter was written on a blank page of the Penn Magazine prospectus; however, Neal's corrections of Poe's phraseology in this prospectus seem to suggest that Poe used the June prospectus for his letter to Neal, as he did with other correspondents, and that the distribution of the June prospectus [page 485:] was almost simultaneous with Poe's leaving Burton's and prior to announcement of the Penn in the Philadelphia Saturday Courier, X (June 13, 1840), No. 481, p. 2 (see Quinn, Poe, p. 306, n.).
95. Source: William Hand Browne's original transcript (Ingram collection) for J. H. Ingram (see Note 81) ; Poe's MS. letter is probably lost. The letter was first printed in W, I, 248-251. The general content of the letter, particularly the reference to Snodgrass’ poem in the February 1840, issue of Burton's Gentleman's Magazine, establishes the year date as 1840. The bracketed emendation is Woodberry's, not Browne's; on his transcript at this point, Browne noted that the MS. original was mutilated and he supplied “You,” which Woodberry changed to “I” with greater justification, it would seem, considering the sense. Snodgrass’ letter of June 12, 1840, is unlocated.
96. Source: photostat of original MS. (1 p.) in the William H. Koester collection, Baltimore. The letter was first printed in Heartman and Canny, p. 40. The letter is written on the second blank page of the June 1840 prospectus of the Penn. The MS. is somewhat worn in the folds. The letter is addressed to “C. W. Thompson Esqr / Bank of the U. S. / Phila” and is postmarked June 29. Poe is answering Thomson's note of June 26, 1840, which is unlocated. No reply to the present letter is known.
97. Source: photostat of original (2 pp.) in Huntington Library (HM 24220). The letter was first printed in H, XVII, 55-57. The envelope is addressed to Mr. William Poe, Augusta, Georgia. Though the letter is dated August 15, postal cancellation is August 14; the address occupies the center portion of page 2 of the letter. (The letter is probably written on page 3 of a June prospectus of the Penn, or, more likely, the revision, and the address on page 4.) The MS. is worn at the folds and torn at the right edge so that last word or two for eleven lines are wanting; in several places ink has faded. The location of William Poe's original letter is unknown.
98. Source: facsimile of original (1 p.) in Gill, facing p. 114; location of the original MS. is unknown. The letter was first printed in Gill. The year date is not given; W, I, 335, gives “1842”; however 1840 must be correct, for Poe to William Poe, August 14, 1840, says he will write to Washington Poe and send a prospectus (compare also the contents of both letters).
99. Source: facsimile in the American Art Association sale, January 30-31, 1923, item 491. Original MS. in the Charles C. Hart collection, Washington. The letter is here first printed in full except for whatever may be written on the verso of page 1. The text of the MS., which is at present inaccessible, was probably written on a revised form of the June prospectus of the Penn and represents one of the numerous solicitations sent out by Poe during the summer (see other letters of this period). The letter was addressed to Lucian Minor, Charlottesville, Virginia. No reply from Minor is known.
100. Source: photostat of original (1 p.) in Historical Society of Pennsylvania. The letter is here first printed. The postal cancellation is dated September 3 at Philadelphia; the letter directed to Joseph B. Boyd, Esqr., Cincinnati, Ohio.
101. Source: photostat of original MS. (1 p.) in the Huntington Library [page 486:] (HM 24209). The letter was first published in facsimile in the Bookman, V (May 1897), 218. It is written on a prospectus of the Penn, probably the revision of the June printing: the letter is on page 3 of the prospectus, the address on page 4. The address reads: “John Tomlin Esqr / Jackson / Tennessee” and is marked “Single-Paid.” The letter carries a Philadelphia postmark, dated September 17. Poe is replying to Tomlin's letter, dated ante September 16, which was possibly an answer to one from Poe, dated ca. August-Septemher, soliciting subscriptions for the Penn.
102. Source: photostat of original MS. (1 p.) in the William H. Koester Collection, Baltimore. The envelope is addressed to “Dr Pliny Earle, / Frankford, / Pa.” and in lower left corner appears “Friends’ Asylum”; it is postmarked Philadelphia, October 12. Poe is replying to Earle's letter of October 2, 1840, which is unlocated.
103. Source: fragment as first printed in Whitty, p. 218. The original MS., though unlocated, was offered for sale in the Merwin-Clayton catalogue, May 14, 1906, item 455; and in the Anderson Galleries catalogues, January 10, 1908, item 219, and November 11, 1924, item 663. According to Whitty, the letter and the MS. of the sonnet “To Zante,” referred to in the letter, were sold by E. C. Stedman, executor of Mr. Stoddard's estate. The Anderson Galleries catalogue of November 11, 1924, says: “A note at foot of the mount states that ‘This letter was addressed to Richard H. Stoddard, and by him given to his nurse Pedro N. Piedro a short time before his death.’” Stoddard's own statement (Recollections Personal and Literary, p. 213) that Griswold gave him the MS. of the sonnet as a souvenir of Poe's autograph, is discredited by the evidence: namely, that various catalogues identify the author of the letter and the correspondent, and cite the letter, including the poem, as a one-page MS. Stoddard's letter, ante November 6, 1840, is unlocated; it obviously asked Poe for a sample of his handwriting.
104. Source: photostat of original MS. (1 p.) in the William H. Koester collection, Baltimore. The letter was first printed in the Century Magazine, XLVIII (September 1894), 731. The envelope is addressed to “F. W. Thomas Esgr/ St Louis / Mo” and is postmarked from Philadelphia, November 23. This is Poe's first known letter to Thomas, and is an answer to Thomas’ letter of November 6, 1840, which is unlocated. The Poe-Thomas correspondence contains more items than does any other correspondence that Poe engaged in; Thomas wrote at least 39 letters to Poe's 31.
The following letters comprise the known correspondence between Poe and Thomas; the starred items are those for which MSS. or printings from MS. exist:
Thomas to PoePoe to Thomas
1840 November 6
* 1840November 23
* 1840December 7
* 1841 March 7
1841 April 1 [page 487:]
1841May 11
* 1841May 20
* 1841 May 29 [28]
1841 May 29-June 7
1841 June 11-12
1841 June 14
* 1841June 26
* 1841 July 1
* 1841 July 4
1841July 6
1841July 7
1841July 17-18
1841 July 19 (2)
1841 July-August
* 1841August 30
* 1841September 1
* 1841 August 3 [September 3]
1841 September 20
* 1841September 22
* 1841 October 14
* 1841 October 27
* 1841November 6
1841 November 8-9
1841 November 10
1841 November 23
* 1841 November 26
* 1842 January 13
* 1842 February 3
* 1842February 26
1842 March 13
* 1842May 21
* 1842 May 25
1842 June 27-28
* 1842August 27
1842September 2
* 1842September 12
* 1842September 21
1842November 14
* 1842 November 19
1843 ante January 29
1843 January 30-31
* 1843February 1
* 1843February 8 (?) [page 488:]
1843 February 15-18
* 1843 February 25
* 1843March 16
* 1843March 27
* 1844 September 2
* 1844September 8
* 1844 October 10
* 1844 December 10
* 1845January 4
1845 January 5-May 3 (2)
* 1845May 4
* 1845 May 12
* 1845May 14
* 1845 July 10
* 1845September 29
* 1846 August 14
* 1846August 24
1848November 27
* 1849 February 14
105. Source: photostat of original MS. (1 p.) in the Bradley Martin collection, New York. The letter is here first printed. Cist's letter of December 7, 1840, is unlocated.
106. Source: photostat of original MS. (1 p.) in the Peabody Institute Library. The letter was first printed in W, I, 266-267. This is Poe's first known letter to Kennedy since that of June 7, 1836; no letters from Kennedy for the same period are known.
107. Source: facsimile of original (2 pp.) in Bixby, pp. 14-15, where the letter is first accurately presented; though Woodberry prints the letter in full, with variations (1, 267-271), he was using a copy as source (see his 1885 edition, p. 142, n.) which had undoubtedly been prepared by Spencer from William Hand Browne's transcripts of the originals (see Note 81). The original MS. is now in the Berg collection, New York Public Library. A penciled note at the end of Browne's transcript, made for J. H. Ingram, reads: “The Prospectus which follows [the one mentioned in the letter] was printed on the 3d page of this sheet. In other words, Poe took one of his prospectuses, folded it the other way, & wrote his letter.” Ingram then added the note that the prospectus was dated January 1, 1841 (Ingram collection, University of Virginia). Actually, the letter is written on what appears to be the first leaf of the January 1, 1841, prospectus, but the two leaves of the prospectus have become entirely separated and are now connected with mending tape. Snodgrass’ address is on page [4] of the prospectus, according to John D. Gordan, Curator of the Berg collection in the New York Public Library, Poe is answering [page 489:] a letter from Snodgrass, date and location of the original unknown, which must have been written sometime between June 17, 1840, and January 16, 1841. Bracketed emendations in the above letter are from the original transcript made by Dr. Browne for Ingram, and emended from collation made by Mr. Gordan.
108. Source: photostat of original MS. (1 p.) in the Morgan Library. The letter was first printed in Heartman and Canny, pp. 47-48. The letter appears on the second leaf of the prospectus of the Penn for January 1, 1841.
109. Source: photostat of the letter printed in the Baltimore American, April 4, 1881, where it was first printed. The original MS. is probably lost (see notes to Letter 81) . Poe is replying to Snodgrass’ letter of March 8, 1841, which is unlocated.
110. Source: Used original MS. (2 pp.) now preserved in the Longfellow House, Cambridge, Massachusetts. The letter was first printed in Samuel Longfellow's Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: Final Memorials (Boston: Ticknor and Company, 1887), pp. 13-14; the third paragraph, however, was there omitted and is, to the best of my knowledge, here first printed. The letter occupies pages 1 and 2 of a folded leaf; the address, which is on page 4, reads: “Professor H. W. Longfellow,/ Cambridge,/ Mass:.” The letter bears a Philadelphia postmark of May [11], the date being indistinct. Longfellow's reply of May 19, printed in Samuel Longfellow's Life of Longfellow, 3 vols. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1891), I, 389-390, is the only known letter from Longfellow to Poe; it is unlocated but was advertised for sale in the Anderson Galleries catalogue, November 22, 1918, from the Robert H. Dodd collection.
111. Source: photostat of original MS. (1 p.) in the Wrenn Library of the University of Texas. The letter is here first printed. The MS. is a small piece of paper torn from a larger leaf and folded twice; on the outside appears “Rev. Rufus W. Griswold,” and inside there is neither place identification nor date. This is the earliest known written communication between Poe and Griswold (for the so-called “first” letter of Poe to Griswold given heretofore erroneously under the date of March 29, 1841, see Letter 112 and notes). Conjectural dating of the letter is based upon the following evidence: in the spring of 1841 Poe was with Graham's and Griswold with the Daily Standard, both in Philadelphia; the present letter indicates that Poe “spoke” with Griswold, and the MS. shows that the letter was not mailed but delivered by hand; moreover, Griswold says he first met Poe in the spring of 1841 (see “Preface” to Works of Poe, I (1856 ed.), xxi). Probably before May 8 Griswold left Philadelphia for Boston to serve on the editorial staff of George Roberts’ Times and Notion (see letter of George Roberts to Griswold, April 23, 1841, in the Boston Public Library, sent from the office of the Times and Notion, Boston, to Griswold's office at the Standard, Philadelphia: “... I am glad that you have at length made up your mind to come with me, for I truly believe it will prove to be your own interest as well as mine ... I prefer you would commence on Saturday May 8th ... ”; see [page 490:] also Jacob L. Neu, Rufus Wilmot Griswold, Studies in English, No. 5, University of Texas, 1925, p. 113).
Griswold edited the Works of the Late Edgar Allan Poe in three volumes in 1850. Volume 3, the Literati, appeared last and included Griswold's “Memoir” and the accompanying “Preface.” When the 1853 edition of the Works appeared, the “Preface” and the “Memoir” were moved to the first volume as pages xxi-xxiii and pages xxiii-lv, respectively. The “Preface” contained what purported to be 11 letters from Poe to Griswold; for which, however, there are only 7 extant MSS., the 4 unauthenticated items being, in all probability, forgeries by Griswold. In printing the 11 letters, Griswold remained faithful to the texts of only 3 (in the present edition Letters 112, 190, 211, though he changed the date of the first and omitted the postscript of the last). Three others (Letters 193, 196, 321) he revised at will. To one other (Letter 317) he added a postscript. The remaining 4 are probably spurious. The 4 doubtful letters are not authenticated by extant MSS. They are printed in Harrison (XVII), from the “Preface” under the following datings: “Without date, 1843?”; June 11, 1843; January 10, 1845; and November 1, 1845. The January 10 letter is certainly a forgery (see Letter 190 and notes); and the November 1 letter is also undoubtedly forged (see Note 211). The first 2 of the 4 doubtful letters cited above are less easily disposed of. The first (“Without date, 1843?”) echoes phrases found in Poe's review of Griswold's Poets and Poetry of America, in the Boston Miscellany, November 1842, a fact that lends weight to Poe's having written the letter but that does not rule out Griswold's imitating Poe's style and appropriation of phrases in a letter printed after Poe's death. Also, Woodberry prints the letter, as he says, from the “Griswold MSS.” (I, 354-355). However, there is no other evidence that the MS. letter ever existed. In addition, no prospective review of Griswold's book is mentioned in the Poe-Lowell correspondence, though all Poe's known contributions to the Pioneer are referred to. Furthermore, the letter could hardly have been written prior to Poe's first letter to Lowell, November 16, 1842; yet, during the summer of 1842, Poe had written a review of the book (see Letter 143), which Griswold had published in the Miscellany. The nature of the present letter seems belied by the facts, and the letter, therefore, is regarded as spurious. For the doubtful “June 11, 1843” letter, there is little evidence to prove it either false or genuine. However, its only source is the “Preface”; even Woodberry cites no MS. for it. Yet Woodberry accepts the letter as genuine and quotes from the “Memoir” to support Griswold's visit to Poe at this time, as requested in the letter (see W, II, 34-35). If written by Poe, the letter would be the only authentic one between those of May 29, 1841, and January 16, 1845, for which MSS, are extant. Also, it would be the only letter or note Poe wrote to Griswold and signed with only his initials. Finally, of all the Poe letters printed in Griswold's “Preface,” it would be the only one, unauthenticated in any way by a MS. original, that would be fully accepted as genuine. Thus, in the light of available evidence, the present editor considers that the genuineness of the letter is highly doubtful. [page 491:]
Because the June 11, 1843, letter has not been admitted into the canon of Poe's letters, it is here printed for purposes of reference:
Philadelphia, June 11, 1843.
Dear Griswold: — Can you not send me $5? I am sick, and Virginia is almost gone. Come and see me. Peterson says you suspect me of a curious anonymous letter. I did not write it, but bring it along with you when you make the visit you promised to Mrs. Clemm. I will try to fix that matter soon. Could you do anything with my note?
Yours truly,
E.A.P.
Only the following letters are admitted to the canon. Starred items are authenticated by extant MSS.; unstarred, by references in Poe's MS.-letters.
Poe to GriswoldGriswold to Poe
* 1841ante May 8
1841 ante May 29
* 1841May 29
1841 late August
* 1845January 14
* 1845 January 16
* 1845 February 24
* 1845 April 19
* 1845 September 28
* 1845October 26
* 1849 May (?)
* 1849June 28
112. Source: photostat of original MS. (1 p.) in the Boston Public Library; also collated with the MS. The letter was first printed in Griswold's “Preface,” to the Literati (1850), the third volume of his edition of the Works of Poe (see notes to Letter 111). The letter is undated; but Griswold, presumably, docketed it “March 29 / 1841,” and inked out the month in the postmark. Biographers of Poe have accepted the March dating; the correct dating, however, is May 29, 1841, Poe's MS. has been divided into two pieces, one of which is in the Boston Public Library, the other now on indefinite loan from the Griswold collection to the Poe Foundation, Richmond. The portion in the Boston Public Library bears the Philadelphia postmark with the inked out month date, and shows part of the address as: “R.W.Grisw / Bo.” The portion in the Poe Foundation, Poe's famous “Memo” of biographical data, shows: “ld, Esqre / oston, / Mass.” Ultra-violet lamp, microscope, and opinion by a hand-writing expert established the month date as May 29; the joining of the two pieces of MS., which fit each other, gave the address of Griswold as Boston, and a letter from George Roberts to Griswold, April 23, 1841 (MS. in the Boston Public Library), urging Griswold to join the staff of the [page 492:] Times and Notion by May 8, if possible, confirmed the year date. Thus the two pieces of MS. are fragments of the original letter Poe sent from Philadelphia, May 29, 1841, to Rufus W. Griswold in Boston. Poe is undoubtedly replying to a Griswold letter, datable ante May 29, 1841 (which is unlocated) ; though the requests for contributions and biographical data could have been made by Griswold prior to his leaving Philadelphia, support for the existence of a letter is given in a letter from F. W. Thomas to Griswold, June 8, 1841 (see Some Passages in the Correspondence of Rufus W. Griswold, ed. W. M. Griswold, p. 66). For a fuller discussion of the present letter, see Modern Language Notes (May 1943) pp. 394-396, for an article by the present editor, entitled “Another Griswold Forgery in a Poe Letter.”
113. Source: photostat of original MS. (2 leaves) in the Mrs. Sherburne Prescott collection, Greenwich, Connecticut. The letter was first printed in the New York Times, January 12, 1930, pt. 2, p. 4. The letter is addressed to “Washington Irving Esqr/ Tarrytown/ N.Y.” and bears the postmark: “Philadelphia/ Jun 21.” On the outside cover presumably in Irving's hand is: “Edgar A Poe/ June 21 [... illegible]/ answd June 24th.”
A letter, similar to this one, to James Fenimore Cooper, which is unlocated, was advertised for sale by the Libbie Sales catalogue, April 24-25, 1898, item 648, which quoted the opening lines. Letters to William Cullen Bryant, James K. Paulding, and Nathaniel P. Willis, also presumably written, are unlocated. Irving's memo on the present cover is the only known indication of a reply to Poe's letters to these correspondents. Though the present letter represents the only extant letter from Poe to Irving, one other seems to have existed, and Irving seems to have written to Poe at least three times. Irving's letter to Poe, November 6, 1839 (MS. unlocated; printed in H, XVII, 54), says: “I have read your little tale of ‘William Wilson’ with much pleasure ... I repeat what I have said in regard to a previous production, which you did me the favor to send me ... ” The “previous production” seems to refer to “The Fall of the House of Usher” (Burton's, September 1839), for Poe wrote Cooke, September 21, 1839, that Irving had praised that story. Poe may have sent Irving only a copy of Burton's, or he may have sent a letter too. Thus Irving's praise must have reached Poe in a letter, datable ante September 21, 18 (but after issuance of Burton's September number). The tone of Irving's November 6 letter also suggests that Poe sent Irving a copy of the October number of Burton's and a note requesting criticism of “William Wilson”; this Poe letter may be dated ante November 6, 1839 (but after issuance of Burton's for October) . Thus, in late 1839 Poe seems to have written Irving at least one letter, and Irving seems to have written Poe two (for further confirmation, see Letter 84, in which Poe says that “Washington Irving has addressed me 2 letters”). Irving's third letter to Poe is cited on the cover of the present letter.
114. Source: photostat of original MS. (3 pp.) in the Peabody Institute Library, Baltimore. The letter was first printed in full (but with inaccuracies and omissions) in Quinn, Poe, pp. 318-320. The letter is not fully dated, but the cover carries a Philadelphia postmark of June 21, and a Baltimore mark [page 493:] (it was forwarded to Washington) of June 22; moreover, Poe told F. W. Thomas, July 4, 1841, that he had written to Kennedy “about ten days ago.” No reply from Kennedy is known.
115. Source: original MS. (2 pp.) now preserved in the Longfellow House, Cambridge, Massachusetts. The letter was first printed in the Century Magazine, XLVIII (September 1894), 729. The letter is addressed to “Professor H. W. Longfellow / Cambridge / Mass:.” It is postmarked from Philadelphia, June 22. Poe is replying to Longfellow's letter of May 19, 1841 (see Note 110).
116. Source: photostat of original MS. (2 pp.) in the Huntington Library (HM 24210). The letter was first printed in H, XVII, 89-91. Page 1 of the MS. is very faded.
117. Source: photostat of original MS. (2 pp.) in the Manuscript Division of the New York Public Library. The letter was first printed in Stoddard, “Memoir” to Select Works of Edgar Allan Poe, pp. xcii-xciv. The postscript is very faded. This is Poe's first extant letter since that of November 23, 1840, though he wrote at least four in the interim (see the table in Note 104): the first, April 1, 1841, unlocated, concerning Thomas’ request that Poe arrange for the periodical publication of a proposed novel, and the failure of such arrangements (see Thomas to Poe, May 11, 1841, in the Boston Public Library). The second, May 26, 1841, unlocated, enclosing a draft due Thomas from Graham, requested in Thomas’ letter of May 20 (original MS. in the Boston
Public Library), and acknowledged as received in Thomas to Poe, May 29 (MS. in the Boston Public Library), though Thomas’ letter should be dated May 28, since it was postmarked May 28 and speaks of “Yours of the 26” as received “yesterday.” A third, May 29-June 7, unlocated, stating that Griswold was desirous of biographical sketches of Pinckney of Baltimore and Amelia of Kentucky (see Thomas to Griswold, June 8, 1841, in Some Passages in the Correspondence of Rufus W. Griswold, ed. W. M. Griswold, p. 66: “My, friend Edgar A. Poe ... wrote me the other day ... ”), the letter following one from Griswold to Poe, ante May 29, 1841 (see Note 112), for Thomas’ letter of May 29 [28] makes no allusion to the Griswold request. And a fourth, June 11-12, unlocated, received by Thomas, June 13 (see Thomas to Poe, June 14, 1841, MS. in the Boston Public Library).
118. Source: photostat of two pages of original 3-page MS. owned by the Authors’ Club, New York. The letter was first printed in Stoddard, “Memoir” to Select Works o f Edgar Allan Poe, pp. xciv-xcvi. Page 3 of the letter does not appear in the photostat used for the present text and seems to be lost, but the sentence is printed in Stoddard and is given in Thomas’ letter to Poe, July 7, 1841 (the original MS. of which is in the Boston Public Library) and is reprinted in H, XVII, 94. Poe's reproduction of the symbols used in the cryptogram is here first printed. The envelope is postmarked July 5, and carries Thomas’ note: “Received July 6th / Answered 7th.” Poe is replying to Thomas’ letter of July 1 (the MS. of which is in the Boston Public Library; reprinted in H, XVII, 92-93, with Poe's interlinear solution of the cryptogram, from the Thomas a.l.s.). [page 494:]
119. Source: photostat of original MS. (1 p.) in the William H. Koester collection, Baltimore; formerly in Drexel Institute, Philadelphia, but sold by Parke-Bernet Galleries, October 17-18, 1944 (Drexel sale), item 200. The letter is here first printed. It is directed to William Landor, Philadelphia. Poe is replying to two notes from Landor, location of originals not known, the first written probably late in June, the second early in July.
120. Source: photostat of original (2 pp.) in the Morgan Library. The letter was first printed in full in W, I, 283-285 (but “of Soran” is omitted in the first sentence of paragraph five). The letter is postmarked “July 12.” Poe is replying to Snodgrass’ letter of July 10, 1841, which is unlocated, the first since March 8.
121. Source: photostat of original (1 p.) in the Boston Public Library; first printed in H, XVII, 100. Poe's letter to McJilton must have had an outside for they are missing; McJilton, in replying address wrote Poe's address on the back of Poe's original letter to him; the Baltimore cancellation is also there. Thus Whackemwell wrote to Poe on August 10, Poe replied to McJilton on August 11, and McJilton answered on August 13, penning his remarks at the foot of Poe's letter to him. The MS. is torn at the right; the bracketed emendation of “infinitely” is warranted by “i ... f ... tely” with three dots as if for letter i being quite clear; “exc ... ” is clear.
122. Source: photostat of original (1 p.) formerly in the Drexel Institute, Philadelphia, but sold by the Parke-Bernet Galleries, October 17-18, 1944, Drexel sale, item 201. The letter was first printed in The Library of George W. Childs, described by F. W. Robinson, pp. 13-14. In the upper left corner of the MS., probably in Lea's hand, is the notation: “Rc’ Aug 14 / And 16.”
123. Source: letter as first printed in The Dial, XLIV (January 16, 1908), 32-33, from the MS. owned by Weld's daughter, Mrs. A. H. Heulings. The present location of the MS. is unknown. According to The Dial the MS. was a single sheet. Weld's reply is unlocated.
124. Source: facsimile of original MS. (1 p.) in the American Art Association catalogue, March 11-12, 1930, facing p. 88, where it was first printed. The letter is here first collected. The original MS. is now owned by Mrs. Sherburne Prescott, Greenwich, Connecticut. Since Poe's last extant letter to Thomas, seven letters passed between them: six from Thomas, one from Poe (see table in Note 104): Thomas’ letter of July 6 (MS. unlocated, but printed in H, XIV, 136-137), of July 7 (MS. in the Boston Public Library; printed in H, XVII, 94-95), Poe's letter of July 17-18 (unlocated), implied in Thomas’ second of two letters, July 19 (MSS. mailed in one cover, in Boston Public Library; unpublished), Thomas’ letter of late July-early August (unlocated, but implied in Thomas’ next as containing information not in extant letters), and Thomas’ letter of August 30 (MS. in Boston Public Library; printed in H, XVII, 102-103). On the verso of Thomas’ second letter of July 19, Poe made some notations on cryptography, which, it would seem, he took from Rees's Cyclopedia (see W. K. Wimsatt, Jr., Publications of the Modern Language Association, LVII1 (September 1943), 771-772, for further [page 495:] discussion and for the first printing of the notations as given by Poe) : “I never terminate a word — a & u seldom. Order of frequency e a o i. / d h n r s t v y c f g 1 m w b k p q x z / observe a word of 4 letters the first & last the same. — that — then / look for this. — then the. H beging a word is foll by vowel, so also / l m n v — K by a e in. / Shiottus has computed that 1000,000,000 of men in / as many years cd not write down the different [illegible] of [illegible] / letters, each completing 40 pp a day, every p conting 40 / [illegible]. Mr. Falconer has shown this supposition to be visibly / too low./ Vowels are more frequently doubled at the beginning of words than consonants. / The vowels exceed conso. in short words-where double cons: are preceded by / a single letter that letter is a vowel. The single cons: which precedes or / follows double cons: is l m n or r. When 2 dif: characters occur, the / latter of wh: is often joined with other letters, but the former never found / alone, nor joined with any than the latter, those characters stand / for qu — always foll. by vowel. Y seldom in middle of word. so, / ty ly. ing & tion common terminations. Em in con com fre- / quent prepos. o often followed with u. [illegible] more frequent in beg & end / than middle. In polysyllabic words double letters in the middle [illegible] is cons:”
125. Source: photostat of original MS. (2 pp.) in the William H. Koester collection, Baltimore; reproduced in facsimile in the Barnet J. Beyer catalogue, item 364, no date, in the Alderman Library at the University of Virginia. The letter was first printed in the Beyer catalogue. Quinn (Poe, p. 342, n.) incorrectly gives the date as “September 21, 1841.” Poe is replying to Cist's letter of August 30, 1841, which is unlocated.
126. Source: facsimile of original (1 p,) in Bixby, pp. 20-21, where the letter is first accurately presented; Woodberry, however, first printed the letter, with variations (I, 285-287), from the Spencer press-copies made from William Hand Browne's transcripts of the original MS. (see Note 81). Poe's original letter is now in the Huntington library (HM 21865). The location of Snodgrass’ letter to Poe, September 6, 1841, is unknown. **[[capitalize “library”??]]**
127. Source: letter published in American Literature, VI (March 1934), 66-68, where it was first printed, from a copy of the original MS. owned by Dr. Thomas R. Boggs. The present location of the MS. is unknown, for after Dr. Boggs's death it was not found among his papers. Poe is replying to Thomas’ letter of October 14, not, as Lewis Chase, who published the letter, stated incorrectly, that of August 3 [September 3]. The Thomas letter of October 14 (MS. in the Boston Public Library; unpublished) asks if Poe received the manuscript of Thomas’ song, “sent you the other day”; it also says that Dow is publishing the Index at Alexandria, and asks if Judge Upshur is author of the Partisan Leader. Poe also posted a letter to Thomas, September 20 (MS. unlocated), which Thomas answered, September 21 (MS. in the Boston Public Library; unpublished):
128. Source: facsimile of original (1 p.) in G. S. Haight's Mrs. Sigourney, the Sweet Singer of Hartford, facing p. 118, where it was first printed; the original MS. is in the Connecticut Historical Society. For similar solicitation, [page 496:] see Sigourney to Poe, June 11, 1836, in Haight, pp. 84-85 (original MS. in the Boston Public Library).
129. Source: photostat of original MS. (2 pp.) in the Connecticut Historical Society. The letter was first printed in Haight, Mrs. Sigourney, the Sweet Singer of Hartford, pp. 119-120. The year date should be 1841; for in November 1842, Poe was no longer editor of Graham's. Poe is replying to Mrs. Sigourney's letter of November 13, 1841, which is unlocated.
130. Source: photoprint of original (2 pp.) in the Commercial Appeal (Memphis, Tennessee), November 15, 1925, section 4, p. 7, where the letter is first printed. The location of the original MS. is unknown. Poe is replying to Bolton's letter of November 4, 1841, location of the original of which is unknown.
131. Source: photostat of original MS. (3 pp.) in the Dumbarton Oaks Research Library, Georgetown, D.C. The letter was first printed in Ernest Dressel North's Catalogue of a Choice Collection of Autograph Letters and MSS., October 1905 (New York), No. 357, pp. 58-59 (title supplied by Thomas O. Mabbott). On the verso of page 3 appears the address: “F. W. Thomas Esqr / Washington / D.C.”; the letter was postmarked Philadelphia, November 26. Thomas noted on the envelope: “Received November 27.” The MS. has a hole in the right side of page 3, and in two places in the cover where the seal was applied. Poe is answering Thomas’ letter of November 23, 1841 (MS. in the Boston Public Library; unpublished). However, Thomas wrote on November 6 (MS. in the Boston Public Library; unpublished); Poe replied on November 8-9 (unlocated), according to Thomas’ letter of November to (MS. in the Boston Public Library; unpublished).
132. Source: letter printed in The Autograph, I (January-February 19i2), 42-43), where it was first printed. The original MS. is unlocated, but extant; it was last known to be in the possession of the late P. F. Madigan, New York. Poe is replying to Thomas’ letter of January 13, 1842 (MS. in the Boston Public Library; unpublished).
133. Source: photostat of original MS. (1 p.) in the William H. Koester collection, Baltimore. The letter was first printed in the Parke-Bernet Galleries catalogue, November 19-20, 1945, item 422. The envelope is addressed to the “Revd J. N. McJilton,/ Baltimore/ Md,” and initialed “E A P.” in the lower left corner of the envelope. It is postmarked at Philadelphia, March is. Poe is replying to McJilton's letter of February 14, 1842, which is unlocated.
**[[begin Section V]]**
134. Source: photostat of original MS. (2 pp.) in the William H. Koester collection, Baltimore. The letter was first printed by Woodberry in the Century Magazine, XLVIII (September 1894), 732-733. Thomas made an “x” after “here,” page 1, paragraph 2, following the words “Custom House,” and in the left margin wrote: “x I had been promised a place in the Philadelphia Custom House by the powers that were for Poe, but some small beer politician or other got the place and genius was left to its fate. T.” The letter is addressed to “F. W. Thomas Esqre / Washington / D. C,” and is postmarked from Philadelphia, May 25, and docketed by Thomas “Received May 26. [page 497:] 1842.” Prior to Poe's present letter, Thomas had written February 26, 1842 (MS. in the Boston Public Library; printed in H, XVII, 105-106, and in W, I, 318-321, both under the wrong date of February 6) ; Poe replied March 13 (unlocated), according to Thomas’ next letter, May 21, 1842 (MS. in the Boston Public Library; printed in H, XVII, 108-110).
135. Source: photostat of original MS. (a fragment) in the William H. Koester collection, Baltimore. The fragment is here first printed in full and with proper identification. The fragment is undated, but seems to belong to the first part of June 1842; it certainly follows F. W. Thomas’ letter to Poe, May 21, 1842 (H, XVII, 108-110), in which Thomas speaks of a possible opening in the custom house for Poe, and it seems to precede Poe's letter to Herron, June 30, 1842 (Letter 138). The MS. is a fragment, apparently of one leaf, written on both sides; the top portion has been cut off, carrying with it probably only a half dozen lines from each side of the leaf. Most of the present fragment was combined with the last paragraph of the letter to Herron of June 30, 1842, and printed as one item under that date in the World [N.Y.?], May 1, 1921 (see clipping in the Ingram collection, University of Virginia); but the present fragment is certainly a separate item. When David K. Jackson (American Literature, XIII (November 1941), 283) suggests the existence of a draft of Poe's letter to Herron, June 30, 1842, he is undoubtedly thinking of the present fragment. Poe seems to be answering a lost letter from Herron, datable May (?), 1842.
136. Source: original MS. (2 pp.) in the J. K. Lilly, Jr., collection, Indianapolis. The letter was first printed in H, XVII, 112-113. The letter is post-marked Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, June 4, and is addressed to “George Roberts Esqre / Boston “Times”/ Boston,” with “EAP” in the lower left corner. The letter is also endorsed: “Edgar A Poe/ Phil. June 4. 1842.” No reply by Roberts is known.
137. Source: photostat of original (4 pp.) in the Morgan Library. The letter was first printed in the Anderson Galleries catalogue, November 22, 1909, item 1700 (see Note 81). The address is written on page 4; directed to “Dr. J. Evans Snodgrass/ Ed. of “Visiter”/ Baltimore/ Md” The MS. has several ink blots, and was postmarked at Philadelphia, June 5.
138. Source: photostat of original MS. (1 p.) in the William H. Koester collection, Baltimore. The letter was first printed in Quinn, Poe, pp. 360-361. The envelope is postmarked Philadelphia, June 30, and directed to “James Herron Esqre/ Civil Engineer/ Washington/ D.C.” Herron's letter, which Poe is answering, can be conjecturally dated ante June 30; for Poe wrote Thomas, August 27, 1842, “I wrote a few words to you, about two months since, from New York ... ”; and Poe wrote Mrs. Elizabeth Tutt, July 7, “About ten days ago, however, I was obliged to go on to New York on business ... ”; thus Herron's letter seems to have reached Philadelphia after Poe's departure for New York, which may have been about June 25-26. Herron's letter is unlocated.
139. Source: photostat of original MS. (3 pp.) in the Iowa State Department of History and Archives, Des Moines, Iowa. The letter was first [page 498:] printed in the Critic, April 16, 1892 (reprinted in L and L, II, 462-464). The communication is written on a single leaf, folded, and fills three pages. The address, on page 4, reads: “Danl Bryan Esqre / Alexandria / D.C.” Though the center portion of the MS. is torn, the only text missing is that represented by the bracketed emendations on page 3. Prior to Poe's present letter, Bryan had written at least three to Poe: May 13 (MS. in the Boston Public Library), submitting a poem for Graham's; ca. June 15, implied in the present letter as sent “about three weeks since,” and different from the May 13 item; June 27 (MS. in the Boston Public Library), in which Bryan, hearing of Poe's leaving Graham's, asks that poems, lately sent, be withheld from publication in that magazine and kept by Poe for his own use later on; Bryan also speaks of “an attack upon you by a writer in one of the Philada journals.”
140. Source: letter printed in the New York Independent, March 1901, pp. 940-941, in an article, “Memorials of Edgar Allan Poe,” by James Grant Wilson, who seems to have used the original MS. The autograph letter was offered for sale in Henkels’ catalogue, May 5, 1903, item 953, but its present location is unknown. The letter, first printed in the Independent, was copied by Harrison (XVII, 113-115) under the wrong date of June; Woodberry merely cites the letter, but gives the June dating. The July dating is supported by Chivers’ letter to Poe, July 12, 1842 (H, XVII, 115-117). Poe is replying to three unanswered letters from Chivers: August 27, 1840 (H, I, 190-191), one, late in November 1841, remonstrating against Poe's sketch of him in “Autography” (Graham's, December 1841), and another, dated by Poe, June 11, 1842; the last two are unlocated.
Because the Poe-Chivers correspondence covered a period of nine years and because numerous letters, now lost, are alluded to by both Poe and Chivers in the extant items, the following list is offered; the starred items are those for which MSS. exist; or printings from MS.:
Poe to ChiversChivers to Poe
1840 ca. August 20
* 1840 August 27
1841 November-June 10 (?), 1842 (2 letters)
1842 June 11
* 1842 July 6
* 1842 July 12
1842 September 15
* 1842 September 26
* 1842September 27
* 1842 December 7
1843 early summer
* 1844 June 15
* 1844 July 10 [page 499:]
* 1844 August 6
* 1844 September 24
1845 ante August 11
* 1845August 25
*1845 August 29
* 1845September 9
* 1845October 30 (suggests others)
* 1845 November
* 1845November-July (6 letters or more)
* 1846 July 22
1847 ante January 30(?)
* 1847 February 21
* 1847April 4 (suggests others)
* 1848 July 13 [14?]
1849 ante August 27 (?)
141. Source: fragment as first printed in the Anderson Galleries catalogue, January 18, 1922, item 229. The present location of the MS. is unknown. Though the printed letter is unsigned, the sales catalogue and the content of the letter identify it as Poe's. No letter from Mrs. Tutt to Poe is known.
142. Source: letter printed in W, I, 335-337, where it was first published. The present location of the MS. is unknown. Following Thomas’ last letter, May 21, 1842, Poe wrote to Thomas, from New York, June 27-28 (unlocated), cited above; the following data establish the approximate time of the letter: Poe wrote James Herron, June 30, 1842, “Upon return from a brief visit to New-York, last night ... ”; and to Elizabeth R. Tutt, July 7, 1842, “About ten days ago, however, I was obliged to go on to New York on business ... ” No letter from Thomas is known between that of May 21 and September 2, 1842.
143. Source: photostat of original MS. (3 pp,) in the Manuscript Division of the New York Public Library. The letter was first printed in Stoddard, “Memoir” to the Select Works of Edgar Allan Poe, pp. xcvii-xcviii. The edges of the MS. are ink-smeared, but the wording is readable. Thomas endorsed the letter: “Did not get this until my return — Saw Poe in Philadelphia — “ Poe is replying to Thomas’ letter of September 2, 1842 (unlocated).
144. Source: photostat of original MS. (2 pp.) in the Huntington Library (HM 21871). The letter was first printed in the Century Magazine, XLVIII (September 1894), 733. The postmark: Philadelphia, September 21, and Poe's last line, page 1, establish the date of the letter. The envelope is [page 500:] directed to “F. W. Thomas Esqre / Washington / D.C.” Thomas endorsed the envelope, “Received Sep. 22nd” and answered —.” No “answer” is known, unless it is the letter of November 14 (see Letter 148).
145. Source: photostat of original MS. (3 pp.) in the Huntington Library (HM 24211). The letter was first printed in the Century Magazine, LXV (January 1903), 439. The envelope is postmarked Philadelphia, September 28, and is addressed to “Dr. Thos. H. Chivers/ New-York.” Chivers’ letter of September 15, 1842, is unlocated.
146. Source: letter as first printed in Holden's Dollar Magazine, II (December 1848), 718, where it appeared with letters by other people in an article entitled “Autobiography of a Monomaniac,” edited by Joe Bottom, Esqr. The original MS. is probably lost. Poe is replying to Tomlin's letter of September 21, which is unlocated. T. O. Mabbott in Notes and Queries, CLXII, 437, identifies John Tomlin, of Jackson, Tennessee, as the recipient of the letters in the article (and probably the author); though the article was magazine material, Dr. Mabbott feels the letters were genuine.
147. Source: photostat of original MS. (1 p.) in the Harvard College Library. The letter was first printed in Woodberry (188 5) , pp. 176-177. The Poe-Lowell correspondence consists of 14 letters from Poe (12 in MS., 1 in copy of original MS., and 1 unlocated) and 12 letters, possibly 13, from Lowell (1 in MS., 9 in printings from MS. at present unlocated, 1 from sales catalogue, and 2 unlocated). The two writers did not meet during the period of their known correspondence, but one meeting apparently took place sometime late in the spring of 1845. The following list gives the letters in the series: with the Poe items, the asterisk indicates known MS., and with the Lowell items, the single asterisk indicates printings from MS. and the double asterisk identifies known MS.:
Poe to LowellLowell to Poe
* 1842 November 16
* 1842 November 19
* 1842 December 17
* 1842December 25
* 1842December 27
* 1843February 4
* 1843March 24
* 1843March 27
* 1843 April 17
* 1843May 8
* 1843 May 16
* 1843 June 20
* 1843September 13
1843 October 13
* 1843 October 19
December-1844 January
* 1844January [page 501:]
* 1844 March 6
* 1844 March 30
1844 May ca. 23
* 1844May 28
* 1844 June 27
* 1844July 2
* 1844 August 18
** 1844 September 27
* 1844 October 28
* 1844 December 12
148. Source: photostat of a transcript of the original MS. Though the original letter is unlocated, it was offered for sale by the Anderson Galleries catalogue, April 24, 1911, item 2641. The transcript, now in the Boston Public Library, carries the following notation: “The above copied from the original in the possession of ‘Fred’ for Geo H Morse Esq. Lenox Library. May 30/78 C. W. F[rederickson].” The copy seems to be a very careful reproduction, line for line, of the holograph. The letter was first printed in the Century Magazine, XLVIII (September 1894), 733-734. Poe is replying to Thomas’ letter of November 14, 1842 (unlocated).
149. Source: photostat of original MS. (1 p.) in the Harvard College Library. The letter was first printed in Woodberry (1885), pp. 177-178, the only date given being that of the postmark. The envelope is addressed to “James Russell Lowell Esqre / Boston / Mass:”; in the lower left corner appears: “Single - / E A P.” Though the signature is cut off the handwriting is Poe's. Lowell endorsed the letter: “E. A. Poe, 1843”; a different hand entered “Dec. 23 / 1842.” The content of the letter places it in 1842, and the envelope is postmarked Philadelphia, December 25. Poe's second sentence refers to Lowell's letter of November t9, 1842 (MS. unlocated; printed in W, I, 345-346), and of December 17 (MS. unlocated; printed ibid., pp. 346347)
150. Source: photostat of original MS. (1 p.) in the William H. Koester collection, Baltimore. The letter was first printed in Quinn, Poe, p. 365, with variations in pointing and with the signature incorrectly given as “Edgar Poe.” The letter was postmarked at Philadelphia, December 27.
151. Source: photostat of original MS. (2 pp.) in the Harvard College Library. The letter was first printed in Woodberry (1885), pp. 178-180. In the margin opposite the third paragraph from the end appears: “E.A.Poe / 4th Feby — 1843.” Since Poe's last letter of December 27, 1842, no letter from Lowell is known.
152. Source: original MS. (1 p.) in the J. K. Lilly, Jr., collection, Indianapolis. The letter is here first printed (?). The year date is established by the reference to the Pioneer (January-March 1843). The verso of the folded leaf is postmarked Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, February 16; and is addressed [page 502:] to “R. Carter Esqre / Editor of “The Pioneer”/ Boston/ Mass:,” with the initials “EAP.” in the lower left corner. The letter is also endorsed “E. A. Poe/ Feb. 16. 1843.” The letter is the lower third of page 1 of a folded leaf, the upper portion carrying a transcription of “Eulalie,” sent as a contribution to the Pioneer. Poe is replying to Carter's letter of ante February 16, 1843 (unlocated).
153. Source: photostat of original MS. (2 pp.) in the Boston Public Library. The letter was first printed in the Century Magazine, XLVIII (September 1894), 733-734. The envelope is directed to F. W. Thomas, Treasury Department, Washington, D.C., and postmarked February 26. Since his last known letter to Thomas, November 19, 1842, Poe wrote ante January 29, 1843 unlocated, but implied in Thomas’ letter of February 1, 1843, as probably written in connection with the biography of Poe that Thomas was to write); January 30-31, 1843 (unlocated, but cited as received in Thomas’ letter of February 1, 1843, MS. in the Boston Public Library; printed in H, XVII, 128-129; Thomas also quotes from it; this letter is not the same as that of ante January 29, given above) ; on February 8, 1843, Thomas wrote a letter to Robert Tyler (MS. in the Boston Public Library), introducing Poe, and noted on it that it would “be handed to you by my friend, Poe”: thus the letter was sent to Poe, probably with an accompanying note of the same date (unlocated) ; Poe wrote to Thomas, February 15-18, 1843, a letter introducing his friend Professor Wyatt (unlocated; but see the above letter).
153a. Source: photostat of original MS. (1 p.) in the William H. Koester collection, Baltimore. The letter is here first printed. No reply from Carter is known.
154. Source: letter as first printed in P, I, 803. The present location of the MS. (1 p.) is unknown. Miss Phillips seems to have printed from a copy provided by Lewis M. Thompson of Boston. The MS. was advertised for sale in the Anderson Galleries catalogue, November 15-16, 1926. Superficially, the letter seems genuine, though proof is not possible without an examination of the holograph. Thus the present letter is not admitted unreservedly to the canon.
155. Source: facsimile in L and L, II, facing p. 134; original MS. (1 p.) is in the Berg Collection, New York Public Library. The letter was first printed in Gill, p. 120. The MS. is carelessly written, with a portion so heavily scratched out as to be illegible; “Thomas” in the second paragraph has a line through it.
156. Source: photostat of original MS. (3 pp.) in the Boston Public Library. A facsimile of the draft of this letter, showing certain variations, is printed in Pratt, pp. 17-18. The letter was first printed in the Century Magazine, XLVIII (September 1894), 735-736 The envelope is postmarked at Philadelphia, March 17.
157. Source: original MS. (1 p.) in the Virginia State Library, Richmond. The letter was first printed in H, I, 178. The postal cancellation is dated March 26.
158. Source: photostat of original MS. (3 pp.) in the Harvard College [page 503:] Library. The letter was first printed in Woodberry (1885), pp. 183-18 5. The envelope is addressed to “James Russell Lowell Esqre / Editor of “The Pioneer”/ Boston / Mass.”; and postmarked at Philadelphia, March 28. Poe is replying to Lowell's letter of March 24, 1843 (MS. unlocated; printed in W, II, 19-20).
159. Source: photostat of original MS. (1 p.) in the William H. Koester collection, Baltimore. The letter was first printed in Henkels’ catalogue, November 20, 1935, item 185a. The upper portion of the MS. is missing, as well as the date; however, a conjectural dating would be April, 1843: Rosalie Poe seems to have written to Edgar sometime after March 26 (see Letter 160), and Poe's promise to write to her seems further evidence of a letter received from his sister; Poe's letter to Bernard (March 24, 1843 ) probably preceded the present letter to Mackenzie, for Bernard was the person more likely to have the desired information (see Letter 157 and note) ; Poe's letter to Thomas, March 16, speaks of Virginia's health as “about the same” and adds that her distress of mind is great, evidence that points to the present letter's being of a later date. Poe's letter to Lowell, June 20, 1843, says the plans for the Stylus “exploded” with his partner's withdrawal, and since the partner was Thomas C. Clarke, the “capitalist” of the present letter, Poe's letter to Mackenzie was written prior to June 20. April has, therefore, been given as the conjectural dating, though May is not impossible. The MS. is a fragment, though only the inside address, date, and salutation seem to be missing; a portion of the lower left corner of the MS. is gone and part of “Wm” is missing.
160. Source: original MS. (1 p.) in the Poe Foundation, Richmond. The letter is here first printed. The envelope portion of the letter is cut off. No letter from Rosalie Poe to Poe conveying Miss Henry's request is known, beyond this reference.
161. Source: photostat of original MS. (1 p.) in the William H. Koester collection, Baltimore. The letter was first printed in H, XVII, 149 (but wrongly headed “to James T. Fields”). The envelope is addressed to “James Russell Lowell Esqre / Boston / Mass.” and initialed “E A P.” in the lower left corner. It is postmarked from Philadelphia, June 20. Since Poe's last letter of March 27, 1843, Lowell wrote on April 17, May 8, and May 16, 1843 (MSS. unlocated; but printed from the Griswold MSS. in W, II, 23-28). No intervening Poe letter is indicated.
162. Source: letter as printed in W, II, 39-42; original MS. unlocated. The letter was first printed in Woodberry (1885), pp. 190-192. Poe is answering Tomlin's letter postmarked August 9 (MS. in the Boston Public Library).
163. Source: photostat of original MS. (1 p,) in the Harvard College Library. The letter was first printed in W, II, 44. The MS. is endorsed by Lowell, “E. A. Poe, 13th Septr. 1843.”
164. Source: photostat of original MS. (3 pp.) in the Harvard College Library. The letter was first printed in Woodberry (1885), pp. 192-194. The envelope is addressed to “James Russell Lowell Esqre / Cambridge / [page 504:] Mass:”; and postmarked at Philadelphia, October 19. Poe is replying to Lowell's letter of October 13, 180 (unlocated).
165. Source: fragment as first printed in Whitty, p. 196. The location of the original MS. is unknown; it was offered for sale in the Henkels’ catalogue, February 22, 1907, item 161. Poe is replying to Hedges’ note of November 14, 1843, which is unlocated.
166. Source: photostat of original MS. (1 p.) in the Haverford College Library, Haverford, Pennsylvania. The letter is here first printed. The envelope is addressed: “Joel B. Sutherland Esqre. / Present / Per Mr Robert Travers.”
167. Source: original fragment (1 p.) in the William H. Koester collection, Baltimore. The letter is here first printed in the fullest available form. The Robert H. Dodd sales catalogue No. 27, March, 1918, prints part of the letter and adds: “The page has been cut in half and the signature pasted over it. The part of the letter destroyed revealed Poe's financial troubles and was removed by one of his admirers who did not wish his favorite's urgent need of money to become public property.” In the text of the present letter the omitted portion is represented by the ellipsis, and the MS. portion containing the signature shows along its top edge, though indistinctly, what appears to have been the last line of the original letter. The dating of the letter is based upon the fact that Poe lectured in Baltimore, January 31, 1844 (see Letter 168), and also upon the presumption that he lectured there early in 1846, for Mary E. Hewitt, writing to Poe, April 14, 1846, regrets hearing of his illness in Baltimore (see original MS. in the Boston Public Library; also printed in A Christmas Book, p. 120). However, the proposed lectures may never have been delivered, or the letter date may have been earlier or later than the dates suggsted here. The MS. carries neither addressee, date, or postal information. No reply is known. **[[fix typo of “suggsted”]]**
168. Source: copy made by Dr. John C. French, Librarian, Johns Hopkins University, of his own transcript of the original MS. The holograph, which was in private hands in Baltimore over twenty years ago, is unlocated. The letter is here first printed. The undated MS. was certainly written on January 31, 1844, Wednesday, for several Baltimore papers of that date carry puffs for Poe's lecture.
168a. Source: letter as first printed in Sotheby Sales catalogue (London), June 2-3, 1924, item 321, where the MS. is described as an a. l. s., 1 page quarto to John P. Kennedy, Esq. The letter is here first collected. The identification of place and full date of the letter is conjectural, but is based upon Poe's visit to Baltimore for a lecture on Wednesday evening, January 31, 1844 (see Letter 168 and note, and Note 168) and Kennedy's continued friendliness toward Poe which would encourage Poe to visit his benefactor whenever he was in Baltimore. The present text may or may not be complete.
169. Source: letter as first printed in Lippard's novel, Herbert Tracy (Philadelphia: R. G. Berford, 1844), pp. 167-168. The original MS. is probably lost. Poe seems to be replying to a letter from Lippard, which is unlocated. [page 505:] One other letter from Poe to Lippard is known but is also unlocated; it was dated July 19, 1849, and asked Lippard to find the lectures Poe lost in Philadelphia (see Quinn, Poe, p. 622, where Poe's letter is cited by Lippard in a letter to Griswold, Lippard's letter being in the Boston Public Library).
170. Source: photostat of original MS. (1 p.) in the William H. Koester collection, Baltimore. The letter was first printed in facsimile in the American Art Association catalogue, March 18-19, 1925, item 569. The envelope is postmarked at Philadelphia, March 3, and is addressed to “Mess: Jno: C. Myers/ Sam: Williams/ or Will: Greaff Jr./ Reading/ Pa” and is initialed “E A P” in the lower left corner. Poe is replying to a letter from Myers, Williams, and Greaff [Graeff], dated December 29, 1843, which is unlocated.
171. Source: a transcript furnished by Thomas O. Mabbott, with the following authentication: “Copy made from my original copy of transcript of the letter made by a former owner ... Thomas F. Madigan”; the present location of the original MS. (1 p.) is unknown. The letter was first printed in P, I, 858. Poe is replying to a letter from Williams and Graeff dated March 5, 1844, which is unlocated. The text of Poe's present letter and the later delivery of the lecture imply another letter from Williams and Graeff about March 9-10, 1844, which is unlocated.
172. Source: facsimile of original MS. (1 p.) in Bixby, pp. 22-23, where it was first printed in full. The original MS. is now in Huntington Library (HM 21864). The Poe-Horne Correspondence includes 5 known letters, 3 by Horne (original MSS. now in the Boston Public Library), and 2 by Poe (original MSS. not known save through internal evidence in Horne's letters to Poe); the first letter in the correspondence was from Poe, March 20-26 (?), 1844, and the last, from Horne, May 17, 1845.
173. Source: photostat of original MS. (4 pp.) in the Harvard College Library. The letter was first printed in Woodberry (1885), pp. 197-199The envelope is addressed to “James Russell Lowell Esqre / Elmwood / Cambridge / Mass.”; and postmarked at Philadelphia, March 30. Following his letter of October 19, 1843, Poe wrote to Lowell, probably in December-January (unlocated), regarding a lecture before the Boston Society (see Lowell to Poe, March 6, 1844, W, II, 56-59) ; Poe's present letter is a reply to Lowell's, just cited.
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
Notes:
None.
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
[S:0 - OLT66, 1966] - Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore - Editions - The Letters of Edgar Allan Poe (J. W. Ostrom) (Letters: Notes to Letters 1-173)