Text: James Kirke Paulding to Edgar Allan Poe — after June 7, 1836

Notes:

The first of these brief excerpts from Paulding’s letter was printed, along with similar comments from various other writers, in the supplement to the Southern Literary Messenger for July 1836. The second excerpt, which is presumed to be from the same letter, is also quoted in the biographical article on Poe from the Philadelphia Saturday Museum, March 4, 1843: “Of the review of ‘Drake and Halleck’ Mr. J. K. Paulding says, in a letter now upon our table, ‘I think it one of the finest pieces of criticism ever published in this country’.” The review of Drake and Halleck was published in the SLM for April 1836. Charles H. Watts, in “Poe, Irving, and The Southern Literary Messenger,” American Literature (May 1955) 27:249-251, tentatively identifies the author of the second excerpt as Irving, based on Poe’s comment that it was written by “. .. an individual second to no American author in the wide-spread popularity of his writings, and in their universal appreciation by men of letters, both in the United States and England.” Instead, it simply seems that Poe was trying to present one bit of praise as two, and therefore had to be elusive in the attribution of the second by describing rather than naming the author.  The nearly identical phrase in the Saturday Museum article, with a clear and specific attribution to Paulding, must be considered conclusive.