Text: Fitz-Greene Halleck to Edgar Allan Poe — after June 24, 1841

Notes:

This brief excerpt from what is presumed to have been Halleck’s reply to Poe’s letter of June 24, 1841, was printed in the biographical article on Poe in the Philadelphia Saturday Museum, March 4, 1843. See the Poe Log, p. 332. In quoting other letters in the same article, the use of “you” and “your” from the original letters, at least one of which survives in manuscript, was changed to “he” and “his” for the sake of context. The Halleck quote begins “on his,” which has been restored here to the more probable “on your.” The bracketed text given here is adapted from the sentence in which the quote appears: “In so saying, we but endorse the opinion of every literary man in the country, and fully agree with Fitz Greene Halleck, that, however eminent may be the contributors engaged, it is, after all, ‘on his own fine taste, sound judgement . . . .’.” The article refers to the title of the magazine Poe proposed to establish as the Stylus, but in 1841 the name was still the Penn.