Text: Edgar Allan Poe (?), Literary, Broadway Journal (New York), November 29, 1845, vol. 2, no. 21, p. ???, col. ?

[page 321, column 2, continued:]

Trippings in Authorland. By Fanny Forrester. New York: Paine & Burgess.

This will assuredly prove to the public a very acceptable collection. Few Americans have attained so much of celebrity as has “Fanny Forrester,” in so brief a time. Some of her fame is, beyond question, due to the kindly and frequent notices of Mr. Willis, but the greater portion of it springs from intrinsic merit — from the vivacity and talent of the author. She is one of our best Magazinists the very best in her way — and her way would be admirable in all respects but for a slight taunt of Willisism. Not that we object to Willisism — in Willis.

We quote a portion of the Preface:

About a year ago, a girl sat down in her own quiet little room, and, for very idleness, without object and without plan, produced plan, produced a letter, which, the next week, found its way into the New York Mirror. It was the first letter in this collection; and Mr. Willis, one of the editors, after various speculations concerning the author, added —

“Well — we give in! — On condition that you are under twenty-five, and that you will wear a rose (recognizably) in your boddice the first day you appear in Broadway with the hat and ‘balzarine,’ we will pay the bills. Write us, thereafter, a sketch of ‘Bel’ and and yourself, as cleverly done as this letter, and you may ‘snuggle down’ on the sofa, and consider us paid, and the public charmed with you.”

A reply was given by way of carrying out the frolic still father, accompanied by the sketch of “The Cousins,” which appeared in the Mirror immediately after. These met with such a kind reception, that the pen became a more familiar thing than formerly in those fingers, and so, behold upon them an indelible ink-mark.

We presume that there are not more than one or two of our readers unaware of the fact that “Fanny Forrester” and Mrs. Emily S. Chubbuck are one and the same.