Text: Stuart and Susan Levine, “Second Philadelphia Prospectus - Note,” The Collected Writings of Edgar Allan Poe — EAP: Critical Theory (2009), p. 27 (This material is protected by copyright)

[page 27, continued:]

Note on the Second (Philadelphia) Version of the

Prospectus of “The Penn Magazine”

Poe's phrase in the fourth paragraph — “regarding the world at large as the true audience of the author” — echoes a famous letter he wrote on December 22, 1828, from Fortress Monroe in Virginia to his stepfather John Allan. Poe pleads with Allan to consent to Poe's discharge from the army:

Poe reused the idea elsewhere as well; see, for example, “Exordium” (¶3 and our note).