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The Collected Letters of Edgar Allan Poe 2 Volumes
The definitive, fully annotated collection of the 422 known Poe letters, cjronologically arranged, with 5 appendixes, bibliography, and Check List. 74 illustrations, slipcased.
- GenresNonfiction
1325 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1948
1 person is currently reading
55 people want to read
About the author
Edgar Allan Poe
9,885 books28.6k followersThe name Poe brings to mind images of murderers and madmen, premature burials, and mysterious women who return from the dead. His works have been in print since 1827 and include such literary classics as The Tell-Tale Heart, The Raven, and The Fall of the House of Usher. This versatile writer’s oeuvre includes short stories, poetry, a novel, a textbook, a book of scientific theory, and hundreds of essays and book reviews. He is widely acknowledged as the inventor of the modern detective story and an innovator in the science fiction genre, but he made his living as America’s first great literary critic and theoretician. Poe’s reputation today rests primarily on his tales of terror as well as on his haunting lyric poetry.
Just as the bizarre characters in Poe’s stories have captured the public imagination so too has Poe himself. He is seen as a morbid, mysterious figure lurking in the shadows of moonlit cemeteries or crumbling castles. This is the Poe of legend. But much of what we know about Poe is wrong, the product of a biography written by one of his enemies in an attempt to defame the author’s name.
The real Poe was born to traveling actors in Boston on January 19, 1809. Edgar was the second of three children. His other brother William Henry Leonard Poe would also become a poet before his early death, and Poe’s sister Rosalie Poe would grow up to teach penmanship at a Richmond girls’ school. Within three years of Poe’s birth both of his parents had died, and he was taken in by the wealthy tobacco merchant John Allan and his wife Frances Valentine Allan in Richmond, Virginia while Poe’s siblings went to live with other families. Mr. Allan would rear Poe to be a businessman and a Virginia gentleman, but Poe had dreams of being a writer in emulation of his childhood hero the British poet Lord Byron. Early poetic verses found written in a young Poe’s handwriting on the backs of Allan’s ledger sheets reveal how little interest Poe had in the tobacco business.
For more information, please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_al...
Just as the bizarre characters in Poe’s stories have captured the public imagination so too has Poe himself. He is seen as a morbid, mysterious figure lurking in the shadows of moonlit cemeteries or crumbling castles. This is the Poe of legend. But much of what we know about Poe is wrong, the product of a biography written by one of his enemies in an attempt to defame the author’s name.
The real Poe was born to traveling actors in Boston on January 19, 1809. Edgar was the second of three children. His other brother William Henry Leonard Poe would also become a poet before his early death, and Poe’s sister Rosalie Poe would grow up to teach penmanship at a Richmond girls’ school. Within three years of Poe’s birth both of his parents had died, and he was taken in by the wealthy tobacco merchant John Allan and his wife Frances Valentine Allan in Richmond, Virginia while Poe’s siblings went to live with other families. Mr. Allan would rear Poe to be a businessman and a Virginia gentleman, but Poe had dreams of being a writer in emulation of his childhood hero the British poet Lord Byron. Early poetic verses found written in a young Poe’s handwriting on the backs of Allan’s ledger sheets reveal how little interest Poe had in the tobacco business.
For more information, please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_al...
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
March 17, 2021
2008 Edition An overwhelming 5 Star rating.
This book is truly a treasure trove of exquisite insight into the mind of Poe as it relates in his own words and thoughts to his relatives, friends, colleagues, peers, acquaintances and autograph seekers. There are instances you can read where he is definitely in either his depressive stage or his manic stage and one thing is made very clear is that Poe definitely struggled with poverty. When reading these letters one can not help but feel a heart rendering appreciation for the gifts of his poetry and prose tales. "Poe’s letters are important to biographers and critics for the biographical and bibliographical data they provide. For an adequate understanding of the man within, the emotions behind the horrific photographs with which we are confronted, the letters sound not only the grace notes, such as they are, but also the full diapason of the major pitch of his soul." Quote from Dr. John Ward Ostrom's lecture from Appendix D.
Introduction - Gives an excellent explanation of this third edition update of the 422 letters written by Poe with biographical information on the correspondent which definitely helps the reader (especially me) understand the meaning and relationship with Poe put in a clearer context.
VOLUME I
I The John Allan Period
Letters 1-36: November 1824-April 1833
"Poe’s correspondence with his foster father, John Allan, is a treasure-trove, revealing Poe as a precocious and sensitive but temperamental and headstrong youth, determined to assert himself and to make his mark on the world. . . . It must be accepted, however, that the extant correspondence reveals only a small portion of the business and personal relations existing between Poe and Allan, even for the long period covered by their letters. More importantly, the written words alone 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 Edgar Poe, a compound that must be read carefully and sympathetically before one can pass fair judgment." https://www.eapoe.org/works/ostlttrs/...
II The Folio Club and Southern Literary Messenger
Letters 37-76: May 1833-January 1837
Tales of the Folio Club a collection of tales, designed around a fictional group of characters who called themselves the Folio Club. Although the proposed volume was never printed as a distinct collection, the individual tales appeared in the Philadelphia Saturday Courier and the Southern Literary Messenger.
"Edgar Allan Poe was hired as a staff writer and critic [for the Southern Literary Messenger in August 1835, possibly based on a recommendation to White from John Pendleton Kennedy. Just a month later, White fired Poe, allegedly for his drinking habits, but rehired him in October. By December, Poe was made editor of the journal. While working for the Messenger, Poe published 37 reviews of American and foreign books and periodicals, cementing his place as a premier critic in the United States." . . . "Besides criticism, Poe published many first printings of his now famous works in the Messenger, including the controversial Berenice, Morella, and - in installments - parts of his only novel Arthur Gordon Pym. Poe left the magazine with the January 1837 issue but still contributed works even after White's death." https://worldhistoryproject.org/1835/...
III From Weissnichtwo to Burton’s Gentleman’s Magazine
Letters 77-93: February 1837-May 1840
Weissnichtwo - a German word meaning an imaginary or unknown place. "In Carlyle's Sartor, [it was portrayed as] an imaginary European city, viewed as the focus, and as exhibiting the operation, of all the influences for good and evil of the time we live in, described in terms which characterised (sic) city life in the first quarter of the 19th century; so universal appeared the spiritual forces at work in society at that time that it was impossible to say where they were and where they were not, and hence the name of the city, Know-not-where." https://www.abbreviations.com/WEISSNI...
"Poe officially joined the staff of Burton’s Gentleman’s Magazine about the middle of May, 1839. An announcement appears on the back cover of the June issue: 'William E. Burton, Editor and Proprietor, has much pleasure in stating that he has made arrangements with Edgar A. Poe, Esq., late Editor of the Southern Literary Messenger, to devote his abilities and experience to a portion of the Editorial duties of the Gentleman’s Magazine.' " https://www.eapoe.org/works/editions/...
IV The Penn and Graham’s Magazine
Letters 94-133a: June 1840-March 1842
"Poe first seriously pursued founding a magazine in 1840. He was increasingly exasperated with his job as editor of Burton's Magazine, and he had come to personally despise his employer, William Burton. His unpleasant experience with Burton (and earlier, with Thomas W. White's Southern Literary Messenger, led him to the logical conclusion that the only way he could prosper in the literary world was if he gained some measure of autonomy over his own career. In June 1840, Poe published in the Philadelphia Saturday Courier an announcement that his new magazine, to be called the Penn, would appear on the first day of the next year. The prospectus explained that 'in founding a magazine of my own lies my sole chance of carrying out to completion whatever peculiar intentions I may have entertained.' He promised a publication that would deal in 'absolutely independent criticism--a criticism self-sustained; guiding itself only by the purest rules of Art; analyzing and urging these rules as it applies them; holding itself aloof from all personal bias; acknowledging no fear save that of outraging the right; yielding no point either to the vanity of the author or to the assumptions of antique prejudice, or to the involute and anonymous cant of the Quarterlies, or to the arrogance of those organized cliques which, hanging like nightmares upon American literature, manufacture, at the nod of our principal booksellers, a pseudo-public-opinion by wholesale.' " https://worldofpoe.blogspot.com/2010/...
Graham's Magazine was a nineteenth-century periodical based in Philadelphia established by George Rex Graham and published from 1841 to 1858. It was alternatively referred to as Graham's Lady's and Gentleman's Magazine (1841–1842, and July 1843 – June 1844) . . . The journal was founded after the merger of Burton's Gentleman's Magazine and Atkinson's Casket in 1840. Publishing short stories, critical reviews, and music as well as information on fashion . . . Edgar Allan Poe became the editor of Graham's in February 1841 and soon was publishing the harsh critical reviews for which he became known. Poe suspended his plans to start his own journal, The Penn, to work for Graham. The magazine was the first to publish The Murders in the Rue Morgue, A Descent into the Maelström, The Island of the Fay, The Mask Of The Red Death - A Fantasy, and others. He also reviewed Charles Dickens's The Old Curiosity Shop, Nathaniel Hawthorne's Twice-Told Tales, and works by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Washington Irving and many others. He also further built up his reputation as a harsh literary critic, causing James Russell Lowell to suggest Poe sometimes mistook 'his phial of prussic acid for his inkstand'. With Graham's, Poe also launched his Literati of New York series, which purportedly analyzes the signatures of well-known figures in the New York scene, but which featured Poe taking pot-shots at their personalities . . . Poe left Graham's employ in April 1842 but still made occasional contributions. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graham&...
V The Post-Graham’s Period
Letters 134-173: April 1842-March 1844
In his letter to Frederick W. Thomas dated May 25. 1842 Poe states "My reason for resigning [from Graham's Magazine was disgust with the namby-pamby character of the Magazine — a character which it was impossible to eradicate — I allude to the contemptible pictures, fashion-plates, music and love tales. The salary, moreover, did not pay me for the labor which I was forced to bestow. With Graham who is really a very gentlemanly, although an exceedingly weak man, I had no misunderstanding." ( p. 333) Poe filed for bankruptcy in the District Court of the United States in Philadelphia on December 19, 1842, and it was granted on January 13, 1843. In 1842 Poe
publishes The Pit and the Pendulum, The Masque of the Red Death, The Mystery of Marie Rogêt and interviews Charles Dickens in March 1842. In !843 Poe publishes The Tell-Tale Heart, The Gold Bug, The Black Cat, and the critical essay The Rationale of Verse.
VI Early Struggles
Letters 174-191: April 1844-January 1845
VII Era of the Broadway Journal
Letters 192-221a: February 1845-December 1845
The Broadway Journal was a "periodical whose publication Poe acted as a partner with Charles Briggs and John Bisco. It republished many revised versions of Poe’s tales, including Ligeia, William Wilson, and The Tell-Tale Heart. Poe began his association with the periodical early in 1845 as a writer and editor, earning $1 a column for his contributions. After a financially struggling Briggs left the journal, Poe bought out Bisco and became sole owner and editor on October 24, 1845. He paid Bisco $50, in the form of a personal note endorsed by Horace Greeley. Poe used the columns of the journal to promote his own writing, and the publication provided both the poet and his work with a larger and more important audience than he might have otherwise attained. Poe also used his columns to continue attacks upon other writers and to respond to negative reviews of his works. Poe’s management of the Broadway Journal was fraught with problems. He was unable to raise the $140 needed to preserve the publication, and the magazine was defunct by December 1845. In the final issue, which appeared on January 3, 1846, Poe published the following farewell:
VALEDICTORY
Unexpected engagements demanding my whole
attention, and the objects being unfulfilled so
far as regards myself personally, for which the
Broadway Journal was established, I now, as its
editor, bid farewell—as cordially to foes as to
friends. Edgar A. Poe" Sova, Dawn B. (2001). Edgar Allan Poe, A to Z : the essential reference to his life and work. New York : Facts on File. (p. 34)
VIII The Immemorial Year
Letters 222-246a: January 1846-December 1846
VOLUME II
IX Grasping at Straws
Letters 247-275a: January 1847-August 1848
X The Sarah Helen Whitman Interlude
Letters 276-302a: September 1848-January 1849
"Whitman and Edgar Allan Poe first crossed paths in Providence in July 1845. Poe was attending a lecture by friend and poet Frances Sargent Osgood. As Poe and Osgood walked, they passed the home of Whitman while she was standing in the rose garden behind her house. Poe declined to be introduced to her." Benton, Richard P. (1987). "Friends and Enemies: Women in the Life of Edgar Allan Poe" as collected in Myths and Reality: The Mysterious Mr. Poe. Baltimore: Edgar Allan Poe Society. (17)
Sarah Helen Whitman was "One of Poe’s great loves and the inspiration for the second To Helen. Like Poe, she was born on January 19, although six years later, and her belief in mysticism convinced her that they shared a psychic connection. She was widowed at the age of 30 and moved in with her mother and younger sister—a mistake, as her mother was a woman of
powerful personality. Whitman conveyed a theatrical presence, dressing in lightly draping silky clothes and dainty slippers, with scarves streaming lightly as she walked. Her otherworldly appearance was enhanced by the ever-present handkerchief soaked in ether: She had a heart condition, and inhaling the ether soothed her. Three years before they met, Poe had seen Whitman at a party after a lecture he gave in Providence, Rhode Island, but the two had not spoken. Whitman had heard of his admiration for her and had developed a strong liking for his poetry, which led her to compose the playful poem To Edgar A. Poe for a Valentine’s Day party
in 1848, in which she addresses 'thou grim and ancient Raven.' The two met soon after on September 15, 1848, and wrote a flurry of passionate letters to each other. By December 15, 1848, the two drew up a marriage contract, at the insistence of Whitman’s mother, Mrs. Nicholas Power. By Saturday, December 23, 1848, the relationship was broken off, because Whitman had learned that Poe was still exhibiting an interest in Annie Richmond and because reports had circulated that Poe was seen in the bar of a hotel called the Earl House. Poe was devastated by the breach but pretended that the engagement was only postponed." Sova, Dawn B. (2001). Edgar Allan Poe, A to Z : the essential reference to his life and work. New York : Facts on File. (p.254)
XI The Vein Runs Out
Letters 302b-334: February 1849-October 1849
Appendices:
A. Special Notes on Selected Correspondents - short biographies on the following correspondents:
J. Allan
T. H. Chivers
Mrs. M. Clemm
E. A. Duyckinck
Mrs. E. F. Ellet
G. W. Eveleth
R. W. Griswold
J. P. Kennedy
J. R. Lowell
Miss A. C. Lynch
J. Neal
Mrs. F. S. Osgood
E. H. N. Patterson
Mrs. A. L. Richmond
J. E. Snodgrass
F. W. Thomas
Mrs. S. H. Whitman
N. P. Willis
B. Promissory Notes and Receipts
C. Some Fakes, Forgeries, and Spurious Letters
"This selection of suspicious and inauthentic letters is by no means intended to be comprehensive, since most known forgeries have not been widely circulated. Instead, the items reprinted here are those which have received some public attention, along with a number of readily available forgeries from public sales or in institutional collections. Of particular interest are the letters altered or invented by Rufus W. Griswold for his 1850 Memoir of Poe, and the series of forgeries by Joseph Cosey, who was chiefly active around the 1930s." https://www.eapoe.org/works/ostlttrs/...
D. The Letters of Poe: Quest and Answer - 5 Stars
Lecture give by Dr. John Ward Ostrom on October 8, 1967.
E. Introduction from the first edition of The Letters, by James Southall Wilson
This book is truly a treasure trove of exquisite insight into the mind of Poe as it relates in his own words and thoughts to his relatives, friends, colleagues, peers, acquaintances and autograph seekers. There are instances you can read where he is definitely in either his depressive stage or his manic stage and one thing is made very clear is that Poe definitely struggled with poverty. When reading these letters one can not help but feel a heart rendering appreciation for the gifts of his poetry and prose tales. "Poe’s letters are important to biographers and critics for the biographical and bibliographical data they provide. For an adequate understanding of the man within, the emotions behind the horrific photographs with which we are confronted, the letters sound not only the grace notes, such as they are, but also the full diapason of the major pitch of his soul." Quote from Dr. John Ward Ostrom's lecture from Appendix D.
Introduction - Gives an excellent explanation of this third edition update of the 422 letters written by Poe with biographical information on the correspondent which definitely helps the reader (especially me) understand the meaning and relationship with Poe put in a clearer context.
VOLUME I
I The John Allan Period
Letters 1-36: November 1824-April 1833
"Poe’s correspondence with his foster father, John Allan, is a treasure-trove, revealing Poe as a precocious and sensitive but temperamental and headstrong youth, determined to assert himself and to make his mark on the world. . . . It must be accepted, however, that the extant correspondence reveals only a small portion of the business and personal relations existing between Poe and Allan, even for the long period covered by their letters. More importantly, the written words alone 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 Edgar Poe, a compound that must be read carefully and sympathetically before one can pass fair judgment." https://www.eapoe.org/works/ostlttrs/...
II The Folio Club and Southern Literary Messenger
Letters 37-76: May 1833-January 1837
Tales of the Folio Club a collection of tales, designed around a fictional group of characters who called themselves the Folio Club. Although the proposed volume was never printed as a distinct collection, the individual tales appeared in the Philadelphia Saturday Courier and the Southern Literary Messenger.
"Edgar Allan Poe was hired as a staff writer and critic [for the Southern Literary Messenger in August 1835, possibly based on a recommendation to White from John Pendleton Kennedy. Just a month later, White fired Poe, allegedly for his drinking habits, but rehired him in October. By December, Poe was made editor of the journal. While working for the Messenger, Poe published 37 reviews of American and foreign books and periodicals, cementing his place as a premier critic in the United States." . . . "Besides criticism, Poe published many first printings of his now famous works in the Messenger, including the controversial Berenice, Morella, and - in installments - parts of his only novel Arthur Gordon Pym. Poe left the magazine with the January 1837 issue but still contributed works even after White's death." https://worldhistoryproject.org/1835/...
III From Weissnichtwo to Burton’s Gentleman’s Magazine
Letters 77-93: February 1837-May 1840
Weissnichtwo - a German word meaning an imaginary or unknown place. "In Carlyle's Sartor, [it was portrayed as] an imaginary European city, viewed as the focus, and as exhibiting the operation, of all the influences for good and evil of the time we live in, described in terms which characterised (sic) city life in the first quarter of the 19th century; so universal appeared the spiritual forces at work in society at that time that it was impossible to say where they were and where they were not, and hence the name of the city, Know-not-where." https://www.abbreviations.com/WEISSNI...
"Poe officially joined the staff of Burton’s Gentleman’s Magazine about the middle of May, 1839. An announcement appears on the back cover of the June issue: 'William E. Burton, Editor and Proprietor, has much pleasure in stating that he has made arrangements with Edgar A. Poe, Esq., late Editor of the Southern Literary Messenger, to devote his abilities and experience to a portion of the Editorial duties of the Gentleman’s Magazine.' " https://www.eapoe.org/works/editions/...
IV The Penn and Graham’s Magazine
Letters 94-133a: June 1840-March 1842
"Poe first seriously pursued founding a magazine in 1840. He was increasingly exasperated with his job as editor of Burton's Magazine, and he had come to personally despise his employer, William Burton. His unpleasant experience with Burton (and earlier, with Thomas W. White's Southern Literary Messenger, led him to the logical conclusion that the only way he could prosper in the literary world was if he gained some measure of autonomy over his own career. In June 1840, Poe published in the Philadelphia Saturday Courier an announcement that his new magazine, to be called the Penn, would appear on the first day of the next year. The prospectus explained that 'in founding a magazine of my own lies my sole chance of carrying out to completion whatever peculiar intentions I may have entertained.' He promised a publication that would deal in 'absolutely independent criticism--a criticism self-sustained; guiding itself only by the purest rules of Art; analyzing and urging these rules as it applies them; holding itself aloof from all personal bias; acknowledging no fear save that of outraging the right; yielding no point either to the vanity of the author or to the assumptions of antique prejudice, or to the involute and anonymous cant of the Quarterlies, or to the arrogance of those organized cliques which, hanging like nightmares upon American literature, manufacture, at the nod of our principal booksellers, a pseudo-public-opinion by wholesale.' " https://worldofpoe.blogspot.com/2010/...
Graham's Magazine was a nineteenth-century periodical based in Philadelphia established by George Rex Graham and published from 1841 to 1858. It was alternatively referred to as Graham's Lady's and Gentleman's Magazine (1841–1842, and July 1843 – June 1844) . . . The journal was founded after the merger of Burton's Gentleman's Magazine and Atkinson's Casket in 1840. Publishing short stories, critical reviews, and music as well as information on fashion . . . Edgar Allan Poe became the editor of Graham's in February 1841 and soon was publishing the harsh critical reviews for which he became known. Poe suspended his plans to start his own journal, The Penn, to work for Graham. The magazine was the first to publish The Murders in the Rue Morgue, A Descent into the Maelström, The Island of the Fay, The Mask Of The Red Death - A Fantasy, and others. He also reviewed Charles Dickens's The Old Curiosity Shop, Nathaniel Hawthorne's Twice-Told Tales, and works by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Washington Irving and many others. He also further built up his reputation as a harsh literary critic, causing James Russell Lowell to suggest Poe sometimes mistook 'his phial of prussic acid for his inkstand'. With Graham's, Poe also launched his Literati of New York series, which purportedly analyzes the signatures of well-known figures in the New York scene, but which featured Poe taking pot-shots at their personalities . . . Poe left Graham's employ in April 1842 but still made occasional contributions. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graham&...
V The Post-Graham’s Period
Letters 134-173: April 1842-March 1844
In his letter to Frederick W. Thomas dated May 25. 1842 Poe states "My reason for resigning [from Graham's Magazine was disgust with the namby-pamby character of the Magazine — a character which it was impossible to eradicate — I allude to the contemptible pictures, fashion-plates, music and love tales. The salary, moreover, did not pay me for the labor which I was forced to bestow. With Graham who is really a very gentlemanly, although an exceedingly weak man, I had no misunderstanding." ( p. 333) Poe filed for bankruptcy in the District Court of the United States in Philadelphia on December 19, 1842, and it was granted on January 13, 1843. In 1842 Poe
publishes The Pit and the Pendulum, The Masque of the Red Death, The Mystery of Marie Rogêt and interviews Charles Dickens in March 1842. In !843 Poe publishes The Tell-Tale Heart, The Gold Bug, The Black Cat, and the critical essay The Rationale of Verse.
VI Early Struggles
Letters 174-191: April 1844-January 1845
VII Era of the Broadway Journal
Letters 192-221a: February 1845-December 1845
The Broadway Journal was a "periodical whose publication Poe acted as a partner with Charles Briggs and John Bisco. It republished many revised versions of Poe’s tales, including Ligeia, William Wilson, and The Tell-Tale Heart. Poe began his association with the periodical early in 1845 as a writer and editor, earning $1 a column for his contributions. After a financially struggling Briggs left the journal, Poe bought out Bisco and became sole owner and editor on October 24, 1845. He paid Bisco $50, in the form of a personal note endorsed by Horace Greeley. Poe used the columns of the journal to promote his own writing, and the publication provided both the poet and his work with a larger and more important audience than he might have otherwise attained. Poe also used his columns to continue attacks upon other writers and to respond to negative reviews of his works. Poe’s management of the Broadway Journal was fraught with problems. He was unable to raise the $140 needed to preserve the publication, and the magazine was defunct by December 1845. In the final issue, which appeared on January 3, 1846, Poe published the following farewell:
VALEDICTORY
Unexpected engagements demanding my whole
attention, and the objects being unfulfilled so
far as regards myself personally, for which the
Broadway Journal was established, I now, as its
editor, bid farewell—as cordially to foes as to
friends. Edgar A. Poe" Sova, Dawn B. (2001). Edgar Allan Poe, A to Z : the essential reference to his life and work. New York : Facts on File. (p. 34)
VIII The Immemorial Year
Letters 222-246a: January 1846-December 1846
VOLUME II
IX Grasping at Straws
Letters 247-275a: January 1847-August 1848
X The Sarah Helen Whitman Interlude
Letters 276-302a: September 1848-January 1849
"Whitman and Edgar Allan Poe first crossed paths in Providence in July 1845. Poe was attending a lecture by friend and poet Frances Sargent Osgood. As Poe and Osgood walked, they passed the home of Whitman while she was standing in the rose garden behind her house. Poe declined to be introduced to her." Benton, Richard P. (1987). "Friends and Enemies: Women in the Life of Edgar Allan Poe" as collected in Myths and Reality: The Mysterious Mr. Poe. Baltimore: Edgar Allan Poe Society. (17)
Sarah Helen Whitman was "One of Poe’s great loves and the inspiration for the second To Helen. Like Poe, she was born on January 19, although six years later, and her belief in mysticism convinced her that they shared a psychic connection. She was widowed at the age of 30 and moved in with her mother and younger sister—a mistake, as her mother was a woman of
powerful personality. Whitman conveyed a theatrical presence, dressing in lightly draping silky clothes and dainty slippers, with scarves streaming lightly as she walked. Her otherworldly appearance was enhanced by the ever-present handkerchief soaked in ether: She had a heart condition, and inhaling the ether soothed her. Three years before they met, Poe had seen Whitman at a party after a lecture he gave in Providence, Rhode Island, but the two had not spoken. Whitman had heard of his admiration for her and had developed a strong liking for his poetry, which led her to compose the playful poem To Edgar A. Poe for a Valentine’s Day party
in 1848, in which she addresses 'thou grim and ancient Raven.' The two met soon after on September 15, 1848, and wrote a flurry of passionate letters to each other. By December 15, 1848, the two drew up a marriage contract, at the insistence of Whitman’s mother, Mrs. Nicholas Power. By Saturday, December 23, 1848, the relationship was broken off, because Whitman had learned that Poe was still exhibiting an interest in Annie Richmond and because reports had circulated that Poe was seen in the bar of a hotel called the Earl House. Poe was devastated by the breach but pretended that the engagement was only postponed." Sova, Dawn B. (2001). Edgar Allan Poe, A to Z : the essential reference to his life and work. New York : Facts on File. (p.254)
XI The Vein Runs Out
Letters 302b-334: February 1849-October 1849
Appendices:
A. Special Notes on Selected Correspondents - short biographies on the following correspondents:
J. Allan
T. H. Chivers
Mrs. M. Clemm
E. A. Duyckinck
Mrs. E. F. Ellet
G. W. Eveleth
R. W. Griswold
J. P. Kennedy
J. R. Lowell
Miss A. C. Lynch
J. Neal
Mrs. F. S. Osgood
E. H. N. Patterson
Mrs. A. L. Richmond
J. E. Snodgrass
F. W. Thomas
Mrs. S. H. Whitman
N. P. Willis
B. Promissory Notes and Receipts
C. Some Fakes, Forgeries, and Spurious Letters
"This selection of suspicious and inauthentic letters is by no means intended to be comprehensive, since most known forgeries have not been widely circulated. Instead, the items reprinted here are those which have received some public attention, along with a number of readily available forgeries from public sales or in institutional collections. Of particular interest are the letters altered or invented by Rufus W. Griswold for his 1850 Memoir of Poe, and the series of forgeries by Joseph Cosey, who was chiefly active around the 1930s." https://www.eapoe.org/works/ostlttrs/...
D. The Letters of Poe: Quest and Answer - 5 Stars
Lecture give by Dr. John Ward Ostrom on October 8, 1967.
E. Introduction from the first edition of The Letters, by James Southall Wilson
March 26, 2013
I would recommend this book to anyone obsessed with poe. However there are several things i should mention. The first one is that this book may be 1300 pages long but only about 842 pages are letters and after each letter is a paragraph describing his relationship with the person the letter it is written to and the backstory behind it, followed by a paragraph on the condition of the letter. The first section of letters are the letters written to his stepfather when he was at Westpoint which are mostly him asking for money, after that the letters are about literary matters usually in regards to the journals or magazines he was working at or trying to start. There are also alot of letters in the book written by him asking for money.The book also has some form letters that are written to people asking them to submit writings to the journals or magazines he was working at, or poe asking to borrow money to help fund those same journals or magazines . The Second thing you should know is this after the letters are sections on the people he was writing to , notices of payment or to borrow money, a section of fake letters, and finally 300 pages of a bibliography and index. This book will let you get to know poe from his own hand , so I recommend it highly
May 19, 2025
Incredibly interesting from a historical and literary standpoint but unfortunately Poe is an insufferable, two-timing grifter nonce who never accepts responsibility for any of the terrible things he does and is super manipulative in most of his letters. Personally I’m on team Griswold et al but we shall see if the biographies in this collection change my mind. This man was truly diabolical no wonder he wrote gothic lit
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews