to admit that you have greatly overpaid me. That I did not do 4 times as much as I did for the Magazine, was your own fault. At first I wrote long articles which you deemed inadmissable, & never did I suggest any to >>you<< which you had not some immediate and decided objection. Of course I grew discouraged & could feel no interest in the Journal. I am at a loss to know why you call me selfish. If you mean that I borrowed money of you — you know that you offered it — >>If<< and you know that I am poor. In what instance has anyone ever found me selfish? Was there selfishness in the affront I offered Benjamin (whom I respect, and who spoke well of me) because I deemed it a duty not to receive from any one commendation at your expense? I had no hesitation in making him my enemy (which he now must be) through a sense of my obligations as your coadjutor. >>No man can call me selfish & not he<< I have said that I could not tell why you were angry. Place yourself in my situation & see whether you would not have acted as I have done. You first “enforced”, as you say, a deduction of salary: giving me to understand thereby that you thought of parting company — You next spoke disrespectfully of me behind my back — this as an habitual thing — to chose whom you supposed your friends, and who punctually retailed me, as a matter of course, every ill-natured word which you uttered. Lastly you advertised your magazine for sale without saying a word to me about it. I felt no anger at what you did — none in the world. Had I not firmly believed it your design to give up your Journal, with a view of attending to the Theatre, I should >>never<< have dreamed of attempting one of my own. The opportunity of doing something for myself seemed a good one — (I was about to be thrown out of business) — and I embraced it. Now I ask you as a man of honor and as a man of sense — what is there wrong in all this? What have I done at which you have any right to take offense? I can give you no definitive answer (respecting the continuation [of] Rodman’s Journal,) until I hear from you again. The charge of 100 $ I shall not admit for an instant. If you persist in it our intercourse is at an end, and >>I shall refer you to an attorney, But I cannot bring myself to believe that you will.<< We can each adopt our own measures
In the meantime, I am
Yr Obt St.
Edgar A Poe
Wm E. Burton Esqr.
BUSH, PROFESSOR GEORGE
Edgar Allan Poe to George Bush — January 4, 1845
New-York
Jan. 4. 45.
To Professor Bush.
Dear Sir:
With this note I take the liberty of sending you a newspaper — “The Dollar Weekly” — in which there is an article, by myself, entitled “Mesmeric Revelation”. It has been copied into the paper from a Monthly Magazine — “The Columbian” — in which it originally appeared in July last.
I have ventured to send you the article because there are many points in it which bear upon the subject-matter of your late admirable work on the Future Condition of Man — and therefore I am induced to hope that you will do me the honor to look over what I have said.
You will, of course, understand that the article is purely a fiction; — but I have embodied in it some thoughts which are original with myself & I am exceedingly anxious to learn if they have claim to absolute originality, and also how far they will strike you as well based. If you would be so kind as to look over the paper and give me, in brief, your opinion, I will consider it a high favor.
Very Respy. Yr. Ob. St.
Edgar A. Poe.
Please reply thro’ the P. Office.
CALDWELL, WILLIAM W., JR.
William W. Caldwell, Jr to Edgar Allan Poe — October 20, 1845
Newbury Port October 20, 1845.
Dear Sir,
Enclosed are three dollars, entitling me to the honor of being, with your sovereign permission, a subscriber to your very excellent Journal! —
Part of the back numbers I have — will you send me No’s 1, 2, 4, 5, 9, 12, 15! of the present vol including them in my subscription! — The no’s that I have, I obtained of a paper-monger here who obtained them from Boston. But they come so irregularly that