The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe - Edgar Allan Poe [1344]
(Confidential).
New York, Jan. 14, 1845.
Although I have some cause of personal quarrel with you, which you will easily enough remember, I do not under any circumstances permit, as you have repeatedly charged, my private griefs to influence my judgment as a critic, or its expression.
I retain, therefore, the early formed and well founded favorable opinions of your works, wh. in other days I have expressed to you, and in a new volume wh. I have in preparation, I shall endeavor to do you very perfect justice.
Hence this note. Carey & Hart are publishing for me “The Prose Authors of America, and their Works,” and I wish, of course, to include you in the lit, — not a very large one — from whom I make selections. And I shall feel myself yr debtor if there being any writings of yours with wh. I may be unacquainted, you will advise of their titles, and where they may be purchased; and if, in the brief biography of you in my Poets &c. of America, there are any inaccuracies, you will point them out to me. If the trouble were not too great, indeed, I should like to receive a list of all your works, with the dates of their production.
Yours &c.
R. W. Griswold.
Edgar A. Poe, Esq.
Edgar Allan Poe to Rufus Wilmot Griswold — January 16, 1845
{Confidential}
New-York: Jan. 16. 45.
Dear Griswold — if you will permit me to call you so — Your letter occasioned me first pain and then pleasure: — pain because it gave me to see that I had lost, through my own folly, an honorable friend: — pleasure, because I saw in it a hope of reconciliation.
I have been aware, for several weeks, that my reasons for speaking of your book as I did (of yourself I have always spoken kindly) were based in the malignant slanders of a mischief-maker by profession. Still, as I supposed you irreparably offended, I could make no advances when we met at the Tribune Office, although I longed to do so. I know of nothing which would give me more sincere pleasure than your accepting these apologies, and meeting me as a friend.
If you can do this ant forget the past, let me know where I shall call on you — or come and see me at the Mirror Office, any morning about 10. We can then talk over the other matters, which, to me at least, are far less important than your good will.
Very truly yours
Edgar A Poe.
R. W. Griswold.
Edgar Allan Poe to Rufus Wilmot Griswold — February 24, 1845
New-York, Feb. 24, 1845
My Dear Griswold,
Soon after seeing you I sent you, through Zeiber, all my poems worth re-publishing, & I presume they reached you. With this I send you another package, also through Zeiber, by Burgess & Stringer. It contains in the way of Essay “Mesmeric Revelation” which I would like to go in, even if something else is omitted. I send also a portion of the “Marginalia”, in which I have marked some of the most pointed passages. In the matter of criticism I cannot put my hand upon anything that suits me — but I believe that in “funny” criticism (if you wish any such) Flaccus will convey a tolerable idea of my style, and of my serious manner Barnaby Rudge is a good specimen. In “Graham”so you will find these. In the tale line I send you “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” and “The Man that was used up” — far more than enough, you will say — but you can select to suit yourself. I would prefer having in the “Gold Bug” to the “Murders in the R. M”, but have not a copy just now. If there is no immediate hurry for it, however, I will get one & send it you corrected. Please write & let me know if you get this. — I have taken a 3d interest in the “Broadway Journal” & will be glad if you could send me anything, at any time, in the way of “Literary Intelligence”.
Truly yours,
Poe.
Edgar Allan Poe to Rufus Wilmot Griswold — April 19, 1845
Apr. 19
Dear Griswold,
I return the proof, with many thanks for your attentions. The poems look quite as well in the short metre as in the long, and I am quite content as it is. You will perceive, however, that some of the lines have been divided at the wrong place. I have marked them right in