The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe - Edgar Allan Poe [1383]
Hon. J. P. Kennedy.
John Pendleton Kennedy to Edgar Allan Poe — December 1, 1845
Dear Poe, — I was in Virginia when your letter came to Baltimore and did not return until very recently, which will account for my delay in acknowledging it. I take great pleasure in hearing of your success in your career, and am an attentive reader of what comes from your pen. You have acquired a very honorable reputation in letters, but nothing less than I predicted at the time of our first acquaintance. When in New York, a month ago, I called at your Broadway Journal establishment in the hope of meeting you, but was told you were just setting out for Providence, and as I received your card the same day I took it for granted you had left it only in the moment of your departure and I therefore made no further effort to see you. I trust you turn the Journal to a good account. It would have given me pleasure to assist you in this enterprise in the manner your letter suggested, but that I could not do. Good wishes are pretty nearly all the capital I have for such speculations. I hear of you very often, and although I perceive you have some enemies, it may gratify you to know that you have also a good array of friends. When it falls in your way to visit Baltimore both Mrs Kennedy and myself would be much pleased to receive you on our old terms of familiar acquaintance and regard.
Very truly
Yours
J. P. Kennedy.
Edgar A. Poe, Esqr.
Balt. Dec. 1, 1845.
LANGLEY, J. AND HENRY G.
Edgar Allan Poe to J. and Henry G. Langley — July 18, 1842
Gentlemen,
Enclosed I have the honor to send you an article which I should be pleased if you would accept for the “Democratic Review.” I am desperately pushed for money; and, in the event of Mr O’sullivan’s liking the “Landscape-Garden,” I would take it as an especial favor if you could mail me the amount due for it, so as to reach me here by the 21rst, on which day I shall need it. Can you possibly oblige me in this? If you accept the paper I presume you will allow me your usual sum, whatever that is for similar contributions — but I set no price — leaving all to your own liberality. The piece will make 8 of your pages and rather more. Will you be kind enough to put the best possible interpretation upon my behavior while in N-York? You must have conceived a queer idea of me — but the simple truth is that Wallace would insist upon the juleps, and I knew not what I was either doing or saying. The Review of Dawes which I offered you was deficient in a 1/2 page of commencement, which I had written to supersede the old beginning, and which gave the article the character of a general & retrospective review. No wonder you did not take it — I should have been very much mortified if you ha>>n< Yours very truly E A Poe Should the M.S. not be accepted, please return it as soon as possible, by mail, enveloped as now. LEA, ISAAC Edgar Allan Poe to Isaac Lea — about May 11-27, 1829 Dear Sir, I should have presumed upon the politeness of Mr R. Walsh for a personal introduction to yourself, but was prevented by his leaving town the morning after my arrival — You will be so kind as to consider this as a literaryintroduction until his return from N.Y. I send you, for your tenderest consideration, a poem — “Some sins do bear their privilege on earth.” You will oblige me by placing this among the number. It was my choice or chance or curse To adopt the cause for better or worse And with my worldly goods & wit And soul & body worship it — But not to detain you with my nonsense it were as well to speak of “the poem”. It’s [its‘] title is “Al Aaraaf” — from the Al Aaraaf of the Arabians, a medium between Heaven & Hell where men suffer no punishment, but yet do not attain that tranquil & even happiness which they suppose to be the characteristic of heavenly enjoyment[.] Un no rompido sueno Un dia puro, allegre, libre Quiera — Libre de amor, de zelo De odio, de esperanza, de rezelo —