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Faithfully Yours ever,

Edgar A. Poe.

Fordham — October — 1848.

To Mrs Jane Ermina Locke

LONGFELLOW, HENRY WADSWORTH

Edgar Allan Poe to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow — May 3, 1841

Dear Sir,

Mr Geo: R. Graham, proprietor of “Graham’s Magazine”, a monthly journal publishes in this city, and edited by myself, desires me to beg of you the honor of your contribution to its pages. Upon the principle that we seldom obtain what we very anxiously covet, I confess that I have but little hope of inducing you to write for us; — and, to say truth, I fear that Mr Graham would have opened the negotiation much better in his own person — for I have no reason to think myself favorably known to you — but the attempt was to be made, and I make it.

I should be overjoyed if we could get from you an article each month — either poetry or prose — length and subject a discretion. In respect to terms we would gladly offer you carte blanche — and the periods of payment should also be made to suit yourself.

Should you be willing to write for the Magazine, it would be an important object with us to have something, as soon as convenient, for the July number, which commences a new volume, and with part of which we are already going to press. With this letter I forward to your address, by mail, the April and May numbers of the journal — that you may form some judgment of the character of the work. It is our design, however, greatly to improve its mechanical appearance; and, in the new volume, we shall have an array of contributors not altogether unworthy an association with yourself.

In conclusion — I cannot refrain from availing myself of this, the only opportunity I may ever have, to assure the author of the “Hymn to the Night”, of the “Beleaguered City” and of the “Skeleton in Armor”, of the fervent admiration with which his genius has inspired me: — and yet I would scarcely hazard a declaration whose import might be so easily misconstrued, and which bears with it, at best, more or less, of niaiserie, were I not convinced that Professor Longfellow, writing and thinking as he does, will be at no loss to feel and to appreciate the honest sincerity of what I say.

With highest respect.

Yr Ob. St

Edgar A. Poe.

Prof. H. W. Longfellow

Philadelphia,

May 3d / 41

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow to Edgar Allan Poe — May 19, 1841

Cambridge May 19, 1841

Dear Sir,

Your favor of the 3rd inst. with the two Nos. of the Magazine reached me only a day or two ago, which will account (. . . .) a more speedy answer was not returned.

I am much obliged to you for your kind expressions of regard, and to Mr. Graham for his very generous offer, of which I should gladly avail myself under other circumstances. But I am so much occupied at present that I could not do it with any satisfaction either to you or to myself. I must therefore respectfully decline his proposition.

You are mistaken in supposing that you are not “favorably known to me.” On the contrary, all that I have read, from your pen, has inspired me with a high idea of your power; and you are destined to stand among the first romance-writers of the country, if such be your aim.

Very truly yours

Edgar Allan Poe to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow — June 22, 1841

Philadelphia — June 22 1841.

Dear Sir,

Your letter of the 19th May was received. I regret to find my anticipations confirmed, and that you cannot make it convenient to accept Mr Graham’s proposition. Will you now pardon me for making another?

I need not call your attention to the signs of the times in respect to Magazine literature. You will admit that the tendency of the age lies in this way — so far at least as regards the lighter lepers. The brief, the terse, the condensed, and the easily circulated will take place of the diffuse, the ponderous, and the inaccessible. Even our Reviews (lucus a non lucendo) are found too massive for the taste of the day: — I do not mean for the taste of the tasteless, but for that of the few.