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By Root 16550 0

yet no thought is so oppressive as the probability of a failure — particularly as you represent that all your prospects, pecuniary as well as literary, are involved. . . . . Your title page . . . . I deem an advisable one. It carries with it . . . . the idea of stability — it writes its own name upon the tablets of success. How admirably, too, the motto aureus aligirando &c expresses the blending of the pleasing and fanciful with the useful and practical. I was sure your title would be something original and it is (. . . .)

Edgar Allan Poe to Edward H. N Patterson — July 19, 1849

Richmond July 19 —

My Dear Sir,

I left New-York six weeks ago on my way to this place, but was arrested in Philadelphia by the Cholera, from which I barely escaped with life. I have just arrived in Richmond and your letter is only this moment received — or rather your two letters with the enclosures ($,o. etc.) I have not yet read them and write now merely to let you know that they are safe. In a few days — as soon as I gather a little strength — you shall hear from me in full.

Truly Yours ever,

Edgar A Poe.

E. H. N. Patterson Esq.

Edgar Allan Poe to Edward H. N. Patterson — August 7, 1849

Richmond, Aug. 7. 49.

My Dear Sir,

The date of your last letter was June 7 — so that two months have elapsed since you wrote it, and I am only just now sitting down to reply. The fault, Heaven knows, has not been mine. I have suffered worse than death — not so much from the Cholera as from its long-continued consequences in debility and congestion of the brain — the latter, possibly, attributable to the calomel taken.

I have at length, however, been able to give your propositions full consideration — and I confess that I hesitate. “To fail” would be ruinous — at least to me; and a $3 Magazine (however well it might succeed (temporarily) under the guidance of another) would inevitably fail under mine. I could not undertake it con amore. My heart would not be in the work. So far as regards all my friends and supporters — so far as concerns all that class to whom I should look for sympathy and nearly all of whom I proposed to see personally — the mere idea of a “$3 Magazine” would suggest namby-pambyism & frivolity. Moreover, even with a far more diminished circulation than you suggest, the profits of a $5 work would exceed those of a $3 one.

I most bitterly lament the event which has detained me from se Louis — for I cannot help thinking that, in a personal interview, I could have brought you over to my plans. I fear that now it is too late. But a Mag. might be issued in July very well — and if you think it possible that your views might be changed, I will still visit you at St L. As yet, I am too feeble to travel; but by the time your reply to this reaches me, I shall have gained sufficient strength to set out. It is not impossible, indeed, that, with energy, the first number might yet be issued in January. I will, therefore, await, in Richmond, your answer to this.

Very cordially yours,

Edgar A Poe.

Edward H. N. Patterson to Edgar Allan Poe — August 21, 1849

Oquawka, Ill., Aug. 21, 1849.

My Dear Sir, — yours of the 7th inst. was received last night, and I hasten to reply. I am truly glad to hear that you are recovering your health, and trust that it will soon be fully restored. You cannot enter into the joint publication of a $3 Mag. with “your heart in the work.” Well, what say you to this?

In publishing a $5 magazine, of 96 pp., monthly, page same size as Graham’s — in bourgeois or brevier (instead of long primer and brevier, as first proposed), it would be necessary for me to make an outlay of at least $1,100 (this amount including a supply of paper for three months for 2,000 copies). Now, if you are sure that, as you before thought, 1,000 subscribers can be obtained who will pay upon receipt of the first number, then you may consider me pledged to be with you in the undertaking.

If this proposition meets your approval, you may immediately commence your journey to St. Louis — making easy stages through the South and operating