The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe - Edgar Allan Poe [1437]
Adopt your own title. I leave this matter to you as belonging peculiarly to your department. (Remember, however, published simultaneously at New York and St. Louis.) The first number can be issued in July — it is now too late to do it in January, and it would not be advisable to commence at any time other than the beginning or the middle of the year. I will try to be in St. Louis on the 15 of October, if your answer to this be favorable; until which time I bid you God-speed, and beg leave to sign myself,
Most truly yours,
Ed. H. N. Patterson.
P. S. — I send this via St. Louis and Vincennes, and will make a duplicate via Chicago to-morrow.
Yours,
E. H. N. P.
Edgar A. Poe, Esq.
PAULDING, JAMES KIRKE
James Kirke Paulding to Edgar Allan Poe — March 17, 1836
New York, 17th March, 1836.
Dear Sir, — In compliance with your wishes, it would have afforded me much pleasure to propose the publication of your book to some one respectable Bookseller of this city. But the truth is, there is only one other, who publishes anything but School Books, religious works and the like, and with him, I am not on terms that would make it agreeable to me, to make any proposition of this nature, either in my own behalf or that of another. I have therefore placed your work in the hands of Messrs. Harpers to forward with a Box of Books they are sending to Richmond in a few days, and I hope it will come safely to hand.
I think it would be worth your while, if other engagements permit, to undertake a Tale in a couple of volumes, for that is the magical number. There is a great dearth of good writers at present both in England and this country, while the number of readers and purchasers of Books, is daily increasing, so that the demand is greater than the supply, in mercantile phrase. Not one work in ten now published in England, will bear republication here. You would be surprised at their excessive mediocrity. I am of opinion that a work of yours, would at least bring you a handsome remuneration, though it might not repay your labours, or meet its merits. Should you write such a work, your best way will be to forward the MS directly to the Harpers, who will be I presume governed by the judgment of their Reader, also from long experience can tell almost to a certainty what will succeed. I am destitute of this valuable instinct, and my opinion counts for nothing with publishers. In other respects you may command my good offices.
I am Dr Sir,
Your friend & Servt,
J. K. Paulding.
Mr. Edgar A. Poe,
Richmond.
James Kirke Paulding to Edgar Allan Poe — after June 7, 1836
(. . . .) I should not hesitate in placing the “Messenger” decidedly at the head of our periodicals, nor do I hesitate in expressing that opinion freely on all occasions. It is gradually growing in the public estimation, and under your conduct, and with your contributions, must soon, if it is not already, be known all over the land. (. . . .) You have given sufficient evidence on various occasions, not only of critical knowledge but of high independence; your praise is therefore of value, and your censure not to be slighted. Allow me to say that I think your article on Drake and Halleck one of the finest pieces of criticism ever published in this country (. . . .)
Edgar Allan Poe to James Kirk Paulding - July 19, 1838.]
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pardon me for urging this truth upon your attention, in the present instance, as a slight palliation of my errors.
But in one portion of your note you did me wrong, and here I felt that you had indeed mistaken my nature. Intemperance, with me, has never amounted to a habit; and had it been ten times a habit it would have required