The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe - Edgar Allan Poe [1518]
The text of the letter as published in the American Art Assocation catalog (Jan. 18, 1922) includes several sentences that were not reproduced by Ostrom, and do not appear even in the 2008 revised edition. They are given here from the original catalog, where the letter is described as:
REMARKABLE LETTER OF EDGAR A. POE, TESTIFYING TO THE EFFICACY OF BEER AS A MEDICINE FOR HIS SICK WIFE
229. POE (EDGAR ALLAN). Original Autograph Letter, Signed “Edgar A. Poe,” 2 1/2 quarto pages, and superscription. Dated Philadelphia, July 7, 1842. To Mrs. Elizabeth R. Tutt, Woodville, Rappahannock Co., Virginia. With 2 engraved portraits of Poe. (3). Last page torn in folds on blank portion.
A lengthy and exceedingly interesting letter from Poe to his cousin, Mrs. Tutt; written in his beautifully clear hand, and relating intimately to his personal affairs, his sick wife, their new home in Coates Street, Philadelphia, and their numerous friends. The letter is in a cheerful conversational vein, but between the lines can be read the dark despair which constantly hovered over the little household.
The letter date and signature have been added based on the description.
TYLER, ROBERT
Robert Tyler to Edgar Allan Poe — March 31, 1843
White House, March 31st, 1843.
My Dear Sir, — I have received your letter in which you express your belief that Judge Blythe would appoint you to a situation in the Custom House provided you have a reiteration of my former recommendation of you. It gives me pleasure to say to you that it would gratify me very sensibly, to see you appointed by Judge Blythe. I am satisfied that no one is more competent, or would be more satisfactory in the discharge of any duty connected with the office.
Believe me, my dear sir,
Truly yours
[Robert Tyler]
Edgar A. Poe Esq.
TYLER, W. B.
Edgar Allan Poe, "Secret Writing [Addendum III]," Graham's Magazine, December 1841, 19:306-308
[page 306, column 2:]
SECRET WRITING.
The annexed letter from a gentleman whose abilities we very highly respect, was received, unfortunately, at too late a period to appear in our November number:
DEAR SIR:
I should perhaps apologise for again intruding a subject upon which you have so ably commented, and which may be supposed by this time to have been almost exhausted; but as I have been greatly interested in the articles upon "Cryptography," which have appeared in your Magazine, I think that you will excuse the present intrusion of a few remarks. With secret writing I have been practically conversant for several years, and I have found, both in correspondence and in the preservation of private memoranda, the frequent benefit of its peculiar virtues. I have thus a record of thoughts, feelings and occurrences, — a history of my mental existence, to which I may turn, and in imagination, retrace former pleasures, and again live through bygone scenes, — secure in the conviction that the magic scroll has a tale for my eye alone. Who has not longed for such a confidante?
Cryptography is, indeed, not only a topic of mere curiosity, but is of general interest, as furnished an excellent exercise for mental discipline, and of high practical importance on various occasions; — to the statesman and the general — to the scholar and the traveller, — and, may I not add "last though not least," to the lover? What can be so delightful amid the trials of absent lovers, as a secret intercourse between them of their hopes and fears, — safe from the prying eyes of some old aunt, or it may be, of a perverse and cruel guardian? — a billet doux that will not betray its mission, even if intercepted, and that can "tell no tales" if lost, or, (which sometimes occurs,) if stolen from its violated depository.
In the solution of the various ciphers which have been submitted to your examination, you have exhibited a power of analytical and synthetical reasoning I have never seen equalled; and the astonishing skill you have displayed — particularly in deciphering the cryptograph of Dr. Charles J. Frailey, will, I