The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe - Edgar Allan Poe [1735]
Yours truly, POE.
I soon visited him at Fordham, and passed two or three hours with him. The only letter he afterward sent me — at least the only one now in my possession — follows:
Dear Griswold: — I inclose perfect copies of the lines “For Annie” and “Annabel Lee,” in hopes that you may make room for them in your new edition. As regards “Lenore,” (which you were kind enough to say you would insert,) I would prefer the concluding stanza to run as here written . . . . It is a point of no great importance, but in one of your editions you have given my sister’s age instead of mine. I was born in Dec. 1813; my sister, Jan. 1811. [The date of his birth to which he refers was printed from his statement in the memoranda referred to in the first letters here printed. — R.W.G] Willis, whose good opinion I value highly, and of whose good word I have a right to be proud, has done me the honor to speak very pointedly in praise of “The [page vii:] Raven.” I inclose what he said, and if you could contrive to introduce it, you would render me an essential favor, and greatly further my literary interests, at a point where I am most anxious they should be advanced.
Truly yours, E.A. POE.
P.S. — Considering my indebtedness to you, can you not sell to Graham or to Godey (with whom, you know, I cannot with the least self-respect again have anything to do directly) — can you not sell to one of these men, “Annabel Lee,” say for $50, and credit me that sum? Either of them could print it before you will need it for your book. Mem. The Eveleth you ask about is a Yankee impertinent, who, knowing my extreme poverty, has for years pestered me with unpaid letters; but I believe almost every literary man of any note has suffered in the same way. I am surprised that you have escaped.
POE.
These are all the letters (unless I have given away some notes of his to autograph collectors) ever received by me from Mr. Poe. They are a sufficient answer to the article by John Neal, and to that under the signature of “George R. Graham,” which have induced their publication. I did not undertake to dispose of the poem “Annabel Lee,” but upon the death of the author quoted it in the notice of him in “The Tribune,” and I was sorry to learn soon after that it had been purchased and paid for by the proprietors of both “Sartain’s Magazine,” and “The Southern Literary Messenger.”
R.W.G.
NEW-YORK, September 2, 1850.
DEATH OF EDGAR A. POE. by N. P. Willis
THE ancient fable of two antagonistic spirits imprisoned in one body, equally powerful and having the complete mastery by turns — of one man, that is to say, inhabited by both a devil and an angel — seems to have been realized, if all we hear is true, in the character of the extraordinary man whose name we have written above. Our own impression of the nature of Edgar A. Poe differs in some important degree, however, from that which has been generally conveyed in the notices of his death. Let us, before telling what we personally know of him, copy a graphic and highly finished portraiture, from the pen of Dr. Rufus W. Griswold, which appeared in a recent number of the Tribune: —
“EDGAR ALLAN POE is dead. He died in Baltimore on Sunday, October 7th. This announcement will startle many, but few will be grieved by it. The poet was well known, personally or by reputation, in all this country;