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is malignant. Something was said, we believe, in it's communication about the 'OLD KNICK'S dwindling away,' and 'all that sort of thing and so forth;' but having received on that day an accession of thirty-eight new names to our list of subscribers, with what complacency did we consign the paragraph to the 'receptacle of things lost upon earth!' (p. 380). The second article appeared in the issue for May 1843: 'SARGENT'S MAGAZINE.' -- We are glad to learn from this handsomely embellished and well-written periodical, that it is floating on the 'full tide of successful experiment.' that it is an entertaining and carefully-conducted work, in the hands of its editor, EPES SARGENT, Esq., our readers will not need to be informed. One or two paltry attacks have been made upon it, and the editor accused of being in his own person three or four of his best contributors, male and female. The 'rejected contributor' was too short-sighted to perceive that this was the highest compliment he could pay to the talents and industry of the gentleman whom he sought to assail. We wish the work abundant success (p. 499). In the "Annals" of his edition of Poe's Poems (1969), T. O. Mabbott states, "At some time in 1843, Poe visited New York City, where on March 11 he published pseudonymously in Park Benjamin's weekly, The New World, a bitter attack on 'The Magazines'." (p. 558). Mabbott's notes at the University of Iowa indicate that he intended to include the article in his collected edition of Poe's works as "obviously by Poe," with the additional note "It should be compared with the humorous tale, the 'Literary Life of Thingum Bob'."

As Campbell and Mabbott both recognized, the article does sound much like Poe, who was involved with all of the magazines listed in the first paragraph, except the Knickerbocker and Sargent's , although he did not contribute to the Democratic Review until 1844. He had been an editor at the Southern Literary Messenger and Graham's , continuing to provide material for both until his death in 1849. Each of the three issues of the short-lived Pioneer included something by Poe, and his story "The Mystery of Marie Roget" had just appeared, in three installments, in Snowden's for November 1842, December 1842 and February 1843. Poe included Epes Sargent in his controversial series "The Literati of New York City" (1846). In general, he is rather critical of Mr. Sargent, saying, "To those who meddle little with books, some of his satirical papers must appear brilliant. In a word, he is one of the most prominent members of a very extensive American family -- the men of industry, talent and tact," three characteristics Poe saw as the antithesis of genius. Of Rufus W. Griswold, who had replaced Poe at Graham's, Poe wrote to F. W. Thomas on September 12, 1842, "He [Graham] is not especially pleased with Griswold -- nor is any one else, with the exception of the Rev. gentleman himself, who has gotten himself into quite a hornet's nest, by his 'Poets & Poetry.' . . . He is a pretty fellow to set himself up as an honest judge, or even a capable one." The comment that there are a "few men of talents even among the Whigs" might seem odd given the fact that Poe himself seems to have been a Whig, but it could also be taken as an ironic bit of humor.

As for language, there are specific elements both for and against Poe. The phrase, "upon the whole," for example, is very typical for Poe. Poe uses the expression "milk and water" in at least three places. In a letter of March 3, 1836 to John C. McCabe, Poe describes the Baltimore Athenaeum as "that great bowl of Editorial skimmed milk and water." In the article on Longfellow's Poems, from the Aristidean, April 1845, which has been attributed to Poe, he comments unfavorably on a translation by Longfellow by stating, "The force of the original throughout is greatly impaired by the milk and water of the version." In a February 14, 1849 letter to F. W. Thomas, Poe refers to Lowell's "Fable for Critics" as "a dish of skimmed milk-and-water." The phrase "penny-a-liner" in both "The Angel of