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By Root 2889 0

a great noise. 9—The “necessities” were pecuniary ones. I referred to a sneer at my poverty on the part of the Mirror. 10—You say—“Can you hint to me what was the terrible evil” which caused the irregularities so profoundly lamented?” Yes; I can do more than hint. This “evil” was the greatest which can befall a man. Six years ago, a wife, whom I loved as no man ever loved before, ruptured a blood-vessel in singing. Her life was despaired of. I took leave of her forever & underwent all the agonies of her death. She recovered partially and I again hoped. At the end of a year the vessel broke again—I went through precisely the same scene. Again in about a year afterward. Then again—again—again & even once again at varying intervals. Each time I felt all the agonies of her death—and at each accession of the disorder I loved her more dearly & clung to her life with more desperate pertinacity. But I am constitutionally sensitive—nervous in a very unusual degree. I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity. During these fits of absolute unconsciousness I drank, God only knows how often or how much. As a matter of course, my enemies referred the insanity to the drink rather than the drink to the insanity. I had indeed, nearly abandoned all hope of a permanent cure when I found one in the death of my wife. This I can & do endure as becomes a man—it was the horrible never-ending oscillation between hope & despair which I could not longer have endured without the total loss of reason. In the death of what was my life, then, I receive a new but—oh God! how melancholy an existence.

And now, having replied to all your queries let me refer to The Stylus. I am resolved to be my own publisher. To be controlled is to be ruined. My ambition is great. If I succeed, I put myself (within 2 years) in possession of a fortune & infinitely more. My plan is to go through the South & West & endeavor to interest my friends so as to commence with a list of at least 500 subscribers. With this list I can take the matter into my own hands. There are some few of my friends who have sufficient confidence in me to advance their subscriptions—but at all events succeed I will. Can you or will you help me? I have room to say no more.

Truly Yours—

E A POE.

[Please re-enclose the printed slips when you have done with them. Have you seen the article on “The American Library” in the November No. of Blackwood, and if so, what do you think of it? E. A. Poe.]

This lengthy reply to a young admirer touches on a range of fascinating topics. Poe’s enumeration of points includes two items numbered “5.” Significantly he alludes to plans for The Stylus and to his ongoing irritation with English, “the Autocrat of the Asses,” who continued to satirize Poe in the pages of a weekly newspaper called the John-Donkey. He also clarifies the process by which “The Gold-Bug” was withdrawn from Graham’s for entry in the Dollar Newspaper contest. Most significantly, Poe explains his drinking of the mid-1840s as a reaction to Virginia’s illness, here described (in terms reminiscent of “Ligeia”) as a “horrible never-ending oscillation between hope & despair.”

EDGAR ALLAN POE TO GEORGE W. EVELETH

New-York—Feb. 29—48.

My Dear Sir,

I mean to start for Richmond on the 10th March. Every thing has gone as I wished it, and my final success is certain, or I abandon all claims to the title of Vates. The only contretemps of any moment, lately, has been Willis’s somewhat premature announcement of my project:—but this will only force me into action a little sooner than I had proposed. Let me now answer the points of your last letter.

Colton acted pretty much as all mere men of the world act. I think very little the worse of him for his endeavor to succeed with you at my expense. I always liked him and I believe he liked me. His intellect was o. His “I understand the matter perfectly,” amuses me. Certainly, then, it was the only matter he did understand. “The Rationale of Verse” will appear in “Graham” after all:—I will stop in Phil: to see the proofs. As for Godey,