Beschreibung:

POE, EDGAR ALLAN. Autograph letter signed ("Edgar Allan Poe") TO N.P. WILLIS, New York, 21 May [1844]. 1 page, 8vo, in dark brown ink, integral leaf with panel addressed by Poe (seal tear in blank area), slightly wrinkled . "I HAVE VENTURED TO SEND YOU A TALE AND AN ESSAY" Poe, in miserable condition shortly after moving to New York, submits contributions to Nathaniel Parker Willis, editor of the New Mirror and one of the best-known literary figures of the period: "Seeing that you, now and then, published Original Papers in the 'New Mirror,' I have ventured to send you a Tale ['The Oblong Box'] and an Essay for consideration. If you could afford me anything for them, or for either of them, I would feel highly honored by their appearance in your paper. I have long been exceedingly anxious to make the acquaintance of the author of 'Melanie,' and, more especially, of a little poem entitled 'Unseen Spirits,' and would have called upon you personally [in New York], but that I am in ill health and wretchedly depressed in spirits. Bye and bye I will try and find you at the office of the 'Mirror.' Will you please reply, at your leisure, through the P. Office? Should you not be able to accept the articles, I would be obliged if you would retain them until I see you..." At some point the following week Willis either saw or wrote to Poe, praising "The Oblong Box" but explaining that the Mirror could not pay for original contributions. In early fall 1844, Poe, badly in need of money, began working for the newspaper at a salary of $15 per week. "Whatever [Poe] ultimately thought of Willis's writing, however, he respected his decency: 'A more estimable man, in his private relations, never existed.' Willis in turn genuinely liked Poe...He, Willis said, speaking for himself and his partner [George Pope] Morris, 'was one of our boys.' We both loved him" (Kenneth Silverman, Edgar A. Poe Mournful and Never-ending Remembrance (New York, 1992), pp. 224-225 (also quoting from the above Poe letter). With some five letters (or photocopies) regarding the authenticity and provenance of this Poe letter from Warren R. Howell, Mary R. Benjamin, Charles Hamilton and John Ostrom. Mistakenly omitted from Letters , ed. J. Ostrom; printed in full in D. Thomas and D.K. Jackson, The Poe Log (Boston, 1987), p. 462.