Poe, Edgar Allan

Autograph letter signed ("Edgar A Poe"), 1 page (9  5/8  x 7  1/2  in.; 245 x 192 mm) on a bifolium of blue-ruled wove paper, New York, 18 September 1848, to John R. Thompson, editor of The Southern Literary Messenger,  autograph address panel on verso of second leaf, with New York postmark and autograph endorsement "Paid / EAP"; glued to a larger sheet along the right margin of the second leaf.  Glued to the same leaf in a similar manner is an autograph letter signed by Rosalie Poe ("Miss Rosalie M. Poe / Sister of Edgar A. Poe").

The Poe Log p. 752–53; Silverman, Edgar A Poe pp. 352, 395, 398–99

Autograph letter signed ("Edgar A Poe"), 1 page (9 5/8 x 7 1/2 in.; 245 x 192 mm) on a bifolium of blue-ruled wove paper, New York, 18 September 1848, to John R. Thompson, editor of The Southern Literary Messenger, autograph address panel on verso of second leaf, with New York postmark and autograph endorsement "Paid / EAP"; glued to a larger sheet along the right margin of the second leaf. Glued to the same leaf in a similar manner is an autograph letter signed by Rosalie Poe ("Miss Rosalie M. Poe / Sister of Edgar A. Poe").
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Edgar Allan Poe to his editor at the Southern Literary Messenger.  In this letter written from New York, Poe begins by asking that six copies of the issue of the Messenger containing his review of Sarah Anna Robinson Lewis's Child of the Sea and Other Poems be sent to him.  As Kenneth Silverman has remarked, Poe's review of Mrs. Lewis's poetry signals "the deterioration of [his] literary morals."  Mrs. Lewis and her husband extended lavish hospitality to Poe numerous times at their large and comfortable Brooklyn home.  In turn, Poe extensively revised some of her poems and praised her work unstintingly in several journals.  The price Poe paid for this favor was to find Mrs. Lewis, described by a contemporary as "a fat gaudily dressed woman," often waiting for him when he returned to his cottage at Fordham.

In the second and final paragraph of the letter, Poe discusses his essay, "The Rationale of Verse," to be published in the October 1848 issue of the Messenger.  "I presume that there will be no need of my seeing a proof of "The Rationale of Verse" — I am quite willing to trust to your accuracy.  If, upon reading the article more carefully, you find in it anything you disapprove, I will give you other papers in place of it, or refund you the money.  I mention this because I am aware that you accepted the essay, without having thoroughly perused it, merely through kind feeling to myself personally — for all which I hold myself your debtor."  John R. Thompson later readily admitted that he bought the essay "more as an act of charity than anything else" and described it as "altogether too bizarre and too technical for the genral reader" (quoted in Silverman).

The letter is accompanied by an ALS from Poe's sister Rosalie to R. H. Goddard, Thompson's literary executor, begging him to send her one of Poe's letters from the estate, Hicks Wharf, Va., 9 May [?].  "Will you be so kind as to let me have one as I am in very bad circumstances, and would like to use them for my benefit."