Philadelphia August 8th 1839
My Dear Sir,
I have just received your favor of the 6th, and thank you sincerely for the friendly interest you manifest in my behalf. At some future time I hope to have the pleasure of making your acquaintance. In the Sun of the 6th I saw the paragraph to which you allude1 – the other attacks have not met my notice. I would be much obliged to you if you could make it convenient to procure me the paper or papers, and forward them to me by mail – or, if this cannot be done, would it be too much to ask you to transcribe the passages referred to, and send them in a letter?
I presume it is the “Athenaeum” which has honoured me with its ill-nature. I notice nothing in the Republican, Chronicle, American, or Patriot.
It is always desirable to know who are our enemies, and what are the nature of their attacks.
I intend to put up with nothing that I can put down (excuse the pun) and I am not aware that there is any one in Baltimore whom I have particular reason to fear in a regular set-to.
I would take it as a great favor if you would let me know who edits the “Sun” – also who are the editors of the other papers attacking me – and should be thankful for any other similar information.
You speak of “enemies” – could you give me their names? All the literary people in Baltimore, as far as I know them, have at least professed a friendship.
Very truly Yr Ob. St
E A Poe
(on the reverse side)
I presume the “Sun” has expressed the opinion that the August No: of the Mag: is not well edited, because it has been more than usually praised in this respect. No number ever issued from this office has recd. l/4 of the approbation which this has elicited. We are run down with puffs especially from the North – the South has not yet been so entirely heard from. Here lies the true secret of the spleen of the little fish.
1 From Out That Shadow: The Life and Legacy of Edgar Allan Poe, A Bicentennial Exhibition at the Small Special Collections Library at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, and the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin; From May 1839 to May 1840 Poe was assistant editor for Burton’s Gentleman’s Magazine , owned by the actor William Evans “Billy” Burton. Poe published two of his best-known stories, “The Fall of the House of Usher” and “ William Wilson” in Burton’s . John Beauchamp Jones was a Baltimore journalist and Burton’s contributor who had written to Poe to inform him of some sharp criticism of Burton’s in the Baltimore Sun . The Sun implied that Burton’s suffered because of Billy Burton’s theatrical engagements in New York, claiming that as a result, “although this number contains many excellent articles, there is a palpable want of tact in the manner in which it has been gotten up.”