POE, Edgar Allan (1809-1849). Autograph letter signed, in full ("Edgar Allan Poe") to James Russell Lowell, Philadelphia, 24 November 1842. 1 page, 4to, tipped at four corners to another sheet, recipient's docket on verso .
POE, Edgar Allan (1809-1849). Autograph letter signed, in full ("Edgar Allan Poe") to James Russell Lowell, Philadelphia, 24 November 1842. 1 page, 4to, tipped at four corners to another sheet, recipient's docket on verso . "THE TALE IN QUESTION IS ENTITLED THE 'TELL-TALE HEART'" A NEWLY DISCOVERED, UNPUBLISHED POE LETTER that fills in the publication history of this seminal work. "About ten days ago," Poe tells Lowell, the editor of The Pioneer , "I wrote to the "Editor of the 'Boston Miscellany', enclosing a brief tale of the class you especially mention, and requesting him, if the article were not accepted, to hand it to you...As my letter requested an immediate reply, and as I have received none, I am at a loss what to think. The tale in question is entitled the 'Tell-Tale Heart.'" Poe asks Lowell to communicate with the Boston Miscellany to see if they still wanted the piece. If not, "I should be glad to see it in your first number...In about a week I will forward something for your second number." This hitherto unknown letter fills in a missing piece of the story of how Lowell came to publish "The Tell-Tale Heart." Poe had originally submitted the work to Henry Tuckerman, editor of the Boston Miscellany and, as he notes here, heard nothing. On 16 November he had written Lowell, offering to submit pieces to The Pioneer , and expressing his admiration for Lowell as author of "Rosaline." Lowell's 19 November response returned the compliment, calling Poe "the only fearless American critic" and invited him to submit "good stories (imaginative ones)" for the forthcoming first issue of his journal The Pioneer . "If you are inspired to anything of the kind I should be glad to get it" ( Poe Log , 385, 387). This prompted Poe to send this response, telling him of the limbo into which Tuckerman had put the "Tell-Tale Heart." Tuckerman finally got around to rejecting it in a 12 December letter to Poe, asking the author to submit "more quiet articles" instead! "All I have to say," Poe later told Lowell, "is that if Mr. T. persists in his quietude , he will put a quietus to the Magazine of which Messrs. Bradbury & Soden have been so stupid as to give him control." Lowell got the manuscript back from Tuckerman and published it in the first number of The Pioneer . Poe submitted his poem "Lenore" for the second issue. "True! Nervous--very, very dreadfully nervous I had been, and am; but why will you say that I am mad! " From the first appearance of that opening line--one of the most arresting in American literature--Poe's story has been considered not only one of his best, but among the best short stories ever written; a model of concision and of tantalizing, terrifying ambiguity. Has the homicidal narrator in fact killed and dismembered the Old Man? Does he hear the beating of his victim's heart? Or is it all the fevered imaginings of his deranged mind? An unquiet story indeed! UNPUBLISHED. Poe letters are scarce; letters discussing his major works especially so.
POE, Edgar Allan (1809-1849). Autograph letter signed, in full ("Edgar Allan Poe") to James Russell Lowell, Philadelphia, 24 November 1842. 1 page, 4to, tipped at four corners to another sheet, recipient's docket on verso .
POE, Edgar Allan (1809-1849). Autograph letter signed, in full ("Edgar Allan Poe") to James Russell Lowell, Philadelphia, 24 November 1842. 1 page, 4to, tipped at four corners to another sheet, recipient's docket on verso . "THE TALE IN QUESTION IS ENTITLED THE 'TELL-TALE HEART'" A NEWLY DISCOVERED, UNPUBLISHED POE LETTER that fills in the publication history of this seminal work. "About ten days ago," Poe tells Lowell, the editor of The Pioneer , "I wrote to the "Editor of the 'Boston Miscellany', enclosing a brief tale of the class you especially mention, and requesting him, if the article were not accepted, to hand it to you...As my letter requested an immediate reply, and as I have received none, I am at a loss what to think. The tale in question is entitled the 'Tell-Tale Heart.'" Poe asks Lowell to communicate with the Boston Miscellany to see if they still wanted the piece. If not, "I should be glad to see it in your first number...In about a week I will forward something for your second number." This hitherto unknown letter fills in a missing piece of the story of how Lowell came to publish "The Tell-Tale Heart." Poe had originally submitted the work to Henry Tuckerman, editor of the Boston Miscellany and, as he notes here, heard nothing. On 16 November he had written Lowell, offering to submit pieces to The Pioneer , and expressing his admiration for Lowell as author of "Rosaline." Lowell's 19 November response returned the compliment, calling Poe "the only fearless American critic" and invited him to submit "good stories (imaginative ones)" for the forthcoming first issue of his journal The Pioneer . "If you are inspired to anything of the kind I should be glad to get it" ( Poe Log , 385, 387). This prompted Poe to send this response, telling him of the limbo into which Tuckerman had put the "Tell-Tale Heart." Tuckerman finally got around to rejecting it in a 12 December letter to Poe, asking the author to submit "more quiet articles" instead! "All I have to say," Poe later told Lowell, "is that if Mr. T. persists in his quietude , he will put a quietus to the Magazine of which Messrs. Bradbury & Soden have been so stupid as to give him control." Lowell got the manuscript back from Tuckerman and published it in the first number of The Pioneer . Poe submitted his poem "Lenore" for the second issue. "True! Nervous--very, very dreadfully nervous I had been, and am; but why will you say that I am mad! " From the first appearance of that opening line--one of the most arresting in American literature--Poe's story has been considered not only one of his best, but among the best short stories ever written; a model of concision and of tantalizing, terrifying ambiguity. Has the homicidal narrator in fact killed and dismembered the Old Man? Does he hear the beating of his victim's heart? Or is it all the fevered imaginings of his deranged mind? An unquiet story indeed! UNPUBLISHED. Poe letters are scarce; letters discussing his major works especially so.
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
Try LotSearch and its premium features for 7 days - without any costs!
Be notified automatically about new items in upcoming auctions.
Create an alert
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
