residing in Philadelphia, speaks in high terms of Poe's probity and honour, as indeed does every one, save Griswold, who had dealings with him. It is much to be regretted that circumstances have prevented Mr. Clarke giving to the world his reminiscences and collected facts relating to Edgar Poe.

In the spring of 1843 the one hundred dollar prize, offered by The Dollar Magazine, was obtained by Poe for his tale of "The Gold-Bug," a tale illustrative of and originating with his theory of ciphers. As usual, Griswold, in mentioning it, cannot refrain from displaying the cloven hoof, and, knowing it to be the most popular of Poe's stories in America, refers to it "as one of the most remarkable illustrations of his ingenuity of construction and apparent subtlety of reasoning." During this year Poe wrote for Lowell's Pioneer, and other publications. In 1844 he removed to New York, whither his daily increasing fame had already preceded him, and where he entered into a more congenial literary atmosphere than that in which he had recently resided. In the cities in which he had hitherto exercised his talents he was continually treading upon the mental corns of provincial cliques, but in New York, as he now entered it, he found a nearer approach to metropolitanism, and therefore a fairer field for the recognition of his powers. "For the first time," remarks Griswold, completely ignoring the talent of all other American cities, "for the first time he was received into circles capable of both the appreciation and the production of literature." It has generally been assumed that the first publication he wrote for in New York was the Daily Mirror, but the author of a sketch of Willis and his contemporaries, contributed to the Northern Monthly in 1868, referring to Pee as "one who has been more shamefully maligned and slandered than any other writer that can be named," states, "I say this from personal knowledge of Mr. Poe, who was associated with myself in the editorial conduct of my own

paper before his introduction into the office of Messrs. Willis and Morris;" adding, "for Mr. Willis's manly vindication of the unfortunate I honour him." And, again, referring to Willis's vindication of Poe from his biographer's degrading accusations, he says, "Mr. Willis's testimony is freely confirmed by other publishers. On this subject I have some singular revelations which throw a strong light on the causes that darkened the life, and made most unhappy the death, of one of the most remarkable of all our literary men -as an English reviewer once said, 'the most brilliant genius of his country.""

Towards the autumn of the year Poe sought and found employment as sub-editor and critic on the Mirror, a daily paper belonging to N. P. Willis and General George Morris. In a letter written by Willis from Idlewild, in October 1859, to his brother poet and former copartner Morris, he thus alludes to Poe's engagement with him :-"Poe came to us quite incidentally, neither of us having been personally acquainted with him till that time; and his position towards us, and connection with us, of course unaffected by claims of previous friendship, were a fair average of his general intercourse and impressions. As he was a man who never smiled, and never said a propitiatory or deprecating word, we were not likely to have been seized with any sudden partiality or wayward caprice in his favour. . . It was rather a step downward, after being the chief editor of several monthlies, as Poe had been, to come into the office of a daily journal as a mechanical paragraphist. It was his business to sit a desk, in a corner of the editorial room, ready to be called upon for any of the miscellaneous work of the day; yet you remember how absolutely and how good-humouredly ready he was for any suggestion; how punctually and industriously reliable in the following out of the wish once expressed; how cheerful and present-minded his work when he might excusably have been so listless and abstracted. WE LOVED THE MAN for the entireness of the

fidelity with which he served us. When he left us, we were very reluctant to part with him; but we could not object -he was to take the lead in another periodical.”

During the six months or so that Poe was engaged on the Mirror-the whole of which time Willis asserts "he was invariably punctual and industrious," and was daily "at his desk in the office from nine in the morning till the evening paper went to press "-during this time some of the most remarkable productions of his genius, including his poetic chef-d'œuvre of "The Raven," were given to the world. This unique and most original of poems first appeared in Colton's American Review for February 1845 as by "Quarles." It was at once reprinted in the Evening Mirror, and in a few weeks had spread over the whole of the United States, calling into existence parodies and imitations innumerable. Mrs. Whitman informs us that, when "The Raven" appeared, Poe one evening electrified the gay company assembled at a weekly reunion of noted artists and men of letters, held at the residence of an accomplished poetess in Waverley Place, by the recitation, at the request of his hostess, of this wonderful poem. After this, it was of course impossible to keep the authorship secret. Willis reprinted the poem with the author's name attached, remarking that, in his opinion, it was "the most effective single example of fugitive poetry ever published in this country, and is unsurpassed in English poetry for subtle conception, masterly ingenuity of versification, and consistent sustaining of imaginative lift." It carried its author's name and fame from shore to shore; drew admiring testimony from some of the first of English poets, and finally made him the lion of the season. And for this masterpiece of genius-this poem which has probably done more for the renown of American letters than any other single work-it is alleged that Poe, then at the height of his renown, received the sum of ten dollars, that is, about two pounds!

In the February number of Graham's Magazine for this

same year appeared a biographical and critical sketch of Edgar Poe by James Russell Lowell. In many respects we deem it the best critique on his genius that we have yet seen, and although the estimate formed of Poe's poetic precocity may not be perfectly just, it is difficult to find. fault with the admirable analysation of his prose writings. It is somewhat singular, however, that in the collection of Poe's works edited by Griswold, Mr. Lowell should permit the continual reprinting of this critique "with a few alterations and omissions," when those very omissions serve to give color to one of Griswold's vilest charges, that of the alleged theft of Captain Brown's Conchology book. In the beginning of this year the Broadway Journal was started, and in March Poe was associated with two journalists in its management. He had written for it from the first, but had nothing to do with the editorial arrangement until the tenth number. One of the most noticeable of his contributions was a critique on the poems of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, to whom he shortly afterwards dedicated, in most admiring terms, a selection of his poems, published by Messrs. Wiley and Putnam, under the title of "the Raven and other Poems." About the same time the same firm published a selection from his prose compositions as "Tales," and another firm reprinted his "Tales of the Grotesque and Picturesque," so that his name was kept well before the public. Several of the stories were now published in an English collection, as was also "The Raven." Mrs. Browning, in a private letter written a few weeks after the publication of the poem, says: "This vivid writing-this power which is felt-has produced a sensation here in Eng land. Some of my friends are taken by the fear of it, and some by the music. I hear of persons who are haunted by the Nevermore,' and an acquaintance of mine who has the misfortune of possessing a bust of Pallas cannot bear to look at it in the twilight." And then, alluding to Poe's story of "Mesmeric Revelations," which some English

journals accepted as a faithful record of facts, the poetess. resumes :-" Then there is a tale going the rounds of the newspapers about mesmerism, which is throwing us all into 'most admired disorder'—dreadful doubts as to whether it can be true, as the children say of ghost stories. The certain thing about it is the power of the writer."

By this time Edgar Poe had become personally known to and admired by a large number of the literati of New York "whose interest in his writings," remarks Mrs. Whitman, "was manifestly enhanced by the perplexing anomalies of his character, and by the singular magnetism of his presence." One who knew him at this period of his life, says "Everything about him distinguished him as a man of mark; his countenance, person, and gait, were alike characteristic. His features were regular, and decidedly handsome. His complexion was clear and dark; the colour of his fine eyes seemingly a dark grey, but on closer inspection they were seen to be of that neutral violet tint which is so difficult to define. His forehead was, without exception, the finest in proportion and expression that we have ever seen."

Edgar Poe left the Mirror to take charge of the Broadway Journal, the sole management of which, however, did not devolve upon him until July, whilst it was not until the following October that he became proprietor as well as editor of this publication. His confederates do not appear to have invested much money or talent in the undertaking, and when they retired and left the poet in entire possession of the publication he would not seem to have added much to his worldly goods by the acquisition.

In March he gave a lecture on the American poets in the library of the New York Historical Society, and at it attracted much attention, not only by the originality and courage of his remarks, but by the fascination of his presence, by his eloquence, and personal beauty. The furore which his lecture created caused him to be asked to Boston, and