Poe’s appeal to James Kirke Paulding — 1887 printed excerpt
Read the 1887 Current printing of an excerpt from Edgar Allan Poe’s July 19, 1838 appeal to James Kirke Paulding for a clerkship. Local page scan, reading PDF and searchable text; complete letter still sought.
Historical magazine printing of the closing portion of Poe’s July 19, 1838 appeal for a clerkship. The complete scan of page 217 of The Current, volume 7, is preserved locally; the reading transcribes only the Poe item in the left column. Adjacent notices and advertisements are visible in the scan but are not transcribed. This printed excerpt is not the complete surviving manuscript, an addressed copy, or a diplomatic transcription of Poe’s handwriting. Its wording, including “least important clerkship,” is retained as printed. Line breaks and words divided across lines are normalized. The February 12, 1887 issue date is supplied by the scholarly correspondence checklist; that date is not visible on page 217. The record belongs to the general Poe archive, outside the verified correspondence map. Research lead RCL-176d remains incomplete.
Original publication
Poe’s appeal to James Kirke Paulding — 1887 printed excerpt
Date
1887-02-12
Credits
Edgar Allan Poe (quoted letter); The Current (historical editorial introduction)
Publisher
The Current Publishing Company
Published in
Chicago, Illinois
Where to find it
217
Reference collection
University of Michigan; digitized by Google Books
Collection reference
Google Books hGNLAAAAMAAJ; related correspondence checklist RCL-176d
Page number, printed date of the quoted letter, excerpt and signature visually checked. Historical printing distinguished from manuscript. Checklist key, title/date, hashes and published-text overlap checked.
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Transcription / extraction
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Historical magazine printing of the closing portion of Poe’s July 19, 1838 appeal for a clerkship. The complete scan of page 217 of The Current, volume 7, is preserved locally; the reading transcribes only the Poe item in the left column. Adjacent notices and advertisements are visible in the scan but are not transcribed. This printed excerpt is not the complete surviving manuscript, an addressed copy, or a diplomatic transcription of Poe’s handwriting. Its wording, including “least important clerkship,” is retained as printed. Line breaks and words divided across lines are normalized. The February 12, 1887 issue date is supplied by the scholarly correspondence checklist; that date is not visible on page 217. The record belongs to the general Poe archive, outside the verified correspondence map. Research lead RCL-176d remains incomplete.
Historical magazine printing of the closing portion of Poe’s July 19, 1838 appeal for a clerkship. The complete scan of page 217 of The Current, volume 7, is preserved locally; the reading transcribes only the Poe item in the left column. Adjacent notices and advertisements are visible in the scan but are not transcribed. This printed excerpt is not the complete surviving manuscript, an addressed copy, or a diplomatic transcription of Poe’s handwriting. Its wording, including “least important clerkship,” is retained as printed. Line breaks and words divided across lines are normalized. The February 12, 1887 issue date is supplied by the scholarly correspondence checklist; that date is not visible on page 217. The record belongs to the general Poe archive, outside the verified correspondence map. Research lead RCL-176d remains incomplete.
Historical magazine printing of the closing portion of Poe’s July 19, 1838 appeal for a clerkship. The complete scan of page 217 of The Current, volume 7, is preserved locally; the reading transcribes only the Poe item in the left column. Adjacent notices and advertisements are visible in the scan but are not transcribed. This printed excerpt is not the complete surviving manuscript, an addressed copy, or a diplomatic transcription of Poe’s handwriting. Its wording, including “least important clerkship,” is retained as printed. Line breaks and words divided across lines are normalized. The February 12, 1887 issue date is supplied by the scholarly correspondence checklist; that date is not visible on page 217. The record belongs to the general Poe archive, outside the verified correspondence map. Research lead RCL-176d remains incomplete.
Compare reading text with the preserved source. Line breaks and spacing are retained; long lines wrap to fit the screen. A file's role does not establish that its text has been checked.
Checked reading — historical Poe excerpt
Reading transcription · Review label: Known limitations
Poe’s appeal to James Kirke Paulding — 1887 printed excerpt
Historical magazine printing of the closing portion of Poe’s July 19, 1838 appeal for a clerkship. The complete scan of page 217 of The Current, volume 7, is preserved locally; the reading transcribes only the Poe item in the left column. Adjacent notices and advertisements are visible in the scan but are not transcribed. This printed excerpt is not the complete surviving manuscript, an addressed copy, or a diplomatic transcription of Poe’s handwriting. Its wording, including “least important clerkship,” is retained as printed. Line breaks and words divided across lines are normalized. The February 12, 1887 issue date is supplied by the scholarly correspondence checklist; that date is not visible on page 217. The record belongs to the general Poe archive, outside the verified correspondence map. Research lead RCL-176d remains incomplete.
Reading of the Poe item on page 217:
The following letter, dated Philadelphia, July 19, 1838, written, by that character which will ever be surrounded with the mysterious gloom of his own writing, has come to light recently:
“Could I obtain the least important clerkship in your gift—by land or sea—to relieve me of the miserable life of literary drudgery to which I now, with a breaking heart, submit, and for which neither my temper nor my abilities have fitted me, I would never again repine at any dispensation of God. I feel that I could then (having something beyond mere literature as a profession) quickly elevate myself to the station which is my due. It is needless to say how fervent, how unbounded would be my gratitude to the one who would rescue me from ruin and put me in possession of happiness. I leave my fate in your hands. Most respectfully and gratefully, EDGAR A. POE.”
Source: The Current: Politics, Literature, Science and Art, volume 7 (1887), page 217. Chicago: The Current Publishing Company. University of Michigan copy digitized by Google Books, volume hGNLAAAAMAAJ. Issue date February 12, 1887 and identification with the Paulding letter checked against the Poe Society correspondence checklist RCL-176d.
The Current Publishing Company. “Poe’s appeal to James Kirke Paulding — 1887 printed excerpt.” 1887-02-12. Poe’s appeal to James Kirke Paulding — 1887 printed excerpt. Crypt of Echoes evidence ID LED-2026-328b0843c96c44ecbce51bb43b487055. https://cryptofechoes.com/evidence/LED-2026-328b0843c96c44ecbce51bb43b487055. Accessed [date].
Catalogue citation: The Current: Politics, Literature, Science and Art, volume 7, February 12, 1887, page 217. Chicago: The Current Publishing Company. Untitled editorial item quoting the closing portion of Poe’s July 19, 1838 letter to James Kirke Paulding. Issue date and recipient identification supplied by correspondence checklist RCL-176d; original volume at the University of Michigan, digitized by Google Books.
Public-domain 1887 United States periodical page. Source volume: University of Michigan copy digitized by Google Books. Scan and digitization mark preserved without alteration. No modern scholarly commentary is reproduced.
