Read Poe’s July 4, 1836 letter to Lewis Cass requesting a Southern Literary Messenger contribution, with a local historical facsimile and searchable reading text.
Complete written face of Poe’s July 4, 1836 letter to Lewis Cass, reproduced in The Quarto Extra accompanying no. 19 (October 1949), second page. Poe sends the first volume of the Southern Literary Messenger and asks Cass to contribute to its planned August number. The local PDF preserves that entire source page, including the facsimile caption and adjacent historical editorial text, without cropping or reconstruction. The addressed reverse is not reproduced in this source and is not included. The separate reading text was transcribed from the facsimile; line breaks and superscripts are normalized. This is a historical printed facsimile, not a new scan of the original manuscript.
Original publication
Edgar Allan Poe to Lewis Cass — July 4, 1836
Date
1836-07-04
Credits
Edgar Allan Poe; William L. Clements Library (1949 facsimile)
Publisher
William L. Clements Library, University of Michigan
Published in
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Where to find it
Second page; one complete written face
Reference collection
William L. Clements Library, University of Michigan
Collection reference
Lewis Cass Papers
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Complete written face — historical facsimile, 1949
Complete written face of Poe’s July 4, 1836 letter to Lewis Cass, reproduced in The Quarto Extra accompanying no. 19 (October 1949), second page. Poe sends the first volume of the Southern Literary Messenger and asks Cass to contribute to its planned August number. The local PDF preserves that entire source page, including the facsimile caption and adjacent historical editorial text, without cropping or reconstruction. The addressed reverse is not reproduced in this source and is not included. The separate reading text was transcribed from the facsimile; line breaks and superscripts are normalized. This is a historical printed facsimile, not a new scan of the original manuscript.
Complete written face of Poe’s July 4, 1836 letter to Lewis Cass, reproduced in The Quarto Extra accompanying no. 19 (October 1949), second page. Poe sends the first volume of the Southern Literary Messenger and asks Cass to contribute to its planned August number. The local PDF preserves that entire source page, including the facsimile caption and adjacent historical editorial text, without cropping or reconstruction. The addressed reverse is not reproduced in this source and is not included. The separate reading text was transcribed from the facsimile; line breaks and superscripts are normalized. This is a historical printed facsimile, not a new scan of the original manuscript.
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.
Reading text transcribed from the facsimile
Reading transcription · Review label: Known limitations
Edgar Allan Poe to Lewis Cass — July 4, 1836
Complete written face of Poe’s July 4, 1836 letter to Lewis Cass, reproduced in The Quarto Extra accompanying no. 19 (October 1949), second page. Poe sends the first volume of the Southern Literary Messenger and asks Cass to contribute to its planned August number. The local PDF preserves that entire source page, including the facsimile caption and adjacent historical editorial text, without cropping or reconstruction. The addressed reverse is not reproduced in this source and is not included. The separate reading text was transcribed from the facsimile; line breaks and superscripts are normalized. This is a historical printed facsimile, not a new scan of the original manuscript.
Richmond.
July 4. 1836.
Dr Sir,
With this letter, a bound volume of the “Southern Literary Messenger” (Vol I) is forwarded to your address, at the request of Mr T. W. White, the Proprietor — who begs you will accept it — learning that your own first volume is deficient in some numbers.
It is our design to issue on the 1st August a number of the “Messenger” consisting altogether of articles from our most distinguished literati, and to this end we have received many excellent papers — from Judge Hopkinson — Prof. Alexander of Princeton — Paulding — Dr. Bird — Mrs Sigourney — Lieut Slidell, Prof. Anthon &c —. Mr White has informed me that you had, in part, made him a promise of a contribution, and I have ventured, accordingly, to mention our design in relation to the August number, in hope that you would be able to send us something in season. If you could possibly do so, it would greatly advance the interests of our Journal — especially in the South — and this must be my apology for troubling you upon this point.
Mr. White desires his best respects. With the highest respect
Yr. Ob. St.
Edgar A. Poe
Gov: Lewis Cass.
Address care of T. W. White
William L. Clements Library, University of Michigan. “Edgar Allan Poe to Lewis Cass — July 4, 1836.” 1836-07-04. Edgar Allan Poe to Lewis Cass — July 4, 1836. Crypt of Echoes evidence ID LED-2026-8edf9c01bf9245049c41d9e99bf033ff. https://cryptofechoes.com/evidence/LED-2026-8edf9c01bf9245049c41d9e99bf033ff. Accessed [date].
Catalogue citation: Edgar Allan Poe to Lewis Cass, July 4, 1836 (RCL-153a). Facsimile in The Quarto Extra, accompanying no. 19, October 1949, second page. William L. Clements Library, University of Michigan.
The October 1949 four-page US publication was inspected in full and contains no copyright notice. The preserved facsimile is treated as public domain in the United States on that publication basis. Credit: William L. Clements Library, University of Michigan.
