Edgar Allan Poe to Lydia Howard Sigourney — 1841-11-10
Read the 1841-11-10 letter from Edgar Allan Poe to Lydia Howard Sigourney locally. Poe asks Sigourney to send a poem for the January number of Graham’s Magazine.
Local historical letter reading from the Poe Society’s manuscript-text page, with modern correction glosses and website material excluded. The scholarly checklist documents an early printed witness in Gordon S. Haight, Mrs. Sigourney, Yale University Press, 1930, page 118 (facsimile). This record preserves the electronic letter text, not a scan of that printed witness or the autograph. Poe asks Sigourney to send a poem for the January number of Graham’s Magazine. Typography is simplified. The transcription has not been independently proofread word by word.
Original publication
Edgar Allan Poe to Lydia Howard Sigourney — 1841-11-10
Date
1841-11-10
Credits
Edgar Allan Poe
Reference collection
Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore (historical letter transcription)
Checked full letter boundaries, correspondence/date identity, documented early publication and text overlap against previously published local readings.
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Local historical letter reading from the Poe Society’s manuscript-text page, with modern correction glosses and website material excluded. The scholarly checklist documents an early printed witness in Gordon S. Haight, Mrs. Sigourney, Yale University Press, 1930, page 118 (facsimile). This record preserves the electronic letter text, not a scan of that printed witness or the autograph. Poe asks Sigourney to send a poem for the January number of Graham’s Magazine. Typography is simplified. The transcription has not been independently proofread word by word.
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Local historical letter reading
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Edgar Allan Poe to Lydia Howard Sigourney — 1841-11-10
Local historical letter reading from the Poe Society’s manuscript-text page, with modern correction glosses and website material excluded. The scholarly checklist documents an early printed witness in Gordon S. Haight, Mrs. Sigourney, Yale University Press, 1930, page 118 (facsimile). This record preserves the electronic letter text, not a scan of that printed witness or the autograph. Poe asks Sigourney to send a poem for the January number of Graham’s Magazine. Typography is simplified. The transcription has not been independently proofread word by word.
Philadelphia. Nov. 10, 1841.
Dear Madam,
Since my connexion, as editor, with “Graham's Magazine”, of this city, I have been sadly disappointed to find that you deem us unworthy your correspondence. Month after month elapses, and, although our list numbers “good names,” we still miss that of Mrs Sigourney. Is there no mode of tempting you to send us an occasional contribution? Mr Graham desires me to say that he would be very especially obliged if you could furnish, “him with a poem, however brief, for the January number. His compensation — for the days of gratuitous contributions are luckily gone by — will be at least as liberal as that of any publisher in America. May I hope to hear from you in reply? Excuse, dear Madam, this villanous steel pen, and believe me with high respect
Yr Mo ob St Edgar A Poe
Mrs L. H. Sigourney
“Edgar Allan Poe to Lydia Howard Sigourney — 1841-11-10.” 1841-11-10. Edgar Allan Poe to Lydia Howard Sigourney — 1841-11-10. Crypt of Echoes evidence ID LED-2026-99ca207f940a4537a831c43b4192232c. https://cryptofechoes.com/evidence/LED-2026-99ca207f940a4537a831c43b4192232c. Accessed [date].
Catalogue citation: Edgar Allan Poe to Lydia Howard Sigourney, 1841-11-10. Scholarly catalogue RCL-342. Early publication: Gordon S. Haight, Mrs. Sigourney, Yale University Press, 1930, page 118 (facsimile).
Underlying nineteenth-century letter documented as published before 1931; public domain in the United States. Modern commentary and editorial correction glosses excluded.
