Edgar Allan Poe to George W. Poe — July 14, 1839 — reading text

Edgar Allan Poe to George W. Poe — July 14, 1839 Local manuscript reading covering all four preserved faces of Poe’s letter to George W. Poe, including the handwritten family tree, closing, postscript and postal address. Date checked directly on the manuscript: Philadelphia, July 14, 1839. Damaged and unclear passages are explicitly marked; missing words have not been silently reconstructed from modern editions. The family tree is reflowed into indented branches, and punctuation and line wrapping are normalized. Poe’s family relationships, age and autobiographical statements are presented as his claims, not independently verified genealogy or biography. No local facsimile is claimed. Reference images are private; only the new reading is public. Philadelphia — July 14. /39 My Dear Sir, Owing to my absence from Richmond for some time, I did not receive your letter until a few days ago, it having followed me from place to place, and at last caught me here. I am truly glad that you have written me & hope that the correspondence thus commenced may lead to more intimate acquaintance hereafter. It affords me great pleasure, moreover, to recognize, in one of my own name & family, those very principles of stern independence which, I trust, have always actuated my own conduct through life, and which, at all events, have reduced me from high affluence to comparative poverty — or at least to a reliance upon my own resources. Our relationship is that of second cousins. My father, David Poe Jr, was the son of David Poe Sr, who was the brother of your paternal grandfather, George Poe Sr. Your father & mine were own cousins, and playmates. My wife, who is my own cousin, is also your second cousin, being the daughter of Maria Poe, my father's sister. She is connected with you, moreover, as being the daughter of the gentleman who married your aunt Harriet. She, you will remember, was the first Mrs William Clemm — my wife's mother is the second. Neilson Poe, of the Balt. Chronicle, is my second cousin. He is the son of your father's brother, Jacob Poe. There can be no doubt, I think, that our family is originally German — as the name indicates. It is frequently met with in German works on Natural History, and a M. Poé is now living in Vienna who has much reputation as a naturalist. The name there is spelt with an accent thus, Poé, and is pronounced in two syllables, Po-a. As far back, however, as we can trace our immediate progenitors, they are Irish. John Poe, about a century ago, was a name of much note in the financial history of Ireland. He was of an ancient & noble family, and married a daughter of the British Admiral McBride — himself of very illustrious descent. From this John Poe we date. I give you a kind of table showing how we spring from him. He came to America in the fourth year of his marriage, with two children, David & George (your grandfather & mine) and settled in Nottingham Co. Pa. [Second manuscript face] Here he had eight children — making ten in all. In the table I give all the names in the order of age. [The handwritten family tree is rendered below as indented branches. Relationships, names and annotations are Poe's statements, not independently verified genealogy.] John Poe David John (dead) William (dead) David (dead) Henry (dead) Edgar Rosalie Samuel (dead) Maria [Mrs Wm Clemm] Henry Virginia (dead) Virginia (my wife) Eliza [Mrs Henry Herring, dead] Elizabeth Lewis David (dead) Henry George Emily George Jacob George Neilson [twins with Amelia] Amelia [twins with Neilson] Mosher Harriet George Your father's family Harriet [first Mrs Wm Clemm] Catharine William Josephine (Neilson's wife) Georgiana Harriet [Annotation for these five: all married except Harriet — each has 4 children.] Robert John Samuel James Jane Hester Mary [Annotation for Robert through Mary: all died unmarried except Hester & Mary, who are since dead, leaving each one child, also since dead.] William William [live in Augusta, Geo.] Robert [live in Augusta, Geo.] Washington [lives in Macon, Geo.] Matilda (dead) By this table you will perceive that, according to the rules of British descent, I am the oldest, or head, of all the Poes in America, descendants of John. There are a great many of the name living, I understand, in S. Carolina — but these must be another family altogether — as the original John Poe had no brothers or sisters. My own age is 26; which, I presume, is very nearly your own. [Third manuscript face; damaged areas are marked rather than silently reconstructed.] [Paper loss] father, my aunt & mother-in-law Mrs Clemm, is of course well acquainted — at least was — for an access to fortune like that of your father's is apt to generate a strange forgetfulness of old friends. He was in Philadelphia a few months ago, when I saw him once for a short time. The circumstances of his first & second marriage, as also many of the circumstances of your own, are familiar to me. In regard to myself. My father, with his wife, were on a visit to friends in Richmond Va, when a violent illness carried both off, within a few weeks of each other. I was then about a year old, and my sister, Rosalie, was an infant. A wealthy gentleman of Virga (of Scotch descent) a Mr John Allan, had taken a fancy to me, and, having no children of his own, adopted me — at the same time persuading a friend of his, Mr William Mackenzie, to adopt my sister. My grandfather, David Poe, was living at this time, in good circumstances, and his consent to the double adoption was obtained with some difficulty. I lived with Mr Allan, who remained childless, until my seventeenth-year, when he inherited from an uncle a fortune of some 30,000$ per annum. This [paper loss] wealth nearly turned his brain, and, worse, confirmed him in [paper loss] drunkenness. In his frequent paroxysms of this he treated me with what I considered indignity. I accordingly left his house, was recalled with apologies, left it a second time, and refused all offers of reconciliation until hearing of the extreme illness of his wife, whom I had always regarded as a mother. I then returned — but too late to find her alive. Upon her death, I again left the protection of Mr Allan, who now gave loose to all the baseness of his nature. In a short time after this he married a second wife, had two or three children, and died, of course without leaving me any thing. His second marriage was in his 62d year. I was at W. Point at the time, where, by my own influence alone, I had obtained a Cadet's appointment. For the last ten years I have supported myself altogether by literary exertions. This is all of my private [word unclear] which would interest you — and I fear that I have already occupied you too much with my personal concerns. I am indebted to you for your letter to Gen. Houston. I will carefully preserve it, and, should I meet him at any time, will present it. Will you present my best regards and those of [Fourth manuscript face] my wife, to your lady. I hope you will write again — it will give me great pleasure to hear from you at any time. I shall remain in Philadelphia perhaps for a year — but Richmond is my home, and a letter directed to that city will always reach me, in whatever part of the world I may be. Very truly your friend, Edgar A. Poe Geo: W. Poe P.S. Should you again see any of my W. P. acquaintances, will you remember me kindly to them? [Postal address] George W. Poe Houston Texas Via N. Orleans Source: Original manuscript in the Free Library of Philadelphia, Gimbel Collection. Four reference facsimiles displayed as illustrations 15–18 in the Poe Society electronic presentation of The Collected Letters of Edgar Allan Poe (2008). Checklist RCL-192. Reading visually checked November 8, 2026.