Disputed letter attributed to Edgar Allan Poe to John R. Thompson — May 10, 1849
Read a complete local transcription of the disputed May 10, 1849 letter to John R. Thompson concerning Marginalia and a manuscript of The Raven. Authorship remains unresolved; this item is excluded from the verified Poe correspondence map.
Independent local reading of the complete written face of Huntington Library manuscript HM 21873. Authorship is disputed: the manuscript has been identified as a forgery, while later editors discuss evidence that leaves the judgment contested. This record preserves the disputed document as a research object and does not certify Poe as its author. It is excluded from the verified correspondence map. The public file is text only; the modern reference image remains private. Line wrapping, superscripts and decorative underlines are simplified. No separate address face is supplied.
Original publication
Disputed letter attributed to Edgar Allan Poe to John R. Thompson — May 10, 1849
Date
1849-05-10
Credits
Unknown or disputed author; Crypt of Echoes (independent reading)
Published in
New York (as dated on document)
Where to find it
1 complete written face represented in reading
Reference collection
The Huntington Library
Collection reference
HM 21873; RCL-789; LTR-313
Written face, date, addressee, signature and HM 21873 call number visually inspected. Checklist key, date/correspondent and text overlap checked against holdings. Historical 1926 printing checked. Attribution remains disputed.
HOW FAR THIS HAS BEEN CHECKED
File / copy authenticity
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Transcription / extraction
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Independent local reading of the complete written face of Huntington Library manuscript HM 21873. Authorship is disputed: the manuscript has been identified as a forgery, while later editors discuss evidence that leaves the judgment contested. This record preserves the disputed document as a research object and does not certify Poe as its author. It is excluded from the verified correspondence map. The public file is text only; the modern reference image remains private. Line wrapping, superscripts and decorative underlines are simplified. No separate address face is supplied.
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.
Local reading — disputed attribution
Reading transcription · Review label: Known limitations
Disputed letter attributed to Edgar Allan Poe, addressed to John R. Thompson — May 10, 1849
Authorship disputed. This reading does not establish that Poe wrote the document. The manuscript is Huntington Library HM 21873. It has been identified as a forgery by earlier scholars and the repository, while the 2008 editors discuss reasons for caution about that judgment. Crypt of Echoes leaves authorship unresolved and excludes this item from its verified correspondence map.
Independent reading checked against the complete written face shown in the public manuscript reference. Line wrapping, superscripts and ornamental underlines are simplified. The reference image remains private; this download contains text only. The document itself shows no separate address face in the source image.
New-York: May 10. 49.
My Dear Sir — I forward some more of the “Marginalia” — rather more piquant, I hope, and altogether more to my own liking, than what I sent before. I shall probably be in Richmond about the 1st of June & will bring the MS “Raven”, in obedience to your flattering request.
Truly yours.
Edgar A Poe.
John R. Thompson Esqr.
Source record: Huntington Library, HM 21873; correspondence checklist RCL-789 / LTR-313. The text was printed in Mary E. Phillips, Edgar Allan Poe: The Man (1926), volume 2, pages 1403–1404, following the Clawson auction catalogue (1920), item 346. The independent reading above was checked against illustration 59 in The Collected Letters of Edgar Allan Poe (2008), displayed by the Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore. Modern editorial commentary, transcription and image are not included in this public file.
“Disputed letter attributed to Edgar Allan Poe to John R. Thompson — May 10, 1849.” 1849-05-10. Disputed letter attributed to Edgar Allan Poe to John R. Thompson — May 10, 1849. Crypt of Echoes evidence ID LED-2026-db8b813d47a544299142a151eca804ba. https://cryptofechoes.com/evidence/LED-2026-db8b813d47a544299142a151eca804ba. Accessed [date].
Catalogue citation: Letter attributed to Edgar Allan Poe to John R. Thompson, dated May 10, 1849. Huntington Library, HM 21873. Authorship disputed. Clawson sale, November 29, 1920, item 346 (facsimile); Mary E. Phillips, Edgar Allan Poe: The Man (1926), volume 2, pp. 1403–1404. Manuscript reference: The Collected Letters of Edgar Allan Poe (2008), illustration 59, made available by the Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore.
The underlying document was reproduced in the 1920 Clawson sale catalogue, item 346, and its text printed in Mary E. Phillips, Edgar Allan Poe: The Man (1926), volume 2, pp. 1403–1404. This independently prepared reading includes new descriptive notes by Crypt of Echoes. The 2008 edition’s commentary, transcription and image are not redistributed.
