An unrecorded broadside, EDGAR ALLAN POE, 1841

An unrecorded broadside
Edgar Allan Poe, 1841
POE, Edgar Allan (1809-1849) – Graham's Lady's and Gentleman's Magazine. [Philadelphia, 1841.]

A rare broadside for the January 1842 issue of Graham's Magazine with mention of editor Edgar A. Poe. Poe joined Graham's in 1841 after an unsuccessful attempt to get his own literary journal, The Penn, off the ground; the only Poe broadsides that have come to auction in the past 75 years are for that failed enterprise. The January 1842 issue of Graham's includes a contribution from Poe devoted to chirography, titled "An Appendix of Autographs." It reproduces the signatures of figures such as Horace Greeley, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Oliver Wendell Holmes together with Poe's shrewd analysis. For Emerson he writes, "His MS is bad, sprawling, illegible and irregular—although sufficiently bold." Poe would remain at Graham's until April 1842. The post's annual salary of $800 (with additional pay for contributions) was the highest of his professional life.

Broadside (305 x 528mm). Lettered in black (laid down to poster board; worn; some chipping).

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This lot is offered without reserve.