Page 52 - Four Famous American Writers: Washington Irving, Edgar Allan Poe, James Russell Lowell, Bayard Taylor

above, Nor the demons down under the sea, Can ever dissever my soul
from the soul Of the beautiful Annabel Lee:

For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams Of the beautiful

Annabel Lee; And the stars never rise but I feel the bright eyes Of the
beautiful Annabel Lee; And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side Of
my darling--my darling--my life and my bride, In the sepulcher there by the

sea, In her tomb by the sounding sea.

CHAPTER IX

POE’S LITERARY HISTORY

As assistant editor of the Southern Literary Messenger, Poe achieved great

literary success. In this paper he began those spirited criticisms of the
writers of the day, which attracted attention everywhere. He also published

numerous stories. Poetry was almost completely abandoned for prose.

The circulation of the magazine increased by the thousands, and there could

be no doubt that its success was due chiefly to Poe. At first his salary was
ten dollars a week; later, it was raised to fifteen dollars, and was to have

been raised to twenty, but Poe suddenly resigned his position. Precisely
why he did this is not known.

Experiences similar to that with the Southern Literary Messenger were
repeated many times afterward, during his literary career. Just as he was

getting well settled at his work, he would have some difficulty with the
proprietor, or commit some indiscretion, and then he must find some other
place. In those days, when a great New York daily paper like Bryant’s

Evening Post could be bought for from $5,000 to $10,000, there was not
much money to be made in publishing or in literature. To make money, Poe

should have been a business man, and he was not so in any sense. Many
another literary man, even in our own times, has had similar misfortunes,
even without those faults of character and that fatality for falling out with

everything and everybody which distinguished Poe.