Page 57 - Four Famous American Writers: Washington Irving, Edgar Allan Poe, James Russell Lowell, Bayard Taylor

of "The Gold-Bug" and that of "The Black Cat."

As this magazine was never published, the story of "The Gold-Bug" was
sent to Graham some time after Poe had left him; but he did not like it, and

made some criticisms upon it. Poe got it back from Graham in order to
submit it for a prize of $100 offered by The Dollar Newspaper. It won the
prize, and became Poe’s most popular story.

CHAPTER XI

HOW "THE RAVEN" WAS WRITTEN

"The Raven" was published in New York just two years before Mrs. Poe
died; it instantly made its author famous, although it brought him little or

no money. It is said that he was paid only ten dollars for the poem; but as
soon as it appeared it was the talk of the nation,--being copied into almost
every newspaper. Poe had written and published many other poems, but

none of them had attracted much attention.

We have spoken of Poe as a story-writer, and now in "The Raven" we see
him a great poet.

It is not unusual to think of poetry as the work of inspiration or genius; but
how it is written, nobody knows. Poe maintained that literary art is

something that can be studied and learned. To illustrate this he told how he
wrote "The Raven." Some people considered this a sort of joke; but it was
not. When Poe began to write, his work was not at all good; as years went

on, he learned by patient practice to write well. It was more than anything
else this long course of training that made him so great.

The essay in which he tells how he wrote "The Raven," begins by saying
that when he thought of writing it he decided that it must not be too long

nor too short. It must be short enough so that one could read it through at a