Edgar A. Poe.—By the decision of several discreet friends of the lamented Poe, we omit a number of letters and articles, which have been collected in relation to his life and writings. The wounds made by his criticisms are too fresh—the conflicting interests too many, to hope now to do that justice which time and the sober second thought of educated minds will accord to his memory. In the March number, we gave a short sketch of the poet, and hereafter the grateful duty may be more amply fulfilled—without making this Magazine, seemingly, the medium through which to gratify personal hostilities.
THANKS TO OUR FRIENDS EDITORIAL.
Fellow-Laborers:—We address you at the close of the year 1850, with an involuntary wish struggling upward from the heart, for a happy New Year—a glorious baptism of good for 1851. We do this, too, with some misgivings lest we may presume upon your forbearance—but the cordial response you have given to our monthly labors—the encouraging and timely words spoken in our behalf at the outset of the somewhat perilous enterprise of carrying our shattered bark into harbor once more—with all its sails stripped and cordage gone, came over the dark waters cheeringly, stimulating our weak endeavors, and nerving our heart for the tempest or the calm.
With no money—a few friends, and a thousand discouragements thrust upon us by timid well-wishers—and half-hearted comforters—we undertook to carry Graham’s Magazine—with its harvest of money, received in December, January and February, the pick months of the year, scattered—we undertook, we say, to carry this book triumphantly—in the face of the fiercest competition the business has ever known—through the year 1850.
The American Press with a chivalry for a prostrate brother, such as has never been witnessed—with one accord, from the extreme North to the extreme South, raised its voice of encouragement—its cheer for our success—and we now close the volume with an addition of over 10,000 subscribers since July, and with the uttermost liberality in expenditure in the manufacture of Graham’s Magazine, met by the tremendous resources which you, gentlemen, by the power of advertising, in liberal notices, have showered upon us. From our heart we thank you! Our experience in the press, daily, weekly, and monthly, for twelve years, has taught us how little the press itself knows of its own power—how few out of it know its giant resources—the wealth it carries on its wings to those who use it wisely. Judge, then, whether we, who have partaken so largely of its benefits from your generosity alone, knowing fully the vast service your kindness has done us, can do less than convey to you our sense of the obligation, with a hope that the day is dawning which will enable us to attempt in some poor sort to repay you. We say attempt to repay, for the reactionary benefit will be ten-fold upon ourself—so that we must by inevitable laws, remain forever your debtor.
Graham.
