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Text: Edgar Allan Poe to John Allan — March 10, 1829







Fortress Monroe.
March 10th 1829.

    My dear Pa,

    I arrived on the point this morning in good health, and if it were not for late occurrences, should feel much happier than I have for a long time. I have had a fearful warning, & have hardly ever known before what distres[s] was.

    The Colonel has left the point this morning [for] Washington to congratulate the President [elect] so I have not yet seen him. He will ret[urn] on Thursday >>week<< next[.] In the mean time [I] [a]m employing mys[elf] in preparing for the [tests] [w]hich will engage my [at]tention at W. Point [if I] [s]hould be so fortunate [as] to obtain an appoint[ment.] [I] am anxious to retri[ev]e my good name wi[th my] [frie]nds & especially yo[ur] good opinion.

    [I] think a letter of reco[mm]endation from Ju[dge Barbour,] [Maj]or Gibbon, & Col: P[res]ton forwarded to [Washington] [with] a letter to Mr [Pa]tterson requesting [that if] [nothing] would prev[ent it] I may be r[egarded as] [a Bos]tonian.

    [[Here probably one line of MS was burned off.]] [page 2:] me in the morning of my departure I went to your room to tell you good bye — but, as you were asleep, I would not disturb you.

    My respects to Mr & Mrs Galt & Mr Wm Galt.

I am, dear Pa,
Your’s affectionately
                Edgar A. Poe







Notes:

This letter is greatly damaged, burned around all the edges so that the general shape of the surviving page resembles the outline of a pair of knee breeches.

This letter is printed here with permission from the Valentine Museum in Richmond, Virginia. A photographic facsimile of this letter was published in Mary Newton Stannard, Edgar Allan Poe Letters Till Now Unpublished in the Valentine Museum Richmond, Virginia, Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1925.

[S:1 - MS, 1829]