It gave me sincere pleasure to receive a letter from you -- but I fear you will think me very discourteous in not sooner replying. I have deferred my answer, however, from day to day, in hope of procuring some papers relatng to my grandfather. In this I have failed. Mrs C. has no memoranda of the kind you mention, and all of which I have any knowledge are on file at Annapolis.
I thank you for the kind interest you take in my welfare. We all speak very frequently of yourself and family, and regret that, hitherto, we have seen and known so little of each other. Virginia, in especial, is much pained at the total separation from her sisters. She has been, and is still, in precarious health. About four years ago she ruptured a blood-vessel, in singing, and has never recovered from the accident. I fear that she never will. Mrs Clemm is quite well: -- both beg to be kindly remembered.
I regret that I had no opportunity of seeing you during my last visit to Baltimore. Viriginia and myself, however, will very probably spend a few weeks in your city during the fall, when we hope to be with you frequently. When you see any of Mr Herring's family, will you say that we are anxious to hear from them?
I rejoice to learn that you prosper at all points. I hear of you often. "The B. Journal" [The Broadway Journal] flourishes -- but in January I shall establish a Magazine.
[The full text of this letter was published by Arthur Hobson Quinn and Richard Hart in Edgar Allan Poe: Letters and Documents in the Enoch Pratt Free Library, New York: Scholars' Facsimiles & Reprints, 1941, p. 22. It is printed here with permission of the Enoch Pratt Free Library.]
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