Philadelphia, May 25, 1842Due Swain, Abell & Simmons, Thirty-two Dollars eighty-five cents, for value received.
Edgar A. Poe
[This item was quoted in full in Jean C. S. Wilson and David A. Randall, eds., Thirteen Author Collections of the Nineteenth Century, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1950, p. 323. It is described only as "wholly in Poe's autograph." The three gentleman addressed were publishers of the Public Ledger (Philadelphia). Kent Lungquist felt that this might be a promise of payment from Poe for the printing of an article which appeared in the Public Ledger and Daily Transcript for December 23, 1841. The article was a long defense of Poe's "Autography" from Graham's Magazine of December 1841. Lungquist further argues that the article was "probably written (or ghostwritten) by Poe himself. (Kent Lungquist, "Poe's 'Autography': A New Exchange of Reviews," American Periodicals, II, Fall 1992, pp. 51-63.)]
[John W. Ostrom describes this note as item 364a in his revised checklist of 1981 as a "a due bill." As such, it seems slightly inappropriate to include it with a list of Poe's letters.]
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