January 29th, 1845, Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven" is Published in NYC.
- Hank Orenstein
- Jan 30, 2020
- 1 min read
The NYC connection here is that at the time of the publication the author happened to be living in a farmhouse located at West 84th Street in today's Upper West Side. There's a plaque on the building on the NW corner of Broadway and 84th Street indicating Poe was living there when he wrote "The Raven". The poem was published for the first time on January 29th by the New York Evening Mirror. It is said that Poe would head over to what is today Riverside Park and a hill known as "Mount Tom" and would find solace and inspiration looking out over the Hudson River.
Poe later moved to The Bronx, which was even more rural than Manhattan's West Side on the mid 19th century. You can visit this house and learn about its interesting history located right off the Grand Concourse. Here's a link to the website.
The Edgar Allan Poe Cottage, built c. 1812, is a New York City and State landmark listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The historic house museum is famous as the final home of the writer. At the time that Poe, his ailing wife Virginia and mother-in-law, Mrs. Maria Clemm moved in during the spring of 1846, the house was owned by John Valentine. Poe rented it for $100 per year. Virginia died in the house in 1847 and after Poe’s death on October 7, 1849 while in Baltimore, Mrs. Clemm moved out.
Edgar Allan Poe never wrote "The Raven," he merely claimed it in a kind of 19th-century "identity theft." The poem's premiere was submitted anonymously to "American Review" under the pseudonym "---- Quarles" by the true author, Mathew Franklin Whittier, younger brother of poet John Greenleaf Whittier. Poe, a critic for the New York "Evening Mirror," finding the poem in an advance copy of "American Review," scooped Mathew in his own paper by two days. Mathew had shared a copy of "The Raven" with Poe in early 1842, so Poe had a handwritten copy in his possession. This enabled him to convince his editor that he had permission to scoop "American Review"--but he mysteriously left the "Mirror" shortly afterwards (suggesting that…