Poe's Quarrel with Boston Writers

Edgar Allan Poe to Fredrick W. Thomas
Autographed letter
February 14, 1849
[Full text]

This letter responds to the prospectus for a study of "Western Literature" that novelist and poet Frederick W. Thomas (1806-1866) had sent Poe (1809-1849) on November 27, 1848. Writing to his frequent correspondent, Poe declares that "Literature is the most noble of professions" and deals extensively with his feelings about Boston authors, urging Thomas to "come down on the Frogpondians."

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