Broadway Journal

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The Broadway Journal was a New York City-based periodical founded by Charles Frederick Briggs and John Bisco in 1844.

By February of that year, Edgar Allan Poe became an editor of the Broadway Journal. In June, Briggs resigned due to financial difficulties and, in October, Bisco sold his part of the magazine to Poe for $50 (Poe paid with a note endorsed by Horace Greeley) [1]. Poe, then, had full editorial control and ownership of the Broadway Journal.

Poe published new versions of many of his works, including The Masque of the Red Death, The Oval Portrait, and others. He also continued his role as a literary critic, including accusations of plagiarism against Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. He also used the Broadway Journal for a very public flirtation with Frances Sargent Osgood [2] and to raise money for his never-realized dream of a new magazine to be named The Stylus [3].

Poe was unable to keep the publication financially successful. Its final issue, dated January 3, 1846 included the valedictory:

Unsuspected engagements demanding my whole attention, and the objects being unfulfilled so far as regards myself personally, for which the Broadway Journal was established, I now, as its editor, bid farewell - as cordially to foes as to friends. -Edgar A. Poe [4]

[edit] See also

Other American journals that Edgar Allan Poe was involved with include:

[edit] References

  1. ^ Sova, Dawn B. Edgar Allan Poe: A to Z. Checkmark Books, 2001: pp. 27-28.
  2. ^ Kennedy, J. Gerald. A Historical Guide to Edgar Allan Poe. "A Brief Biography." Oxford University Press, 2001. pp. 52-53.
  3. ^ Silverman, Kenneth. Edgar A. Poe: Mournful and Never-ending Remembrance. Harper Perennial, 1991: p. 273
  4. ^ Sova, Dawn B. Edgar Allan Poe: A to Z. Checkmark Books, 2001: pp. 34.