In Richmond, Va., 103 years ago, a struggling 64-page magazine called the Southern Literary Messenger, then a year old, published a short story called Berenice. It was by an unknown 26-year-old writer named Edgar Allan Poe, who had been recommended to the editor, as "very clever with his pen . . . highly imaginative and a little terrific." Shortly afterwards, at a salary of $10 a week, Poe became editor of the Messenger.
Seventeen months later, the publisher was as "sick of his writings as I am of him." But before he was fired...
To continue reading:
or
Log-In
