The Museum Collection

Edgar Allan Poe Letter to Lucy Dorothea Henry

ID #: 465c
Creator: Edgar Allan Poe
Date: June 20, 1843
Format: Letter, One Page
Dimensions:
Source: Gift of Fayetta H. and Alberta W. Laighton
Collection: Poe Foundation, Inc.
Publisher:
Place of Publication:
Publish Date:

Description:

As a celebrity in his own time, Poe was occasionally asked for his autograph. This autograph was written at the request of Lucy Dorothea Henry, granddaughter of Patrick Henry, the orator best known for his 1775 "Liberty or Death" speech. The letter mentions that Ms. Henry had conveyed the request through Poe's sister, Rosalie Mackenzie Poe, who was living in Richmond at that time.

This manuscript was once in the autograph album of Lucy Dorothea Henry Laighton. Laighton's daughters gave the album, which also included other Poe manuscripts in addition to the autographs of over 250 other celebrities, to the Poe Museum in 1928.

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