179 years ago on January 29th, 1845
'The Raven' by Edgar Allan Poe is first published in the New-York Evening Mirror
The poem was highly regarded upon publication, with the Evening Mirror stating that it would "stick in the memory of everybody who reads it.". Indeed it does stick in the memory, and it has become one of the most famous pieces of poetry ever written.
In the New-York Daily Tribune later that year, Wiley and Putnam offered a printing of a collection of poems by Edgar Allan Poe for 31ยข, or about $8.30 today.
During the time of 'The Raven', Edgar Allen Poe lived in various locations across the city, most of which have been torn down as the city has multiplied in size since the 1840s. Part of West 84th Street is named after Poe, where you can also find competing plaques claiming two different locations for the home where he wrote 'The Raven' once stood. Based on maps from the time, it appears that the home stood along the south side of West 84th Street between Broadway and Amsterdam, where it stood on a cliff above where the ground would later be leveled and 84th Street would be placed as the city's grid of street was established.
Ravens themselves were once rare across the northeast United States, but have been making a comeback since the beginning of the 21st century, and each year your chances increase of catching a glimpse of one within the city, as ravens and crows have been moving into the city over the past decade, with their calls being heard in city parks and even nests being built on top of buildings!
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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 he may have been fired for lying about it). It is the height of absurdity that the editor of a newly-launched monthly literary magazine like the "Review," would have given...
January 5, 2022 10:32am