promises to abstain, and was reinstated in his old position upon good behavior and with a fatherly warning. Mrs. Clemm and her daughter Virginia followed Poe to Richmond and took up their residence with him in a boarding house on Capitol Square. Poe remained in Richmond as assistant editor to Mr. White on the Southern Literary Messenger from the autumn of 1835 to January, 1837. During his connection with the paper its circulation increased from 700 to 3500. It attracted national attention, and it is safe to say it was initially due to Poe that it became the most influential periodical of the South. Its reputation was afterward maintained and increased by other men of considerable journalistic ability. The task of the young editor ranged from purely hack work of a frankly journalistic nature to contributions to literature. He wrote poems, book reviews, general and particular literary criticism, and short stories both serial and complete. The book reviews varied from comment on Coleridge's Recollections to references about others such as Mrs. Sigourney's Letters to Young Ladies, in short from well reasoned and often trenchant critiques to mere notices with a slight critical comment. Some of the poems which had previously appeared in the volumes of poetry already alluded to were republished considerably revised. This was following out a policy of more or less constant revision and republishing in redacted form which Poe continued throughout his career. Among the most notable of the new poems to appear at this time were, "To Helen," "Irene," or the "Sleeper," "Israfel," and "Zante." The general tone of literary criticism in the United States at the time Poe began to write for the Southern Literary Messenger was either perfunctory, fulsome, or dull. The comment of the young man in Richmond was interesting, disturbing and refreshing. His frequent severity elicited reply and remark, and though he aroused antagonism in some quarters, his presen...
