story appeared serially in the Southern Literary Messenger even after Poe had severed his editorial connection. It purported to be written by Arthur Gordon Pym himself and the real author was mentioned only in the preface. The type of adventure story which "The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym" closely followed was popular at the time. Poe merely allowed his imagination to deal with familiar material found in such books as "The Mutiny of the Bounty", "Morell's Narrative of Four Voyages to the Pacific", and the like. His immediate interest in the Antarctic seems to have arisen from the preparation then being made by one J. N . Reynolds for a government expedition to those parts. Nathaniel Hawthorne was also interested in the same scheme, which, however, came to nothing. The success of the book was small and brought the author very little fame and less cash. A short while after arriving in New York, Poe, Virginia and Mrs. Clemm moved to a small house at 13 Carmine Street, where Mrs. Clemm took boarders in order to make a living. Poe was receiving near nothing at all. It was a period of financial panic and literary work was almost impossible to obtain. The Poes were accompanied to their new domicile by the bookseller Gowans who seems to have introduced the poet to a number of literary people but with small result. The poverty of the family was now extreme. Despite this, nevertheless, Poe continued to write. The chief items which can be traced to this first rather brief sojourn in New York are a review of Arbia Petraea in the New York Review, edited by Dr. Hawks, "Siope—a Fable," published in the Baltimore Book in 1839, and a tale called "Von Jung, the Mystic," which appeared in the American Monthly Magazine for June, 1837. The plans for starting a magazine of his own would at that time, owing to the financial depression, have met no response. Poe, indeed, was unable to obtain even a minor editorial position or sufficient hack work to...
