Edgar Allan Poe

“Words have no power to impress the mind without the exquisite horror of their reality.”

Despite living among other literary greats like Nathaniel Hawthorne and Ralph Waldo Emerson, Edgar Allan Poe’s macabre style stood out among the rest. His use of imagery and sensory language make stories like The Tell-Tale Heart his scariest and most suspenseful. Like his stories, Poe’s life could hardly be described as happy, and his dour life experiences likely influenced some of his greatest works. While Poe’s personal life and writing career were fraught with difficulty, today his work sees great success and is still actively analyzed by scholars. More than 100 years after Edgar Allan Poe introduced the world to his melancholic tales, pieces from him have resurfaced at RR Auction – with countless bidders hoping to get ahold of a piece from the great author.

Since Poe died at the young age of 40, items from him are extremely desirable and several Poe pieces have gone under the hammer at RR Auction with remarkable results. In one letter that sold for $154,958, Poe extends his condolences to a fellow writer after the death of the writer’s sister and her two children. Live Auctioneers reported that the recipient of the letter was Frederick William Thomas, a clerk at the United States Department of the Treasury in Washington D.C. Poe writes, “I dare not say one word, dear friend, on the final topic of your letter just received. For sorrows such as this there is no consolation but in unrestrained grief.”

Unique pieces that connect Poe to other famous literary figures of the era have also received impressive bids. This letter written by Poe to fellow writer Sarah Josepha Hale was sold to one of our buyers for $167,948. Hale was the writer of the children’s nursery rhyme, Mary Had a Little Lamb, and she also served as the editor for a magazine called Godey’s Lady’s Book at the time of this correspondence. In this letter, Hale asked Poe to write a prose article for Godey’s Lady’s Book, but Poe refuses, writing, “to send you a crude or hastily written article would be injurious to me, and an insult to yourself.”

With over thirty years of experience with autographs and manuscripts, you can be sure that your Poe pieces will be a hit at auction! Contact us today – you may be surprised how much your Edgar Allan Poe pieces are worth! Hit the consign button below or reach out to us at 800-937-3880.