Note 35 — Chapter III · FIRST VENTURES 1838-1844

Mr. Woodberry, in editing “Lowell’s Letters to Poe,” in Scribner’s Monthly for August, 1894, explains the situation thus: “The contract bound Lowell and Carter to furnish the publishers five thousand copies on the twentieth of each month under a penalty of five hundred dollars in case of failure and the publishers to take that number at a certain price. The March number was eight days late, and the publishers, in the face of what was probably seen to be an unfortunate speculation, claimed the forfeit but offered to waive it if the contract should be altered so as to require them to take only so many copies as they could sell. The result was that the editors were obliged to stop printing from a lack of credit, and were left with a large indebtedness for manufacture as well as to contributors. It appears from Poe’s letters that he was paid his small claim a year later.”