Author talk:Thomas Willis White

Biography

Thomas Willis White (1788-1843) was the founder of the Southern Literary Messenger, a journal based in Richmond, Virgina. White hired Author:Edgar Allan Poe in 1835, a year after the journal was established, and Poe worked as assistant editor and contributor until he moved to New York in 1837. During Poe's time with the magazine, the circulation increased dramatically and became the leading journal in the southern United States. Poe's contributions to the journal include a number of book reviews, the first installments of his only finished novel, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym; his only play, Politian; as well as short stories including "Berenice," "Morella," "Four Beasts in One," and "The Unparalleled Adventure of one Hans Pfaall."

Although White admired Poe's literary talents, White condemned Poe for his intemperance and for his harsh literary reviews. White once wrote that Poe only read books "to ridicule their authors."

Other contributor's included internationally known Author:Matthew Fontaine Maury U.S.Navy on U. S. Naval reforms who often wrote under noms de plumes. White's work brought forth light in the literary world in the form of poems, books, critics such as Poe and many others wrote articles, but the "Messenger" was primarily to give Southerners an opportunity to express themselves. His work started out with several famous men praising his talents as writer and publisher including a former president. This work, the Southern Literary Messenger (book) is on Wikisource.

On January 9, 1843, Thomas Willis White died from the effects of a stroke of paralysis received while he was at the supper table of the Astor House, in New York, in September, 1842