Washington Irving, Miss Sedgwick and Mrs. Sarah J. Hale.
Among the poets of this number are two Elizas, far apart,—one from Maine and the other of Richmond.
The second number for January, 1836, contains "A Pæeon;" "Metzengerstein, a Tale in Imitation of the German;" "Scenes from an Unpublished Drama," all by Poe; and seventeen pages of critical notices, by the same. The first of these is a grouping review, not unkind perhaps for Poe, of the poems of Mrs. L. H. Sigourney, Miss H. F. Gould and Mrs. E. F. Ellett. He is quite savage towards Simms' "Partisan, a Tale of the Revolution," and particularly towards its brief and unobjectionable dedication to the author's friend, Richard Yeadon, Jr. He is far more favorable to Prof. Lieber's "Reminiscences of the Great Historian Niebuhr," to the Harper's re-publication of "Robinson Crusoe" and even to Miss Sedgwick's "Tales and Sketches."
There is a Prize Poem, "The Fountain of Oblivion," by a Virginian. This number introduces a new feature in a supplement of eight pages, which consists of a short Publisher's Notice and the expressions of the Press in regard to the Messenger; not only in Virginia, but in several other States, North, South and West
To the next number, Mr. Poe contributes a
