1839 One Hundred And Fifty Years Ago

Edgar Allan Poe’s story “The Fall of the House of Usher” appeared in the September issue of Burton’s Gentleman’s Magazine . Poe had been hired to co-edit the magazine in July at a salary of ten dollars per week and had immediately begun to remodel it. During his year at Burton’s Poe filled 132 pages of the magazine with his poetry, stories, and reviews, raising its circulation from five thousand to twenty thousand in the process. In characteristic fashion, however, Poe burned out on the job; his alcoholism and animosity toward the owner of Burton’s led to his departure in June of 1840.

∗On September 25 France signed a commercial treaty with the Republic of Texas, becoming the first European country to recognize Texan independence from Mexico.