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 were very reluctant to part with him. . . . With the prospect of taking the lead in another periodical, he, at last, voluntarily gave up his employment with us."

It was The Evening Mirror that gave the public the great literary excitement of the day by the publication of "The Raven" on January 19th, 1845. It was copied by permission from the advanced sheets of The American Whig Review and heralded by Willis as "the most effective single example of fugitive poetry ever published in this country; and unsurpassed in English poetry for subtle conception, masterly ingenuity of versification, and consistant sustaining of imaginative lift." "The Raven" appeared again in the February number of The Review, in The Broadway Journal, and The Southern Literary Messenger; variants in each version. Numerous accounts exist as to the place and time of its composition, but for the most probable one reference must be made to Dr. Harrison's "Virginia Edition" of "Edgar Allan Poe," where General James R. O'Beirne is quoted as follows: "Edgar Allan Poe spent the summers of 1843 and 1844 at the homestead of my father-in-law. I have frequently heard the story from my wife's lips, who was about ten years old when she became acquainted with the great poet. In those days, more than half a century ago, Patrick Brennan (Mrs. O'Beirne's father) owned a farm of 216 acres extending from a point about 200 feet west of Central Park to the Hudson river. It was a picturesque spot, and the neighboring territory was considered a sort of summer resort whither a number of persons migrated in hot weather."

The house was a two story building, low to the ground,