for poetry, that being
given to another competitor, whose work the committee thought worthy
the second prize, in view of the fact that Poe had obtained the first.

It was in this manner that Poe was introduced to the world of
literature, his previous productions having excited no attention other
than that generally given to the work of a clever or erratic boy. The
workmanship of these stories was so fine and the genius so apparent as
to give them a distinct place in American fiction, a place to which at
that time the promise of Hawthorne pointed. Besides the reputation and
money thus earned, the story brought him a stanch friend in the person
of Mr. Kennedy, one of the members of the committee, who, from that
time, was devoted to the interests of the young author.

Poe now became busy with the composition of those beautiful tales
which appeared from time to time in the periodicals of the day, and
which speedily won him a reputation both in America and Europe. He was
also employed in editorial work for different magazines, and became
known as the first American critic who had made criticism an art. It
was his dream at this time to establish a magazine of his own, and
for many years one project after another with this object in view was
tried and abandoned. He was never able to start the magazine and felt
the disappointment keenly always. Through all his disappointments he
still lived much in that dream-world which had always been so real
to him, and much of his best work found there its inspiration. His
exquisite story of _Ligeia_ came to him first in a dream. This
world, so unreal to many, was to Poe as real as his actual life. Like
Coleridge in English literature, he had the power of presenting the
visions which came to him in sleep or in his waking dreams, surrounded
by their own atmosphere of mystery and unreality, thus producing an
effect which awed as well as fascinated. No other American writer
has ever brought from the dream-world such beautiful creations, which
charm and mystify at the same time, and force the most unimaginative
reader to believe for the time in the existence of this elusive realm
of faery.

Poe's poems have this same character, and found their inspiration in
the same source.

While engaged in editorial work in New York Poe wrote his first great
poem, _The Raven_, which was first published under an assumed name.
It was not until he recited the poem by request at a gathering of
the literary