Hickling Prescott, Jared Sparks, and William Ellery Channing
in New England.

Poe began cautiously by following such models, adopting both
the public posture of the professional critic and the formula for
writing reviews. His early critiques usually began with an identi-
fication of the author and some comment on his previous work
and current reputation. When Poe was discussing a novel or nar-
rative poem, he summarized the plot, remarked on felicities or
weaknesses, and finally made a personal assessment of the work
as a whole. When he was dealing with non-narrative work, his
pattern was much the same, although he usually paid greater
attention to the significance of the evidence offered in the book.
Often with his comments he interspersed references to current or
classical literature, phrases from foreign languages, quotations,
and other displays of what Allen Tate has termed "bogus erudi-
tion," displays which unfortunately he never outgrew. ^1.

One of the formulas of contemporary reviewing that Poe
found most congenial was the harsh, abusive language often
found in the magazines. Perry Miller calls New York in the
1840's a "literary butcher shop," ^2. and the same could be said for
other parts of pre-Civil War America. Many American reviewers,

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