Graham's Magazine

Publishing short stories, critical reviews, and music as well as information on fashion, Graham intended the journal to reach all audiences including both men and women.

[3] The Casket, subtitled "Flowers of Literature, Wit, and Sentiment" had been in existence since 1826 and, despite the small subscriber base, was flourishing financially.

[4] Graham intended his new magazine to be popular amongst both men and women, containing fashion, photographs, music, short stories and critical reviews.

"[12]James Fenimore Cooper was reportedly the highest-paid contributor to Graham's, receiving $1,600 for the serial "The Islets of the Gulf, or Rose-Budd", later published as Jack Tier, or The Florida Reefs.

[18] Typical engravings in Graham's included bridges, happy maids, and scenes which focused on peaceful domestic life and promoted marriage.

[20] Poe complained about the content of Graham's; he particularly disliked "the contemptible pictures, fashion-plates, music and love tales" for which the magazine was known.

The magazine was the first to publish "The Murders in the Rue Morgue", "A Descent into the Maelström", "The Island of the Fay", "The Mask Of The Red Death - A Fantasy", and others.

He also reviewed Charles Dickens's The Old Curiosity Shop, Nathaniel Hawthorne's Twice-Told Tales, and works by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Washington Irving and many others.

[22] He also further built up his reputation as a harsh literary critic, causing James Russell Lowell to suggest Poe sometimes mistook "his phial of prussic acid for his inkstand".

[25] Though he originally called his salary "liberal," Poe would later complain of his "nambypamby" payment of $800 per year when compared to Graham's alleged $25,000 in profit.

[26] A possibly apocryphal story is that Poe returned to the office in April 1842 after a brief illness to find Charles Peterson, another editor, sitting at his desk and performing his duties.

As reported in the Washington Index Jesse E. Dow wrote: "We would give more for Edgar A. Poe's toe nail, than we would for Rueful Grizzle's soul, unless we wanted a milk-strainer.

[33] Joseph Ripley Chandler and Bayard Taylor also had short runs as editorial assistants for the magazine in 1848[13] and Edwin Percy Whipple was its main literary critic for a time.

[34] In 1848, after some financial difficulties caused by poor copper investments, Graham sold the magazine to Samuel Dewee Patterson, though he retained the title of editor.

[23] Competition with Harper's New Monthly Magazine beginning in that year caused significant drops in subscriptions, as did the lack of an international copyright.