Rare hand-written letter by well-known American poet Edgar Allan Poe sells for $155K at RR Auctions

CAIRO – 19 June 2022: A rare letter by well-known American poet Edgar Allan Poe offering his condolences to another writer, Frederick William Thomas, has been sold for $155,000 at RR Auction in Boston, USA.

The one-page letter signed by Edgar Allan Poe, dated August 24, 1846, is a handwritten letter from New York to writer Frederick William Thomas who worked from 1841 to 1850 as a clerk at the United States Department of the Treasury in Washington, DC.

The "final subject" to which Edgar Allan Poe refers is the tragic death of Thomas's sister and her two children, who were all killed in an accident while returning home from India.

In his letter, Frederick William Thomas called the event "the most terrible ordeal of his life".