Baltimore a volumeof poems, " Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane and Minor Poems," which iiad been received withfiivor. He seems to have had but little difficulty in obtaining employme'itfrom magazines and newspapers, but the pay was meagre. In despair he enlisted in the army and then deserted. Luckily for him, in 1833 he entered the competition for prizes offered by the Baltimore Saturday Visitor for a story and a poem. He was awarded both prizes but was subsequently excluded from the second prize and only given that for the story. His story was the " MSS. found in a Bottle" and his poem " The Coliseum." His productions attracted the notice of John P. Kennedy, the novelist, who befriended him and finally secured him employment on the Southern Literary Messenger. This may be said to have been the beginning of Poe's literary career. In 1835, he was made editor of

have sheltered Washington and some of his generals in the days of the Revolution. The front window's command the Boulevard (formerly Bloomingdale Road) and the new Riverside Park. The Hudson is seen through the trees, with the lofty Palisades beyond, a view still meet for the poet, and far more i picturesque and beautiful when Poe looked upon it. Poe was often seen walking along the banks of the river, and he and his wife no doubt were wont to sit at the western window and watch the decline of the sun as it sank to rest behind the embattled front of the Palisades. The room formerly occupied by Poe and in which " The Raven" was written, is an apartment of moderate size, on the second floor of the house. Its windows look out upon the Hudson. The mantel, a relic of by-gone days, is of wood, curiously carved and painted in imitati'^n of ebony.