In November, 1840, Burton’s miscellany was merged in “The Casket,” owned by Mr. George R. Graham, and the new series received the name of its proprietor, who encouraged Poe in its editorship.  His connection with “Graham’s Magazine” lasted about a year and a half, and this was one of the most active and brilliant periods of his literary life.  He wrote in it several of his finest tales and most trenchant criticisms, and challenged attention by his papers entitled “Autography,” and those on cryptology and ciphers.  In the first, adopting a suggestion of Lavater, he attempted the illustration of character from handwriting; and in the second, he assumed that human ingenuity could construct no secret writing which human ingenuity could not resolve; a not very dangerous proposition, since it implied no capacity in himself to discover every riddle of this kind that should be invented.  He however succeeded with several difficult cryptographs that were sent to him, and the direction of his mind to the subject led to the composition of some of the tales of ratiocination which so largely increased his reputation.  The infirmities which induced his separation from Mr. White and Mr. Burton at length compelled Mr. Graham to seek for another editor; but Poe still remained in Philadelphia, engaged from time to time in various literary occupations, and in the vain effort to establish a journal of his own to be called “The Stylus.”  Although it requires considerable capital to carry on a monthly of the description he proposed, I think it would not have been difficult, with his well-earned fame as a magazinist, for him to have found a competent and suitable publisher, but for the unfortunate notoriety of his habits, and the failure in succession of three persons who had admired him for his genius and pitied him for his misfortunes, by every means that tact or friendship could suggest, to induce the consistency and steadiness of application indispensable to success in such pursuits.  It was in the spring of 1848—­more than a year after his dissociation from Graham—­that he wrote the story of “The Gold Bug,” for which he was paid a prize of one hundred dollars.  It has relation to Captain Kyd’s treasure, and is one of the most remarkable illustrations of his ingenuity of construction and apparent subtlety of reasoning.  The interest depends upon the solution of an intricate cypher.  In the autumn of 1844 Poe removed to New York.

It was while he resided in Philadelphia that I became acquainted with him.  His manner, except during his fits of intoxication, was very quiet and gentlemanly; he was usually dressed with simplicity and elegance; and when once he sent for me to visit him, during a period of illness caused by protracted and anxious watching at the side of his sick wife, I was impressed by the singular neatness and the air of refinement in his home.  It was in a small house, in one of the pleasant and silent neighborhoods far from the center of the town, and though slightly and cheaply furnished, everything in it was so tasteful and so fitly disposed that it seemed altogether suitable for a man of genius.  For this and for most of the comforts he enjoyed in his brightest as in his darkest years, he was chiefly indebted to his mother-in-law, who loved him with more than maternal devotion and constancy.