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poems, and especially fiction in various journals and in several volumes. In 1839, he began to write regularly for Thomas Burton's Gentleman's Magazine, contributing a feature article and a number of book reviews each month. Once again, Poe's editorship brought dramatic advances in both quality and circulation, but he was dismissed from this position in June 1840 after once again quarreling with his publisher. Failing in attempts to found his own journal, in 1841 Poe became an editor of Graham's Magazine, a new journal formed by George Graham through a merger of his magazine The Casket with the Gentleman's Magazine, which he had bought from Burton. Once more the pattern played itself out: the magazine thrived under Poe's direction, he wanted a higher salary and a freer editorial hand, and he left his position--although this time on relatively good terms with the publisher. Poe's personal fortunes once more suffered reverses as his writing career advanced. In January 1842, Virginia suddenly began to hemorrhage from the mouth, the first indication that she had contracted tuberculosis. She was seriously ill for a time, and would never again be truly healthy. Poe also had renewed difficulties in his attempts to find steady employment. But in 1843 he published several works, including "The Tell-Tale Heart," in James Russell Lowell's short-lived journal The Pioneer, and in June of that year his story "The Gold-Bug" won a $100 prize in a contest sponsored by the Philadelphia Dollar Newspaper. Widely reprinted, it made Poe famous with a broad fiction-reading public, but he did not become financially secure. Owing to lax copyright standards at the time that allowed for widespread reprinting--a condition that Poe himself editorialized about--writers did not profit directly from the popularity of their work. In 1844, Poe moved to New York, where he lectured on American poetry and contributed articles to newspapers and magazines. The year 1845 would bring both triumphs and the beginning of a final downward spiral in Poe's life. His poem "The Raven" appeared in the New York Evening Mirror in January, and was an instant success with both readers and critics. He began writing for the Broadway Journal, became its editor in July, and shortly thereafter fulfilled a longstanding dream by becoming its owner as well. But a series of articles in which he groundlessly accused Henry Wadsworth Longfellow of plagiarism did harm to Poe's reputation, and Virginia's health problems became severe. Financial difficulties, his worry over Virginia, and his own precarious physical and emotional state caused him to cease publication of the Broadway Journal after less than six months as its proprietor. He moved out of New York City to a cottage in then-rural Fordham (now a heavily urban section of the Bronx), where in the midst of poverty, ill health, and Virginia's now grave illness, he still somehow continued to earn a small income writing reviews and articles. A satirical piece on fellow writer Thomas Dunn English provoked from its subject a scurrilous personal attack in the Evening Mirror, which led Poe to sue the publication. Although he would win the suit and collect damages the following year, the whole episode was a great strain upon Poe's already fragile nervous system. On January 30, 1847, Virginia died, plunging Poe into an emotional and physical collapse that lasted for most of the year. In 1848, he was briefly engaged to marry Sarah Helen Wh