From the Editor

On 27 March 1843, Edgar Poe wrote to James Russell Lowell, "As for the few dollars you owe me -- give yourself not one moment's concern about them. I am poor, but must be very much poorer, indeed, when I even think of demanding them." He was in his roundabout way begging but, nevertheless, recognized the impoverished condition of the writing life, or the reading life, for that matter, and by extension, the teaching life, which, of course, shares that same condition. And teachers are accustomed not to beg, even for what they think they are worth. It must be this same notion that makes writers and teachers demand so much of themselves, but expect so little pecuniary reward for their efforts. Some strange code of honor is at work here -- more akin to the monastery, a code of self-denial that in the end breeds all sorts of mischief.