
                                Poe, Edgar Allan

                         Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym

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                                Edgar Allan Poe

                         Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym

                               Introductory Note

Upon my return to the United States a few months ago, after the extraordinary
series of adventure in the South Seas and elsewhere, of which an account is
given in the following pages, accident threw me into the society of several
gentlemen in Richmond, Va., who felt deep interest in all matters relating to
the regions I had visited, and who were constantly urging it upon me, as a duty,
to give my narrative to the public. I had several reasons, however, for
declining to do so, some of which were of a nature altogether private, and
concern no person but myself; others not so much so. One consideration which
deterred me was, that having kept no journal during a greater portion of the
time in which I was absent, I feared I should not be able to write, from mere
memory, a statement so minute and connected as to have the appearance of that
truth it would really possess, barring only the natural and unavoidable
exaggeration to which all of us are prone when detailing events which have had
powerful influence in exciting the imaginative faculties. Another reason was,
that the incidents to be narrated were of a nature so positively marvellous
that, unsupported as my assertions must necessarily be (except by the evidence
of a single individual, and he a half-breed Indian), I could only hope for
belief among my family, and those of my friends who have had reason, through
life, to put faith in my veracity - the probability being that the public at
large would regard what I should put forth as merely an impudent and ingenious
fiction. A distrust in my own abilities as a writer was, nevertheless, one of
the principal causes which prevented me from complying with the suggestions of
my advisers.
    Among those gentlemen in Virginia who expressed the greatest interest in my
statement, more particularly in regard to that portion of it which related to
the Antarctic Ocean, was Mr. Poe, lately editor of the Southern Literary
Messenger, a monthly magazine, published by Mr. Thomas W. White, in the city of
Richmond. He strongly advised me, among others, to prepare at once a full
account of what
