Poe is unique among the great American writers of his generation in having spent a portion of his childhood in England. This period of his life is important because for the first time we are able to trace a definite influence in his later fiction from the scenes in which he moved and thought and felt. The first essential, of course, before any analysis of the influences of his early schooling can be made, is to dispel at least one of the myths which tradition and the industry of his previous biographers have created. Fortunately, I have been able, through certain letters of John Allan to his Scottish relatives, and their replies, which had remained unpublished in the Valentine Museum, to trace more clearly the movements of Poe during the first year of his stay in Britain. As before, it is best to let these letters, combined with those in the Library of Congress, tell their own story.
             On July 29, 1815, John Allan wrote to his partner in Richmond, "I am now on English ground after an absence of more than 20 years. After a passage of 34 days all well-Frances and Nancey were very sick but are now perfectly Hearty. Edgar was a little sick but soon recovered. . . . We got here yesterday at 5 P. M. I took our abode at Mr. Lillymans Hotel today." 1
             Edgar Poe's first experience of travel was evidently made very unpleasant by the penurious attitude of the Captain, and John Allan wrote to the owners in Norfolk, protesting that he had to sleep on the floor and "the Females of my Family were denied the privileges of Fire to broil a slice of Bacon." They evidently provided their own stores, and wood was short. 2 Allan was still at Liverpool on August 6th when he writes to R. F. Gwathmey, who was shipping guns to America, and Gwathmey writes to Allan at Kilmarnock in Scotland in care of his brother-in-law, Allan Fowlds, on August 11th.
             When Edgar Poe entered the University of Virginia on February 14, 1826, the University had only one year...