E A Poe Drunk, Poor. Just like me!

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) -- In a letter acquired by U of Virginia, Edgar Allan Poe apologizes to his publishers for drinking too much and asks them to buy an article because he's "desperately pushed for money"

The 1842 letter blames a friend for his drinking too many "juleps" and for misbehaving on a visit to New York.

"Will you be so kind enough to put the best possible interpretation upon my behaviour while in N-York?," Poe asks New York publishers J. and Henry G. Langley. "You must have conceived a queer idea of me - but the simple truth is that Wallace would insist upon the juleps, and I knew not what I was either doing or saying."

He closes the letter expressing his hopes that he'll see the Langleys again "under better auspices." The enclosed article was rejected, but published elsewhere later that year.