I need to know several things about this story for a project. How much was he paid? What was his inspiration for the story? When and In what magazine or book or newspaper was it published? Remeber the story is "The Masque of Red Death" Please help out if you know the answers!! Thank you!

-- Anonymous, November 05, 2003

Answers

April, May 1842. It appeared first in Graham's Magazine and in others. He was let go from Graham's at exactly this time even though he had increased sales 400%. He was trying to launch his own Penn magazine. His salary was $800 a year with extra for individual pieces.

Virginia had burst a blood vessel in January. Some preminiscent gloom descends on his works "The Raven" after this. The allegory of plague as in the earlier "King Pest" is set back in something like a medieval setting(Annabel Lee, Hopfrog) told in third person narrative for distance and suggestivity and a rare supernatural device.

-- Anonymous, November 06, 2003