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Broadway Journal was a short-lived New York City-based newspaper founded by Charles Frederick Briggs and John Bisco in 1844 and was published from January 1845 to January 1846. In its first year, the publication was bought by Edgar Allan Poe, becoming the only periodical he ever owned, though it failed after only a few months under his leadership.
On February 21, 1845, Edgar Allan Poe signed a year-long contract to become an editor of the publication. He also agreed to write at least one page worth of original material per week. He received one-third of the profits as well.Silverman, Kenneth. Edgar A. Poe: Mournful and Never-ending Remembrance. New York: Harper Perennial, 1991: 244. Soon, however, Poe's caustic reputation as a critic began to bother Briggs and he intended to get rid of both Poe and Bisco. He was, however, unsuccessful in finding new financial backers when Bisco raised his price. Poe, for a time, considered selling his own portion of the journal to Evert Augustus Duyckinck or Cornelius Mathews.Bittner, William. Poe: A Biography. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1962: 209. Briggs tried to buy out Bisco, who asked for more money than Briggs was willing to pay.Thomas, Dwight & David K. Jackson. The Poe Log: A Documentary Life of Edgar Allan Poe, 1809–1849. Boston: G. K. Hall & Co., 1987: 548. By June, however, Briggs resigned due to financial difficulties and, in October, Bisco sold his part of the newspaper to Poe for $50 (Poe paid with a note endorsed by Horace Greeley).Sova, Dawn B. Edgar Allan Poe: A to Z. New York: Checkmark Books, 2001: 27–28. Poe, then, had full editorial control and ownership of the Broadway Journal.
Poe published new versions of many of his works, including "The Masque of the Red Death," "The Oval Portrait," and others. He also continued his role as a literary critic, including accusations of plagiarism against Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. He also used the Broadway Journal for a very public flirtation with Frances Sargent OsgoodKennedy, J. Gerald. A Historical Guide to Edgar Allan Poe. "A Brief Biography." New York: Oxford University Press, 2001. p. 52–53. and to raise money for his never-realized dream of a new magazine to be named The Stylus.Silverman, Kenneth. Edgar A. Poe: Mournful and Never-ending Remembrance. New York: Harper Perennial, 1991: 273.
Poe was unable to keep the publication financially successful, though he had hoped to turn it around. A loan of $50 from Rufus Wilmot Griswold in October 1845 helped sustain it for a short time.Campbell, Killis. "The Poe-Griswold Controversy", The Mind of Poe and Other Studies. New York: Russell & Russell, Inc., 1962: 66–67. In a November 15, 1845, letter to friend and poet Thomas Holley Chivers he vowed, "I will make a fortune of it yet."Quinn, Arthur Hobson. Edgar Allan Poe: A Critical Biography. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998: 491. . Even so, the publication officially ended with a final issue dated January 3, 1846, which included the valedictory:
After taking over full control of the Journal, Poe had asked for the support of friends. Referring to this after its closure, Cornelia Walter of the Boston Evening Transcript wrote a poem:
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