Joseph Cosey, forged Edgar Allan Poe letter dated December 7, 1847 letter to author and editor N. P. Willis, Home Journal Office, "New York, Dec. 7, '47, My dear Willis, Having just returned from Philadelphia...Yours cordially, Edgar A Poe". (Pencil annotations, good condition) H9" W7 3/4" *Reference: Rendell, Kenneth W. FORGING HISTORY, THE DETECTION OF FAKE LETTERS & DOCUMENTS. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1994. pp.71-77. *Note: Joseph Cosey (1887-1950?) was a US document forger who faked handwriting from US historical figures. Around 1929 Cosey begun to forge documents based on US history. He stole a pay warrant of Benjamin Franklin from the Library of Congress to practice Franklin's handwriting and sold the forgeries for small sums. He later expanded to other historical forgeries. He used old paper, brown ink and writing implements that the original writer would have used. That made his documents so convincing that they fooled several experts. Cosey forged documents and signatures of such US historical figures as George Washington, James Monroe, Mark Twain, Edgar Allan Poe, several fake letters of Abraham Lincoln and documents such as Thomas Jefferson's draft of the United States Declaration of Independence. One of the things that gave him away was that he continued to use the style that historical figures would have used in their prime, when actually their hands would have been shakier in old age. He also began to age modern paper with chemicals. Cosey was arrested in 1937 when he sold a fake letter, supposedly from Lincoln, to a stamp dealer who analyzed it. Cosey was arrested, confessed and was eventually sentenced to three years in prison. He was released when he had served less than a year. He continued to make forged documents until his death.