Edgar Allan Poe received a $100 prize for his story “The Gold-Bug.” He entered the tale in a writing contest sponsored by the Philadelphia Dollar Newspaper, and it won the grand prize in 1843. The newspaper then published the story in installments in June of that year.
The award was especially significant because Poe often struggled financially and earned little from his writing. The $100 payment was probably the largest single sum he received for any one work. Poe had originally sold the story to George Rex Graham for $52, but reclaimed it after learning about the Dollar Newspaper contest; he promised to make up the earlier payment through future reviews.
“The Gold-Bug” became Poe’s most popular prose work during his lifetime. Its plot follows William Legrand, his servant Jupiter, and the narrator as they investigate a golden insect, a buried treasure, and a cryptogram. The story helped popularize secret writing and code-breaking for a broad nineteenth-century readership. The fictional gold bug itself combines features of real beetles found near Sullivan’s Island, South Carolina.