[page li, continued:]

POE’S MARKINGS in THE BROADWAY JOURNAL

During the fall of 1848 Poe was courting the widow Sarah Helen Whitman of Providence (see Quinn, 572-592). On a brief visit to Providence, late in October, as a sort of pre-engagement present, he offered her a copy of the two volumes of the Broadway Journal with his own marginal and intertextual notations. On the top of the Index to volume 1, then bound at the front of the first volume, she wrote the following: “Given to S. H. W. by E. A. P. / October 1848.” In the upper right-hand corner of the first page of volume 2, she wrote: “From S. H. Whitman. / March 27, 1874.” The documents in the Ingram collection, now in the University of Virginia, explain her annotation, concerning her sending the volumes to John Ingram in England for his life of Poe and edition of his works (see Hull, p. 518-19). Somewhat inaccurately, she wrote: “Every anonymous article or paragraph written by him has the pencilled letter P. appended to it. He added these letters in giving me the volume.” [page lii:] The last sentence may explain numerous omissions — or else he ignored articles that did not seem important or even tactful three years later. Harrison explains the further fate, their being owned by F. R. Halsey by 1902 (Works, 12: vii-ix) who enabled him to use the markings — rather carelessly, we think now. Finally, they were sold to the Huntington Library of San Marino, California, which has made photostats of the autographed pages available to the University of Virginia and a microfilm to Duke University. My study-copy of all the notations comes primarily from the Duke University microfilm; the Huntington Library has responded to queries about obscure markings. Apparently Mrs. Whitman sometimes strengthened the penciled marks of Poe, but the letters of his name and his writing in general are consistent and undoubtedly authentic.

The markings are of several types as appear in my reproduction of all of those occurring in the text of my own composite volume 1. There is, first, the initialed identification of articles with a printed “P” through an inserted “P” or “E.A.P.” (twice). These are frequently added after long reviews or the “Editorial Miscellany” feature of each week's issue. Sometimes, one should note, the “P” is not placed at the very end of the article or after a section of it; occasionally this may imply that another hand finished the article or the column, but this is rare. In volume 2, Poe had almost no coadjutor for any of his columns, save for music, drama, and art (i.e., Watson).

Other marks were made by Poe either over the text or in the margins: sidelinings of a portion of the text, underlinings, and, occasionally, an “x” in the margin or a large “X” over a portion of the text (202). The last one I have inserted only over the margin at that point, since I did not wish to interfere with the reading of the text, indicating the matter in the related note. Sometimes Poe pointed Mrs. Whitman's attention to another part of the text by a cross reference (see p. 28). He sometimes wrote a short message concerning the text (see p. 23) and in a few places inscribed a hint of some opinion, through a question mark (pp. 21, 157). Finally, he occasionally corrected a blunder in the margin or wrote a word of explication or substitution (pp. 2, 244). There are many more markings that appear in the texts that are excluded from my composite volume: all the tales and poems by Poe and all of the material written by others, especially Briggs. It is true that Poe rarely notates other writers' material, but occasionally he singles out a passage for sidelining, and these must be omitted. One comment in Poe's autograph, at the top of the first page — entirely by Briggs, perhaps deserves to be recorded here: “N.B. It was not until No. 10 that I had anything to do with this journal as Editor”

The method of inscribing the Poe markings on the facsimile [page liii:] text needs mention. The lay-out artist and, occasionally, I too reproduced the initials as closely as we could, in the same “spot” on the column. This would also be true of all comments, single words, and phrases. The few underlinings and the various “x” marks we drew in. The sidelinings we “traced” from special sheets of prepared “rules” together with the brackets that ended these lines, so that their blackness and “frame” would cause them to stand out on the page.

Below are the pages on which there are one or more Poe markings in my composite text. Wherever the page has at least one initial for Poe's name, I have added an asterisk to the page number. Otherwise, most of the unstarred numbers designate sidelinings only.

Volume 1: 2, 8*, 15*, 18*, 21*, 23, 28, 29, 34*, 37*, 41*, 54, 57*, 60, 69, 70*, 74, 77, 78*, 81*, 83, 86*, 88, 91*, 96*, 98*, 105, 111, 115*, 116*, 117*, 123, 127*, 134*, 135, 143*, 154, 155*, 157.

Volume 2: 164, 167*, 169*, 170, 171*, 177, 178*, 182*, 184*, 189*, 190*, 202, 205*, 206*, 210*, 211*, 212*, 218*, 219, 222*, 223*, 224*, 229, 230*, 231*, 232, 237, 240*, 241*, 244*, 250, 251*, 253*, 254*, 256, 257*, 258, 263*, 264, 267*, 271, 275*, 276*, 277, 278*, 279, 280*, 283, 284*, 290*, 294*, 295, 297*, 299*, 300*, 312, 313, 315*, 318, 319*, 321*, 324, 325*, 326, 332*, 334, 335, 336, 337, 338*, 339*, 340*, 344, 347, 348*, 351, 355, 356, 357, 358*, 359.