Edgar Allan Poe — “The Conqueror Worm”

Reading copy:

• “The Conqueror Worm” — reading copy

Manuscripts and Authorized Printings:

• Text-01 — “The Conqueror Worm” — 1842, no original manuscript or fragments are known to exist (but this version is presumably recorded in Text-02)
• Text-02 — “ “The Conqueror Worm” — January 1843 — Graham’s — (Mabbott text A)
• Text-03 — “The Conqueror Worm” — February 25 and March 4, 1843 — Saturday Museum — (Mabbott text B)
  • Text-04 — “The Conqueror Worm” — February 25, 1843  (no surviving copies located)
  • “The Conqueror Worm” — March 4, 1843  (from February 25, 1843)
• Text-04 — “The Conqueror Worm” — February 15, 1845 — in “Ligeia,” New World — (Mabbott text C)
• Text-05 — “ The Conqueror Worm” — May 24, 1845 — Broadway Journal — (Mabbott text D)
• Text-06 — “ The Conqueror Worm “ — September 27, 1845 — in “Ligeia,” Broadway Journal — (Mabbott text E)
• Text-07 — “The Conqueror Worm” — 1845 — RAOP — (Mabbott text F)
• Text-08 — “The Conqueror Worm” — about March 1847 — “Griswold” manuscript, lost but presumably recorded in Text-09 — Text 08  (Mabbott text G)  (J.H. Whitty, in his edition of Poe’s poems, 1911, p. 224, claims to have seen this manuscript, but does not record the text nor where he saw it. He comments: “A MS. copy of the poem, originally sent to Griswold by Poe and noted in Griswold’s hand ‘Last poem sent by Poe,‘ has been compared. It follows the early texts with slight punctuation changes.” Whitty first mentions this manuscript in “New Poe Poems and Manuscripts Found,” New York Sun, also printed, on the same date, in the Baltimore American. In that article, he comments only: “It was also thought that no manuscript copy of his poem The Conqueror Worm was in existence, but one has been discovered.” Although no date is given, it seems most reasonable that Poe sent the poem as the new edition of Griswold’s anthology was in preparation.)
• Text-09 — “The Conqueror Worm” — May 29, 1847 — Poets and Poetry of America (8th edition) — (Mabbott text H)
• Text-10 — “The Conqueror Worm” — 1849 — minor manuscript changes in the J. L. Graham copy of RAOP — (Mabbott text J)  (This is Mabbott’s copy-text)

Reprints:

• “The Conqueror Worm” — about September 1849 — Richmond Examiner proof sheets — (the text given by Whitty matches Text 10 almost exactly. It may be surmised that the Examiner text was set from Poe’s copy of RAOP. Strangely, Whitty does not list the J. L. Graham copy of RAOP in his versions of this poem, although he does include two references to this volume in the variants.)
• “The Conqueror Worm” — 1850 — in “Ligeia” WORKS — Griswold merely reprints Text 06  (Mabbott text K)
• “The Conqueror Worm” — 1850 — WORKS — Griswold merely reprints Text 07  (Mabbott text L)
• “The Conqueror Worm” — 1875 — The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, vol 3: Poems  and Essays, ed. J. H. Ingram, Edinburgh, Adam and Charles Black (3:21-22)

Scholarly and Noteworthy Reprints:

• “The Conqueror Worm” — 1894-1895 — The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, vol. 10: Poems, ed. G. E. Woodberry and E. C. Stedman, Chicago: Stone and Kimball (10:33-34, and p. 182)
• “The Conqueror Worm” — 1902 — The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe, vol. 7: Poems, ed. J. A. Harrison, New York: T. Y. Crowell (10:87-88, and 10:204)
• “The Conqueror Worm” — 1911 — The Complete Poems of Edgar Allan Poe, Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Co. (pp. 36-37, and pp. 224-225)
• “The Conqueror Worm” — 1917 — The Poems of Edgar Allan Poe, ed. Killis Campbell, Boston: Ginn and Company (pp. 105-106, and pp. 242-243)
• “The Conqueor Worm” — 1965 — The Poems of Edgar Allan Poe, ed. Floyd Stovall, Charlottesville: The University Press of Virginia (pp. 91-92, and pp. 257-258)
• “The Conqueror Worm” — 1969 — The Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe, vol. 1: Poems, ed. T. O. Mabbott, Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press (1:323-328)

Instream Comparative Texts:

• None

Plain Text Files for Juxta:

• None

Miscellaneous Texts and Related Items:

• “Le Ver Vainqueur” — dated 2009, but available in late 2008 — Poèmes d‘Edgar Allan Poe, Paris: Publibook (translation by Jean Hautepierre)

Forgeries:

• “The Conqueror Worm” — (Fragment, 1 leaf, measuring 7 1/4 x 6 inches, beginning with the line: “[. . .] But see amid the mimic rout [. . .],” and continuing to the end of the poem. At the end appears Poe’s name and the notation “Decr. 9, 1842.” The text is written in what appears to be brown ink, running from left to right edges, on only one side of the page. Along the right edge of the page runs a note that reads “Published first in 1843 in Graham’s Magazine also in Broadway Journal,” with the signature of John R. Thompson. Although the appearance is somewhat convincing, there are several obvious problems. Thompson, for example, was the editor of the Southern Literary Messenger during Poe’s final years, and thus an odd choice to validate a manuscript with which he should have no plausible connection. More troublesome, the date of 1842 clearly indicates the earliest version, but the text includes variants made only later. The fragment was offered as a genuine Poe manuscript by New England Book Auctions, Sale Number 366, October 21, 2008, as item 205, with an estimate of $20,000-$30,000, but was promptly retracted from sale over doubts about its authenticity. It was in the collection of Richard Oinonen, who died in 2001, and is probably the work of Joseph Cosey. It may have been kept by Mr. Oinonen as an example of a forgery by someone who was notably notorious in the field, especially for his Poe forgeries.)

• Heartman, Charles F. and James R. Canny, A Bibliography of First Printings of the Writings of Edgar Allan Poe, Hattiesburg, MS: The Book Farm, 1943.
• Lubbers, Klaus, “Poe’s ‘The Conqueror Worm‘,” American Literature, 1967, 39:375-379
• Mabbott, Thomas Ollive, ed., The Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe (Vol 1 Poems), Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1969.
• Routh, James, “Notes on the Sources of Poe’s Poetry: Coleridge, Keats, Shelley,” Modern Language Notes, March 1914, 29:72-75
• Tritt, Michael, “ ‘Ligeia‘ and ‘The Conqueror Worm‘,” Poe Studies, 1976, 9:21-22
• Whitty, James Howard, ed., The Complete Poems of Edgar Allan Poe, Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co, 1911