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Texts and Variant Texts
Reading copy:
- “The Raven” —
reading copy (copy-text is based on Text 00)
Manuscripts and
Authorized
Printings:
- “The Raven” — late 1844, no original
manuscript or
fragments are known to exist (but this version is presumably recorded
in Text 02) — Text 01 (Having completed the poem, Poe travelled
from New York to Philadelphia, probably at the end of 1844 or within
the first
two weeks of 1845. He originally attempted to sell the poem to his
friend George Rex Graham for publication in Graham's Magazine.
Graham, however, not only declined the poem but condemned it, a
decision he would come to regret. Graham did collect $15 for Poe, but
as charity rather than the purchase price for the poem. In part to
correct this mistake in turning down what became an immediate
sensation, Graham published Poe's essay “The Philosophy of Composition”
in 1846, in which Poe describes, somewhat imaginatively, the method by
which he created the poem. When Poe returned to New York, “The Raven”
was then taken to George Hooker
Colton, editor and founder of the newly established American Review,
who printed it in the second
issue, having apparently bought the poem for another $15.)
- “The Raven” —
February
1845
— American Review — Text 02 (Mabbott text A)
- About the time of publication in the American
Review, Poe apparently sent copies of the proof sheets, with a
number of modications, to N. P. Willis (of the Evening Mirror),
J. A. Shea (of the New-York Daily Tribune), B. B. Minor (of the
Southern Literary Messenger), and C. F. Briggs
(of the Broadway Journal) — see items below.
- “The Raven” —
January
29,
1845 — Evening Mirror — Text 03 (Mabbott text B)
- “The Raven” — March
1845 — Southern
Literary
Messenger — Text 04 (Mabbott text C)
- “The Raven” —
February
3, 1845 — manuscript revision of lines 60-66 (in a letter to
J. Augustus Shea) — Text 05 (Mabbott text D)
- “The Raven” —
February 4, 1845 — New-York
Daily
Tribune — Text 06 (Mabbott text E) (Noted as “From the American
Review for
February,“
although Poe is given as the author, first acknowledged in the Evening
Mirror. This version incorporates the changes Poe requested in his
letter to J. A. Shea.)
- “The Raven” —
February 8, 1845 — Broadway
Journal — Text 07 (Mabbott text F)
- “The
Raven” — May 24, 1845 — lines 3-4
only (in a review of the poems of William Lord), Broadway
Journal — Text 08 (Mabbott text G)
- “The Raven” — 1845
— RAOP — Text 09 (Mabbott text J)
- “The Raven” — late
1845 or 1846 —
manuscript
revision of
lines
103-108 — Text 10 (Mabbott text K)
- “The Raven” —
December 1845
— Literary
Emporium — Text 11 (Mabbott text L) (The subtitle of this
journal is “A Compendium of Religious Literary
and
Philosophical Knowledge”)
- “The Raven”
— April
1846 — several stanzas, and a few isolated lines, quoted in “The
Philosophy of Composition,” Graham's
— Text 12 (Mabbott text M)
- “The Raven” — July
25, 1846
— Saturday
Courier (Philadelphia) — Text 13 (Mabbott text N)
- “The Raven” — May
29, 1847 — Poets
and
Poetry
of
America (8th edition) — Text 14 (Mabbott text P) (The poem
continued to
appear in later editions)
- “The
Raven” — January 1848 — Southern
Literary Messenger (numerous lines quoted in an article by P. P.
Cooke, originally requested by Poe for his book on Literary America,
which was not completed) — Text
15
(Mabbott text Q)
- “The Raven” —
September 1848
— “Whittaker”
manuscript — Text 16 (Mabbott text R) (Poe sent the MS to
Eli Bowen about the end of
September 1848, apparently in reply to a request from Bown for his
friend, Dr. Whittaker. Bowen
transmitted it to Dr. S. A. Whittaker on September 25, 1848.)
- “The Raven” —
1846-1849 — RAOP-JLG (manuscript
revisions in
J. Lorimer Graham copy of RAOP) — Text 17 (Mabbott text
S)
(For Griswold's printing of this text, see WORKS, under
reprints, below)
- “The Raven” —
September
25,
1849 — Semi-Weekly Examiner — Text 18 (Mabbott
text T) (This is Mabbott's copytext) (This is generally
accepted
as the final authorized version of the text. It beings with an
introductory note by John M. Daniel.)
Reprints:
- “The Raven” — February 3, 1845 — New
York Morning
News
(First documented by Tanselle and noted
in Poe
Newsletter, October 1968, p. 30)
- “The Raven” — February 8, 1845 — Weekly
Mirror
- “The Raven” — February 8, 1845 — New-York
Weekly
Tribune
- “The Raven” — February 15, 1845 — Howard
District Press
(Maryland)
- “The Raven” — February 15, 1845 — Pennsylvania
Inquirer
and
National Gazette (Philadelphia) (not in H&C. Noted in 1992 “The
Poe Catalogue,” of the 19th Century Bookshop, p. 75. The poem appears
there
under the heading “A Beautiful Poem.”)
- “The Raven” — February 21, 1845
— The Liberator (p. 32)
- “The Raven” — February 22, 1845
— New World (acknowledged as "From the American Review
for Feburary," with the attribution as "By Quarels." (In
the February 15, 1845 issue [p. 108], the New World favorably
noticed the American Review, commenting: "Edgar A. Poe, we
believe under the 'nom de plume' of Quarles, gives a wild and shivery
poem, which he calls the Raven. It is written in a Stanza unknown
before to gods, men, and booksellers, but it fills and delights the ear
strangely with its wild and clashing music. Everybody reads the Poem
and praises it -- justly we think, for it seems to us full of
originality and power.")
- “The Raven” — February 23, 1845
— Western
Literary
Messenger, Buffalo, NY
- “The Raven” — 1845 (published by April
19, 1845) — A
Plain
System of Elocution, by G. Vandenhoff (second edition, New
York)
(Although
this was an unauthorized reprint, it is the first appearance of the
poem
in a book. Later editions do not include the poem. It may have been
removed
by legal pressure.)
- “The Raven” — June 6, 1845 — Massachusetts
Temperance
Standard
(not in H&C. Noted for sale by a dealer on Nov. 8, 2000.)
- “The Raven” — June
14, 1845
— Critic — This is essentially a reprint of Text 08
(Mabbott text H)
- “The Raven” — June 1849 — Lawrence
Messenger (MA) (noted by Ljungquist. No copies of this item
have been located, but the reprint is noted in the Lawrence Courier
for June 16, 1849.)
- “The Raven” — July 26, 1845 — Littel's
Living
Age
- “The Raven” — December 1846 — Ladies
Wreath
and
Literary
Gatherer (Boston)
- “The Raven”— 1848 — Literary
Annual
(This
item is
listed
by H&C, p. 116. The subtitle of this journal is “A Compendium of
Religious
Literary and Philosophical Knowledge.“ It may be a reprint of the Literary
Emporium of 1845 noted above.)
- “The Raven” — November 1, 1848 — Dollar
Newspaper
- “The Raven” — about November 1848 — Hartford
Weekly Gazette
(This
paper was edited by Rufus White Griswold — not to be confused with
Rufus
Wilmot Griswold, the person who edited Poe's works in 1850 and wrote
the
malicious memoir of Poe. Poe mentions the reprint of the poem in a
November
26, 1848 letter to Sarah Helen Whitman.)
- “The Raven” — September 12, 1849 — Oquawka
Spectator
(Printed with the introductory note: “We publish on our first page,
this
week, one of the most remarkable poems ever written. Mr. Poe has long
held
the rank of one of our very best poets, and The Raven is in his best
style.
We bespeak for it a careful perusal. There will be found running
through
it, clothed in a robe of euphonious rhymes and remarkably appropriate
language,
an Idea well worthy of the pen of its author -- the never-dying
existence
of the memory.“)
- “The Raven” — October 9, 1849 — Evening
Patriot
(Baltimore,
MD) (part of an obituary to Poe)
- “The Raven” — October 9, 1849 — Daily
Advertiser
(Newark,
NJ)
- “The Raven” — October 10, 1849 — Gazette
(Alexandria,
VA)
- “The Raven” — October 12, 1849 — Enquirer
(Richmond,
VA)
- “The Raven” — October 12, 1849 — Richmond
Whig
and
Public
Examiner (Richmond, VA) (reprinting the obituary from the Evening Patriot)
- “The Raven” — October 15, 1849 — Daily
Republican
(Richmond,
VA)
- “The Raven” — October 17, 1849 — Scioto
Journal
(Chillicothe,
OH) (reprinted from some unspecified Eastern paper)
- “The Raven” — October 17, 1849 — Louisville
Daily Journal
(Louisville, KY) (only a few stanzas)
- “The Raven” — October 21, 1849 — Mobile
Daily
Advertiser
(Mobile, AL)
- “The Raven” — October 23, 1849 — Daily
Chronicle
and
Sentinel
(Augusta, GA)
- “The Raven” — October 24, 1849 — Pennsylvania
Telegraph
(Harrisburg, PA)
- “The Raven” — November 2, 1849 — True
Whig
(Mount
Vernon,
OH)
- “The Raven” —
November 3,
1849 — M'Makin's Model American Courier (formerly called the
Saturday
Courier) — (Mabbott text U) (Short introductory
notice titled “Poe's Great
Poem,”
followed by “The Raven, by the Late Edgar Allan Poe.”) (This is a
reprint of version “N“.)
- “The Raven” — November 4, 1849 — Literary
American
(NY)
(only 3 stanzas)
- “The Raven” — November 14, 1849 — Corning
Journal
(Corning,
NY)
- “The Raven” — November 22, 1849 — Vincennes
Gazette
(Vincennes, IN)
- “The Raven” — November 1849 — Southern
Baptist
(Charleston,
SC)
- “The Raven” — December 9, 1849 — Weekly
Register
(Mobile,
AL)
- “The Raven” — December 15, 1849 — Boston
Weekly
Museum
and
Literary Portfolio
- “The Raven” — 1850
— WORKS — Griswold prints the
poem from RAOP, with most of
Poe's
corrections from RAOP-JLG (Mabbott text W) (Griswold's
typesetter retains some
punctuation, ignoring Poe's changes, and adds two
new errors)
- “The Raven” — 1850 — Thomas Powell, The
Living
Writers
of
America,
New York: Stringer and Townsend, 1850, pp. 128-131, omitting several
stanzas)
- “The Raven” — 1851 — Parker's
Fourth Reader
(The
poem
is lesson CLXXIV)
- “The Raven” — 1852 — The String of Diamonds,
Gathered from
Many Mines,
by “A Gem Fancier” (copyright is 1851. It also includes “The
Bells,”
and many poems by other poets.)
- “The Raven” — 1852 — Tales and Sketches: to
which is
added The Raven: A Poem, London, George Routledge & Co.
- “The Raven” — 1856 — Cyclopedia of
American
Literature,
New
York: Charles Scribner
- “The Raven” — September 1857 — The
Orator
- “The Raven” — 1858 — Achievements of
Americans, Cincinnati: Henry Howe
(along with “Annabel Lee“)
- “The Raven” — 1858 — Poets of the
Nineteenth
Century
(an anthology edited by Poe's friend Evert A. Duyckinck. “The Raven“ is
one of Poe's most-collected poems, appearing in hundreds of
anthologies.)
- “The Raven” — 1859 — Lovell's
Progressive Readers,
No. 5,
New Haven: Peck, White and Peck (The subtitle reads: “A
Class Book for the use of Advanced Pupils in Public and Private
Schools.” It is edited by John E. Lovell. The copyright date is also
1859, suggesting that this was the first edition.)
- “The Raven” — 1865 — Golden Leaves from
the American
Poets,
collected by John W. S. Hows, New York: Bunce and Huntington (This a
common collection of popular poems includes works by Poe, Emerson,
Longfellow, J. R. Lowell, F. S. Key, Whittier, and others.)
- “The Raven” — 1865 — a new year's greeting
in the form
of a 7 page booklet, on heavy card stock (printed for the Philadelphia
Inquirer. It includes the illustration used in several of the
Widdleton editions of the Poems, although the illustration appears
slightly different and may be reversed.)
- “The Raven” — May 1870 — Deforest's Monthly Magazine (This
printing features 10 pleasant but unremarkable vignette illustrations.
Not surprisingly, the narrator looks a great deal like Poe.)
Included in many collections, of which a few examples will suffice:
- “The Raven” — 1875 — The Works of
Edgar
Allan Poe, vol 3: Poems and Essays, ed. J. H. Ingram, Edinburgh:
Adam and Charles Black
(3:1-5) (Ingram appears to follow Griswold's text, but drops the
"s" from "mortals." It does not appear that Ingram was aware of the J.
L. Graham copy of The Raven and Other Poems with Poe's
corrections.)
- “The Raven” —
1895
— The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, vol. 10: Poems, ed. G. E.
Woodberry and E. C. Stedman,
Chicago: Stone and Kimball (10:5-11, and pp. 154-159)
- “The Raven” — 1902 — The Complete Works of
Edgar Allan Poe, vol. 7: Poems, ed. J. A. Harrison, New York: T. Y.
Crowell (10:94-100, and 10:208-212)
- “The Raven” — 1911 — The Complete Poems of
Edgar Allan Poe, ed. J. H. Whitty, Boston and New York: Houghton
Mifflin Co. (pp.
7-13, and pp. 192-199)
- “The Raven” —
1917
— The Poems of Edgar Allan Poe, ed. Killis Campbell,
Boston: Ginn and Company (pp. 109-114, and pp. 246-259)
- “The Raven” —
1965
— The Poems of Edgar Allan Poe, ed. Floyd Stovall,
Charlottesville: The University Press of Virginia (pp. 95-99, and pp.
259-266)
- “The Raven” —
1969 — The Collected Works of
Edgar Allan Poe, vol. 1: Poems, ed. T. O.
Mabbott, Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press
(1:350-374)
Associated Material and Special versions:
- “Le Corbeau” — (French
translation by Charles Baudelaire.)
- “Der Rabe” — November 6, 1853 — “Literarische
Symptome
in den Vereiniften Staaten,” Magazine
für die Literatur des
Auslandes) (German translation in an article by Elise von
Hohenhausen,
70:278-280)
- “[The Raven]” — 1857 — “Edgar Allan Poe,” Magazin für die Literatur des
Auslandes, 129:513-514 (German translation by Luise von
Ploennis.)
- “Der Rabe” — 1859 — Amerikanische
Gedichte [American Poems]
(German translation by Friederich Spielhagen)
- “De Raaf” — 1861 — Holland (Dutch
translation by Jacob van Lennep) (This information was provided
by René van Slooten, who also notes that a thorough search of
the Royal Library at the Hague produced no other translations of Poe's
works before 1900. Apparently, French was widely spoken in the
Netherlands and Baudelaire's translations were easily available.)
- “Le Corbeau” — 1862 — Contes
inédits d'Edgard Poe (French translation by William
Hughes, with a few stanzas reprinted by Ingram, The Raven, with Literary and Historical
Commentary, London: George Redway, 1885, pp. 41-42.)
- “Der Rabe” — 1862 — Lieder
und Balladenbuch Americanischer und Englischer Dichter, Hamburg
(translation by Adolf Strodtmann, a few verses are reprinted by Ingram,
The Raven, with
Literary and
Historical Commentary, London: George Redway, 1885, pp. 72-73.)
- [“The Raven, in Latin”] — 1866 — Oxford and
London (Latin translation by Ludovicus Gidley and Robinson
Thornton, from a volume of translations called Fasciculus. The translation of “The
Raven“ is reprinted by Ingram, The
Raven, with Literary and Historical Commentary, London: George
Redway, 1885, pp. 79-83.)
- “Der Rabe” — 1869 — Philadelphia (German
translation by Carl
Theodor Eben, reprinted by Ingram, The
Raven, with Literary and Historical Commentary, London: George
Redway, 1885, pp. 60-65)
- “A Hollo” — 1870 — Budapest (Hungarian
Translation by
Endrody, from Nagy Szellemek [Great Men], edited by Thomas Szana,
reprinted by Ingram, The Raven, with
Literary and Historical Commentary, London: George Redway, 1885,
pp. 74-78.)
- “Le Corbeau” — 1875 — French translation by
Stèphane Mallarmé, reprinted by Ingram, The Raven, with Literary and Historical
Commentary, London: George Redway, 1885, pp. 42-48.)
- “[The Raven”] — 1878 — Vestnik Evropy, III)
(Russian
translation by Konstantin Balmont)
- “Der Rabe” — February 28, 1880 — Magazine für die Literatur des
Auslandes) (German translation by Betty Jacobson,
reprinted by Ingram, The Raven, with
Literary and Historical Commentary, London: George Redway, 1885,
pp. 66-71.)
- “El Cuervo” — 1887 — New York: “La America”
Publishing Co) (translation by J. A. Perez Bonalde, with many
illustrations)
- “Poe's Raven” — July 7, 1891 — Pennsylvania
Dutch
translation by H. L. Fischer, 7 pages, printed in Mapleshade, York,
PA) (copy sold by 19th Century Bookshop, 1992, item 510)
- "The Raven" — 1960 — a reading by Nelson Olmsted on The
Raven: Poems and Tales of Edgar Allan Poe, issued on the Vanguard
label (VRS-9046, rereleased as VSD-32)
- "The Raven" — September 1963 — Movie Classics
(a comic-book tie-in, published by Dell, to the API movie)
Forgeries:
- T. O. Mabbott notes that “A 'complete manuscript'
reproduced
in Muse Anthology of Modern Poetry (New York, 1939) is generally
regarded as a recent concoction“ (Poems, 1969, p. 364). This
manuscript
is different from the one in the Gimbel collection (Text 16 above),
which is considered authentic.
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