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This volume was first issued about mid-April of 1839. (The Philadelphia Saturday Courier of April 20, 1839 includes a brief notice about the book “now before us.” The Daily National Intelligencer, a newspaper printed in Washington DC, has a letter in the issue for May 14, 1839. The letter includes the statement: “EDGAR POE, who was a clever writer in WHITES’S Richmond Messenger not long since, is just out with a very pleasant book on conchology.” (p. 3, a letter titled “Metropolitan Gossipings,” and dated May 10, 1839). A second edition was dated on the title page as 1840 (available about September 11, 1839), and a third (without Poe's name) appeared in 1845. The number of copies printed is uncertain.
The Conchologist's First Book (1839, 1840 and 1845)
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12mo (6 7/8 in x 4 1/4 in also 7 1/4 in x 4 3/8 in). Pages [1] - 156, with 12 lithographed plates, colored in some copies. (The 1992 catalogue of the 19th Century Shop includes a possibly unique 1840 edition with colored plates.)
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There are so many surviving copies of these volumes that a complete listing is impractical and unnecessary. This census records copies of special interest. The provenance of each entry is established as authoritatively as possible, given the sketchy and often convoluted bits of information available. In nearly all case, the chain of owners has gaps, especially among the early owners, whose names are generally known only if the owner left an inscription.
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[S:0 - JAS] - Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore - Works - Editions - The Conchologist's First Book (1839)