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Edgar Allan Poe's Writings in the Alexander's Weekly Messenger


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These items are arranged chronologically, divided by volumes as defined by the periodical.

Scroll down, or select volume:

  Vol. III (1839);   Vol. IV (1840)

 


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Vol. III (January - December, 1839)

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1839 - December 18 (vol III, no. 50)

  • Misc. - “[Article on Beet-Root]” (first printing) (p. 2, col. 3)
  • Misc. - “Enigmatical and Conundrum-ical” (first printing) (p. 4, cols. 1-2)

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Vol. IV (January - December 1840)

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1840 - January 1 (vol. IV, no. 1)

  • Criticism - The New York Mirror (first printing) (p. 4, col. 6)

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1840 - January 15 (vol. IV, no. 3)

  • Misc. - “The Daguerreotype” (first printing) (p. 2, cols. 1-2)
  • Misc. - “Enigmatical”  (first printing)  (p. 2, col. 4)

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1840 - January 22 (vol. IV, no. 4)

  • Misc. - “Another Poser”  (first printing)  (p. 2, col. 5)

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1840 - January 29 (vol. IV, no. 5)

  • Misc. - “The Bloodhound Story”   (p. 2, cols. 3-4)
  • Misc. - “Yet Another Poser”  (p. 2, col. 4)
  • Criticism - “Burton's Gentleman's Magazine”  (first printing)  (p. 2, col. 6)
  • Essay - “Instinct vs Reason — A Black Cat”  (first printing)  (p. 2, cols. 6-7)

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1840 - February 5 (vol. IV, no. 6)

  • Misc. - “Still Another [Poser]”  (first printing)  (p. 2, col. 3)

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1840 - February 12 (vol. IV, no. 7)

  • Criticism - “Tennyson vs Longfellow”  (first printing)  (p. 2, cols. 3-4)
  • Misc. - “Swimming”  (first printing)  (p. 2, col. 4)
  • Misc. - “Our Late Puzzles”  (first printing)  (p. 2, col. 4)

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1840 - February 19 (vol. IV, no. 8)

  • Misc. - “Our Puzzles — Again!”  (first printing)  (p. 2, cols. 2-3)

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1840 - February 26 (vol. IV, no. 9)

  • Misc. - “Thomas Paine”  (first printing)  (p. 2, col. 3) (this piece was considered questionable by C. S. Brigham, and ultimately rejected by Mabbott)
  • Misc. - “Advertising Oddities”  (first printing)  (p. 2, col. 4)
  • Misc. - “More of the Puzzles”  (first printing) (p. 2, col. 4)
  • Misc. - “Our Puzzles Once More”  (first printing) (p. 4, cols. 3-5)

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1840 - March 4 (vol. IV, no. 10)

  • Misc. - “Revivals” (first printing) (p. 2, col. 2)
  • Misc. - “More of the Puzzles” (first printing) (p. 2, col. 3)
  • Misc. - “[[Solution to a Cypher]]” (first printing) (p. 4, col. 1)   (H&C call this “To T. S. of Boquet”)

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1840 - March 11 (vol. IV, no. 11)

  • Misc. - Puzzles Again! (first printing) (p. 2, col. 3)

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1840 - March 18 (vol. IV, no. 12)

  • Misc. - “The Rail-Road War”  (first printing) (p. 2, col. 3)
  • Criticism - Notice of the Virginia Star   (first printing) (p. 2, col. 4)
  • Criticism - Notice of The Young Gardiner's Assistant   (first printing) (p. 2, col. 3)  (H&C call this “On Hirst & Dreer”)

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1840 - March 25 (vol. IV, no. 13)

  • Misc. - “Puzzles Again!” (first printing) (p. 2, col. 6)

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1840 - April 1 (vol. IV, no. 14)

  • Misc. - “The Trial of James Wood”  (first printing)  (p. 2, col. 2)
  • Misc. - “Disinterment’  (first printing) (p. 2, col. 2)  (this piece was considered questionable by C. S. Brigham, but ultimately accepted by Mabbott)
  • Misc. - “Cabs”  (first printing)  (p. 2, col. 5)
  • Criticism - Review of Burton's Gentleman's Magazine  (first printing)  (p. 2, col. 5)

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1840 - April 8 (vol. IV, no. 15)

  • Misc. - “Cyphers”  (first printing)  (p. 2, col. 2)

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1840 - April 15 (vol. IV, no. 16)

  • Misc. - “Revivals”  (first printing)  (p. 2, cols. 4-5)
  • Misc. - “The Worm”  (first printing)  (p. 2, col. 5)

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1840 - April 22 (vol. IV, no. 17)

  • Misc. - “Cyphers Again”   (first printing)  (p. 2, col. 3)
  • Misc. - “A Long Leap”   (first printing)  (p. 2, col. 4)
  • Misc. - “Changing Seats”   (first printing)  (p. 4, col. 1)

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1840 - April 29 (vol. IV, no. 18)

  • Misc. - “Cyphers”   (first printing)  (p. 2, col. 4)
  • Misc. - “A Charlatan!”   (first printing)  (p. 2, cols. 4-5)

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1840 - May 6 (vol. IV, no. 19)

  • Misc. - “Changing Seats”  (first printing)  (p. 2, col. 2)
  • Misc. - “Credulity”  (first printing)  (p. 2, col. 2)
  • Misc. - “The Daguerreotype”  (first printing)  (p. 2, col. 2)
  • Criticism - “Bulwer Used Up”  (first printing)  (p. 2, col. 4)
  • Misc. - “Best Conundrum Yet”  (first printing)  (p. 2, col. 6)

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Notes:

Alexander's Weekly Messenger was published every Wednesday. As a newspaper, it followed a common approach of one volume each year, with periods running from January-December. Poe's connection with the magazine seems not to have started until the June 1839 issue, when he joined Burton's Gentleman's Magazine and ended after May 6, 1840, when he somewhat unceremoniously left Burton's employ.

All of the entries listed above were initially identified and reprinted by Clarence S. Brigham in “Edgar Allan Poe's Contributions to Alexander's Weekly Messenger,” Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society, April 1942, 52:45-124. (This article was reprinted as a separate item in 1943, using the original text but with altered pagination, reflecting its status as an independent article rather than one of a series of articles.)

Because nothing appears in this newspaper with Poe's signature, all items are attributed based on contents and style. All of the items attributed to Poe by C. S. Brigham have been included in this bibliography. H&C give the same items, from the same source, omitting only “Thomas Paine” and “Disinterment.” In his notes at the University of Iowa, dated June 26, 1961, Mabbott comments that “Two pieces were regarded with doubt; one of these, an anecdote of Thomas Paine, now seems to be almost surely by someone else . . . the other . . . now seems to me pretty clearly Poe's.”

 

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