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The Broadway Journal (New York, NY)



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The Broadway Journal is the only periodical over which Poe ever managed to secure complete editorial control. Unfortunately, it was so mired under financial problems that he was unable to keep it running.

A full set of images of the Broadway Journal, with TEI marked text and a good listing of the various authors and contributors, is a special project of LSU: https://broadway.dsl.lsu.edu

 


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The Broadway Journal (Richmond, VA)

 


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Description:

Full Title: The Broadway Journal (January 4, 1845 - January 3, 1846)

Issued: The Broadway Journal: Vols. I-II (January 4, 1845 - January 3, 1846) (The last issue was not widely circulated.)

Editor(s): Charles F. Briggs  (January 4, 1845 - February 22, 1845); Charles F. Briggs, Edgar A. Poe and Henry C. Watson (March 1, 1845 - June 28, 1845); Edgar A. Poe and Henry C. Watson (July 12, 1845 - October 18, 1845); Edgar A. Poe (October 25, 1845 - January 3, 1846)

Publisher(s): John Bisco (January 4, 1845 - October 18, 1845); Edgar A. Poe (October 25, 1845 - January 3, 1846)

Location: New York, NY (originally 153 Broadway Street, and later 135 Nassau Street)

 


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Bibliographic data:

The Broadway Journal was issued every Saturday. Each issue contained 16 pages, without a wrappers, loosely classified as a large royal octavo. Although most surviving copies were accumulated into full volumes, and rebound in cloth or leather, some isolated issues appear never to have been bound or part of a set. Trimmed page size: 11 1/4 inches high x 7 3/4 wide. Untrimmed page size: 11 1/2 inches wide x 8 inches high.

AMS Press printed a facsimile edition, in 2 volumes, in 1965. The facsimile matches the original fairly closely in width, but is slightly reduced in height.

 


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Census of Copies:

There are many copies of individual issues the Broadway Journal, and several complete or nearly complete sets. (Circulation problems with the January 3, 1846 number have left many sets lacking this final issue.) A few copies are worthy of particular note:

  • The “Whitman” set of volumes I and II. Given by Poe to Sarah Helen Whitman, this set includes a number of pencil notations, made by Poe, identifying many articles as his. On the title page of volume I is the inscription: “To S. H. W. from E. A. P.” and on the top of the index to volume I Mrs. Whitman's note “Given to S. H. W. by E. A. P. [[new line]] October 1848.” There are also a number of notes, in Poe's hand, which are of considerable interest. On the top of the first page of volume I, no. 1, Poe wrote: “N. B. -- It was not until No. 10 that I had anything to do with this journal as Editor” (quoted by Pollin, IV, p. lii).In the issue of September 27, 1845, Poe wrote: “N. B. -- The poem which I sent you [[To Helen]] contained all the events of a dream which occurred to me soon after I knew you [[new line]] Ligeia was also suggested by a dream. Observe the eyes in both tale & poem” (quoted by Mabbott, Poems, p. 444). In addition, there are several other marks, such as words or paragraphs which are underlined or minor corrections. By the reprint of “Morella,” along the margin of page 388, Poe wrote: “Jane Stannard  Helen Stannard  Helen Whitman — Helen  Ellen  Elenore  Lenore!” (Mabbott, Poems, p. 331). This set is currently at the Huntington Library. (The Whitman copy is also partly described by Pollin, volume 4, pp. li-liii.) About 1902, the set was owned by F. R. Halsey, who allowed it to be examined by J. A. Harrison.
  • Susan Jaffe Tane, a private collector, owns John Bisco's set of volumes I-II. This set includes several letters to Bisco from S. Elliot Cabot, J. R. Winser, N. P. Willis and B. B. Minor. It also includes a receipt, in Poe's hand, for contributions to the Broadway Journal.

 


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Bibliography:

  • Campbell, Killis, “Bibliographical Notes on Poe — I,” (The Nation, LXXXIX, No. 2321, December 23, 1909), pp. 623-624 and “News for Bibliophiles,” (The Nation, XCIII, No. 2416, October 19, 11), pp. 362-363. (In the first of these articles, Campbell, commenting on the Harrison edition of Poe's works (1902), lists a large number of items from The Broadway Journal which he thinks Harrison had mistakenly omitted. In the second article, Campbell mentions one other item. Reflecting in 1933 on his earlier bibliographcial surveys of Poe, Campbell comments, “See the Nation of December 23, 1909, pp. 623 f., for a list of some twenty-five brief articles published in these magazines [The Broadway Journal, etc.] which are probably Poe's, but which have not yet been fully authenticated” (“The Poe Canon,” The Mind of Poe, 1933, p. 236, footnote 3).)
  • Heartman, Charles F. and James R. Canny, A Bibliography of First Printings of the Writings of Edgar Allan Poe, Hattiesburg, Mississippi: The Book Farm, 1943, pp. 249-262.
  • Hull, William Doyle, A Canon of the Critical Works of Edgar Allan Poe, With a Study of Poe as Editor and Reviewer, unpublished doctoral dissertation, The University of Virginia, 1941. (Hull's “Guide to the Canon for the Broadway Journal” and his discussions about Poe and the Broadway Journal)
  • Mabbott, Thomas Ollive, ed., The Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe, vols. I: Poems and II - III: Tales & Sketches, Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1978.  (In particular, vol. I, pp. 331 and 444)
  • Mott, Frank Luther, “The Broadway Journal,” A History of American Magazines, pp. 757-762.
  • Phillips, Mary E., Edgar Allan Poe the Man, Chicago: John C. Winston Co., 2 vols, 1926, (numerous references). (volume 1 and volume 2)
  • Pollin, Burton R., The Collected Writings of Edgar Allan Poe: Volumes 3 and 4: Writings in The Broadway Journal, Nonfictional Prose, New York: The Gordian Press, 1986.  (Volume 3 presents the actual texts for this edition, reproduced photographically from the original issues, and volume 4 presents Pollin's notes. For the original text, the layout and arrangements of columns, has been adjusted to appropriately fit the pages and selection of items for the book.)
  • Quinn, Arthur H., Edgar Allan Poe, A Critical Biography, 1941 (numerous references).
  • Tane, Susan Jaffe and Gabriel McKee, Evermore: The Persistence of Poe — The Edgar Allan Poe Collection of Susan Jaffe Tane, New York: The Grolier Club, 2014, pp. 95-99 and pp. 164-165, items 133 amd 134.

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[S:0 - JAS] - Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore - Editions - The Broadway Journal