[page v, unnumbered:]

The lack of uniformity in spelling is intentional, being found also in the original used for copy.

At the head of each tale will be found information as to the dates of all early printings.

The figures 1840, 1843, 1845, refer to the collected editions of those dates: “Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque,” 2 vols., Philadelphia, Lea & Blanchard, 1840; “Prose Romances of Edgar Allan Poe,” Philadelphia, 1843; “Tales by Edgar A. Poe,” New York, Wiley & Putnam, 1845 (Duyckinck Selection).