Text-01 — “The Philosophy of Composition” — 1846, no original
manuscript or fragments are known to exist (but this version is presumably recorded in Text-02)
“[The Philosophy of Composition]” — February 16, 1850 — New England
Washingtonian, Boston, MA (reprints 6 paragraphs)
“The Philosophy of Composition” — September 21, 1850 — The New York
Tribune
“The Philosophy of Composition” — 1852 — Tales of Mystery and
Imagination and Humour; and Poems, London: Henry Vizetelly (An undated edition appears about the same time,
published by Charles H. Clark and Samuel Orchart Beeton, and their name appears as publisher for the second
series), second series pp. 121-139 (with no woodcut illustrations)
“The Philosophy of
Composition” — 1875 — The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, ed. J. H. Ingram, Edinburgh, Adam
and Charles Black (3:266-278)
“The Philosophy of Composition” — 1888 — The Complete Poetical
Works and Essays on Poetry of Edgar Allan Poe, ed. John H. Ingram, London and New York: Frederick Warne
& Co. (pp. 175-187)
“The Philosophy of Composition” — 1901 — World's Greatest
Literature: Essays of American Essayists, with an introduction by Chauncy C. Starkweather, New York: P. F.
Collier & Son (pp. 255-266, with introductory information appearing on pp. 253-254) (This essay is the only
item by Poe in this collection)
Scholarly and Noteworthy Reprints:
“The Philosophy of
Composition” — 1895 — The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, vol. 6: Literary Criticism, eds.
E. C. Stedman and G. E. Woodberry, Chicago: Stone and Kimball (6:31-46, and 6:323)
“The Philosophy of
Composition” — 1902 — The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe, ed. J. A. Harrison, New
York: T. Y. Crowell (14:193-208)
“The Philosophy of Composition” — 1909 — Selections from the
Critical Writings of Edgar Allan Poe, ed. Frederick C. Prescott, New York: Henry Holt (pp. 150-166 and
334-337)
“The Philosophy of Composition” — 1917
— The Poems of Edgar Allan Poe, ed. K. Campbell, New York: Ginn and Co. (pp. 318-328)
“The Philosophy of Composition” — 1984 — Edgar Allan Poe: Essays
and Reviews, ed. G. R. Thompson, New York: Library of America (pp. 13-25)
“The Philosophy of
Composition” — 2009 — Edgar Allan Poe: Critical Theory, Stuart and Susan F. Levine,
eds., Chicago: University of Illinois Press (pp. 55-76)
“La génèse d‘un poème” — (French translation by
Charles Baudelaire)
“Méthode de composition” — April 20, 1859 — Revue
française
“La génèse d‘un poème” — 1865 —
Histoires grotesques et sérieuses, Paris: Michel Lévy frères
“Die Philosophie dichterischen Schaffens” — 1862 — Lieder und
Balladenbuch amerikanischer und englischer Dichter der Gegenwart, Hamburg: Hoffman and Campe, pp. 30-47
(German translation by Adolf Strodtmann, noted by Ingram, The Raven, with Literary and Historical
Commentary, London: George Redway, 1885, p. 72. Additional details provided to the Poe Society by Ton
Fafianie, in an e-mail dated October 11, 2018)
La philosophie de composition” — 1889 — Poésies complétes
de Edgar Allan Poe, Paris: Camille Dalou (French translation by Gabriel Mourey)
“The Philosophy of Composition” — 1923 — Representative English
Essays, New York: Harper & Brothers (selected and arranged by Warner Taylor) (This is the only Poe essay
in the book. It is included in a chapter called “Essays on the Art of Writing.”)
“[The Philosophy of Composition]” — 1926 — Trois Manifestes,
Paris: Simon Kra (French translation by René Lalou)
“The Philosophy of Composition” — 2007 — Audio book (unabridged), read
by Chris Aruffo (part of a 5-CD set)
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Bibliography:
Arrojo, Rosemary, “Literature as Fetishism: Some Consequences for a Theory of
Translation,” Meta: Joural des traaducteurs/Translators’ Journal, June 1996, 41:208-216
Bonessio di Terzet, Ettore, “Introduzione,” in La filosofia della
composizione, by Edgar Allan Poe, Milan: Guerrini e Associati, 1995, pp. 11-21
Brown, Arthur A., ‘A Man Who Dies’: Poe, James, Faulkner and the Narrative
Function of Death, PhD disseration, University of California, Davis, 1995
Eddings, Dennis W., “Mad Ravings or Sound Thinking? ‘The Philosophy of
Composition’ and Poe's Parodic Raven,” Edgar Allan Poe: Beyond Gothicism, ed. James M.
Hutchisson, Newark: University of Delaware Press, 2011, pp. 187-200.
Heartman, Charles F. and James R. Canny, A Bibliography of First Printings of the Writings
of Edgar Allan Poe, Hattiesburg, MS: The Book Farm, 1943.
Mabbott, Thomas Ollive, ed., The Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe (Vols 2-3 Tales
and Sketches), Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1978.
Person, Leland S., Jr., “Poe's Composition of Philosophy: Reading and Writing
‘The Raven’,” Arizona Quarterly, vol. 46, no. 3, Fall 1990 pp. 1-15.
Wilson, James Southall, “Poe's Philosophy of Composition,” North American
Review, Dec., 1926, 223:675-684.
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[S:0 - JAS] - Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore - Works - Essays - The Philosophy of
Composition