Edgar Allan Poe — “Alone” (“From childhood's hour . . .”)

Reading copy:

• “Alone” — reading copy

Manuscripts and Authorized Printings:

• Text-01 — “Original [Alone]” — about 1829 — [There are no known draft manuscripts or scratch notes reflecting the original effort of composition.]
• Text-02 — “Original [Alone]” — about 1829 — manuscript — (Mabbott text A — This is Mabbott's copy-text) — [Poe wrote this poem in the autograph album of Lucy Holmes, later Lucy Holmes Balderston. The poem was never printed during Poe's lifetime. It was first published by E. L. Didier in Scribner's Monthly for September of 1875, in the form of an altered facsimile. The poem is now seen as one of Poe's most revealing works. The same album also contains a poem by Poe's brother Henry. The album was inherited by Mrs. Emma D. Welbourn (born about 1881), Mrs. Balderson's granddaughter. Mrs. Welbourn donated it to the Maryland Historical Society in December 1969. At the time of the donation, Benjamin Swann, of Swann Galleries, appraised the album at $9,000 (chiefly for the Poe material). In the 1990s, the Maryland Historical Society removed the two poems written by Poe, which are now cataloged as MS 1796. The album itself contains photocopies of these pages, and is itself stored in the rare book room. The manuscript is currently in the Maryland Center for History and Culture, formerly the Maryland Historical Society.]

Reprints:

• “Alone” — September 1875 — Scribner's Monthly Magazine (10:608) — (Mabbott text B) — [The poem was printed as a facimile, but with the title and a date added. These unfortunate adjustments, by Eugene L. Dider, caused some concern about the authenticity of the poem, concerns which have long since been dismissed. Although dated as September 1875, this periodical was almost certainly available by mid-August 1875, as confirmed by the following items.]
• “Alone” — August 17, 1875 — Hartford Daily Courant (p. 2) — [This item is noted by George Monteiro, “Fugitive Reprints,” E. A. Poe Review, Fall 2010, p. 161.]
• “Alone” — August 21, 1875 — St. Albans Daily Messenger (St. Albans, VT), vol. XII, no. 290, whole no. 1500, p. 4, col. 1 — [This reprint is acknowledged as from Scribner's.]
• “Alone” — August 22, 1875 — Memphis Daily Appeal (Memphis, TN), vol. 35, no. 196, whole no. 1500, p. 2, col. 8 — [This reprint is acknowledged as from Scribner's.]
• “Alone” — August 22, 1875 — Nashville Union and American (Nashville, TN), new series, whole no. 2,165, p. 3, col. 4 — [This reprint is acknowledged as from Scribner's.]
• “Alone” — August 25, 1875 — Atlanta Daily Constitution (Atlanta, GA), vol. VIII, no. 60, p. 4, col. 1 — [This reprint is acknowledged as from Scribner's.]
• “Alone” — August 27, 1875 — Western Spirit (Paola, KS), vol. V, no. 12, p. 1, col. 1 — [This reprint is acknowledged as from Scribner's.]
• “Alone” — August 27, 1875 — Evansville Journal (Evansville, IN), noted only as forty-fourth year, col. 1 — [This reprint is acknowledged as from Scribner's.]
• “Alone” — August 27, 1875 — St. Albans Weekly Messenger (St. Albans, VT), vol. XXXVIII, no. 37, whole no. 1861, p. 1, col. 3 — [This reprint is acknowledged as from Scribner's.]
• “Alone” — August 29, 1875 — Baltimore Sunday News — [This item is noted by W. T. Bandy.]
• “Alone” — August 29, 1875 — Daily Arkansas Gazette (Little Rock, Arkansas), noted as Fifty-Sixth Year, no. 238, p. 3, col. 1 — [This reprint is acknowledged as from Scribner's.]
• “Alone” — August 31, 1875 — The Star (Saint Peter Port, Guernsey, England), vol. LXII, no. 21, p. 4, col. 1 — [This reprint is acknowledged as from Scribner's.]
• “Alone” — September 1, 1875 — Clarksville Tobacco Leaf (Clarksville, TN), vol. 7, no. 29, p. 7, col. 1 — [This reprint is acknowledged as from Scribner's.]
• “Alone” — September 3, 1875 — Osage County Chronicle (Burlingame, KS), p. 1, col. 3 — [This reprint is acknowledged as from Scribner's.]
• “Alone” — September 3, 1875 — Bellows Falls Times (Bellows Falls, VT), vol. XX, no. 36, p. 1, col. 4 — [This reprint is acknowledged as from Scribner's.]
• “Alone” — September 8, 1875 — McHenry Plaindealer (McHenry, IL), p. 6, col. 6 — [This reprint is acknowledged as from Scribner's.]
• “Alone” — September 9, 1875 — Stark County Democrat (Canton, OH), vol. 42, no. 14, p. 6, col. 1 — [This reprint is acknowledged as from Scribner's.]
• “Alone” — September 9, 1875 — Clinton Public (Clinton, IL), vol. 19, no. 36, p. 3, col. 1 — [This reprint is acknowledged as from Scribner's.]
• “Alone” — September 10, 1875 — Connecticut Western News (Salisbury, CT), vol. V, no. 9, p. 1, col. 3 — [This reprint is acknowledged as from Scribner's.]
• “Alone” — September 15, 1875 — Grand Island Times (Grand Island, NE), vol. III, no. 9, p. 1, col. 1 — [This reprint is acknowledged as from Scribner's.]
• “Alone” — September 16, 1875 — Monticello Herald (Monticello, IL), vol. XIV, no. 11, p. 1, col. 4 — [This reprint is acknowledged as from Scribner's.]
• “Alone” — September 16, 1875 — Richwood Gazette (Richwood, OH), vol. IV, no. 6, p. 4, col. 3 — [This reprint is acknowledged as from Scribner's.]
• “Alone” — September 22, 1875 — Waterloo Courier (Waterloo, Iowa), vol. 17, no. 15, p. 3, col. 1 — [This reprint is acknowledged as from Scribner's.]
• “Alone” — September 23, 1875 — Home Journal (Winchester, TN), vol. XIV, no. 28, p. 3, col. 1 — [This reprint is acknowledged as from Scribner's.]
• “Alone” — September 29, 1875 — Trewman's Exeter Flying Post (Exeter, Devon, England), vol. CXIII, whole no. 5,781, p. 6, col. 1 — [This reprint is acknowledged as from Scribner's.]
• “Alone” — September 30, 1875 — Marengo News (Demopolis, Alabama), vol. III, no. 23, p. 1, col. 1 — [This reprint is acknowledged as from Scribner's.]
• “Alone” — September 30, 1875 — Shenandoah Herald (Woodstock, VA), vol. 55, no. 49, p. 1, col. 3 — [This reprint is acknowledged as from Scribner's.]
• “Alone” — October 1, 1875 — Chelsmford Chronicle (Chelmsford, Essex, England), whole no. 5731, p. 6, col. 1 — [This reprint is acknowledged as from Scribner's.]
• “Alone” — October 1, 1875 — St. Landry Democrat (Opelousas, LA), vol. 8, no. 40, p. 1, col. 1 — [This reprint is acknowledged as from Scribner's.]
• “Alone” — November 13, 1875 — Australian Town and Country (Syndey, Australia), vol. XII, no. 306, p. 25 — [This reprint is acknowledged as from the Scribner's facsimile.]
• “Alone” — November 18, 1875 — Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye (Burlington, Iowa), p. 3, col. 1 — [This reprint is acknowledged as from the Scribner's facsimile.]
• “Alone” — November 25, 1875 — Red Cloud Chief (Red Cloud, NE), vol. III, no. 15, p. 4, col. 1 — [This reprint is acknowledged as from Scribner's.]
• “Alone” — December 3, 1875 — Owen Sound Times (Owen Sound, Ontario), ns vol. 86, no. 5, whole no. 2219, p. 2, col. 4 — [This reprint is acknowledged as from Scribner's.]
• “Alone” — December 15, 1875 — Tuapeka Times (Lawrence, Otago, New Zealand), vol. VIII, no. 521, p. 2, col. 1 — [This reprint is from Scribner's, without acknowledgement, but with Poe's name and the new title.]
• “Alone” — January 2, 1876 — St. Louis Globe-Democrat (St. Louis, Missouri), vol. I, no. 228, p. 11, col. 1 — [This reprint is from Scribner's, with the introductory note, but without acknowledgement.]
• “Alone” — August 9, 1876 — Columbus Journal (Columbus, NE), vol. VII, no. 14, p. 1, col. 4 — [This reprint is from Scribner's, with the introductory note, but without acknowledgement.]
• “Alone” — 1876 — Poems and Essays of Edgar Allan Poe (Ingram) (This is the American edition, published by W. J. Widdleton.) (In this edition, the poem has been inserted as an illustration, noted as such in the list of illustrations. It is essentially a copy of the facsimile from Scribner's. It appears as tipped in on p. 115. It therefore presumably predates the release of the 4 volume edition. A one-volume edition of The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, including Poetry and Prose, with a translated introduction by Baudelaire, also issued by Widdleton and dated 1876 on the title page and copyrighted in 1876, does not include the poem and probably came out earlier in 1876. Ingram never fully accepted the poem, and the decision for including it was presumably made by the publisher, either without Ingram's knowledge or over his objection.)
• “Alone” — 1876 — Works (Ingram) — [This is the American edition, published by W. J. Widdleton, dated 1876 but probably issued late in 1875. In this edition, the poem has been inserted as a facsimile from Scribner's, appearing after “To Helen,” p. 114.]
• “Alone” — 1876 — Works (Ingram) — [This is the American edition, published by W. J. Widdleton. In this edition, the poem has been set in type, appearing on p. 115.]
• “Alone” — 1877 — Life and Poems, W. J. Widdleton (with a new memoir by E. L Didier) — (Mabbott text C)
• “[Alone]” — June 9, 1877 — The Bee (Sacremento, CA), vol. XLI, whole no. 6,308, p. 1, col. 5 — [This reprint does not acknowledge Scribner's, but begins with the same introductory note.]
• “Alone” — 1888 — The Complete Poetical Works and Essays on Poetry of Edgar Allan Poe, ed. John H. Ingram, London and New York: Frederick Warne & Co. (p. 114) — [Ingram collects the poem as “Doubtful,” along with three poems by A. M. Ide. Ingram's note begins: “Of the many verses from time to time ascribed to the pen of Edgar Poe, and not included among his known writings, the lines entitled ‘Alone’ have the chief claim to our notice.” Ingram further states that he had “Fac-simile copies of this piece” in his possession “some time previous to its publication in Scribner's Magazine for September 1875; but as proofs of the authorship claimed for it were not forthcoming” Ingram “refrained from publishing it as requested.” There is, however, no clear evidence to support the idea that Ingram had seen the manuscript in any form prior to the publication of the Scribner's facsimile. Again, Ingram repeats his concerns about the handwriting, particularly of the title and dating, which are now known to have been added by E. L. Didier. Ingram was never entirely able to separate his opinion of this poem from his early misgivings about the facsimile.]
• “Alone” — July 27, 1892 — Uttoxeter New Era (Uttoxeter, Staffordshire, England), vol. XXXVII, no. 1934, p. 4, col. 1 — [This reprint is acknowledged as from Scribner's.]
• “Alone” — April 1, 1875 — The Keystone (Oberline, Kansas, published by the Decatur County High School), vol. I, no. 5, p. 10 — [acknowledged as by “Edgar Allen [[Allan]] Poe.”]
• “Alone” — 1926 — in Israfel: The Life and Times of Edgar Allan Poe, by Hervey Allen, New York: George H. Doran Co — [Allen prints a facsimile of the original MS, p. vi, as given by Didier from Scribner's.]

Scholarly and Noteworthy Reprints:

• “Alone” — 1894-1895 — The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, vol. 10: Poems, ed. E. C. Stedman and G. E. Woodberry, Chicago: Stone and Kimball (10:138, and p. 237)
• “Alone” — 1902 — The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe: vol. 7: Poems, ed. J. A. Harrison, New York, T. Y. Crowell, 1902 (Harrison includes it in an appendix titled “Poems Attributed to Poe,” 7:227, with the text reprinted from the facsimile in Scribner's)
• “From an Album (Alone)” — 1911 — The Complete Poems of Edgar Allan Poe, ed. J. H. Whitty, Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co (p. 135, and pp. 282-283)
• “Alone” — 1917 — The Poems of Edgar Allan Poe, ed. Killis Campbell, Boston: Ginn and Company (p. 139, and p. 299, although in the first issue of this edition the poem appears on p. 138.)
• “Alone” — 1965 — The Poems of Edgar Allan Poe, ed. Floyd Stovall, Charlottesville: The University Press of Virginia (p. 129, and p. 290)
• “Alone” — 1969 — The Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe - vol. I: Poems, ed. Thomas Ollive Mabbott, Cambridge: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press (1:145-147)
• “Alone” — 1984 — Edgar Allan Poe: Poetry and Tales, ed. Patrick F. Quinn (New York: Library of America) (p. 60) (reprints the text from Mabbott, 1969)

Instream Comparative and Study Texts:

• “Original [Alone]” — Comparative Text (MS and Scribner's)
• “Alone” — Comparative Text (MS and Life and Poems)

Miscellaneous Texts and Related Items:

• “Solo” — 1932 — Los poemas de Edgar Poe, Buenos Aires: Vion Y Zona (translation and notes by Carlos Obligado)
• “Seul” — dated 2009, but available in late 2008 — Poèmes d‘Edgar Allan Poe, Paris: Publibook (translation by Jean Hautepierre)

• Bandy, William T., “Poe's ‘Alone’: The First Printing,” Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America, 1976, 70:405-406
• Cauthen, Irby B., Jr., “Poe's ‘Alone’: Its Background, Source, and Manuscript,” Studies in Bibliography, Papers of the Bibliographical Society of the University of Virginia, 1950, 3:284-291
• 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 (Vol 1 Poems), Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1969.