Edgar Allan Poe — “A Valentine”

Reading copy:

• “A Valentine” — reading copy

Manuscripts and Authorized Printings:

• Text-01 — “To — — —” — 1835 — (There are no known draft manuscripts or scratch notes reflecting the original effort of composition. It is reasonable to presume that Poe wrote the poem shortly before the dated manuscript, in anticipation of Valentine's Day, thus early February 1846.)
• Text-02 — “To Her Whose Name is Written Below” — February 14, 1846
  • Text-02a — “To — — —” — February 13, 1846 — “Poe” manuscript — (Mabbott text A — This is the first of Mabbott's two copy-texts) — (On the leaf facing the poem, Poe has written, in ink, matching the text of the poem: “For Her Whose Name is Written Within” The title of “To — — —” is written in pencil, apparently as a kind of afterthought. The paper is embossed. Poe has also written the word “as” to replace “for,” probably as the first of several minor changes that occurred to him in reading it over again the next day.)
  • Text-02b — “To ——” — February 14, 1846 — “Griswold/Sergeant” manuscript — (Mabbott text B) — (Poe apparently sent this manuscript to Mrs. Osgood, only to find out later that he had misspelled her middle name. The poem is written on the same embossed paper as for Text-02a. The probable chain of ownership is that Poe sent the manuscript to Mrs. Osgood (1811-1850). It was kept by her until her death early in 1850. After her death, it was inherited by Rufus W. Griswold (1815-1857), who was her literary exectuor. Griswold's papers were left in the charge of George Henry Moore (1823-1892). After Moore died, Griswold's son, William McCrillis Griswold (1853-1899), petitioned New York for possession of what remained of his father's papers, a request that was granted. Although many of Griswold's papers were given to the Boston Public Library, several of the manuscripts were kept in the Griswold family, until they were eventually donated to Harvard.)
  • Text-02c — “To Her Whose Name is Written Below” — February 14, 1846 — (speculated faircopy draft manuscript, prepared and sent to N. P. Willis for the Evening Mirror. In making this copy for publication, Poe appears to have made several minor changes, which meant that he needed to write out another manuscript for presentation to Mrs. Osgood, with the newer text. This manuscript is not known to exist, but this version is presumably recorded in Text-02d.)
  • Text-02d — “To Her Whose Name is Written Below” — February 21, 1846 — Evening Mirror — (Mabbott text C)
• Text-03 — “A Valentine” — February 14, 1848
  • Text-03a — “A Valentine” — before February 14, 1848 — (speculated copy of the Evening Mirror marked with revisions to correct Mrs. Osgood's middle name.)
  • Text-03b — “A Valentine” — Valentine's Eve [February 14] 1848 — revised “Griswold/Sargent” manuscript — (Mabbott text D) — (The probable chain of ownership is essentially the same as for Text-02b.)
  • Text-03c — “A Valentine” — about May 1848 — (speculated faircopy manuscript of the revised Text-03a, prepared for publication, originally in the Union Magazine. Based on the explanation printed in the Flag of Our Union, Poe sold the manuscript to James L. Degraw, who was editor of the Union Magazine during the brief period of June through October of 1848. The Lewisburg Chronicle (Lewisburg, PA) of June 9, 1848 (vol. V, no 12) notes that Degraw had just assumed the role of publisher, having taken over from Israel Post. The Kalida Venture (Kalida, OH) for October 17, 1848 announced that the Union Magazine had been purchased by John Sartain. Poe was aware that the Union Magazine ceased publication with the December 1848 issue, completing the volume, but he may not have known that it had been acquired by Sartain. If he did know about the purchase, he should also have known that any material purchased but not yet published would be part of the deal. This manuscript is not known to exist, but this version is presumably recorded in Text-03d.)
  • Text-03d — “A Valentine” — March 1849 — Sartain's — (Mabbott text E)
• Text-04 — “A Valentine” — about February 1849
  • Text-04a — “A Valentine” — about February 1849 — presumed second faircopy MS from Text-03a, sent to the Flag of Our Union (Killis Campbell, in his edition of Poe's poems, p. 262, mentions “it is proper to note that the Flag text is nearer in several of its readings to the text of 1846 than is that of the Union Magazine .... Possibly Poe kept no copy of the text sent to the Union Magazine, and revised the poem anew (on the basis of the Mirror text) when he sent it to the Flag in 1849.” More specutively, and less convincingly, Campbell goes on to state “In the Flag text, owing probably to an oversight of the printer, the alternate lines are not indented.” Assuming that Poe wrote out a new manuscript, it is just as likely that he did not indent the lines. This manuscript is not known to exist, but this version is presumably recorded in Text-04b.)
  • Text-04b — “A Valentine” — March 3, 1849 — Flag of Our Union — (Mabbott text F)

Reprints:

• “A Valentine” — March 3, 1849 — Portland Transcript  (reprinted from Sartain's)
• “A Valentine” — March 17, 1849 — Evening Transcript (Boston, MA) (mentions “A correspondent of the Portland Transcript”)
• “A Riddle for Somebody to Unriddle” — March 20, 1849 — Evening Mirror (NY)
• “Ingenious Valentine” — March 28, 1849 — Daily Crescent (New Orleans, LA), vol. II, no. 28, p. 4, col. 1 (reprinted from Portland Transcript) (This entry was based on information provided by Ton Fafianie in an e-mail to the Poe Society on December 10, 2016)
• “Ingenious Valentine” — March 31, 1849 — Vicksburg Tri-Weekly Whig (Vicksburg, Mississippi), vol. XI, no. 41, p. 1, col. 5 (reprinted from Portland Transcript)
• “Ingenious Valentine” — August 24, 1849 — Lackawanna Citizen (Carbondale, PA), vol. 5, no. 21, whole no. 229, p. 4, col. 1 (reprinted from Portland Transcript)
• “A Valentine” — 1850 — WORKS — (Mabbott text G — This is the second of Mabbott's two copy-texts) — [Griswold reprints Text-03, but probably from the MS of Text-03b, which came into his possession along with Poe's other material from Mrs. Clemm.)
• “A Literary Curiosity” — March 4, 1852 — Semi-Weekly Eagle (Brattleboro, VT), vol. 5, no. 59, whole no. 475, p. 4, col. 1 (reprinted from the second volume of the Griswold edition.)
• “A Valentine” — 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), first series pp. 255-256. (with no woodcut illustration) (this poem was omitted in some later printings)
• “To Her Whose Name Is Written Below” — June 1883 — Harper's New Monthly Magazine, vol. 67 whole no. 397, p. 161 (reprinting the Evening Mirror text of 1846, but without the solution) (Information for this entry was provided to the Poe Society by Ton Fafianie in an e-mail dated August 6, 2021.)
• “A Valentine” — 1875 — The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, vol 3: Poems and Essays, ed. J. H. Ingram, Edinburgh, Adam and Charles Black (3:23)
• “A Valentine” — March 17, 1877 — Bristol Observer (Bristol, Avon, England), no. 939, p. 6, col. 4 (the author is acknowledged as “Edgar A. Poe.”)
• “An Enigmatic Valentine” — January 19, 1896 — Philadelphia Inquirer (Philadlephia, PA), vol. 134, no. 19, p. 28, col. 8 (acknowledged as by “Edgar Allan Poe,” without mentioning that it was the anniversary of his birth.)
• “Edgar Allan Poe's Valentine” — February 15, 1898 — Appleton Evening Crescent (Appleton, Wisconsin), vol. 8, no. 99, p. 4, col. 4 (Poe's middle name is spelled correctly in the headline, and incorrectly in the text.)
• “Edgar Allan Poe's Valentine” — February 19, 1898 — Appleton Crescent (Appleton, Wisconsin), vol. XLV, no. 40, p. 1, col. 2 (Poe's middle name is spelled correctly in the headline, and incorrectly in the text.)
• “A Valentine” — October 16, 1910 — Baltimore Sun (Baltimore, MD), vol. CXLVII, no. 153, p. 12, col. 7 (printed as part of an article about the discovery of a file of the Flag of Our Union, although mis-stated as being from 1847 rather than 1849, but with the correct year for the individual poems. The article implies that a new edition of the “Virginia Poe” edition was being planned by the publishers, although no new edition appeared.)

Scholarly and Noteworthy Reprints:

• “A Valentine” — 1894-1895 — The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, vol. 10: Poems, ed. E. C. Stedman and G. E. Woodberry, Chicago: Stone and Kimball (10:82, and 10:192)
• “A Valentine” — 1902 — The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe, vol. 7: Poems, ed. J. A. Harrison, New York: T. Y. Crowell (10:115, and 10:217)
• “A Valentine” — 1911 — The Complete Poems of Edgar Allan Poe, ed. J. H. Whitty, Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Co. (p. 73, and pp. 238-240)
• “A Valentine” — 1917 — The Poems of Edgar Allan Poe, ed. Killis Campbell, Boston: Ginn and Company (pp. 115-116, and pp. 261-264)
• “A Valentine” — 1965 — The Poems of Edgar Allan Poe, ed. Floyd Stovall, Charlottesville: The University Press of Virginia (p. 101, and pp. 267-270)
• “A Valentine” — 1969 — The Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe, vol. 1: Poems, ed. T. O. Mabbott, Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press (1:386-391)  (Mabbott gives two texts)
• “A Valentine” — 1984 — Edgar Allan Poe: Poetry and Tales, ed. Patrick F. Quinn (New York: Library of America) (p. 86) (reprints Text-05)

Instream Comparative and Study Texts:

• None

Miscellaneous Texts and Related Items:

• “Zum St. Valentinstage” — 1862 — Lieder und Balladenbuch amerikanischer und englischer Dichter der Gegenwart, Hamburg: Hoffman and Campe, pp. 55-56 (translation by Adolf Strodtmann. This entry was provided to the Poe Society by Ton Fafianie, in an e-mail dated October 11, 2018, noting about the acrostic nature of the poem: “it was an amazing feat as Strodtmann managed to get all the letters at the right place, without doing much harm to the spirit of the poem.”)
• Carte de la Saint-Valentin” — dated 2009, but available in late 2008 — Poèmes d‘Edgar Allan Poe, Paris: Publibook (translation by Jean Hautepierre)

• 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, “Allusions to a Spanish Joke in Poe's ‘A Valentine’,” Notes & Queries, September 14, 1939, 169:189
• Mabbott, Thomas Ollive, ed., The Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe (Vol 1 Poems), Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1969.