Edgar Allan Poe — “How to Write a Blackwood Article”

Reading copy:

• “How to Write a Blackwood Article” (with “A Predicatment”) — reading copy

Manuscripts and Authorized Printings:

• Text-01 — “The Psyche Zenobia” (with “The Scythe of Time”) — 1838 — (There are no known draft manuscripts or scratch notes reflecting the original effort of composition.)
• Text-02 — “The Psyche Zenobia” (with “The Scythe of Time”) — 1838
  • Text-02a — “The Psyche Zenobia” (with “The Scythe of Time”) — 1838 — (Speculated faircopy manuscript prepared to be sent to the editors of the American Museum for publication. This manuscript, as was typical, was presumably destroyed during typesetting, but is represented by Text-02b.)
  • Text-02b — “The Psyche Zenobia” (with “The Scythe of Time”) — November 1838 — American Museum — (Mabbott text A)
• Text-03 — “The Signora Zenobia” (with “The Scythe of Time”) — 1838
  • Text-03a — “The Signora Zenobia” (with “The Scythe of Time”) — late 1838-1839 — (Speculated copy of American Museum with minor changes marked by Poe, prepared in anticipation of publication in TGA. Many of the differences reflect the imposition of a house-style, such as the adoption of more stanard American spellings. Additional changes are generally far too slight to suggest a new manuscript, but too significant to suggest merely editorial or typographical meddling. It is possible that Poe was able to see and review proofsheets, and changes could have been marked in these proofsheets. This copy has not survived, but the text is presumably reflected in Text-03b.)
  • Text-03b — “The Signora Zenobia” (with “The Scythe of Time”) — 1840 — TGA — (Mabbott text B)
• Text-04 — “How to Write a Blackwood Article” (with “A Predicament”) — 1838
  • Text-04a — “How to Write a Blackwood Article” (with “A Predicament”) — 1842 — TGAPP — (Mabbott text C)  (This version is a modified form of Text-03b)
  • Text-04b — “How to Write a Blackwood Article” (with “A Predicament”) — 1842-1845 — (Speculated copy of pages from TGA as TGAPPB, other than TGAPP, with changes marked by Poe, in anticipation of being included in the 1845 TALES. There are additional changes, not indicated in TGAPP, in the text as it appeared in the BJ, where Poe printed a number of stories that were not selected by Duyckinck for the 1845 TALES. At least some of the changes are too extensive to imply that they were made on proofpages of BJ. This copy has not survived, but the text is presumably reflected in Text-04c.)
  • Text-04c — “How to Write a Blackwood Article” (with “A Predicament”) — July 12, 1845 — Broadway Journal — (Mabbott text D — This is Mabbott's copy-text) (For Griswold's 1856 reprinting of this text, see the entry below, under reprints.)

Reprints:

• “How to Write a Blackwood Article” (with “A Predicament”) — 1856 — WORKS — Griswold reprints Text-04c  (Mabbott text E)
• “A Predicament” — 1867 — Prose Tales of Edgar Allan Poe, second series (New York: W. J. Widdleton), pp. 418-427. (By printing this intentionally ridiculous story without the introductory “How to Write a Blackwood Article,” the publishers of this edition have strangely left the reader without the key necessary to recognize the satire. This collection is extracted from the 1850-1856 edition of Poe's Works. It was reprinted several times.)
• “How to Write a Blackwood Article” and “A Predicament” — 1874 — Works of Edgar A. Poe, edited by J. H. Ingram (vol. II, pp. 460-480) (This collection was subsequently reprinted in various forms)
• “How to Write a Blackwood Article” and “A Predicament” — 1958 — The Comic Tradition in America, An Anthology, edited by Kenneth A. Lynn, London: Victor Gollancz LTD, pp. 141-152 (The collection also includes Poe's “Diddling Considered as One of the Exact Sciences.”)

Scholarly and Noteworthy Reprints:

• “How to Write a Blackwood Article” (with “A Predicament”)  — 1894-1895 — The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, vol. 4: Tales, eds. E. C. Stedman and G. E. Woodberry, Chicago: Stone and Kimball (4:198-211 and 4:212-224) (“A Predicament” is given as “Article for Blackwood: A Predicament”) (This collection was subsequently reprinted in various forms)
• “How to Write a Blackwood Article” (with “A Predicament”) — 1902 — The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe, vol. 2: Tales I, ed. J. A. Harrison, New York: T. Y. Crowell (2:269-282 and 2:283-295, and 2:391-393 and 2:393-395)
• “The Psyche Zenobia (How to Write a Blackwood Article)” (with “A Predicament”) — 1978 — The Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe, vol. 2: Tales & Sketches I, ed. T. O. Mabbott, Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press (2:334-362)
• “How to Write a Blackwood Article” (with “A Predicament”) — 1983 — Edgar Allan Poe: The Other Side, ed. David Galloway (New York: Penguin Books), pp. 61-80 and pp. 246-248 (annotations are minor)
• “How to Write a Blackwood Article” (with “A Predicament”) — 1984 — Edgar Allan Poe: Poetry and Tales, ed. Patrick F. Quinn (New York: Library of America), pp. 278-297

Instream Comparative and Study Texts:

• “How to Write a Blackwood Article” (with “The Scythe of Time”) — Comparative Text (AM and TGA)
• “How to Write a Blackwood Article” (with “A Predicament”) — Study Text (TGAPP)
• “How to Write a Blackwood Article” (with “A Predicament”) — Comparative Text (TGAPP and BJ)
• “How to Write a Blackwood Article” (with “A Predicament”) — Comparative Text (BJ and WORKS)

Miscellaneous Texts and Related Items:

• “L‘Initiation de la Signora Psyché Zénobia” — (French translation by Catulle Mendés, but without “A Predicament”)
  • “L‘Initiation de la Signora Psyché Zénobia” — December 3, 1876 — La République des Lettres (Paris — Lesclide)
  • “L‘Initiation de la Signora Psyché Zénobia” — 1877 — in Les Folies Amoureuses, Paris: E. Dentu
• “Comment écrire un article-Blackwood: la Théorie et la Pratique” — July 1885 — La Jeune Begique (Bruxelles) (French translation by Georges Eekhoud, from a Widdleton reprint of the Griswold edition of Poe's works)
• “Comment s‘écrit un article a la Blackwood” — 1887 — Edgar Poë: Derniers Contes, Paris: Albert Savine  (French translation by Félix Rabbe)
• “Comment on ecrit un article pour le Blackwood (Psyche Zenobia)” and “Une triste situation (La faux du temps)” — 1950 — Histories grotesques et sérieuse par Edgar Poe, Paris: Classiques Garnier  (French translation by Léon Lemonnier)
• ”Edgar Allan Poe's Predicament” — November 16, 1999 — a radio show broadcast on the NPR Playhouse show. (As was often the case with dramatic presentations of Poe's works, the story has been modified.) (The same show debuted on XM Satellite Radio service on February 22, 2003.)

• Allen, Michael, Poe and the British Magazine Tradition, New York: Oxford University Press, 1969.
• Daughrity, Kenneth Leroy, “Notes: Poe and Blackwood's,” American Literature, November 1930, 2:289-292.
• Gerber, Gerald, “The Coleridgean Context of Poe's Blackwood Satires,” Emerson Society Quarterly (Fall 1970), 60:87-91.
• Gerber, Gerald, “Milton and Poe's ‘Modern Woman’,” Poe Newsletter (December 1970), 3:25-26.
• Hatagaki, Yuko, “Poe and Our Times 2: The Dissociation of the Self in ‘A Predicament’,” Jissen Women's Junior College Review, 1997, 18:16-24
• 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, “George H. Derby: A Debt to Poe,” Notes & Queries (March 1934), 166:171.
• 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.
• McClary, Ben Harris, “Poe's ‘Turkish Fig-Pedler’,” Poe Newsletter (October 1969), 2:56.
• McElrath, Joseph R., Jr., “Poe's Conscious Prose Technique,” North-East Modern Language Association Newsletter (1970), 2:34-43.
• McNeal, Thomas H., “Poe's Zenobia: An Early Satire on Margaret Fuller,” Modern Language Quarterly (June 1950), 11:205-216.
• Pollin, Burton R., “Figs, Bells, Poe and Horace Smith,” Poe Newsletter (June 1970), 3:8-10.
• Pollin, Burton R., “Poe's Dr. Ollapod,” American Literature (March 1970), 42:80-82.
• Pollin, Burton R., “Poe's Tale of Psyche Zenobia: A Reading for Constructive Ingenuity and Humor,” in Papers on Poe: Essays in Honor of J. Ward Ostrom, Springfield, OH:, 1972, pp. 92-103.
• Roche, A. John, “Another Look at Poe's Dr. Ollapod,” Poe Studies (June 1973), 6:28.
• Schuster, Richard, “More on the ‘Fig-Pedler’,” Poe Newsletter (June 1970), 3:22.
• Taylor, Walter F., “Israfel in Motley,” Sewanee Review (July - Sept. 1934), 42:330-340.
• Tuttleton, James W., “A Note on ‘The Bell-Tower‘: Melville's ‘Blackwood Article’,” Poe Studies (June 1973), 6:28-29.
• Wyllie, John Cooke, “A List of the Texts of Poe's Tales,” Humanistic Studies in Honor of John Calvin Metcalf, Charlottesville: University of Virginia, 1941, pp. 322-338.