Edgar Allan Poe — “Eleonora”

Reading copy:

• “Eleonora” — reading copy

Manuscripts and Authorized Printings:

• Text-01 — “Eleonora” — early 1841 (There are no known draft manuscripts or scratch notes reflecting the original effort of composition. In regard to the date of composition, Mabbott (T&S, 2:637) states “Poe wrote to his friend Snodgrass on January 17, 1841, ‘I have one or two articles in statu pupillari that would make you stare, at least, on account of the utter oddity of their conception. To carry out the conception is a difficulty which — may be overcome.’ Poe presumably had ‘Eleonora’ ready during the first two months of the year, for on February 22, 1841, one of the editors of The Gift wrote, ‘... the work is now in the hands of the printer.’ ”)
• Text-02 — “Eleonora” — 1841
  • Text-02a — “Eleonora” — 1841 (Speculated faircopy manuscript sent to the editors of The Gift. This manuscript is not known to have survived and was presumably destroyed during the process of typesetting for publication. This version, however, is presumably recorded in Text-02b.)
  • Text-02b — “Eleonora” — about September 1841 — The Gift for 1842 — (Mabbott text A) (Gift annuals were usually available early in the Fall of the year prior to the year in the full title, to take advantage of the lucrative holiday market. A minor review of The Gift for 1842, including the reprint of a full poem called “Glimpses of Heaven” by Mary Ann Browne, appeared as early as September 4, 1841 in the Boston Post)
• Text-03 — “Eleonora” — 1841
  • Text-03a — “Eleonora” — 1842 — TGAPP (manuscript of title only) — (The tale is listed in Poe's handwritten table of contents, but the text itself no longer survives. As the story was not included with the 1840 TGA, these changes were probably made on pages of the printed text from The Gift, and is presumably recorded, with perhaps a few additional changes made in proof, in Text-03b)
  • Text-03b — “Eleonora” — May 24, 1845 — Broadway Journal — (Mabbott text B — This is Mabbott's copy-text) (For Griswold's 1850 reprinting of this text, see the entry below, under reprints.)

Reprints:

• “Eleonora” — September 4, 1841 — Boston Notion  (from Text-02b)
• “Eleonora” — 1841 ? — Boston Daily Times  (This reprint was noted by P. K. Foley, but has not been verified. It would probably have been in early September.)
• “Eleonora — A Fable” — September 15, 1841 — Robert's Semi-Monthly Magazine, vol. II, no. 17, pp. 701-705   (from Text-02b)
• “Eleonora” — September 18, 1841 — New-York Weekly Tribune, vol. I, no. 1, front page, cols. 4-5  (from Text-02) (Ton Fafianie, in an e-mail to the Poe Society dated June 7, 2021, points out that this text incorrectly translates Poe's Latin phrase at the end of the first paragraph, as: “They are caught in an ocean of difficulties, because in that they would adventure a discovery.”)
• “Eleonora” — September 20, 1841 — New-York Daily Tribune, vol. I, no. 139, p. 4, cols. 1-2  (from Text-01) (This text has the same Latin translation as in the New York Weekly Tribune.)
• “Eleonora” — September 25, 1841 — Madisonian (Washington, DC), vol. V, no. 18, p. 1, cols. 3-5 (from Text-02, although erroneously attributed as “The Gift for 1840.”) (This text has the same Latin translation as in the New York Tribune, and it thus presumbly copied secondhand from that source.)
• “Eleonora” — September 25, 1841 — Age and Lancaster Weekly Gazette (Lancaster, PA), vol. 1, no. 39, p. 4, cols. 1-3 (acknowledged as from The Gift for 1842, and by “Edgar A. Poe.”)
• “Eleonora” — October 13, 1841 — Carlisle Weekly Herald (Carlisle, PA)  (vol. 5, no. 44, p. 1, cols. 5-7 (acknowledged as from Text-02b)
• “Eleonora” — October 16, 1841 — Salt River Journal (Bowling Green, MO)  (vol. 9, no. 1, p. 1, cols. 3-5 and p. 2, col. 1) (from Text-02b)
• “Eleonora” — October 28, 1841 — Broome Republican (Binghamton, NY)  vol. 19, no. ?, p. 1, cols. 5-7 (acknowledged as from Text-02b, but with the mispelling of “Pyrros” with only one “r.”) (Information for this entry was given to the Poe Society by Ton Fafianie in an e-mail dated June 7, 2021) (This text has the same Latin translation as in the New York Tribune, and it thus presumbly copied secondhand from that source.)
• “Eleonora” — November 3, 1841 — Constitutionaist (Bath, NY)  (from Text-02b) new series vol. V no. 12, front page, cols. 3-5 (consistently misspells Ermengarde as Ermengrade)
• “Eleonora” — November 13, 1841 — The Literary Souvenir (Lowell, MA), vol. IV, no. 19, pp. 147-148  (from Text-02b) (This text has the same Latin translation as in the New York Tribune, and it thus presumbly copied secondhand from that source.)
• “Eleonora” — April 1842 — Great Western Magazine and Anglo-American Journal of Literature, Science, Art, Commercial and Political Economy, Statistics, &c.  (London, UK) (edited by Isaac Clarke Pray, and printed by Simpkin, Marshall and Co.), vol. I, no. 1, pp. 43-46 (Poe is acknowledged as the author)
• “Eleonora” — July 9, 1842 — The Literary Souvenir (Lowell, MA)  (from Text-02b)
• “Eleonora” — April 1843 — Ladies’ Cabinet of Fashion, Music & Romance (London), n.s. vol. IX, pp. 256-261 (without crediting Poe as the author)
• “Eleonora” — 1850 — WORKS — Griswold reprints Text-03b  (Mabbott text C)
• “Eleonora” — January 15, 1858 — Berkshire County Eagle (Pittsfield, MA), vol. XXIX, no. 25, p. 1, cols. 3-5
• “Eleonora” — October 7, 1858 — Leisure Hour (Oxford, NC), vol. I, no. 35, p. 1, cols. 1-3
• “Eleonora” — 1867 — Prose Tales of Edgar Allan Poe, first series (New York: W. J. Widdleton), pp. 446-452 (This collection is extracted from the 1850-1856 edition of Poe's Works. It was reprinted several times.)
• “Eleonora” — 1874 — Works of Edgar A. Poe, edited by J. H. Ingram, vol. 1, pp. 364-370 (This collection was subsequently reprinted in various forms)

Scholarly and Noteworthy Reprints:

• “Eleonora” — 1894-1895 — The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, vol. 1: Tales, ed. E. C. Stedman and G. E. Woodberry, Chicago: Stone and Kimball (1:203-211)
• “Eleonora” — 1898 — The Gold-Bug, The Purloined Letter and Other Tales, ed. William P. Trent (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company), pp. 86-95
• “Eleonora” — 1902 — The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe, vol. 4: Tales III, ed. J. A. Harrison, New York: T. Y. Crowell (4:236-244, and 4:312-316)
• “Eleonora” — 1978 — The Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe, vol. 2: Tales & Sketches I, ed. T. O. Mabbott, Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press (2:635-649)
• “Eleonora” — 1984 — Edgar Allan Poe: Poetry and Tales, ed. Patrick F. Quinn (New York: Library of America), pp. 468-473

Instream Comparative and Study Texts:

• “Eleonora” — Comparative Text (The Gift and BJ)
• “Eleonora” — Comparative Text (BJ and WORKS)

Miscellaneous Texts and Related Items:

• “Éléonora” — (French translation by Charles Baudelaire)
  • “Éléonora” — March 10, 1859 — Revue française
  • “Éléonora” — November 15, 1861 — Revue fantaisiste
  • “Éléonora” — 1865 — Histoires grotesques et sérieuses, Paris: Michel Lévy frères
• “Éléonora” — 1862 — Contes inedts d‘Edgar Poe, Paris: J. Hetzel, pp. 23-35 (French translation by William L. Hughes)
• “[Eleonora]” — 1868 — Phantastiske Fortaellinger [Fantastic Tales], Copenhagen  (Danish translation by Robert Watt, noted by Anderson,  p. 15)
• “Eleonora” — about 1930 — Fantastische Vertellingen van Edgar Allan Poe, Haarlem: H. D. Tjeenk Willink & Zoon (Dutch translation by Machiel Elias Barentz, with elaborate illustrations by Albert Hahn, somewhat reminiscent of those by Harry Clarke)
• “[Eleonora]” — July 1, 1886 — Statesman Journal (Salem, OR), vol. XIX, no. 78, p. 1, col. 5 (a long extract from the story, acknowledged as such at the end, with the title “The Poetry of Prose.”)
• “Eleonora” — 2009 — Audio book (unabridged), read by Chris Aruffo

• Anderson, Carl L., Poe in Northlight: The Scandanavian Response to His Life and Work, Durham, NC: Duke Unversity Press, 1973.
• Bachinger, K. E., “How Sherwood Forest Became the Valley of Many-Colored Grass: Peacock's Maid Marion as a Source for Poe's ‘Eleonora’,” American Notes & Queries (1986), 24:72-75.
• Baskett, Sam. S., “A Damsel with a Dulcimer: An Interpretation of Poe's ‘Eleonora’,” Modern Language Notes (May 1958), 73:332-338.
• Benton, Richard P., “Platonic Imagery in Poe's ‘Eleonora’,” Nineteenth-Century Fiction (1967), 22:293-297.
• 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.
• Pollin, Burton R., “The Motto of Poe's ‘Eleonora‘: Its Source and Significance,” in Discoveries in Poe, pp. 38-53.
• Pollin, Burton R., “Poe's Use of the Name Ermengarde in ‘Eleonora’,” Notes & Queries (Sept. 1970), 17:332-333.
• Robinson, E. Arthur, “Cosmic Vision in Poe's ‘Eleonora’,” Poe Studies (1976), 9:44-46.
• Snow, Sinclair, “The Similarity of Poe's ‘Eleonora’ to Bernadin de Saint-Pierre's Paul et Virginie,” Romance Notes (Autumn 1963), 5:40-44.
• 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.