Manuscripts and Authorized Printings:
-
Text-01 — “The Purloined Letter” — 1844 — (There are no known
draft manuscripts or scratch notes reflecting the original effort of composition.)
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Text-02 — “The Purloined Letter” — 1844
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Text-02a — “The Purloined Letter” — early 1844 —
(Speculated faircopy manuscript Poe prepared for publication. This manuscript does not appear to have
survived, but this version is presumably recorded in Text-02b. In a letter to to E. L. Carey of May 31, 1844, Poe describes the manuscript he had sent for printing as
having “many interlineations and erasures,” and as a consequence he requested the ability to
review the page proofs. Also in this letter is the interesting detail that Poe “not, usually, solicitous
about proofs.” What J. H. Whitty mentions as a manuscript of the story is actually just a handwritten
copy by Poe of the introductory note from the abridged version printed in Chamber's Edinburgh
Journal. He is incorrect in assuming that it was a full manuscript of the story, or that it established
Poe as the author of the abridgement.)
-
Text-02b — “The Purloined Letter”
— 1844 — The Gift for 1845 (probably available by October 1844) — (Mabbott
text A)
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Text-03 — “The Purloined Letter” — 1844-1849
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Text-03a — “The Purloined Letter” — 1844-1845 — (a
presumed revised version of text-02b, TGAPPB, in anticipation of the new edition in Tales. This
version was probably made on pages of a copy of The Gift. No such modified copy has survived, but the
revisions are presumably reflected in text-04.)
-
Text-03b — “The Purloined Letter”
— 1845 — TALES — (Mabbott text B) (For Griswold's 1850 reprinting of this text, see the entry below, under reprints.)
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Text-03c — “The Purloined Letter”
— 1849 — TALES-JLG — manuscript revisions in “J. L. Graham” copy of
TALES — (Mabbott text C — This is Mabbott's copy-text)
[[Note: Because the version that first appeared in Chamber's Edinburgh
Journal in 1844 was not done by Poe, all printings of that abridgement are given under Miscellaneous Texts and Related Items, below.]]
Reprints:
- “The Purloined Letter” — January 1845 — Spirit of the Times
(Philadelphia, PA) (noted in a list found among the papers of Burton R. Pollin as discovered in 1973)
- “The Purloined Letter” — Janaury 20, 1845 — Spirit of the
Times (Philadelphia, PA)
- “The Purloined Letter” — January 22, 1845 — Spirit of the
Times (Philadelphia, PA)
- “The Purloined Letter” — November 15, 1845 — South Australian
Gazette and Colonial Register (Adelaide, South Austrailia), vol. I, no. 20, pp. 3-4 — (an abridgement,
presumably from The Gift, based on a few verbal choices retained in some of the final paragraphs. The story
appears with Poe's title but not his name. (Most of the information for this entry was provided by Ton
Fafianie in an e-mail to the Poe Society, October 30, 2016.)
- “The Purloined Letter” —
1850 — WORKS — (Mabbott text D) (Griswold reprints Text-03b from the stereotype plates of
TALES, ignoring Poe's minor changes in Text-03c)
- “The Purloined Letter” — 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. 175-195. (with 1 woodcut illustration)
- “The Purloined Letter” — May 8, 1856 — Evening Star
(Washington, DC) p. 1 — (probably reprinted from Griswold edition) (The story was printed in two parts, the
second part has not been identified. Poe's name is not noted.)
- “The Purloined Letter” — 1857 — Stories for the Home Circle
(New York: G. P. Putnam) (noted as from Putnam's Library of Choice Stories), pp. 249-264
- “The Purloined Letter” — 1867 — Prose Tales of Edgar Allan Poe,
first series (New York: W. J. Widdleton), pp. 262-280 (This collection is extracted from the 1850-1856 edition of
Poe's Works. It was reprinted several times.)
- “The Purloined Letter” — July 4, 1874 — Burrowa News (Burrowa,
New South Wales, Austrailia), vol. I, no. 20, p. 4 — (the same abridgement as from the South Australian
Gazette and Colonial Register of November 15, 1845)
- “The Purloined Letter”
— 1874 — Works of Edgar A. Poe, edited by J. H. Ingram, vol. 1, pp. 494-513 (This collection
was subsequently reprinted in various forms)
- “The Purloined Letter!” — March 9, 1893 — Roanoke Times
(Roanoke, VA), vol. 11, no. 146, p. 6, cols. 1-6 (credited as by “Edgar Allan Poe”) (with two large,
original woodcut illustrations)
- “The Purloined Letter” — March 18, 1891 — Democratic Advocate
(Westminster, MD), vol. 28, no. 20, cols. 4-8, front page (acknowledged as by “Edgar Allan Poe”)
- “The Purloined Letter” — April 19, 1893 — North Platte Tribune
(North Platte, NE), vol. 9, No. 15, p. 1, cols. 4-5 (with one woodcut illustration) (reprinted in the same issue
is Poe's “The Black Cat,” both acknowledged as by “Edgar Allan Poe.”)
- “The Purloined Letter” — April 1893 — Cortland Evening Standard
(Cortland, NY) (credited as by Edgar Allan Poe)
- “The Purloined Letter” — part I — April 21, 1893 (Friday) —
Cortland Evening Standard (Cortland, NY) no. 347, p. 3, cols. 2-4 (with two original woodcut
illustrations)
- “The Purloined Letter” — part II — April 22, 1893 (Saturday)
— Cortland Evening Standard (Cortland, NY) no. 348, p. 6, cols. 2-4 (with one original woodcut
illustration)
- “The Purloined Letter” — part III — April 24, 1893 (Monday)
— Cortland Evening Standard (Cortland, NY) no. 349, p. 6, cols. 2-4 (with two original woodcut
illustrations)
- “The Purloined Letter” — May 6, 1893 — Meriden Daily Journal
(Meriden, CN), vol. XI, no. 327, p. 13, full page, and p. 14, col. 1 (with five woodcut illustrations) (reprinted
in the same issue as several of of Poe's short stories, all acknowledged as by “Edgar Allan
Poe.”)
- “The Purloined Letter” — September 15, 1893 — Coastal News and
North-Western Advertiser (Ulverstone, Tasmania), vol. IV, no. 221, pp. 3-4 (The full text is given, credited
as by Edgar Allan Poe) (with five woodcut illustrations)
- “The Purloined Letter” — October 28 - November 4, 1893 —
Deloraine-Westbury Advocate (Ulverstone, Tasmania) (The full text is given, credited as by Edgar Allan
Poe) (with woodcut illustrations) (reprinted from the Coastal News of September 15, 1893, including the
illustrations)
- “The Purloined Letter” — (part I) October 28, 1893 —
Deloraine-Westbury Advocate (Ulverstone, Tasmania), p. 4 (The full text is given, credited as by
Edgar Allan Poe) (with three woodcut illustrations)
- “The Purloined Letter” — (part II) November 4, 1893 —
Deloraine-Westbury Advocate (Ulverstone, Tasmania), p. 4 (credited as by Edgar Allan Poe) (with two
woodcut illustrations)
- “The Purloined Letter” — December 1894 — Short Stories
(New York, NY) (vol XVII, no 4. pp. 495-???) (This story is the last one in the table of contents, and this is
noted as the “Christmas Issue,” although most of the stories presented hardly seem very much to fit a
Christmas theme.)
- “The Purloined Letter” — February 15, 1908 — World's News
(Syndey, Austrailia), no. 322, pp. 22-23 (The full text is given, with a large, woodcut illustration, with the
text divided into three chapers, each with new title as follows — Chapter I: “An Affair of Baffling
Simplicity”; Chapter II: “Dupin Produces the Letter and Gets the Reward” and Chapter III:
“Dupin Describes a Game of Puzzles”) (Most of the information for this entry was provided by Ton
Fafianie in an e-mail to the Poe Society, October 30, 2016.)
- “The Purloined Letter” — Fall 1940 — The Dolphin: A Periodical for
All People Who Find Pleasure in Fine Books (New York, NY) (vol 4, no 1) (with illustrations by William
Sharp. Sharp did illustrations for an edition of Poe's works published by the Limited Editions Club, which
also published the magazine)
- “The Purloined Letter” — February 1950 — Ellery Queen's
Mystery Magazine (New York, NY) (vol 15, no 24. pp. 65-80) (This is a pulp magazine, bearing the
subtitle: “An Anthology of the Best Detective Stories, New and Old.”)
Scholarly and Noteworthy Reprints:
- “The Purloined Letter” —
1894-1895 — The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, vol. 3: Tales, eds. E. C. Stedman and G. E. Woodberry,
Chicago: Stone and Kimball (3:166-190)
- “The Purloined Letter” —
1898 — The Gold-Bug, The Purloined Letter and Other Tales, ed. William P. Trent (Boston: Houghton
Mifflin Company), pp. 52-78
- “The Purloined Letter”
— 1902 — The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe, vol. 6: Tales V, ed. J. A. Harrison, New York:
T. Y. Crowell (6:28-52, and 6:277-278)
- “The Purloined Letter”
— 1978 — The Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe, vol. 3: Tales & Sketches II, ed. T. O.
Mabbott, Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press (3:972-997)
- “The Purloined Letter” — 1984 — Edgar Allan Poe: Poetry and
Tales, ed. Patrick F. Quinn (New York: Library of America), pp. 680-698
- “The Purloined Letter” — 2015 — The Annotated Poe, ed. Kevin J.
Hayes (Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press), pp. 318-336