Edgar Allan Poe — “The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherazade”

Reading copy:

• “The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherazade” — reading copy

Manuscripts and Authorized Printings:

• Text-01 — “The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherazade” — 1844 — (There are no known draft manuscripts or scratch notes reflecting the original effort of composition.)
• Text-02 — “The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherazade” — 1844-1845
  • Text-02a — “The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherazade” — 1844 — (Speculated faircopy manuscript prepared and sent to the editors of Godey's Lady's Book for publication. This manuscript no longer survives, but this version is presumably recorded in Text-02b.)
  • Text-02b — “The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherazade” — February 1845 — Godey‘s Lady's Book — (Mabbott text A)
• Text-03 — “The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherazade” — 1845
  • Text-03a — “The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherazade” — February-October 1845 — (presumed copy of Godey‘s Lady's Book with manuscript changes by Poe in anticipation of a new edition of the Wiley & Putnam edition of Tales of 1845. This version is lost, but presumably reflected in text-03b.)
  • Text-03b — “The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherazade” — October 25, 1845 — Broadway Journal — (Mabbott text B)
• Text-04 — “The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherazade” — 1845-1850
  • Text-04a — “The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherazade” — late 1845 - early 1846 — (revised version of text in Broadway Journal. This copy of the Broadway Journal is now lost, but Poe's substantial changes are presumably preserved in Text-04b. Poe specifically mentions the story in his letter of January 8, 1846 to E. A. Duyckinck, offering a set of additional stories for a new edition of Tales. In a footnote, Mabbott speculates that Poe's final changes may have been made in 1848 or 1849, but without providing supporting details.)
  • Text-04b — “The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherazade” — 1850 — WORKS — (Mabbott text C — this is Mabbott's copy-text)

Reprints:

• “The Thousand-and-Second Tale” — June 1845 — Spirit of the Times (Philadelphia, PA) (noted in a list found among the papers of Burton R. Pollin as discovered in 1973)
  • “The Thousand-and-Second Tale” — June 27, 1845 — Spirit of the Times (Philadelphia, PA)
  • “The Thousand-and-Second Tale” — June 28, 1845 — Spirit of the Times (Philadelphia, PA)
• “The Thousand and Second Tale” — January 1855 — Boy's Own Magazine (London, UK), vol. I, no. 1, pp. 18-24 (somewhat abbreviated)
• “The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherzade” — 1867 — Prose Tales of Edgar Allan Poe, first series (New York: W. J. Widdleton), pp. 131-149 (This collection is extracted from the 1850-1856 edition of Poe's Works. It was reprinted several times.)
• “The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherzade” — 1874 — Works of Edgar A. Poe, edited by J. H. Ingram, vol. 1, pp. 216-235 (This collection was subsequently reprinted in various forms)
• The Thousand-and-Second Tale, 1908, New York: D. M. Mac Lellan Book Company  (a small collection of some of Poe's tales, including some typical examples, such as “The Cask of Amontillado,” but unusual for featuring a less well known tale as the title for the volume. Repeating a common error, Poe's middle name is misspelled as “Allen” on the cover.)
• “The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherzade” — May 1928 — Amazing Stories, vol. 3, no. 2

Scholarly and Noteworthy Reprints:

• “The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherazade” — 1894-1895 — The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, vol. 2: Tales, eds. E. C. Stedman and G. E. Woodberry, Chicago: Stone and Kimball (2:260-284)
• “The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherazade” — 1902 — The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe, vol. 6: Tales V, ed. J. A. Harrison, New York: T. Y. Crowell (6:78-102, and 6:279-282)
• “The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherazade” — 1976 — The Science Fiction of Edgar Allan Poe, ed. Harold Beaver (New York: Penguin Books), pp. 135-153 and pp. 378-381 (reprinted 1977, 1978, 1979, and 1982)
• “The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherazade” — 1978 — The Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe, vol. 3: Tales & Sketches II, ed. T. O. Mabbott, Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press (3:1151-1174)
• “The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherazade” — 1984 — Edgar Allan Poe: Poetry and Tales, Patrick F. Quinn (New York: Library of America), pp. 787-804

Instream Comparative and Study Texts:

• “The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherazade” — Comparative Text (Godey's Lady's Book and Broadway Journal)
• “The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherazade” — Comparative Text (Broadway Journal and WORKS)
• “The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherazade” — Comparative Text (WORKS-1850 and WORKS-1855)

Miscellaneous Texts and Related Items:

• “Tale of Scheherazade” — December 27, 1849 — Davenport Gazette (Davenport, IA), vol. 9, no. 16, p. 1, cols. 2-6 (abbreviated, but with Poe's notes) (An introductory note, by editor Alfred Sanders (1819-1865) begins: “As everything connected with the late Edgar A. Poe, receives additional interest by the recent departure from the stage of action of that singular man, perhaps we could not make our readers a more acceptable present than by publishing one of his unique and entirely characteristic productions ...,” followed by an adroit summary of the first half of the story. On page 3 of the same issue, the editor comments: “EDGAR A. POE. The article upon our first page, written by this lamented author, is replete with instruction and served up so racily, so richly and so strangely withal, that a man's mental appetite will be considered depraved if he do not relish it.”) (This entry was provided by Ton Fafianie in an e-mail to the Poe Society dated February 23, 2019, updated July 11, 2021.)
• “Le mille et deuxième conte de Schéhérazade” — 1885 — Oeuvres Choisies d‘Edgar Pöe, Paris: A. Hennuyer  (French translation by William L. Hughes)
• “Le mille et deuxième conte de Schéharazade” — 1887 — Edgar Poë: Derniers Contes, Paris: Albert Savine  (French translation by Félix Rabbe)
• “Le mille deuxième nuit de Schéhérazade” — 1950 — Histories grotesques et sérieuse par Edgar Poe, Paris: Classiques Garnier  (French translation by Léon Lemonnier)

• Bandyopadhyay, Debarati “Responses to The Arabian Nights: Shakespeare, Dickens and Poe,” Journal of the Department of English, Calcutta University, vol. 33, no. 1-2 (2006-2007) (Kajal Sengupta Memorial Volume), pp. 40-52
• Denuccio, Jerome D., “Fact, Fiction, Fatality: Poe's ‘Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherazade’,” Studies in Short Fiction, vol. 27, no. 3 (Summer 1990), pp. 365–370
• 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.
• Hutchisson, James M., “Storytelling, Narrative Authority, and Death in ‘The Thousand and Second Tale of Scheherazade’,” Edgar Allan Poe: Beyond Gothicism, ed. James M. Hutchisson, Newark: University of Delaware Press, 2011, pp. 37-47.
• 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.
• Pangborn, Matthew H., “The Arabian Romance of America in Poe's ‘Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherazade’,” Poe Studies, vol. 43, no. 1 (2010), pp. 35-57
• Varner, Cornelia, “Notes on Poe's Use of Contemporary Materials in Certain of his Stories,” Journal of English and Germanic Philology, January 1933, 32:77-80.
• 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.