Edgar Allan Poe — “The Power of Words”

Reading copy:

• “The Power of Words” — reading copy

Manuscripts and Authorized Printings:

• Text-01 — “The Power of Words” — 1845 — (There are no known draft manuscripts or scratch notes reflecting the original effort of composition.)
• Text-02 — “The Power of Words” — 1845
  • Text-02a — “The Power of Words” — early 1845 — (Speculated faircopy manuscript Poe prepared for publication. Mabbott notes that, given the printing schedule for the magazine, the manuscript must have been in the hands of the publishers by about April 1845. This manuscript does not appear to have survived, but this version is presumably recorded in Text-02b.)
  • Text-02b — “The Power of Words” — June 1845 — Democratic Review — (Mabbott text A)  (This issue was apparently available by mid-May)
• Text-03 — “The Power of Words” — 1845
  • Text-03a — “The Power of Words” — June-October 1845 — (Speculated revised version, in a form of changes made to the pages printed in the Democratic Review. There are only a handful of substantive changes, and a few minor touches may also have been made in proof.)
  • Text-03b — “The Power of Words” — October 25, 1845 — Broadway Journal — (Mabbott text B) (For Griswold's 1850 reprinting of this text, see the entry below, under reprints.)

Reprints:

• “The Power of Words” — 1850 — WORKS — Griswold reprints Text-04 (Mabbott text C — This is Mabbott's copy-text)
• “The Power of Words” — 1874 — Works of Edgar A. Poe, edited by J. H. Ingram, vol. 2, pp. 189-193 (This collection was subsequently reprinted in various forms)
• “The Power of Words” — 1888 — The Complete Poetical Works and Essays on Poetry of Edgar Allan Poe, ed. John H. Ingram, London and New York: Frederick Warne & Co. (pp. 126-130) (This tale is included as one of six “Prose Poems,” without further explanation.)
• “The Power of Words” — March 1909 — School World (Farmington, ME), pp. 27-30 (along with two other Poe stories)

Scholarly and Noteworthy Reprints:

• “The Power of Words” — 1894-1895 — The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, vol. 1: Tales, eds. E. C. Stedman and G. E. Woodberry, Chicago: Stone and Kimball (1:236-241)
• “The Power of Words” — 1902 — The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe, vol. 6: Tales V, ed. J. A. Harrison, New York: T. Y. Crowell (6:139-144, and 6:285-287)
• “The Power of Words” — 1976 — The Science Fiction of Edgar Allan Poe, ed. Harold Beaver (New York: Penguin Books), pp. 171-174 and pp. 387-390 (reprinted 1977, 1978, 1979, and 1982)
• “The Power of Words” — 1978 — The Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe, vol. 3: Tales & Sketches II, ed. T. O. Mabbott, Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press (3:1210-1217)
• “The Power of Words” — 1984 — Edgar Allan Poe: Poetry and Tales, ed. Patrick F. Quinn (New York: Library of America), pp. 822-825

Instream Comparative and Study Texts:

• “The Power of Words” — Comparative Text (Democratic Review and BJ)
• “The Power of Words” — Comparative Text (BJ and WORKS)

Miscellaneous Texts and Related Items:

• “Puissance de la parole” — (French translation by Charles Baudelaire)
  • “Puissance de la parole” — August 5, 1854 — Le Pays
  • “Puissance de la parole” — 1857 — Nouvelles histoires par Edgar Poe, Paris: Michel Lévy frères

• 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.
• 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.