Text-02a — “Mellonta Tauta” — 1849 (Speculated faircopy
manuscript that Poe prepared for publication. This manuscript has not survived, but this version is presumably
recorded in Text-02b. It should also be noted that the great similarity of the “letter” and the
introductory material for Eureka suggests a strong connection between these works. Although
Eureka was given as a public lecture and published more than a year before “Mellonta
Tauta,” it is not impossible that the order of composition was reversed.)
Text-02b — “Mellonta Tauta”
— February 1849 — Godey's Lady's Book — (Mabbott text A — This
is Mabbott's copy-text) (For Griswold's 1856 reprinting of this text, see the
entry below, under reprints.)
Reprints:
“Mellonta Tauta” — 1856
— WORKS — (Mabbott text B) (Griswold reprints Text-02b, omitting the introductory letter.)
“Mellonta Tauta” — 1874
— Works of Edgar A. Poe, edited by J. H. Ingram, vol. 2, pp. 520-534 (This collection was
subsequently reprinted in various forms)
“Mellonta Tauta” — November 1933 — Amazing Stories, vol. 8, no.
7 (Illustrated by Leo Morey)
Scholarly and Noteworthy Reprints:
“Mellonta Tauta” —
1894-1895 — The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, vol. 4: Tales, ed. G. E. Woodberry and E. C. Stedman,
Chicago: Stone and Kimball (4:259-277) (This collection was subsequently reprinted in various forms)
“Mellonta Tauta” —
1902 — The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe, vol. 6: Tales V, ed. J. A. Harrison, New York: T. Y.
Crowell (6:197-215, and 6:295-296)
“Mellonta Tauta” — 1976 — The Science Fiction of Edgar Allan
Poe, ed. Harold Beaver (New York: Penguin Books), pp. 310-323 and pp. 415-422 (reprinted 1977, 1978, 1979,
and 1982)
“Mellonta Tauta” —
1978 — The Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe, vol. 3: Tales & Sketches II, ed. T. O. Mabbott,
Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press (3:1289-1309)
“Mellonta Tauta” — 1983 — Edgar Allan Poe: The Other Side, ed.
David Galloway (New York: Penguin Books), pp. 219-232 and pp. 254-255 (annotations are minor)
“Mellonta Tauta” — 1984 — Edgar Allan Poe: Poetry and Tales,
ed. Patrick F. Quinn (New York: Library of America), pp. 871-885
“Mellonta Tauta” — 1887 — Edgar Poë: Derniers Contes,
Paris: Albert Savine (French translation by Félix Rabbe)
“Mellonta Tauta” — 1950 — Histories grotesques et
sérieuse par Edgar Poe, Paris: Classiques Garnier (French translation by
Léon Lemonnier)
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Bibliography:
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., “Politics and History in Poe's ‘Mellonta Tauta’: Two
Allusions Explained,” Studies in Short Fiction, Fall 1971, 8:627-631
Savoye, Jeffrey A., “Poe and the Gothic Bluebooks,” Edgar Allan Poe Review
vol. 10, no. 1 (Spring 2009): 102-103. (Suggests a possible source in an early article called “Five Hundred
Years Hence”)
Taft, Kendall, “The Identity of Martin Van Buren Mavis,” American
Literature, January 1954, 26:562-563
Whipple, William, “Poe's Political Satire,” University of Texas Studies in
English (1956), 35:81-95.
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.
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[S:0 - JAS] - Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore - Works - Tales - Mellonta Tauta