Edgar Allan Poe — “The Light-House”

Reading copy:

• “The Light-House” — reading copy

Manuscripts and Authorized Printings:

• Text-01 — “[The Light-House]” — 1849, manuscript — (unfinished “Griswold” roll manuscript of 4 pages, brown ink on pale blue paper)  (Mabbott text A) (This incomplete tale is thought to have been written in 1849.) (The manuscript was obtained by Rufus Wilmot Griswold from Poe's mother-in-law, Mrs. Clemm, following Poe's death in 1849. Griswold's papers were inherited by George Henry Moore, who was Griswold's executor, upon Griswold's death in 1857. Three of the pages remained in Griswold's papers after Moore's death and were finally obtained by William M. Griswold. These remained in the possession of the Griswold family until they were donated to Harvard by Merrill Griswold in December 1947 (MS Am 233.2). The missing page was apparently the original manuscript of a Poe story that was included along with a number of autographs of various famous names at the Metropolitan Fair in New York in April 1864, in benefit of the United States Sanitary Commission. The autographs were sold to raise funds for the commission, with the goal of improving sanitary conditions for Union soldiers in the Civil War. That manuscript was presumably donated by G. H. Moore, and although neither the donor nor the specific contents are provided in descriptions of the time, it is noted as being a tale that was never published and never will be published, for which this incomplete and untitled story would be the only good match, even though even this fragment would eventually be published. Mabbott mistakeningly states in his edition of the Tales & Sketches that the single page was sold at the Bangs auction of 1896, but it is not listed in the catalog. It was later owned by Wakeman, and is now in the Berg Collection of the New York Public Library.)

Reprints:

• “The Light-house” — 1909  — The Life of Edgar Allan Poe, II, p. 397-399 (This is the first time the tale was printed, but Woodberry only had access to three of the surviving four pages. The first page had been separated from the remaining three that were still in the possession of the Griswold family.)
• “The Lighthouse” — April 25, 1942  — Notes and Queries (London), pp. 226-227 (This is the first printing of the full manuscript. The article was written, and Poe's text edited, by Thomas Ollive Mabbott.)
• “The Light-House” — 1951 — Selected Poetry and Prose of Edgar Allan Poe, ed. Thomas Ollive Mabbott (New York: Random House, The Modern Library), pp. 344-345
• “The Lighthouse” — 1978  — The Edgar Allan Poe Scrapbook, ed. Peter Haining (New York: Schocken Books), pp. 111-112 (reprinted from Mabbott's 1942 article in Notes and Queries)

Scholarly and Noteworthy Reprints:

• “The Light-House” — 1978 — The Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe — vol. 3: Tales & Sketches II, ed. Thomas Ollive Mabbott, Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press (3:1388-1392) (Includes a photographic reproduction of the full manuscript, from the Berg Collection of the NYPL, and the Houghton Library of Harvard University.)
• “The Light-House” — 1978 — Quinn, Patrick F., ed., Poetry and Tales, New York: The Library of America
• “[The Light-House]” — 1993 — Lighthouse Horrors: Tales of Adventure, Suspense and the Supernatural, eds. Charles G. Waugh, Martin Harry Greenberg and Jenny-Lynn Azarian (Down East Books) (Includes Poe's story as well as tales by Ray Bradbury, Rudyard Kipling and others)
• “[The Light-House]” — 2006 — Poe's Lighthouse: All New Collaborations with Edgar Allan Poe, ed. Christopher Conlon (Baltimore: Cemetery Dance Publications), pp. 11-13.
• “The Light-House” — 1984 — Edgar Allan Poe: Poetry and Tales, ed. Patrick F. Quinn (New York: Library of America), pp. 924-925

Instream Comparative and Study Texts:

• None.

Miscellaneous Texts and Related Items:

• “The Lighthouse” — (completed by Robert Bloch) — January-February 1953 — Fantastic , Vol. 2, No. 1, pp. 147-165  (with an illustration by Virgil Finlay)  (includes a facsimile of the first page of the manuscript, from the Berg Collection, NYPL)
• “The Lighthouse” — 1969 — The Man Who Called Himself Poe , ed. Sam Moskowitz  (New York: Doubleday & Co.), pp. 189-206  (This collection also includes Bloch's own story “The Man Who Collected Poe,” pp. 104-122.)
• “The Lighthouse” — August 1982 — Twilight Zone Magazine , pp. 29-35  (illustrated by Jose Reyes)
• “Le Phare” — 1973 — L‘Amérique Fantastique, Verviers: Gérard/Marabout  (French translation by Jacques Finné of Poe's story, as completed by Robert Bloch)
• Poe's Lighthouse: All New Collaborations with Edgar Allan Poe, ed. Christopher Conlon (Baltimore: Cemetery Dance Publications), 2006 (A collection of 23 variations on Poe's tale by different authors. Most of these “collaborations” are quite free, and some bear little resemblance to Poe's original. In addition to the regular edition, a special tray-cased leather edition of 52 copies was issued, with a satin ribbon page marker and extra artwork.)
• “The Light-House” — 2008 — Audio book (unabridged), read by Chris Aruffo

• 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, “Poe's Tale: ‘The Lighthouse’,” Notes & Queries (April 25, 1942), 182:226-227.
• 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.