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The Works of Edgar Allan Poe (Ingram Edition)


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Rescuing Poe's reputation, both personal and literary, from the clutches of Griswold became the self-imposed mission of a single-minded Englishman named John Henry Ingram (1842-1916). Beginning in 1874, his sympathetic memoir of Poe began to replace the malicious one that had been written by R. W. Griswold. Although it had intermitant competition from memoirs written by W. F. Gill, R. H. Stoddard, E. L. Didier, and others, Ingram's memoir was the one most widely reprinted, appearing in various forms throughout the remainder of the 19th century.

The Works of Edgar Allan Poe (The Ingram Edition) (1874-1875)

  • Volume I: Memoir & Tales (First printed in November 1874, advertised as early as October 16, 1874)
  • Volume II: Tales — Continued (First printed in December 1874, advertised as early as October 31, 1874)
  • Volume III: Poems and Essays, including Eureka, Marginalia, etc., etc. (First printed in January 1875, advertised as early as January 9, 1875)
  • Volume IV: Autography, Criticism, and Index (First printed in February 1875, advertised as early as February 13, 1875)

On the copyright page of an edition of this set printed in 1900 appears the following note: “Published in Monthly Volumes 1874-75 and reissued in 1880[.] Reprinted for Standard Edition 1899 and again 1900.” (Clearly, the note does not attempt to account for all of the various reprintings.)

Ingram replaced the Sartain portrait of Poe with a new engraving of a daguerreotype owned by Sarah Helen Whitman. Poe is shown with a mustache, and wearing a white shirt, a dark cravat wrapped around his collar and tied at his throat, a black suit coat, and a “greatcoat” with wide lapels. (The very fine engraving was made by Robert Anderson, of the Royal Scottish Academy, see Deas, pp. 42-46). Below the portrait was reproduced Poe's signature. The letter is not conclusively identified, but was probably from Poe's letter to Mrs. Shew, May 1847, for which Ingram prints the text but the MS has never been reproduced and is currently lost.)

Ingram to Mrs. Whitman, March 19, 1874: “I am now negotiating with one of our very first publishing firms for a complete edition of the entire works of Edgar Poe in about 6 library volumes, with ‘Memoir’ by self. This, mind is strictly entre nous. There is little doubt that if this edition be brought out, & I foresee no impediment, it will become the standard edition & its life, the standard biography of Poe” (see Miller, Poe's Helen, p. 85).

Ingram wrote to Mrs. Whitman, July 15, 1874: “Poe's Works progress rapidly. — Vol. 1 is in print all but ‘Memoir’ & the first proof of that came yesterday. ... Vol. 1 is to appear on 1st Oct.” (see Miller, Poe's Helen, pp. 188-189).

Ingram wrote to Mrs. Whitman on Oct. 7, 1874, including the note: “Vol. 1 of Poe's works is not out yet” (see Miller, Poe's Helen, p. 216). On Nov. 10, 1874, Ingram wrote Mrs. Whitman again, asking “Have you received either, or both, of the copies I sent you of Vol. 1 of Poe's Works?” (see Miller, Poe's Helen, p. 223). Mrs. Whitman replied on Nov. 13, 1874: “I have just received The Book, and though I have in consequence of many interruptions only had time to give a hurried reading to the ‘Memoir,’ I must write you a word of heartfelt congratulations “ and commenting that “The portrait is much more like E.A.P. than the photograph from which it was taken. How could that happen?” (see Miller, Poe's Helen, pp. 225 and 226).

As the basis for his texts, Ingram started with a copy of the 1864 or 1863 edition of Griswold's 4 volume set. (See Ingram to G. W. Eveleth, March 10, 1874, where Ingram comments “I shall be glad to purchase any paper or publication containing anything not included in the 4 vol. collection of his works (New York, Widdleton, 1864).” Quoted by Miller, Building Poe Biography, p. 3. See also Ingram's letter to Mrs. S. H. Whitman: “By the way, my collection, in 4 vols., was published in 1863 by Widdleton, New York, and now I see in Allibone, that later editions have some 200 or 300 more pages. What date is yours? If the more recent ones contain more matter, I must get them.” Quoted by Miller, Poe's Helen, p. 44. Ingram's concern was unfounded; later editions did not contain more pages.) From James Wood Davidson he obtained original issues of Graham's: “Mr. Davidson has been very kind — sent 2 vols. of Graham's — 1841 — 2 (2nd & 3rd of Poe's editorship). Am still minus Vol. 1 (that is Vol. 18). Mr. D. also sent the number with Graham's letter ...” (see Miller, Poe's Helen, p. 165). Most importantly, from Mrs. Whitman he obtained the 2 volumes of the Broadway Journal which Poe himself had given to her.

 


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Bibliographic Data:

12mo (7 1/2 in x 4 5/8 in also 7 3/8 in x 4 9/16 in). Pages: vol. I - [i]-xcix, [1]-513, plus half-title, portrait frontispiece, and title page (pagination includes a dedication page); vol II - [i]-vi, [1]-569, plus a half-title page (pagination includes title page and frontispiece illustration for “Pym”); vol III - [i]-[vii] (the last page of prefatory material is Poe's “Preface to the Poems”), [1]-517 (pagination includes half-title page); vol IV - [i]-vii, [1]-574, plus half-title page (pagination includes index). Various bindings are known, all in cloth or leather. The earliest binding appears to be wavy blue cloth, stamped with an armorial shield, in gold, featuring an insignia of Poe's initials, surmounted by a stalk of corn and bearing at the bottom a small raven, in black. The spines are stamped “Poe's Works,” at the top, the title of the volume, in the middle, and the publisher “A. & C. Black,” at the bottom. The outside back cover is blank, with an embossed panel. Two bands run across the spine, part way onto the front cover, simulating the hinge used on ancient books with heavy bindings. An ornament formed from a cluster of three five-pointed leaves appears on the spine and on the front cover, at then end of the bands.


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A Chronology of Printings and Reprintings:

A Chronology of Printings and Reprintings:

  • Adam and Charles Black (Edinburgh)
    • 1874 - volume I (first printing of this volume) (volume I was adverstised as early as October 16, 1874, to be issued in November)
    • 1874 - volume II (first printing of this volume) (volume II was adverstised as early as October 31, 1874, to be issued in December) (the first issue of volume II contains a slip of paper inserted in the front stating that “Volume III. of Poe's Works [/] WILL BE PUBLISHED NEXT MONTH, [/] AND WILL CONTAIN [/] POEMS (RAVEN, etc.) [/] EUREKA: A Prose Poem. [/] ESSAYS — Poetic Principle, etc. [/] Philosophy of Furniture. [/] Maelzel's Chess=Player. [/] Marginalia. [/] Fifty Suggestions; Pinakidia, etc. [/] [rule] [/] EDINBURGH: ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK.”)
    • 1875 - volume III (first printing of this volume) (volume III was listed as early as January 9, 1875, and apparently issued in January 1875) (the first issue of volume III contains a slip of paper inserted in the front stating that “The Fourth and concluding Volume of Poe's Works [/] WILL CONTAIN [/] AUTOGRAPHY (illustrated with Facsimiles of Signatures); [/] CRITICISMS ON ELIZABETH BARRETT BARRETT; R. H. HORNE; THOMAS BABINGTON MACAULAY; CHARLES DICKENS; CHARLES LEVER; FRANCES MARRYATT; HENRY COCKTON; and numerous others [/] WITH GENERAL INDEX [/] [rule] [/] EDINBURGH: ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK.”)
    • 1875 - volume IV (first printing of this volume) (volume IV was listed as early as February 13, 1875, and apparently issued in February 1875) (the full 4-volume set was listed as “now ready” as early as February 6, 1875)
    • 1881 - reprint of volumes I-IV (in 1874-1875 format, but with some corrections) (second edition, revised)
    • 1883 - reprint of volumes I-IV (in 1881 format) (noted on the title page as the third edition)
    • 1890 - reprint of volumes I-IV (in 1883 format) (noted as fourth edition)
    • 1899 - reprint of volumes I-IV (in 1883 format) (noted as the “Standard Edition”)
    • 1900 - reprint of volumes I-IV (in 1883 format)
    • 1910 - reprint of volumes I-IV (in 1883 format)
    • 1913 - reprint of volumes I-IV (in 1883 format, but omitting the preface and memoir)
  • W. J. Widdleton
    • 1876 - (although 1876 appears on the title page, and has been added to the list of copyrights, this variation of the original 4-volume set may have been issued as early as the end of 1875, to take advantage of renewed interest due to the dedication of the Poe Monument in Baltimore on Nov. 18, 1875. This version still has the poems in volume 2, following Griswold's order, and inserts “Alone” only as a facsimile from the 1875 Scribner's printing, and the title of “To Helen” in the table of contents is given as “Helen, Thy Beauty is to Me.” Both this early and the later printing of 1876 include “Spirits of the Dead,” which Ingram had not previously collected. A September 11, 1875 letter from Ingram to Sarah H. Whitman mentions that he had been in contact with Widdleton about reissuing the set with Ingram's memoir, a correspondence that was presumably initiated by Ingram. The same letter notes that W. F. Gill protested to Widdleton that Ingram's memoir improperly took material from Gill's article on Poe in Lotos Leaves, a claim that Ingram vehemently denied. Another letter from Ingram to Sarah H. Whitman, dated November 10, 1875, suggests that the set was then in preparation. A further letter on the subject, also from Ingram to Whitman, dated January 19, 1876, implies that the revised version of the memoir that Ingram sent before the prior letter arrived too late to be used in the Memorial Edition of the poems, but would appear in the collected edition of Poe's works.) chiefly a reprint of volumes I-IV from the earlier Griswold edition, with some notable formatting differences. Maria Clemm's “To the Reader” notice has been removed. (Mrs. Clemm had died in 1871.) Griswold's memoir is replaced by Ingram's (although Ingram's sequencing of material has not been adopted). The notices by Lowell and Willis are retained. The poem “Alone” has been added as a new item in vol. II (reproducing the facsimile from Scribner's Magazine, which is closely trimmed and folded in half to fit within the smaller format of pages). Sartain's frontispiece portrait of Poe has been replaced with one by Frederick W. Halpin (a different one than that used for the 1859 Redfield one-volume edition of Poe's Poems). An illustration of Poe's cottage in Fordham appears about the middle of the memoir. (A copy of this edition may be found in the library of the University of Michigan and the library of the University of Virginia. The latter copy was dontated to the University of Virginia library by Poe scholar James Albert Harrison, and may have been the one he used in preparing his 1902 edition of Poe's works.)
    • 1876 - (later in 1876 than the previous issue) reprint of volumes I-IV, with a few notable additions in supplemental material and other formatting changes. A dedication to Mrs. Sarah H. Whitman appears in the front matter of volume I. An account of the new Poe memorial grave dedication is inserted after the memoir, as is an article from the New York Herald (October 28, 1875) by Dr. John J. Moran about Poe's death. The sequence of the volumes has been altered, so that Vol. I is now Poems and Miscellanies (including “The Poetic Principle” and “Eureka”); Vol. II is The Literati, and etc.; Vol. III is Tales; and Vol. IV is still “Pym” (with the same additional tales and critical material in the same volume in prior editions, except for “Letter to B—,” which was moved to vol. II). Five other items have been added to vol. II from the Ingram edition of 1874-1875: “A Chapter on Autography,” “Pinakidia,” “Some Secrets of the Magazine Prison-House,” “Anastatic Printing” and “Cryptography.” “Marginalia” has been moved from vol. III to vol. I, but Ingram's additional “Marginalia” and formatting have not been adopted. Several illustrations have also been added, including an engraving of the Poe monument and a “frontispiece” for “The Raven.” The facsimile of the poem “Alone” has been replaced by a version set in type. (Ingram always objected to the facsmile, about which he was very suspicious. On his own copy of the facssmile from Scribner's Monthly, now in the Ingram Collection at the University of Virginia, he pencilled the note: “not Poe's calligraphy.” A letter of October 11, 1875 from Ingram to Sarah H. Whitman further documents Ingram's concern that the facsimile “much more resembled Didier's than Poe's [hand]writing.”) (The 4-volume set does not appear to have been reprinted in 1877, 1878 or 1879, although the publisher continued during this period to issue various single-volume editions of Poe's work, primarily the poems, along with a two-volume issue of the prose tales.)
    • 1880 - reprint of volumes I-IV (in the later 1876 format, but without the dedication to Mrs. Whitman, who had died in 1878)
    • 1881 - reprint of volumes I-IV (in 1880 format) (William James Widdleton died on May 2, 1882, see his brief obituary in Publisher's Weekly for May 6, 1882, p. 478, and in the New York Times for May 3, 1882, p. 5. He was born in 1829 and is buried in Putnam Cemetery in Greenwich, CT. The editor of Putnam's Magazine, vol. III, no. 3, December 1907, p. 382, describes Widdleton as “a one-author publisher .... who published the works of Edgar Allan Poe to the exclusion of all but two or three books of other writers, which he put on his list because he liked them, rather than because they were among the best ‘sellers’.”)
  • W. C. Bush
    • 1882 - not seen, but presumably a reprint of volumes I-IV (in Widdleton's 1880 format) (It is likely that Bush held the copyright, but allowed others, primarily A. C. Armstrong, to actually print the set, which would mean that no set was issued under the Bush imprint. The first Armstrong set is dated 1884, see below. A list in Publishe's Weekly for July 31, 1875 (p. 252) and September 2, 1876 (p. 391), suggests that William C. Bush was already officially connected with W. J. Widdleton.) No copy of any book published by W. C. Bush has been noted, and he seems not to have held the copyrights to any other titles, or at least ones that other publishers were interested in printing.
  • John C. Nimmo (London)
    • 1884 - Tales and Poems by Edgar Allan Poe; with Biographical Essay by John H. Ingram   (This was the first collected edition of the full text for Poe's “Journal of Julius Rodman.” American editions would not include the story for another decade. A “Publisher's Notice” appears at the bottom of the list of illustrations in volume I, stating: “One thousand copies of the Edition have been pritnted and the type ditributed. No more will be published.” The preface is dated “London 1884.” There is no copyright page. The set includes 14 etchings and 3 photogravuers spread across the four volumes, and a newly etched portrait of Poe as the frontispiece of volume I.)
    • 1885 - reprint of volumes I-IV (from the 1884 edition). (A note on the copyright page states: “Fifty Copies of this Edition on laid paper, medium 8vo, with proof Etchings on Whatman paper, have been printed for American market, and are numbered consecutively.” Perhaps because it was intended for sale in the US, the copyright page lists J. S. Redfield, 1856; W. J. Widdleton, 1876 and 1880; W. C. Bush, 1882; and A. C. Armstrong & Song, 1884. The U. S. edition was published by Scribner & Welford, New York, although John C. Nimmo is also listed on the title page, in a somewhat smaller font, for the London imprint.)
  • A. C. Armstrong
    • 1884 - reprint of volumes I-IV (in Widdleton's 1880 format, retaining the frontispiece but dropping all other illustrations. The logo of the lamp in a circle formed by a snake still appears on the title page.) (The 6 volume set appeared from the same publisher about the same time.)
    • 1884 - expanded to 6 volumes (Although the text is newly typeset and some obvious errors are corrected, others remain. This fact indicates that the basis for the text is still the Griswold edition.)
    • 1887 - not seen, but apparently a reprint of volumes I-IV (in 1880 format)
    • 1894 - reprint of volumes I-VI (in 1884 format. Called the “Fordham Edition”)
  • Miscellaneous Publishers  
    • 1885 - The Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe, (edited by John Henry Ingram) 4 vols., New York: Scribner and Welford, 1885
    • 1889 - not seen, but apparently a reprint of volumes I-IV (in 1880 format) (Publisher is given as Macmillian.)
    • 1894 - not seen, but apparently a reprint of volumes I-IV (in 1880 format) (Publisher is given as Macmillian.)
    • 1894-1895 - George M. Barrie (6 volumes) (vols. I & II - Tales of Imagination and Humor; vol. III - Tales of Humor; vol. IV - Narrative of A. Gordon Pym; vol. 5 - miscellaneous tales; vol. VI - Life and Poems.) (The title pages bear no imprint date, and the set is often assumed as having been printed in 1900, but Barrie published a facsimile of the manuscript to “Murders in the Rue Morgue” about 1896, shortly after the death of George W. Childs in 1894. That facsimile, somewhat reduced, was added as a seventh volume to this set by 1898. By February 1896, the publisher became George Barrie and Son, as noted in the Inland Printer (Chicago, IL), vol. XVI, no. 5, p. 551.)
    • 1899 - not seen, but apparently a reprint of volumes I-IV (in 1880 format) (Publisher is given as Macmillian. Called the “Standard Edition”)
    • about 1900 - New York and Boston: E. B. Hall - (6 volumes, reprinted from Barrie edition) (called the “Buckner Library Edition”)
    • ... and others.

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Census of Copies:

There are so many surviving copies of these volumes that a census listing is impractical and unnecessary.


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Bibliography:

  • American Art Association Auction Catalogue, The Stephen H. Wakeman Collection of Books of Nineteenth Century American Writers, April 1924 (items 958 and 959).
  • Bayless, Joy, Rufus Wilmot Griswold: Poe's Literary Executor, Nashville, Tennesee: Vanderbilt University Press, 1943. (The edition of Poe's works is chiefly discussed in Chapter VIII: “Liteary Executor of Edgar Allan Poe,” pp. 161-200.)
  • Blanck, Jacob, “Edgar Allan Poe,” Bibliography of American Literature; volume 7: James Kirke Paulding to Frank Richard Stockton, New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1983. (Volume 7 is edited and completed by Virginia L. Smyers and Michael Winship. For Griswold's editions, see items 16158- 16161, pp. 123-125.)
  • Campbell, Killis, “The Poe-Griswold Controversy,” The Mind of Poe and Other Studies, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1933, pp. 63-98. (This article originally appeared in PMLA, XXXIV, Sept. 1919, pp. 436-464.)
  • Derby, James Cephas, Fifty Years Among Authors, Books, and Publishers, New York: G. W. Carleton & Co., 1884 (reprinted in 1885 and 1886).
  • Gimbel, Colonel Richard, “Quoth the Raven: An Exhibition of the Work of Edgar Allan Poe,” The Yale University Library Gazette, vol. 33, No. 4, Paril 1959, pp. 138-189. (The contract between Mrs. Clemm and Griswold is item 123, on pages 180-181. It is reproduced in facsimile facing page 185. Other relevant items are 125, 126-127, 128, 131 and 133.)
  • Griswold, Rufus Wilmot, ed., The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, New York: J. S. Redfield, 4 vols, 1850-1856.
  • Harrison, James A., “Editor's Preface,” in The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe, New York: T. Y. Crowell, 1902. (vol. I, pp. vii-xx. The preface is dated “March 25, 1902.”) (Volume XVII contains letters by and about Poe. It was reprinted as volume II of The Life and Letters of Edgar Allan Poe, New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1903.)
  • Hatvary, George Egon, “The Whereabouts of Poe's ‘Fifty Suggestions’,” Poe Studies, IV, No. 2, December 1971, p. 47.
  • Heartman, Charles F and James R. Canny, A Bibliography of First Printings of the Writings of Edgar Allan Poe, Hattiesburg, Mississippi, 1943, pp. 129-133. (Reprinted, Millwood, New York: Kraus Reprint Co., 1977.)
  • O’Neill, Edward H., “The Poe-Griswold-Harrison Texts of the ‘Marginalia’,” American Literature, XV, November 1943, pp. 238-250.
  • Parke-Bernet Galleries, Inc. Auction Catalogue, The Frank J. Hogan Library: Part One - American Authors, First Editions, Autograph Letters, Manuscripts, January 23 and 24, 1945 (items 584 and 585). (The only significant information here is the description of item 584, which includes the volume with N. P. Willis’ autographs.)
  • Mabbott, Thomas Ollive, The Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe, volume I: Poems (1969); volumes II & III: Tales and Sketches (1978), Cambridge, Massachusetts: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
  • Miller, John Carl, Building Poe Biography, Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1977.
  • Miller, John Carl, Poe's Helen Remembers,
  • Moldenhauer, Joseph J., “Mabbott's Poe and the Question of Copy-Texts,” Poe Studies, XI, no. 2, December 1978, pp. 41-46. (Moldenhauer questions T. O. Mabbott's reliance on Griswold's versions of Poe's works as his chief source for a definitive text.)
  • Pollin, Burton R., “Introduction: Marginalia,” The Collected Writings of Edgar Allan Poe; volume 2: The Brevities, New York: Gordian Press, 1985, pp. xv-xxii.
  • Pollin, Burton R., “The Living Writers of America:  A Manuscript by Edgar Allan Poe,” Studies in the American Renaissance 1991, Charlottesville, Virginia: The University Press of Virginia, 1991, pp. 151-211.
  • Pollin, Burton R., “A Comprehensive Bibliography of Editions and Translations of Arthur Gordon Pym,”  ATQ (American Transcendental Quarterly), Winter 1978, pp. 93- 110. (Pollin lists several printings of the Griswold edition on page 106, items 2 and 4.)
  • Quinn, Arthur Hobson, Edgar Allan Poe: A Critical Biography, New York: D. Appleton-Century Company, 1941.
  • Thompson, John Ruben, The Genius and Character of Edgar Allan Poe, privately printed, 1929. (Edited and arranged by James H. Whitty and James H. Rindfleisch.)
  • Southeby Auction Catalogue, The Library of H. Bradley Martin: Highly Important American and Children's Literature, New York, January 30 and 31, 1990, item 2213.
  • Woodberry, George E. (assigned as writer of this anonymous review by Killis Campbell), The Nation, December 4, 1902, p. 445-447.
  • Woodberry, George E. and Edmund Clarence Stedman, “General Preface,” The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, Chicago: Stone and Kimball, 1894-1895 (reprinted by New York: The Colonial Company, 1903 and Charles Scribners's Sons, 1920).

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