[page xliii, continued:]

MANUSCRIPTS OF THE BREVITIES

As with most of Poe's published works, the manuscripts of The Brevities were discarded by the editors after being used by the compositors and, on occasion, proofread by Poe himself. A few installments of the Marginalia and a few fragments of the Fifty Suggestions have survived, but the most important variants, appearing in the autograph corrections on pages of the Democratic Review, were strangely never incorporated in a revised edition. These we shall soon examine, in detail. The other manuscript holdings will also be briefly listed and described, although of small significance in regard to substantives. Save for the first set, almost no accidentals will be recorded. The following is probably incomplete, since the sales of fragments of The Brevities may not have been sufficiently publicized or listed to come to my notice, but it is likely that this sort of material in the large collections is included.

A. Manuscript changes by Poe inscribed in the text and margins of the pages of two Democratic Review installments of Marginalia, held in the Gilman Collection of the Library of the Johns Hopkins University, but never included in any published or revised printing of the articles. [page xliv:] For the importance of these autographic markings, see Introductions to “Marginalia” (para. 2) and “Supplementary Marginalia” (para. 3) in The Brevities’ general Introduction, and also in M 38 note d. For a brief two-page description, with a facsimile page, see Ex Libris (JHU Friends of the Library), IX, no. 2, 1/1940 (unpaged).

[Of the two sets of changes, the earlier are in ink, the later and fewer — are in pencil. Only those in pencil are specially indicated. For ready checking purposes, the changes are listed according to my Marginalia numbering, which is not in the original three sets of installments affected. Paragraphs are indicated whenever there are more than one. Poe's changes are recorded after the separating slash.]

[page xlv:]

B. A sheaf of manuscripts held in the Dreer Collection, at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia; Installment IV of the Marginalia, called by Poe “Marginal Notes. — No. II” and published in Godey's Lady's Book, September 1845, 31.120-123 [13 articles]. Personal inspection of the papers shows dozens of variants for accidentals, but nothing at all in substantives. The many changes suggest the predominance of the editors and compositors of Godey's over Poe in pointing these articles or the abnegation of proofreading by Poe, whatever might be the reason.

C. Manuscripts of material pertaining to the Marginalia (MM 216-218) and to Fifty Suggestions no. 9 are held in The Humanities Research Center Library of the University of Texas at Austin as part of the accession of the William H. Koester Poe collection in 1966. Descriptions and transcriptions are provided by Joseph J. Moldenhauer, ed., A Descriptive Catalog of Edgar Allan Poe Manuscripts (U. of Texas, 1973), pp. 26-28. For the relationship of the variants in substantives see my notes for the three Marginalia and for FS 9. The Catalog, p. 25, also indicates Poe's intentions to continue the M series and provides a link with this material in the Huntington Library, listed in D below. [[The “Marginalia” fragments are from the “Stedman” manuscript, originally complete but cut into fragments for inclusion in a special collector's edition of the Stedman and Woodberry set of Poe's works — JAS]]

D. The Henry E. Huntington Library, San Marino, California, has the manuscripts for M 182 and MM 253-55, along with three articles possibly intended to continue the Marginalia series, one being a 1500 word analysis of Sue's techniques in The Wandering Jew. Only one of the four published ones show small variants in substantives (q.v. in M 182 b). [[The reference to a manuscript for M 182 appears to be an error, as there is no such manuscript at the Huntington. Instead this presumably refers to a manuscript that was formerly in the collection of H. B. Martin, sold at auction in 1990. A facsimile of the final portion of the manuscript was provided in the auction catalog, item 2226. Photocopies of the rest of the manuscript are in the T. O. Mabbott collection at the University of Iowa. The manuscript includes only M 182, in the form in which it was finally printed. The manuscript is currently unlocated. For the remaining fragments, they are from the “Stedman” manuscript — JAS]]

E. A facsimile reprint of the manuscript of M 210 is reported in M 210 a. Another manuscript fragment, in the Gimbel Collection, concerns Laughton Osborn and relates to the source — text for M 217, although not to the article's text directly. Presumably it too was transferred from Yale University to The Free Library in Philadelphia. The facsimile shows no change in M 210. [[The material on Osborn is from the “Stedman” manuscript — JAS]]

F. The Poe Foundation of Richmond owns two substantial fragments of the manuscript of M 247 and M 251 (“no greater torture” to the end; and “to explore” to the end). There are no variants in substantives for either one.

G. A reproduction of a manuscript for M 215 in The Month of 10/1938, shows an important variant in the spelling of a proper name, q.v. in note b of M 215, with no other changes. [[This entry refers to The Month at Goodspeed's for October 1938, pp. 20-22, with p. 21 giving a reduced facsimile of the first page of the manuscript. The text is actually the beginning of the entry on Laughton Osborn for Literary America, and not properly of the “Marginalia” — JAS]]