Edgar Allan Poe — “The Island of the Fay”

Reading copy:

• “The Island of the Fay” — reading copy

Manuscripts and Authorized Printings:

• Text-01 — “The Island of the Fay” — about January-February 1841 — (There are no known draft manuscripts or scratch notes reflecting the original effort of composition.)
• Text-02 — “The Island of the Fay” — about January-February 1841
  • Text-02a — “The Island of the Fay” — May 1841, no original manuscript or fragments are known to exist (but this version is presumably recorded in Text-02b.) — (the printing in Graham's is dated at the end as “Philadelphia, May, 1841”)
  • Text-02b — “The Island of the Fay” — June 1841 — Graham's — (Mabbott text A)
• Text-03 — “The Island of the Fay” — 1842
  • Text-03a — “The Island of the Fay” — 1842 — TGAPP (manuscript of title only) — (The title is listed in Poe's handwritten table of contents, but the text itself no longer survives. It was probably a modified version of the printed text from Graham's Magazine, and is presumably recorded, with perhaps a few additional changes made in proof, in Text-03b.)
  • Text-03b — “The Island of the Fay” — October 4, 1845 — Broadway Journal — (Mabbott text B)
• Text-04 — “The Island of the Fay” — 1845-1849
  • Text-04a — “The Island of the Fay” — 1845-1849 — (speculated copy of the Broadway Journal with manuscript changes made by Poe. This version has not survived, but is presumably represented by text-04b. Changes are too significant to suggest merely editorial meddling, including one fully new footnote, and Poe himself was not alive to make changes in proof. These changes are not so significant, however, that a new manuscript is indicated.)
  • Text-04b — “The Island of the Fay” — 1850 — WORKS — (Mabbott text C — This is Mabbott's copy-text)

Reprints:

• “The Island of the Fay” — 1867 — Prose Tales of Edgar Allan Poe, first series (New York: W. J. Widdleton), pp. 360-365 (This collection is extracted from the 1850-1856 edition of Poe's Works. It was reprinted several times.)
• “The Island of the Fay” — 1874 — Works of Edgar A. Poe, edited by J. H. Ingram, vol. 1, pp. 273-278 (This collection was subsequently reprinted in various forms)
• “The Island of the Fay” — 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. 121-126) (This tale is included as one of six “Prose Poems,” without further explanation.)

Scholarly and Noteworthy Reprints:

• “The Island of the Fay” — 1894-1895 — The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, vol. 2: Tales, eds. E. C. Stedman and G. E. Woodberry, Chicago: Stone and Kimball (2:84-91)
• “The Island of the Fay” — 1902 — The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe, vol. 4: Tales III, ed. J. A. Harrison, New York: T. Y. Crowell (4:193-199, and 4:307-308)
• “The Island of the Fay” — 1978 — The Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe, vol. 2: Tales & Sketches I, ed. T. O. Mabbott, Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press (2:597-606)
• “The Island of the Fay” — 1984 — Edgar Allan Poe: Poetry and Tales, ed. Patrick F. Quinn (New York: Library of America), pp. 933-938

Instream Comparative and Study Texts:

• “The Island of the Fay” — Comparative Text (Graham's Magazine and Broadway Journal)
• “The Island of the Fay” — Comparative Text (Broadway Journal and WORKS)
• “The Island of the Fay” — Comparative Text (All)

Miscellaneous Texts and Related Items:

• “L‘Ile de la fée” — (French translation by Charles Baudelaire)
  • “L‘Ile de la fée” — January 28-30, 1855 — Le Pays
  • “L‘Ile de la fée” — Part I — January 28, 1855
  • “L‘Ile de la fée” — Part II — January 30, 1855
• “L‘Ile de la fée” — 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.
• Ljungquist, Kent P., “Poe's ‘Island of the Fay‘: The Passing of Fairyland,” Studies in Short Fiction (1977), 14:265-271.
• 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.
• Miller, F. DeWolfe, “The Basis for Poe's ‘The Island of the Fay’,” American Literature (May 1942), 14:135-140.
• 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.