Edgar Allan Poe — “Some Words with a Mummy”

Reading copy:

• “Some Words with a Mummy” — reading copy

Manuscripts and Authorized Printings:

• Text-01 — “Some Words with a Mummy” — 1844 — (There are no known draft manuscripts or scratch notes reflecting the original effort of composition.)
• Text-02 — “Some Words with a Mummy” — 1844-1845
  • Text-02a — “Some Words with a Mummy” — late 1844 — (Speculated faircopy manuscript prepared for publication. The tale was originally sent to the Columbian Magazine, which lists it as accepted in the issue for January 1845, although it would not ultimately appear in the pages of that magazine. Cullen B. Colton states that the manuscript was among those “either lost or stolen.” No trace of a manuscript is known, but it was common practice for such material to be destroyed during or after typesetting. Poe himself saw no particular importance in his manuscript once that version was set in type. The future value of these manuscripts was, of course, not recognized at the time. Although the manuscript has not survived, this version is presumably recorded in Text-02b.)
  • Text-02b — “Some Words with a Mummy” — April 1845 — American Review — (Mabbott text A)
• Text-03 — “Some Words with a Mummy” — 1845
  • Text-03a — “Some Words with a Mummy” — 1845 — (Speculated copy of the American Review with minor corrections by Poe. This copy has not survived, but is presumably reflected in Text-03b.)
  • Text-03b — “Some Words with a Mummy” — November 1, 1845 — Broadway Journal — (Mabbott text B — This is Mabbott's copy-text, but with the change of one word from C, which Mabbott considers authorial)
• Text-04 — “Some Words with a Mummy” — 1845-1850
  • Text-04a — “Some Words with a Mummy” — 1845-1849 — (Speculated copy of the Broadway Journal with minor corrections by Poe. This copy has not survived, but is presumably reflected in Text-04b)
  • Text-04b — “Some Words with a Mummy” — 1850 — WORKS — (Mabbott text C)

Reprints:

• “Some Words with a Mummy” — November 11, 1845 — Northern Galaxy (Middlebury, VT) (vol. 10 no. 28, front page, reprinted from the Broadway Journal, and carrying Poe's name as author)
• “Some Words with a Mummy” — June 22, 1850 — Boston Museum, vol. 3, no. 1
• “Some Words with a Mummy” — 1852 — Tales and Sketches: to which is added The Raven: A Poem, London, George Routledge & Co., pp. 236-250
• “Some Words with a Mummy” — 1852 — Tales of Mystery and Imagination and Humour; and Poems, London: Henry Vizetelly (An undated edition appears about the same time, published by Charles H. Clark and Samuel Orchart Beeton, and their name appears as publisher for the second series), second series pp. 212-231. (with a woodcut illustration)
• “Some Words with a Mummy” — 1867 — Prose Tales of Edgar Allan Poe, second series (New York: W. J. Widdleton), pp. 142-158 (This collection is extracted from the 1850-1856 edition of Poe's Works. It was reprinted several times.)
• “Some Words with a Mummy” — 1874 — Works of Edgar A. Poe, edited by J. H. Ingram (vol. II, pp. 356-373) (This collection was subsequently reprinted in various forms)
• “Some Words with a Mummy” — 1990 — Mummy Stories, edited by Martin Greenberg (New York: Ballentine Books), pp. 103-118 (a cheaply produced, mass market paperback, with the one story by Poe and others by A. C. Doyle, R. Bloch, etc.)

Scholarly and Noteworthy Reprints:

• “Some Words with a Mummy” — 1894-1895 — The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, vol. 2: Tales, eds. E. C. Stedman and G. E. Woodberry, Chicago: Stone and Kimball (2:285-307)
• “Some Words with a Mummy” — 1902 — The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe, vol. 6: Tales V, ed. J. A. Harrison, New York: T. Y. Crowell (6:116-138, and 6:283-284)
• “Some Words with a Mummy” — 1976 — The Science Fiction of Edgar Allan Poe, ed. Harold Beaver (New York: Penguin Books), pp. 154-170 and pp. 381-387 (reprinted 1977, 1978, 1979, and 1982)
• “Some Words with a Mummy” — 1978 — The Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe, vol. 3: Tales & Sketches II, ed. T. O. Mabbott, Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press (3:1175-1201)
• “Some Words with a Mummy” — 1984 — Edgar Allan Poe: Poetry and Tales, ed. Patrick F. Quinn (New York: Library of America), pp. 805-821

Instream Comparative and Study Texts:

• “Some Words with a Mummy” — Comparative Text (American Review and BJ)
• “Some Words with a Mummy” — Comparative Text (BJ and WORKS)

Miscellaneous Texts and Related Items:

• “Petite discussion avec une momie” — (French translation by Charles Baudelaire)
  • “Petite discussion avec une momie” — December 11-12, 1854 — Le Pays
    • “Petite discussion avec une momie” — Part I  (December 11, 1854)
    • “Petite discussion avec une momie” — Part II  (December 12, 1854)
  • “Petite discussion avec une momie” — 1857 — Nouvelles histoires par Edgar Poe, Paris: Michel Lévy frères
• “Cuatro Palabras con una Momia” — 1862, August 18 — El Mundo Ilustrado  (Spanish translation, clipping in the Ingram Collection, U. of VA.)
• “[Some Words With a Mummy]” — 1881 — Underliga historier  (Stockholm)  (Swedish translation, noted by Anderson, p. 54)

• Anderson, Carl L., Poe in Northlight: The Scandanavian Response to His Life and Work, Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1973.
• Campbell, Killis, “Source of Poe's 'some Words With a Mummy’,” Nation, June 23, 1910, 90:625-626
• Colton, Cullen B., “George Hooker Colton and the Publication of ‘The Raven’,” American Literature, vol. X, no. 3, November 1938, pp. 319-330 (footnote 30 on p. 328 provides the comment about the manuscript)
• 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.
• King, Lucille, “Notes on Poe's Sources,” University of Texas Studies in English (1930), 10:128-134.
• 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., “Poe's 'some Words With a Mummy’ Reconsidered,” Emerson Society Quarterly, Fall 1970, 60:60-67
• Rhea, R. L., “Some Observations on Poe's Origins,” University of Texas Studies in English, 1930, 10:135-146
• 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.