Edgar Allan Poe (doubtful) — “To Irene (Thou wert alone ...)”

Reading copy:

• “To Irene (Thou wert alone ...)” — reading copy

Manuscripts and Authorized Printings:

• Text-01 — “To Irene” — about 1836 — the manuscript was supposedly written on the fly-leaf of a music book, according to Hewitt (This book has not been traced, and the Richmond lady who originally owned the book has not been identified. The fact that Hewitt apparently saw it in 1868 or 1869 at least means that it survived the Civil War.)

Reprints:

• “To Irene (Thou wert alone ...)” — March 23, 1869 — Staunton Spectator (Staunton, VA) (the poem is quoted in a letter from John Hill Hewitt, signed under his pseudonym of Chips)

Scholarly and Noteworthy Reprints:

• “To Irene” — 1949 — Recollections of Poe by John Hill Hewitt, ed. Richard Barksdale Harwell — Atlanta, GA: The Library of Emory University, p. 29 (reprinted from the Staunton Spectator article)
• “To Irenë” — 1969 — The Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe, vol 1:Poems, ed. T. O. Mabbott, Cambridge: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press (1:497-498) (reprinted from the Staunton Spectator article) (Only Mabbott prints the name with a diaeresis, which he adds editorially and without comment. Mabbott does provide some explanation in a footnote for also adding a diaeresis to the form of “To Irene” that later became “The Sleeper.”)

Instream Comparative and Study Texts:

• None.

Miscellaneous Texts and Related Items:

• None.

• 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, ed., The Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe (Vol 1 Poems), Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1969.