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The J. Lorimer Graham copy of The Raven and Other Poems (1846-1849)


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Poe’s personal copy of The Raven and Other Poems , with numerous changes made in pencil. This copy is bound together with Tales , and appears to have been issued in this form about February 1846. Poe’s changes, therefore, may be dated as 1846-1849.

The poems in this edition are listed below, but only the texts with changes have a link:

  • “Preface” (some minor deletions and changes in punctuation, with one substantive phrase transposed)
  • “The Raven”  (extensive changes)
  • “The Valley of Unrest”  (no changes)
  • “Bridal Ballad”  (punctuation changes, and two new lines)
  • “The Sleeper”  (minor changes)
  • “The Coliseum”  (one minor correction)
  • “Lenore”  (heavily revised final stanza)
  • “Catholic Hymn”  (minor change in title)
  • “Israfel”  (one small correction)
  • “Dream-land”  (minor changes, mostly in punctuation, but one verbal change)
  • “Sonnet — to Zante”  (no changes)
  • “The City in the Sea”  (one small change in punctuation)
  • “To One in Paradise”  (two small changes: one in word order, and one verbal change)
  • “Eulalie — A Song”  (one small change in spelling)
  • “To F——s S. O——d”  (no changes)
  • “To F———”   (no changes)
  • “Sonnet — Silence”  (no changes)
  • “The Conqueror Worm”   (two small verbal changes)
  • “The Haunted Palace”  (several small punctuation changes, one change in spelling and one verbal correction)
  • “Scenes from ‘Politian ’“   (three small formatting changes at the beginning of scene II)
  • “Sonnet — To Science”   (no changes)
  • “Al Aaraaf”   (no changes)
  • “Tamerlane”   (no changes)
  • “A Dream”   (no changes)
  • “Romance”   (no changes)
  • “Fairy-land”   (no changes)
  • “To ——”   (no changes)
  • “To the River ——”   (no changes)
  • “The Lake — To ——”   (no changes)
  • “Song”   (no changes)
  • “To Helen”   (no changes)

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Bibliographic Data:

8vo. (7 1/2 in x 5 in). Pages [i-vii], [1]-91. Bound with Tales.


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Census of Copies:

There were many copies of the original volume, but this heavily modified copy is unique. The provenance of this entry is established as authoritatively as possible, given the sketchy and often convoluted bits of information available:

  • Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas at Austin (acquired prior to the purchase of the William H. Koester collection, about 1965. By that time, the book was already in the Miriam Luther Stark Library of the University of Texas).  1. Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849); 2. Rufus W. Griswold (this book was found in Poe’s trunk and sent to Griswold by Neilson Poe.); 3. George Philip Philes (1828-1913), a New York dealer who wrote his name in the book; 4. James Lorimer Graham (1835-1876), with his bookplate, and autograph inscription: “This was Poe’s own Copy — J. L. G.”; 5: The Century Association, New York, presented by the widow of J. L. Graham, about 1894 (The Century Association sold Graham’ autograph collection on April 29, 1958, at Parke-Bernet Galleries, in New York, where it was presumably purchased by H. J. Lutcher Stark, for the Miriam Lutcher Stark Library at the University of Texas)

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Bibliography:

  • 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, p. 119-120. (Volume 7 is edited and completed by Virginia L. Smyers and Michael Winship.) (This book is item 16146.)
  • Ford, Paul Leicester, A Catalogue of the James Lorimer Graham Library, New York: The Century Association, 1896, p. 277 (where the item is very briefly described: “The above two works [The Raven and Other Poems and Tales] are bound together; the first precedes. Poe’s own copy, with many MS. marginal corrections and additions, evidently intended as the basis for a new edition. This was afterwards the property of R. W. Griswold, Poe’s editor, and has his autograph on a fly leaf.”)
  • Heartman, Charles F and James R. Canny, A Bibliography of First Printings of the Writings of Edgar Allan Poe , Hattiesburg, Mississippi, 1943, pp. 90-97. (Reprinted, Millwood, New York: Kraus Reprint Co., 1977.)
  • Mabbott, Thomas Ollive, "Introduction," The Raven and Other Poems, New York: Columbia University Press, 1942 (a facsimile reproduction of The Raven and Other Poems portion of the J. L. Graham copy)
  • 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. (Second printing 1979)
  • Moldenhauer, Joseph J., A Descriptive Catalog of Edgar Allan Poe Manuscripts in the Humanities Research Center Library, Austin, TX: The University of Texas at Austin, 1973

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[S:0 - JAS] - Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore - Works - Editions - J. L. Graham copy of The Raven and Other Poems (1846-1849)