Edgar Allan Poe (?) — “An Opinion on Dreams”

Reading copy:

• “An Opinion on Dreams” — reading copy

Manuscripts and Authorized Printings:

• Text-01 — “An Opinion on Dreams” (???) — 1839, no original manuscript or fragments are known to exist (but this version is presumably recorded in Text-02) — (Possibly by Poe)
• Text-02 — “An Opinion on Dreams” (???) — August 1839 — Burton’s  — (Possibly by Poe)

Reprints:

• “An Opinion on Dreams” (???) — 1934, the title and most of the last two paragraphs were printed by John W. Robertson, Bibliography of the Writings of Edgar A. Poe, (San Francisco: Russian Hill Private Press), vol. I, p. 136 (There is no indication that the initial sentences are missing, and the selection ends in the middle of the last paragraph. Robertson states that “This article has not been attributed to Poe and I may be in error in so assigning it. The contents are my justification. Poe was a ‘dreamer’ and certain of his stories and poems had, as a basis, this lapse of memory — day-dreaming such as he described in certain of his stoires and in communications with intimate friends, notably Mrs. Whitman.” In this statement, Robertson shows that he is unaware of the prior attribution by J. H. Whitty, and the comment on it by Killis Campbell.)

Scholarly and Noteworthy Reprints:

• “An Opinion on Dreams” (???) — December 1981, the text is printed as part of an article: George E. Hatvary, “Poe’s Possible Authorship of ‘An Opinion on Dreams’,” (Poe Studies, vol. 14, no. 2, December 1981, pp. 21-22 (Hatvary argues in favor of Poe’s possible authorship. Hatvary’s attribution is briefly disputed by Burton Pollin, in The Brevities, p. 57 (note to Pinakidaia 84.), although Pollin seems to accept the idea that H. B. Wallace is not the author.)

Instream Comparative Texts:

• None

Plain Text Files for Juxta:

• None

Miscellaneous Texts and Related Items:

• None

• Hatvary, George E., “Poe’s Possible Authorship of ‘An Opinion on Dreams’,” (Poe Studies, vol. 14, no. 2, December 1981, pp. 21-22
• 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 (Vols 2-3 Tales and Sketches), Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1978.
• Pollin, Burton R., ed., The Collected Writings of Edgar Allan Poe; Vol II - The Brevities (Including “Marginalia,” etc.)