Edgar Allan Poe — “A Paean” and “Lenore”

Reading copy:

• “Lenore” — reading copy

Manuscripts and Authorized Printings (full text):

• Text-01 — “A Pæan” — 1831, no original manuscript or fragments are known to exist (but this version is presumably recorded in Text-02)
• Text-02 — “A Pæan” — 1831 — POEMS — (Mabbott text A)
• Text-03 — “A Pæan” — January 1836 — Southern Literary Messenger — (Mabbott text B)  (This is Mabbott’s copy-text for “A Paean,” which he prints as a separate poem)
• Text-04 — “Lenore” — February 1843 — Pioneer (Printed in Boston and also Philadelphia) — (Mabbott text A1)  (This is Mabbott’s copy-text for the Pindaric version)
• Text-05 — “Lenore” — February 25 and March 4, 1843 — Saturday Museum — (Mabbott text B1)
  • Text-05a — “Lenore” — February 25, 1843
  • Text-05b — “Lenore” — March 4, 1843  (reprinted from February 25, 1843)
• Text-06 — “Lenore” — about October 1844 — uncertain periodical, possibly the New York Sunday Times (Text reprinted in the Jackson Advocate and the Evening Mirror in 1844, see reprints, below) — (Mabbott text C1)
• Text-07 — “Lenore” — February 1845 — Graham’s (printed as part of J. R. Lowell’s article on Poe) — (Mabbott text D1)
• Text-08 — “Lenore” — August 16, 1845 — Broadway Journal — (Mabbott text E1)
• Text-09 — “Lenore” — 1845 — RAOP — (Mabbott text F1)
• Text-10 — “Lenore” — late 1849 — Poets and Poetry of America (10th edition, dated 1850) — (Mabbott text G1)
• Text-11 — “Lenore” — about August 1849 — manuscript revisions in J. Lorimer Graham copy of RAOP — (Mabbott text J1)
• Text-12 — “Lenore” — September 18, 1849 — Richmond Whig and Public Advertiser — (Mabbott text K1)  (This is Mabbott’s copy-text for the Long-lines version)
• Text-13 — “Lenore” — about September 1849 — Richmond Examiner proof sheet — (Whitty states that this text matches Text-11, but “with slight punctuation changes” which he does not record [Poems, 1911, p. 213])

Manuscripts and Authorized Printings (excerpts):

• “Lenore” — May 24, 1845 — excerpt only, 2 lines, Broadway Journal
• “Lenore” — May (?) 1849 (lines 20-26) — letter to R. W. Griswold — (Mabbott text H1)
• “[Lenore]” — about June 1849 — lines 10-12 only, “Stedman” manuscript  (These lines are quoted in an article about H. B. Hirst)
• “[Lenore]” — about June 1849 — lines 10-12 only, “Griswold” manuscript  (These lines are quoted in an article about H. B. Hirst)

Reprints:

• “A Pæan” — January 12, 1836 — Richmond Enquirer (vol. XXXII, no. 76, p. 4, top of col. 1) (acknowledged as reprinted from the SLM)
• “[Lenore]” — before November 28, 1844 — Jackson Advocate (Tennesee)
• “[Lenore]” — November 28, 1844 — Evening Mirror (New York)
• “Lenore” — January 21, 1845 — Evening Mirror (New York) (Included as part of a reprint of J. R. Lowell’s article on Poe from Graham’s Magazine.)
• “Lenore” — January 25, 1845 — Public Ledger (Philadelphia) (vol. XVIII, no. 103, p. 1, col. 4) (reprinted from Text-08, attributed to “By E. A. Poe,” but without mentioning the Broadway Journal.)
• “Lenore” — September 1, 1845 — Chambersburg Times (Pennsylvania) (An unathorized reprint criticized by Poe in the Broadway Journal for September 13, 1845. An apparently unique file of the newspaper is in the collection of the Franklin County Historical Society, in Kittochtinny, PA)
• “Dirge [Lenore]” — September 13, 1848 — Oquawka Spectator
• “[Lenore]” — October 17, 1849 — Louisville Daily Journal (Louisville, KY)  (only a few stanzas)
• “Lenore” — 1850 — WORKS — Griswold prints Text-14  (Mabbott text L1)
• “[Lenore]” — 1850 — lines 10-12 only in article about H. B. Hirst, WORKS
• “Lenore” — November 2, 1850 — Boston Daily Times (Boston, MA)
• “Lenore” — 1856 — Cyclopedia of American Literature, New York: Charles Scribner
• “A Pæan” — March 1862 — Philobiblion (New York, NY) (reprinted from the Poems of 1831, as part of an article on “Poe’s Early Poems” by H. R.) (vol. I, no. 4, pp. 88-89)
• “A Pæan” — January 7, 1863 — Orleans Republican (Albion, NY) (reprinted from the Philobiblion)
• “Lenore” — 1875 — The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, vol 3: Poems  and Essays, ed. J. H. Ingram, Edinburgh, Adam and Charles Black (3:13-14)

Scholarly and Noteworthy Reprints (as “A Pæan”):

• “A Pæan” — 1911 — The Complete Poems of Edgar Allan Poe, Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Co. (pp. 209-211)
• “A Pæan” — 1917 — The Poems of Edgar Allan Poe, ed. Killis Campbell, Boston: Ginn and Company (pp. 68-72, and pp. 214-217)
• “A Pæan” — 1969 — The Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe, vol. 1: Poems, ed. T. O. Mabbott, Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press (1:204-207)

Scholarly and Noteworthy Reprints (as “Lenore”):

• “Lenore” — 1894-1895 — The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, vol. 10: Poems, ed. G. E. Woodberry and E. C. Stedman, Chicago: Stone and Kimball (10:17-18, and pp. 166-170)  (The full text of “A Pæan” is given in the notes)
• “Lenore” — 1902 — The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe, vol. 7: Poems, ed. J. A. Harrison, New York: T. Y. Crowell (10:53-54, and 10:182-187)
• “Lenore” — 1911 — The Complete Poems of Edgar Allan Poe, ed. J. H. Whitty, Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Co. (pp. 21-22, and pp. 209-214)
• “Lenore” — 1917 — The Poems of Edgar Allan Poe, ed. Killis Campbell, Boston: Ginn and Company (pp. 68-72, and pp. 214-217)
• “Lenore” — 1965 — The Poems of Edgar Allan Poe, ed. Floyd Stovall, Charlottesville: The University Press of Virginia (p. 56, and pp. 228-236)  (In his notes, Stovall gives the full texts of the 1843 “Lenore” and the 1831 “A Paean”)
• “Lenore” — 1969 — The Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe, vol. 1: Poems, ed. T. O. Mabbott, Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press (1:330-339)  (Mabbott gives two texts, one for the Pindaric version, and one for the Long-line version)
• “Lenore” — 1984 — Edgar Allan Poe: Poetry and Tales, ed. Patrick F. Quinn (New York: Library of America) (pp. 68-69) (reprints Text-09) (This edition omits “A Paean” as an earlier form of “Lenore.”)

Instream Comparative and Study Texts:

• None

Plain Text Files for Juxta:

• None

Miscellaneous Texts and Related Items:

• “Lenore” — 1864 — Der Rabe, die Glocken, Lenore, Philadelphia  (German translation)
• “Lenore” — 1960 — a reading by Nelson Olmsted on The Raven: Poems and Tales of Edgar Allan Poe, issued on the Vanguard label (VRS-9046, rereleased as VSD-32)
• “Lenore” — dated 2009, but available in late 2008 — Poèmes d‘Edgar Allan Poe, Paris: Publibook (translation by Jean Hautepierre)

• Broderick, John C., “Poe’s Revisions of ‘Lenore’,” American Literature, January 1964, 35:504-510
• 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.
• Pollin, Burton R., “Poe and Frances Osgood, as Linked through ‘Lenore’,” Mississippi Quarterly, 1993, 46:185-197
• Savoye, Jeffrey A., “The Curse of Lenore: Edgar Allan Poe and the Chambersburg Times,” Edgar Allan Poe Review, Spring 2011, vol. 12, vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 32-41.(This article locates a unique file of the Chambersburg Times for 1845 and provides further details on its interest in Poe and on Poe’s humorous comments about this newspaper’s unauthorized alteration of his text for “Lenore.”)