Edgar Allan Poe — “Four Beasts in One”

Reading copy:

• “Four Beasts in One” — reading copy

Manuscripts and Authorized Printings:

• Text-01 — “Epimanes” — early 1833— (Although we have the “Buckingham” manuscript, we may speculate that there must have been an earlier form as the copy sent to the Buckinghams is clearly a clean copy. It may also be surmised that Poe must have retained a manuscript as the Buckinghams appear never to have returned Poe’s letter, and Poe would need to have a copy of the text, which was later printed in the Southern Literary Messenger. This manuscript is lost, but this version is presumably recorded in Text-02.)
• Text-02 — “Epimanes” — May 4, 1833— “Buckingham” manuscript — (Mabbott text A)
• Text-03 — “Epimanes” — March 1836— Southern Literary Messenger — (Mabbott text B)
• Text-04 — “Epimanes” — 1840 — TGA — (Mabbott text C)
• Text-05 — “The Homocameleopard” — 1842 — manuscript title revision in TGAPP (volume II, which seems to have had revisions by Poe, is lost, but this version is presumably recorded in Text-06)
• Text-06 — “Four Beasts in One” — December 6, 1845 — Broadway Journal — (Mabbott text D) (For Griswold’s 1850 reprinting of this text, see the entry below, under reprints.)

Reprints:

• “Four Beasts in One” — 1850 — WORKS — Griswold reprints Text-06  (Mabbott text E)  (This is Mabbott’s copy-text)
• “Four Beasts in One” — 1867 — Prose Tales of Edgar Allan Poe, second series (New York: W. J. Widdleton), pp. 169-176 (This collection is extracted from the 1850-1856 edition of Poe’s Works. It was reprinted several times.)
• “Four Beasts in One” — 1874 — Works of Edgar A. Poe, edited by J. H. Ingram (vol. II, pp. 385-393) (This collection was subsequently reprinted in various forms)

Scholarly and Noteworthy Reprints:

• “Four Beasts in One” — 1894-1895 — The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, vol. 4: Tales, ed. G. E. Woodberry and E. C. Stedman, Chicago: Stone and Kimball (4:92-102) (This collection was subsequently reprinted in various forms)
• “Four Beasts in One; the Homo-Cameleopard” — 1902 — The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe, vol. 2: Tales I, ed. J. A. Harrison, New York: T. Y. Crowell (2:203-213, and 2:375-377)
• “Epimanes (Four Beasts in One)” — 1978 — The Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe, vol. 2: Tales & Sketches I, ed. T. O. Mabbott, Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press (2:117-130)
• “Four Beasts in One— The Homo-Cameleopard” — 1984 — Edgar Allan Poe: Poetry and Tales, Patrick F. Quinn (New York: Library of America), pp. 181-188

Instream Comparative Texts:

• None.

Plain Text Files for Juxta:

• None.

Miscellaneous Texts and Related Items:

• “Quatre bêtes en une” — (French translation by Charles Baudelaire)
  • “L‘Homme caméléopard ou Quatre bêtes en une” — July 28, 1854 — Le Pays
  • “Quatre bêtes en une” — 1857 — Nouvelles histoires par Edgar Poe, Paris: Michel Lévy frères

• 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.
• Itoh, Shoko, “Urbanity in Poe,” Chu-Shikoku Studies in American Literature (1986), 22:5-13.
• Lecompte, C. “ ‘The Homeo-Cameleopard’ ou la mort de Dieu,” Delta: Revue de Centre d‘Edtdes et le Recherche sur les Ecrivains du Sud aux Etats-Units (1975), 1:83-94.
• 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.
• Whipple, William, “Poe’s Political Satire,” University of Texas Studies in English (1956), 35:81-95.
• 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.