Edgar Allan Poe — “The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym”

Reading copy:

• “The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym” — reading copy

Manuscripts and Authorized Printings:

• Text-01 — “Arthur Gordon Pym” — 1836-1837, no original manuscript or fragments are known to exist (but this version is presumably recorded in Text-02 and Text-03)
• Text-02 — “Arthur Gordon Pym” — January-February 1837 — two installments only, Southern Literary Messenger — (Mabbott/Pollin text A)
  • “Arthur Gordon Pym - No I” — January 1837 (includes chapter I and part of chapter II)
  • “Arthur Gordon Pym - No II” — February 1837 (includes the remainder of chapter II, all of chapter III and part of chapter IV.)
• Text-03 — “Arthur Gordon Pym” — 1837-1838, no manuscript or fragments of the full, expanded form are known to exist (but this version is presumably recorded in Text-04) (The Knickerbocker for May 1837 notes the work as “nearly ready for publication,” so most of the writing was probably completed by this time. As the publisher was already selected, the delay in actually appearing in print suggests that it was not quite so “nearly ready” as the statement would imply, or that many revisions were being made. The preface is dated as July 1838, which may indicate the approximate date of final revision, or may simply have been updated at the last minute to give the work a current date)
• Text-04 — The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym   — 1838 — PYM — (Mabbott/Pollin text B)  (This is the Mabbott/Pollin copy-text) (The offical date of publication is probably July 30, 1838, as listed in the New York American for July 31, 1838, in an advertisement for Israel Post, which notes the book as being available)
• Text-05 — The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym  — a presumed marked copy of Text-04, a revision stated by probably not carried to completion, most likley 1838-1840 — PYM — (Pollin does not accept the possibility that Griswold had a copy revised by Poe) — assuming this copy did exist, it is now apparently lost, but presumably recorded in Text-06)
• Text-06 — “Narrative of A. Gordon Pym” — 1856 — WORKS — (Mabbott/Pollin text E)

Reprints:

• The Narrative of A. Gordon Pym — 1838 — (Mabbott/Pollin text C)  (Pirated British reprint by Wiley & Putnam of “B” introduces British spellings, cuts ending, and adds a few sentences to the preface.)
• “The Narrative of A. Gordon Pym” — 1841 — Novel Newspaper
• “The Narrative of A. Gordon Pym” — 1856 — (another Pirated reprint of “C”, omitting the preface)
• “The Narrative of A. Gordon Pym” — 1857 — Beeton’s Boy’s Own Magazine (12 installments, an adaptation of the first half of Pym)
• Wonderful Adventures of Arthur Gordon Pym — 1861 — London: W. Kent, part of Kent’s “Shilling Standard Library” (This text is based on Griswold’s, Text-06)
• “The Narrative of A. Gordon Pym” — 1867 — Prose Tales of Edgar Allan Poe, second series (New York: W. J. Widdleton), pp. 200-378 (This collection is extracted from the 1850-1856 edition of Poe’s Works. It was reprinted several times.)
• “The Narrative of A. Gordon Pym” — 1874 — Works of Edgar A. Poe, edited by J. H. Ingram (vol. II, pp. 1-188) (This collection was subsequently reprinted in various forms)
• Arthur Gordon Pym: A Romance — 1898 — London: Downey & Co. (Illustrated by A. D. McCormack)  (This publisher apparently decided that Poe’s title was far too long)

Scholarly and Noteworthy Reprints:

• “Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym” — 1894-1895 — The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, vol. 5: Tales, ed. G. E. Woodberry and E. C. Stedman, Chicago: Stone and Kimball (5:3-253, and 5:355-359)
• “Narrative of A. Gordon Pym” — 1902 — The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe, vol. 3: Tales II, ed. J. A. Harrison, New York: T. Y. Crowell (3:5-245, and 3:329-333) (although Harrison claims to reprint the text of 1838, he actually gives the text printed by Griswold, as is evident by the presence of several verbal variants.)
• “Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym” — 1981 — The Collected Writings of Edgar Allan Poe, vol 1.: The Imaginary Voyages, ed. B. R. Pollin, Boston: Twayne Publishers (1:4-363).
• “The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym” — 1984 — Edgar Allan Poe: Poetry and Tales, Patrick F. Quinn (New York: Library of America), pp. 1003-1182

Instream Comparative Texts:

• None.

Plain Text Files for Juxta:

• None.

Miscellaneous Texts and Related Items:

• “Aventures d‘Arthur Gordon Pym” — (French translation by C. Baudelaire)
  • “La Relation d‘Arthur Gordon Pym, de Nantucket” — Le Moniteur Universel (Paris)  (26 installments)
    • “La Relation d‘Arthur Gordon Pym, de Nantucket” — Part I — February 25, 1857
    • “La Relation d‘Arthur Gordon Pym, de Nantucket” — Part II — February 26, 1857
    • “La Relation d‘Arthur Gordon Pym, de Nantucket” — Part III — February 27, 1857
    • “La Relation d‘Arthur Gordon Pym, de Nantucket” — Part IV — February 28, 1857
    • “La Relation d‘Arthur Gordon Pym, de Nantucket” — Part V — March 4, 1857
    • “La Relation d‘Arthur Gordon Pym, de Nantucket” — Part VI — March 6, 1857
    • “La Relation d‘Arthur Gordon Pym, de Nantucket” — Part VII — March 7, 1857
    • “La Relation d‘Arthur Gordon Pym, de Nantucket” — Part VIII — March 11, 1857
    • “La Relation d‘Arthur Gordon Pym, de Nantucket” — Part IX — March 12, 1857
    • “La Relation d‘Arthur Gordon Pym, de Nantucket” — Part X — March 13, 1857
    • “La Relation d‘Arthur Gordon Pym, de Nantucket” — Part XI — March 15, 1857
    • “La Relation d‘Arthur Gordon Pym, de Nantucket” — Part XII — March 17, 1857
    • “La Relation d‘Arthur Gordon Pym, de Nantucket” — Part XIII — March 21, 1857
    • “La Relation d‘Arthur Gordon Pym, de Nantucket” — Part XIV — March 22, 1857
    • “La Relation d‘Arthur Gordon Pym, de Nantucket” — Part XV — March 29, 1857
    • “La Relation d‘Arthur Gordon Pym, de Nantucket” — Part XVI — March 31, 1857
    • “La Relation d‘Arthur Gordon Pym, de Nantucket” — Part XVII — April 2, 1857
    • “La Relation d‘Arthur Gordon Pym, de Nantucket” — Part XVIII — April 4, 1857
    • “La Relation d‘Arthur Gordon Pym, de Nantucket” — Part XIX — April 5, 1857
    • “La Relation d‘Arthur Gordon Pym, de Nantucket” — Part XX — April 7, 1857
    • “La Relation d‘Arthur Gordon Pym, de Nantucket” — Part XXI — April 8, 1857
    • “La Relation d‘Arthur Gordon Pym, de Nantucket” — Part XXII — April 14, 1857
    • “La Relation d‘Arthur Gordon Pym, de Nantucket” — Part XXIII — April 15, 1857
    • “La Relation d‘Arthur Gordon Pym, de Nantucket” — Part XXIV — April 16, 1857
    • “La Relation d‘Arthur Gordon Pym, de Nantucket” — Part XXV — April 17, 1857
    • “La Relation d‘Arthur Gordon Pym, de Nantucket” — Part XXVI — April 18, 1857
  • Aventures d‘Arthur Gordon Pym, par Edgar Poe — 1858 — Paris: Michel Lévy frères  (reprinted by the same publisher in 1862)
  • Aventures d‘Arthur Gordon Pym — 1944 — Paris: Delamain et Boutelleau  (illustrated by Mario Prassionos, limited edition of 2,300 copies)  (The cover gives the title as Les Aventures de Gordon Pym, par Edgar Allan Poe and in smaller print Les Voyages Imaginaires)
• [Nantucketer Arthur Gordon Pym; Adventures] — 1857 — an abridged Armenian translation by father E. Chakejian, Vienna, Mechitarist Friar’s Publishing House) (Since the entire book, including the title, is in Armenian with a cyrillic alphabet, the title given here is a rough translation.)
• [Narrative of A. G. Pym]  — 1863 — Barcelona: Diario de Barcelona (mentioned in Heartman & Canny, p. 40 and Pollin)
• [Narrative of A. G. Pym] — 1863 — Barcelona: E. Domenech (translation by A. de Rosas) (mentioned by Pollin)
• The Anglo-Americans in the South Pole — 1868 — Madrid: Biblioteca Universal Economica, vol. 9 (translation by “F. N.”)  (mentioned by Pollin)
• [Narrative of A. G. Pym] — 1890 — Stockholm: F. C. Askerbergs Forlag (mentioned in Heartman & Canny, p. 40 and Pollin)
• A Strange Discovery: How We Found Dirk Peters — 1899 — by Charles Romyn Dake,  New York: H. Ingalls Kimball  (This purports to be a sequel to Poe’s novel. The cover spells the author’s name as Charles Romeyn Dake, apparently in error as it is not spelled thus anywhere else in the book.)  (This novel has been reprinted.)
• An Antartic Mystery — 1899 — by Jules Verne (translated by Mrs. Cashel Hoey)  (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Co.) (Essentially a retelling of Poe’s tale, which refers to Poe’s novel and expands on the story.)  (This novel has been reprinted.)
• “The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym” — September 19, 1943 — a radio show broadcast on NBC’sThe Weird Circle show. (This episode is available on CD as part of a 6-CD set of “Smithsonian Legendary Performers,” issued in 2004. As was often the case with dramatic presentations of Poe’s works, the story has been modified, in this case impossibly reducing Poe’s novel to a 1/2 hour show.)
• [Narrative of A. G. Pym] — 1951 — Tel Aviv, Israel: Machbarot Lesifrout publishing  (Hebrew translation by Aharon Amir, reprinted in paperback by the same publisher in 1965)

• Achilles, Jochen, “Composite (Dis)Order: Cultural Identity in Wieland, Edgar Huntly, and Arthur Gordon Pym,” in 1650-1850: Ideas, Aesthetics, and Inquiries in the Early Modern Era, ed. Kevin L. Cope and Laura Morrow, New York: AMS, 1997, pp. 252-270.
• Akiyama, Yoshinori, “The Adventure of Self: Quest of the Heroes in Edgar Allan Poe’s The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket and Herman Melville’s Typee,” Otsuka Review, 1995, 31:30-39
• Bailey, J. O., “Sources of Poe’s The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym and ‘Hans Pfaal’ and Other Pieces,” Publications of the Modern Language Association, 1942, 57:513-535
• Barth, John, “ ’still Farther South’: Some Notes on Poe’s Pym,” inPoe’s Pym: Critical Explorations, ed., Richard Kopley, Durham: Duke University Press, 1992, pp. 217-230 (Originally appeared in Antaeus, Autumn 1989, 63:7-18. Reprinted in Further Fridays: Essays, Lectures, and Other Nonfiction 1984-1994, New York: Little Brown, 1995, and Perspectives on Poe, ed. D. Ramakrishna, New Delhi: APC Publications 1996, pp. 1-18)
• Beegel, Susan F., “ ‘Mutiny and Atrocious Butchery’: The Globe Mutiny as a Source for Pym,” in Poe’s Pym: Critical Explorations, ed., Richard Kopley, Durham: Duke University Press, 1992, pp. 7-19.
• Dameron, J. Lasley, “Poe’s Pym and Scoresby on Polar Cataracts,” Resources for American Literary Study, 1995, 21:258-260
• Dameron, J. Lasley, “Pym’s Polar Episode: Conclusion or Beginning?,” in Poe’s Pym: Critical Explorations, ed., Richard Kopley, Durham: Duke University Press, 1992, pp. 33-43.
• Farrell, Grace, “Mourning in Poe’s Pym,” in Poe’s Pym: Critical Explorations, ed., Richard Kopley, Durham: Duke University Press, 1992, pp. 107-116.
• Farrell, Grace, “Dream Texts: The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym and the Journal of Julius Rodman,” in Companion to Poe Studies, ed. Eric W. Carlson, Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1996, pp. 209-235
• Fioraso, Roberto, “Poe e Salgari tra botole e gorghi marini,” Bollettino della Biblioteca civica di Verona, Autumn 1997, 3:159-165
• Fussell, Edwin, Frontier: American Literature and the American West, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1965
• Hammond, Alexander, “Consumption, Exchange, and the Literary Marketplace: From the Folio Club Tales to Pym,” in Poe’s Pym: Critical Explorations, ed., Richard Kopley, Durham: Duke University Press, 1992, pp. 153-166.
• 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.
• Hirsch, David H., “ ‘Postmodern’ or Post-Auschwitz: The Case of Poe,” in Poe’s Pym: Critical Explorations, ed., Richard Kopley, Durham: Duke University Press, 1992, pp. 141-150.
• Irwin, John T., “The Quincuncial Network in Poe’s Pym,” in Poe’s Pym: Critical Explorations, ed., Richard Kopley, Durham: Duke University Press, 1992, pp. 175-187.
• Kennedy, J. Gerald, “Pym Pourri: Decomposing the Textual Body,” in Poe’s Pym: Critical Explorations, ed., Richard Kopley, Durham: Duke University Press, 1992, pp. 167-174.
• Ketterer, David, “Tracing Shadows: Pym Criticism, 1980-1990,” in Poe’s Pym: Critical Explorations, ed., Richard Kopley, Durham: Duke University Press, 1992, pp. 233-274.
• Mead, Joan Tyler, “Poe’s ‘Manual of Seamanship’,” in Poe’s Pym: Critical Explorations, ed., Richard Kopley, Durham: Duke University Press, 1992, pp. 20-32.
• Moldenhauer, Joseph J., “Pym, the Dighton Rock, and the Matter of Vinland,” in Poe’s Pym: Critical Explorations, ed., Richard Kopley, Durham: Duke University Press, 1992, pp. 75-94.
• Peirce, Carol, and Alexander G. Rose III, “Poe’s Reading of Myth: The White Vision of Arthur Gordon Pym,” in Poe’s Pym: Critical Explorations, ed., Richard Kopley, Durham: Duke University Press, 1992, pp. 57-74.
• Pollin, Burton R., ed., The Collected Writings of Edgar Allan Poe; Vol I- The Imaginary Voyages (Including The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, The Unparalled Adventure of one Hans Pfaall and The Journal of Julius Rodman), Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1981.
• Pollin, Burton R., “A Comprehensive Bibliography of Editions and Translations of Arthur Gordon Pym,” American Transcendental Quarterly, Winter 1978, issue no. 37, pp. 93-110. (This bibliography includes many relatively modern editions, well beyond the historical boundaries for this website listing.)
• Pollin, Burton R., “Poe’s Life Reflected through the Sources of Pym,” in Poe’s Pym: Critical Explorations, ed., Richard Kopley, Durham: Duke University Press, 1992, pp. 95-103.
• Porte, Joel, The Romance in America: Studies in Cooper, Poe, Hawthorne, Melville and James, Middletown: Wesleyan University Press, 1969, pp. 53-94.
• Rhea, R. L., “Some Observations on Poe’s Origins,” University of Texas Studies in English, 1930, 10:135-146
• Ridgely, Joseph V. “The Continuing Puzzle of Arthur Gordon Pym” Poe Newlstter (later Poe Studies/Dark Romanticism, June 1970, 3:5-6
• Rowe, John Carlos, “Poe, Antebellum Slavery, and Modern Criticism,” in Poe’s Pym: Critical Explorations, ed., Richard Kopley, Durham: Duke University Press, 1992, pp. 117-138.
• Thompson, G. Richard, “The Arabesque Design of Arthur Gordon Pym,” in Poe’s Pym: Critical Explorations, ed., Richard Kopley, Durham: Duke University Press, 1992, pp. 188-213.
• Walden, Daniel, “The Coastal Frontier and the Oceanic Wilderness in The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym,” Baltimore: The Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore, 2011
• Watts, Theodore, “Edgar Poe,” Athenaeum, September 2, 1876, no. 2549, p. 306
• Weiner, Bruce I., “Novels, Tales, and Problems of Form in The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym,” in Poe’s Pym: Critical Explorations, ed., Richard Kopley, Durham: Duke University Press, 1992, pp. 44-56.
• Weissuch, Ted N., “Edgar Allan Poe: Hoaxer in the American Tradition,” New York Historical Society Quarterly Bulletin, July 1961, 45:291-309
• 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.