Edgar Allan Poe — “The Murders in the Rue Morgue”

Reading copy:

• “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” — reading copy

Manuscripts and Authorized Printings:

• Text-01 — “The Murders in the Rue >>Trianon-Bas<< Morgue” — early 1841 — “Johnston” manuscript — (Mabbott text A) (J. M. Johnston was an apprentice at the firm of Barrett and Thrasher, which was at No. 33 Carter’s Alley in Philadelphia. This firm was responsible for typesetting material for Graham’s Magazine, in which the story first appeared. According to Johnston, “the revised proof [was] read in the Saturday Evening Post Office,” the Post and Graham’s Magazine both being owned by George R. Graham. As was typical of the process, the manuscript was thrown in a wastebasket after the text had been set in type. Johnston asked for permission to retrieve the handwritten pages, and he kept them in his possession until July 1881, when he appears to have sold the manuscript to George W. Childs. When Childs died in 1894, the manuscript was left, with much other literary material, to the Drexel Institute, where it remained for several decades. A facsimile was printed by George Barrie in 1896. On October 17-18, 1944, a large portion of the Drexel collection, including Poe’s manuscript, was sold at auction. It was purchased by Richard Gimbel for $34,000, though the Philadelphia firm of Charles Sessler. Gimbel, who died in 1970, donated the bulk of his Poe collection to the Free Library of Philadelphia in his will, which was finally executed in 1974.)
• Text-02 — “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” — April 1841 — Graham’s — (Mabbott text B)
• Text-03 — “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” — 1842 — TGAPP (manuscript of title only) — (The tale is listed in Poe’s handwritten table of contents, but the text itself no longer survives. It was probably a modified version of the printed text from Graham’s Magazine, and is presumably recorded, with perhaps a few additional changes made in proof, in Text-04)
• Text-04 — “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” — 1843 — PRRMS — (Mabbott text C)
• Text-05 — “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” — 1843-1845 — (a presumed revised version of text-04, in anticipation of the new edition in Tales. This version was probably made on pages of a copy of PRRMS. No such revised copy has survived, but the revisions are presumably reflected in text-06.)
• Text-06 — “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” — 1845 — TALES — (Mabbott text D) (For Griswold’s 1850 reprinting of this text, see the entry below, under reprints.)
• Text-07 — “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” — 1845-1849 — TALES-JLG — manuscript revisions in “J. L. Graham” copy of TALES, with two verbal changes — (Mabbott text E)  (This is Mabbott’s copy-text)

Reprints:

• “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” — 1850 — WORKS — Griswold reprints Text-05 (Mabbott text F)
• “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” — 1852 — Tales and Sketches: to which is added The Raven: A Poem, London, George Routledge & Co.
• “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” — 1867 — Prose Tales of Edgar Allan Poe, first series (New York: W. J. Widdleton), pp. 178-212 (This collection is extracted from the 1850-1856 edition of Poe’s Works. It was reprinted several times.)
• “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” — 1874 — Works of Edgar A. Poe, edited by J. H. Ingram, vol. 1, pp. 404-441 (This collection was subsequently reprinted in various forms)
• “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” — 1875 — Little Classics, vol. III: Tragedy, Boston: James R. Osgood & Co. (This 18 volume series, edited by Rossiter Johnson, contains selections from many authors, including Poe, Dickens, and Hawthorne. Each volume is theoretically comprised around a different theme.)
• “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” — October 7, 1888 — New York Evening Sun (New York, NY), vol. LVI, no. 37, p. 8, cols. 1-7 (full page) (The headline reads: “IN THE RUE MORGUE. / Poe’s Story of the Famous Murders Committed There. / A WONDERFUL DETECTIVE STORY / Is it a Prophecy of London’s Whitechapel Murders?”) (A straight item about the Whitechapel Murders appears on p. 1 of the same issue. At least five of the Whitechapel Murders have since been attributed to Jack the Ripper, by whose name they are now more commonly known.)
• “In the Rue Morgue” — October 1888 — Elmira Morning Telegram (Elmira, NY) (The selection and connection with the Whitechapel Murders was almost certainly taken from the New York Sun as the heading essentially copies that used by the earlier publication. On p. 4 of the Octorber 14, 1888 issue, appears the following short note: “The shocking features of the Whitechapel butcheries recall in a certain undefinable [[indefinable]] fashion Poe’s story of ‘The Murders in the Rue Morgue.’ As they have been unfolded day after day by the press they have presented no greater actuality than did the crimes that Poe’s brain conceived when they first reached the public. The identity that they hold in common with this great masterpiece of fiction lies in the element of mystery which distinguishes them. It looks, too, as if some miracle of the detectives’ art, such as Poe found this tale upon, would be needed to unearth the Whitechapel horror. We trust it may not be wanting. But, in the meantime, everybody should read Poe’s story. Those who have read it before should read it again, and those to whom it is new can never sufficiently thank us for having it before them on the second page this morning. the concluding portion will be printed next week.”)
  • “In the Rue Morgue” — October 14, 1888 — Elmira Morning Telegram (Elmira, NY) vol. X, no. 25, p. 2, cols. 1-5
  • “In the Rue Morgue” — October 21, 1888 — Elmira Morning Telegram (Elmira, NY) vol. X, no. 25, p. 2, cols. 1-5
• “The Rue Morgue” — Oct-Nov. 1888 — Cambridge Chronicle (Cambridge, MA) (Substantially repeating the material from the Elmira Telegram, the prefatory note read: “The MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE. / The shocking features of the Whitechapel butcheries recall in a certain undefinable [[indefinable]] fashion Poe’s story of ‘The Murders in the Rue Morgue.’ As they have been unfolded day after day by the press they have presented no greater actuality than did the crimes that Poe’s brain conceived when they first reached the public. The identity that they hold in common with this great masterpiece of fiction lies in the element of mystery which distinguishes them. It looks, too, as if some miracle of the detective’s art, such as Poe found this tale upon, would be needed to unearth the Whitechapel horror. We trust it may not be wanting. But, in the meantime, everybody should read Poe’s story.” The heading reads: “THE RUE MORGUE. / Edgar Allan Poe’s Story of the Murders There. / [[horizontal rule]] / A FAMOUS STORY OF BLOOD. / [[horizontal rule]] / It is recalled by the Terrible Carnival of Crime Lately Enacted by a Human Fiend in the Slums of Whitechapel, London.” The note and heading are repeated for both installments.)
  • “The Rue Morgue” — October 27, 1888 — Cambridge Chronicle (Cambridge, MA) vol. 43, no. 2228, p. 9, cols. 1-3
  • “The Rue Morgue” — November 3, 1888 — Cambridge Chronicle (Cambridge, MA) vol. 43, no. 2229, p. 9, cols. 1-3
• “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” — November 20, 1888 — Aberdeen Daily News (Aberdeen, SD) (pp. 6-7) (this item is noted by George Monteiro, “Fugitive Reprints,” E. A. Poe Review, Fall 2010, p. 162.)
• “Murders in the Rue Morgue” — January 20, 1894 — Philadelphia Inquirer (noted as “The Most Remarkable Story of Its Kind Ever Written”) (Front page, with an illustration) (this item is noted by George Monteiro as being for January 20 and 21, 1894, “Fugitive Reprints,” E. A. Poe Review, Fall 2010, p. 162.)
• “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” — April 3 and 4, 1911 — Kansas City Star (p. 5) (this item is noted by George Monteiro, “Fugitive Reprints,” E. A. Poe Review, Fall 2010, p. 162.)
• “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” — January 1934 — Golden Book Magazine (This issue contains the “Six Favorite Short Stories” of its guest editor, Irving S. Cobb (1876-1944), a Kentucky humorist and author of at least 300 short stories and 60 books.)

Scholarly and Noteworthy Reprints:

• “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” — 1894-1895 — The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, vol. 3: Tales, eds. E. C. Stedman and G. E. Woodberry, Chicago: Stone and Kimball (3:53-98)
• “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” — 1902 — The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe, vol. 4: Tales III, ed. J. A. Harrison, New York: T. Y. Crowell (4:146-192, and 4:288-306)
• “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” — 1978 — The Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe, vol. 2: Tales & Sketches I, ed. T. O. Mabbott, Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press (2:521-574)
• “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” — 1984 — Edgar Allan Poe: Poetry and Tales, Patrick F. Quinn (New York: Library of America), pp. 397-431
• “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” — 2004 — The Selected Writings of Edgar Allan Poe, ed. G. R. Thompson (New York: W. W. Norton & Co.), pp. 239-266

Instream Comparative and Study Texts:

• “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” — Study Text (revisions in the “Johnston” manuscript)
• “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” — Comparative Text (“Johnston” MS and GM)
• “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” — Comparative Text (GM and PRRMS)
• “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” — Comparative Text (PRRMS and TALES)
• “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” — Study Text (TALES-JLG)

Miscellaneous Texts and Related Items:

• “Un meurtre sans exemple dans les fastes de la justice” — La Quotidienne  (French translation signed “G. B.,” for Gustave Brunet. H&C says translation is by “G. E.,” apparently as a typographical error.)
  • “Un meurtre sans exemple dans les fastes de la justice” — Part I  (June 11, 1846)
  • “Un meurtre sans exemple dans les fastes de la justice” — Part II  (June 12, 1846)
  • “Un meurtre sans exemple dans les fastes de la justice” — Part III  (June 13, 1846)
• “Une sanglante énigme” — October 12, 1846 — Le Commerce  (French translation signed “O.N.” H&C, 1943, give the translator as “Old Nick,” noting his real name as E. D. Forgues, p. 276.)
• “L‘Assassinat de la Rue Morgue” — January 31, 1847 — La Démocratie Pacifique  (French translation signed “Isabelle Meunier”)
• “Double assassinat dans la rue Morgue” — (French translation by Charles Baudelaire)
  • “Double assassinat dans la rue Morgue” — February 25 - March 7, 1855 — Le Pays
    
    • “Double assassinat dans la rue Morgue” — Part I — February 25, 1855
    • “Double assassinat dans la rue Morgue” — Part II — February 26, 1855
    • “Double assassinat dans la rue Morgue” — Part III — March 1, 1855
    • “Double assassinat dans la rue Morgue” — Part IV — March 2, 1855
    • “Double assassinat dans la rue Morgue” — Part V — March 3, 1855
    • “Double assassinat dans la rue Morgue” — Part VI — March 5, 1855
    • “Double assassinat dans la rue Morgue” — Part VII — March 6, 1855
    • “Double assassinat dans la rue Morgue” — Part VIII — March 7, 1855
  • “Double assassinat dans la rue Morgue” — 1856 — Histoires extraordinaires, Paris: Michel Lévy frères
• “Doble Asesinato [Double Murder]” — 1858 — Newspaper of Barcelona  (Spanish translation)
• “[The Murders in the Rue Morgue]” — 1860 — included in “library of fiction” (Swedish translation, noted by Anderson, p. 53, described as a “cheap and ephemeral” edition)
• “[The Murders in the Rue Morgue]” — before 1868  (Unidentified Danish translation noted by Anderson, p. 15)
• “[The Murders in the Rue Morgue]” — 1868 — Phantastiske Fortaellinger [Fantastic Tales] (Copenhagen)  (Danish translation by Robert Watt, noted by Anderson, p. 15)
• “Les Deux Assassinats de la Rue Morgue” — 1874, April 18 and May 2 — Musee Universel (Paris)  (French translation by Paul Cezano, pp. 39-44 and 70-75) (There may have been additional installments. There is an illustration by Meaulle) ( a copy of this magazine is in the Ingram Collection, University of VA)
• “Doppio Assassinio nella via Morgue” — 1876 — Racconti Incredibili, Milano, Italy: Tipografia Editrice Lombarda  (Italian translation, with several illustrations)
• “[The Murders in the Rue Morgue]” — 1881 — Underliga historier (Stockholm)  (Swedish translation, noted by Anderson, p. 54)
• “[The Murders in the Rue Morgue]” — 1882 — Valda noveller (Stockholm)  (Swedish translation, noted by Anderson, p. 54)
• “Les assassinate de la rue Morgue” — 1885 — Oeuvres Choisies d‘Edgar Pöe, Paris: A. Hennuyer  (French translation by William L. Hughes)
• “[The Murders in the Rue Morgue]” — December 10, 23, 27 and 30, 1888 — Yomiuri Shimbun  (Japanese translation by Aeba Koson)
• “Der gweifache Mord in der Rue Morgue” — 1890 — Seltsame Gesdichten, Stuttgart: Spemann  (Germanh translation by Alfred Mürenberg)
• “Le Double Assassinate de la Rue Morge” — 1904 — Le Système du Docteur Goudron et du Professeur Plume, Paris: Jules Rouff  (French translation by Léonora C. Herbert
• “De Moorden in de Rue Morgue” — about 1930 — Fantastische Vertellingen van Edgar Allan Poe, Haarlem: H. D. Tjeenk Willink & Zoon (Dutch translation by Machiel Elias Barentz, with elaborate illustrations by Albert Hahn, somewhat reminiscent of those by Harry Clarke)
• “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” — November 29, 1942 — a radio show broadcast on The Inner Sanctum show, with Peter Lorre. (As was often the case with dramatic presentations of Poe’s works, the story has been modified.)
• “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” — January 2, 1944 — a radio show broadcast on NBC’s The 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.)
• “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” — July 1944 — Classics Illustrated (number 21)  (a comic-book) (printed with “The Sign of Four” by A. C. Doyle and “The Flayed Hand” by G. De Maupassant. Apparently reprinted in 1953. The original sale price was 15 cents.)
• “Dark Tales: The Murders in the Rue Morgue” — Dec. 2009 — (Big Fish Games. A "hidden-object" computer game. There is a standard and a collector’s version. The collector’s version was issued first, by a few weeks. The game, which usurps Poe’s Dupin character but really has very little to do with Poe’s story, includes references to other Poe tales, including The Black Cat. The game is rated “T” for teen.)
• “The Crimes of Morgue Street” — about 2010 (undated) — Mickey’s Tales of Edgar Allan Poe, Milan: Disney (part I, Literary Classics, no. 23) (A comic-strip adaptation of Poe’s tale, with Mickey Mouse as Edgar Allan Mouse, the narrator, and rather unexpectedly cast as Dupin, Goofy. The other story in this volume is “The Fall of the House of Usher.” Translations were also published in Italian, Spanish, German, Finnish, and Danish.)

• Anderson, Carl L., Poe in Northlight: The Scandanavian Response to His Life and Work, Durham, NC: Duke Unversity Press, 1973.
• Asarch, Joel Kenneth, “A Telling Tale: Poe’s Revisions in ‘The Murders in the Rue Morgue’,” Poe at Work: Seven Textual Studies, Baltimore: Edgar Allan Poe Society, 1978, pp. 83-90.
• Bailey, J. O., “What Happens in ‘The Fall of the House of Usher‘?,” American Literature (January 1964), 35:445-466 (reprinted by Eric W. Carlson, ed., Casebook on “The Fall of the House of Usher,“ Columbus OH: Charles E. Merrill Casebook Series, 1971.)
• Bandy, William T.,”Who was Monsieur Dupin?,” Publications of the Modern Language Association, September 1964, 79:509-510
• Benton, Richard P., “The Dupin MSS. As ‘Contes A Clef,’ Mathematics, and Imaginative Creation,” in Perspectives on Poe, ed. D. Ramakrishna, New Delhi: APC Publications, 1996, pp. 109-125
• Bertman, Stephen, “Kindred Crimes: Poe’s ‘The Murders in the Rue Morgue’ and Doyle’s The Sign of Four,” E. A. Poe Review, Vol. 15, no. 2, Autumn 2014, pp. 205-210.
• Boll, Ernest, “The Manuscript of ‘The Murders in the Rue Morgue‘, and Poe’s Revisions,” Modern Philology, May 1943, 40:302-315
• Bryant, John, “Poe’s Ape of UnReason: Humor, Ritual, and Culture,” Nineteenth-Century Literature, June 1996, 51:16-52
• Crisman, William, “Poe’s Dupin as Professional: The Dupin Stories as Serial Text,” Studies in American Fiction, Fall 1995, 23:215-229
• Diskin, Patrick, “Poe, LeFanu and the Sealed Room Mystery,” Notes & Queries, 1966, 13:337-339.
• Fisher, Benjamin F., “ ‘The Murders in the Rue Morgue’: Edgar Allan Poe’s Evolutinary Reverie,” Nineteenth-Century Literature, September 1995, 50:168-188
• Hatvary, George E., “Introduction,” Edgar Allan Poe’s Prose Romances: The Murders in the Rue Morgue and The Man That Was Used Up (a photographic facsimile edition),  eds. George E. Hatvary and Thomas Ollive Mabbott, New York: St. John’s University Press,1968, pp. i-vi
• Hawkins, John, “Poe’s ‘The Murders in the Rue Morgue’,” Explicator, February 1965, vol. 23, item 49
• 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.
• Holman, Harriet R., “Longfellow in the Rue Morgue,” Emerson Society Quarterly, Fall 1970, 60:58-60
• Hurd, C. O., “The Logic of Poe’s ‘Murders’,” Harvard Monthly, 1885, 1:7-10
• Kopley, Richard, “ ‘The Murders in the Rue Morgue’ and The Philadelphia Saturday News” in Edgar Allan Poe and the Dupin Mysteries, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008, pp. 27-44 (reprints and slightly revises the author’s 1988 lecture for the Poe Society of Baltimore: “Edgar Allan Poe and the Philadelphia Saturday News,” Baltimore: Enoch Pratt Library and the E. A. Poe Society of Baltimore, 1992.)
• Mabbott, Thomas Ollive, “[introductory note, annotations and variants to ‘The Murders in the Rue Morgue’]”, The Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe (Vols 2-3 Tales and Sketches), Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1978.
• Moore, John Robert, “Poe, Scott and ‘The Murders in the Rue Morgue’,” American Literature, March 1936, 8:52-58
• Novosat, Courtney, “Outside Dupin’s Closet of Reason: (Homo)sexual Repression and Racilized Terror in Poe’s ‘The Murders in the Rue Morgue,’,” Poe Studies: History, Theory, Interpretation, vol. 45, 2012, pp. 78-106
• Ousby, Ian V. K., “ ‘The Murders in the Rue Morgue’ and ‘Doctor D‘Arsac’: A Poe Source,” Poe Newsletter, December 1972, 5:52
• Ryan, Sylvester, “A Poe Oversight,” College English, April 1950, 11:408
• Sharp, Roberta, “Poe’s Duplicitous Dupin,” Masques, Mysteries, and Mastodons: A Poe Miscellany, ed. Benjamin F. Fisher, Baltimore: Edgar Allan Poe Society, 2006, pp. 63-76
• Stone, Edward, A Certain Morbidness, Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1969, pp. 140-168
• Waller, W. F., Notes & Queries, May 12, 1894, 5:366
• Wilbur, Richard, “The Poe Mystery Case,” New York Review of Books, July 13, 1967, 16, 25-8.
• 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.