Edgar Allan Poe — “The Power of Words”

Reading copy:

• “The Power of Words” — reading copy

Manuscripts and Authorized Printings:

• Text-01 — “The Power of Words” — early 1845, no original manuscript or fragments are known to exist (but this version is presumably recorded in Text-02) — (Mabbott notes that, given the printing schedule for the magazine, the manuscript must have been in the hands of the publishers by about April 1845)
• Text-02 — “The Power of Words” — June 1845 — Democratic Review — (Mabbott text A)  (This issue was apparently available by mid-May)
• Text-03 — “The Power of Words” — June-October 1845 — presumed modified form in preparation for — (this form is almost certainly changes made to the pages printed in the Democratic Review. There are only a handful of substantive changes, and a few minor touches may also have been made in proof.)
• Text-04 — “The Power of Words” — October 25, 1845 — Broadway Journal — (Mabbott text B) (For Griswold’s 1850 reprinting of this text, see the entry below, under reprints.)

Reprints:

• “The Power of Words” — 1850 — WORKS — Griswold reprints Text-04 (Mabbott text C)  (This is Mabbott’s copy-text)
• “The Power of Words” — 1874 — Works of Edgar A. Poe, edited by J. H. Ingram, vol. 2, pp. 189-193 (This collection was subsequently reprinted in various forms)

Scholarly and Noteworthy Reprints:

• “The Power of Words” — 1894-1895 — The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, vol. 1: Tales, eds. E. C. Stedman and G. E. Woodberry, Chicago: Stone and Kimball (1:236-241)
• “The Power of Words” — 1902 — The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe, vol. 6: Tales V, ed. J. A. Harrison, New York: T. Y. Crowell (6:139-144, and 6:285-287)
• “The Power of Words” — 1978 — The Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe, vol. 3: Tales & Sketches II, ed. T. O. Mabbott, Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press (3:1210-1217)
• “The Power of Words” — 1984 — Edgar Allan Poe: Poetry and Tales, ed. Patrick F. Quinn (New York: Library of America), pp. 822-825

Instream Comparative and Study Texts:

• “The Power of Words” — Comparative Text (BJ and WORKS)

Miscellaneous Texts and Related Items:

• “Puissance de la parole” — (French translation by Charles Baudelaire)
  • “Puissance de la parole” — August 5, 1854 — Le Pays
  • “Puissance de la parole” — 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.
• 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.
• 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.