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Revised Check
List of
the Correspondence of Edgar Allan Poe
(Introduction) |
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This revised check list (RCL) makes available
in one location all the pertinent material from the Check List in my
edition
of The Letters of Edgar Allan Poe, 2 vols. (Cambridge: Harvard
University
Press, 1948); two supplements: American Literature, 24
(November
1952): 358-366, and 29 (March 1957): 79-86; a third supplement appended
to the 1966 reprinting of the 1948 Letters (New York: Gordian
Press);
the fourth supplement: American Literature, 45 (January 1974):
513-536;
and, subsequently, materials that have come to my attention.
The Revised Check List provides
eleven groups of
data of special interest to persons working with Poe: a breakdown of
the
total Poe correspondence; located Poe manuscripts in print; located Poe
manuscripts not in print; unlocated manuscripts in print; unlocated
manuscripts
not in print; letters suspected of being forgeries; library holdings of
manuscript letters (or copies); private collections of manuscript
letters
(or copies); dealers in manuscript letters to or from Poe;
identification
of Poe's correspondents; and selling prices of manuscript letters when
known. All items in the Revised Check List are fully indexed.
Poe maintained a relatively large
correspondence:
approximately 926 items have been identified (the authenticity of about
a dozen entries may be questioned). Of this number 302 letters by Poe
have
been printed from extant manuscripts (two others are as yet unprinted);
90 have been printed from facsimiles, cuttings, copies, envelopes, and
sales catalogues; 116 have been listed without any supporting text,
being
based upon internal evidence such as citation or implication in letters
to or from Poe in the correspondence of others. The letters to Poe,
from
all sources, number 416.
The Revised Check List is arranged
chronologically.
Each entry contains (when known) the names and locations of the writer
and recipient; the date of the letter; the source for the entry --
either
its mention in an other document, listing in a sales catalogue, and/or
printing history; the original Check List number; and, if known, the
present
location of the manuscript. Library symbols are those employed by the
National
Union Catalog, with the following additional symbols:
- BL = British Library, London, England
- InU-L = Lilly Library, Indiana University
- MH-H = Houghton Library, Harvard University
- TxU-HRCL = Humanities Research Center
Library, University of
Texas
at Austin
- ViRP = Edgar Allan Poe Foundation, Richmond
Virginia
- ViRVal = Valentine Museum, Richmond, Virginia
- ViU-A = Alderman Library, University of
Virginia
- ViU-Ingram = Ingram Collection, University
of Virginia
A number of Poe letters have been declared forgeries
or of questionable authenticity (numbers are those of the RCL): 415 (to
Carter, InU-L), 420 (to Townsend, Anderson Galleries [1926]), 603 (to
?,
ViU-A), 609 (to Halleck, TxU-HRCL), 610a (to Lester, TxU-HRCL), 612 (to
Duyckinck, InU-L), 638 (to ?, TxU-HRCL), 659 (to Howard, declared
forgery
by N), 710 (to Marshall, TxU-HRCL), 713 (to Taylor, TxUHRCL), 789 (to
Thompson,
Anderson Galleries [1920]; declared forgery by CSmH), 791 (to Lewis,
TxU-HRCL),
and 792 (to Putnam, TxUHRCL). All but RCL 789 were thought to be
spurious
by Thomas Ollive Mabbott.
The following institutions own
letters by or to
Poe;
Boston Public Library (Rufus W. Griswold Collection); British Library;
Brown University (Anomary Brown Memorial Library); Buffalo and Erie
County
Public Library; Columbia University (Butler Library); Connecticut
Historical
Society; Dumbarton Oaks Research Library; Edgar Allan Poe Museum,
Richmond,
Virginia; Enoch Pratt Free Library; Free Library of Philadelphia
(Richard
Gimbel Collection); Harvard University (Houghton Library); Haverford
College
Library; Henry E. Huntington Library; Historical Society of
Pennsylvania;
Iowa State Department of History and Archives; Indiana University
(Josiah
K. Lilly Library, including the Sarah Helen Whitman and Lilly
collections
); Johns Hopkins University Library (John C. French Collection);
Library
of Congress; Marietta College Library (Slack Collection); New York
Public
Library (Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection); New York Society
Library;
New York State Library; Peabody Institute Library (Poe manuscripts now
in the George Peabody Department, Enoch Pratt Free Library); Pierpont
Morgan
Library; Princeton University Library (McCormick Collection); United
States
Military Academy; University of California at Los Angeles (William
Andrews
Clark Memorial Library); University of Michigan (William L. Clements
Library);
University of Texas at Austin (Humanities Research Center Library,
including
the William H. Koester Collection); University of Vermont Library;
University
of Virginia (Alderman Library, including the John H. Ingram Collection
and the Clifton Waller Barrett Library of American Literature);
Valentine
Museum (John Allan Collection), Richmond, Virginia; Virginia State
Library;
and Yale University (Beinecke Rare Books and Manuscripts Library).
Poe manuscript material is also in
the following
private collections: Roger W. Barrett (Chicago, Illinois); Charles J.
Biddle
(Philadelphia, Pennsylvania); Henry F. S. Cooper (Cooperstown, New
York);
Charles W. Davison, Jr. ( University of Virginia ); Otto O. Fisher (
Detroit,
Michigan); Merrill Griswold (Boston, Massachusetts); Clement Dixon
Johnston
(University of Virginia); J. N. McWhirter (Ft. Worth, Texas); H.
Bradley
Martin (New York, New York); Maurice F. Neville (Santa Barbara,
California);
and William Self (Los Angeles). [The H. Bradley Martin collection was
sold
at auction by Sotheby's in January of 1990.]
The following manuscript dealers have
handled
material
in the RCL: American Art Association, Anderson Galleries, Bangs and
Company,
Dodd Mead Company, Robert H. Dodd, Goodspeed's, Graphic Antiquity,
Charles
Hamilton Autographs, Stan V. Henkels, House of El Dieff, John Howell,
N.
A. Kovach, C. F. Libbie, Thomas Madigan, Merwin-Clayton, William D.
Morley,
Kenneth Rendell, Sotheby Parke Bernet, Sotheby's, and Union Gallery. A
list of the sales prices realized by letters by and to Poe is included
in the "Appendix."
All editorial interpolations in the
Revised Check
List are enclosed in brackets. The letter "F is used to indicate that a
facsimile is available for the item cited. A parenthetical query (?)
following
the date of an entry indicates that the item is accepted as written,
though
unlocated in manuscript or print, on the basis of evidence acceptable
to
the compiler. A bracketed query [?] following the date of an entry
indicates
uncertainty as to whether the letter was ever written; following a book
source, original manuscript, or correspondent's name, this indicates
questionable
authenticity, though the entry has been admitted on the basis of
available
information with the appropriate restriction.
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The following short titles have been
used:
- ABC = American Book-Prices Current
- Allen = Hervey Allen. Israfel: The Life
and Times of
Edgar Allan
Poe. 2 vols. New York: George H. Doran, 1926.
- A.L.S. = Autograph letter signed
- Bixby = William Keeney Bixby. Some Edgar
AUan Poe
Letters,Printed
for Priwte Distribution from Originals in the Collection of W.
K.
Bixby. St. Louis: W. K. Bixby, 1915.
- Chase and Parks = The Correspondence of
Thomas HoUey
Chivers, ed.
Emma Lester Chase and Lois Ferry Parks. Providence: Brown University
Press,
1957.
- Field = Eugene Field. Some Letters of
Edgar Allan Poe
toE. H.
N. Patterson of Oquawla, Illinois. Chicago: Caxton Club, 1898.
- Gill = William F. Gill. The Life of
Edgar Allan Poe. New
York: Dillingham, 1877.
- Halleck = James Grant Wilson. The Life
and Letters of
Fitz-Greene
Halleck. New York: D. Appleton, 1869.
- H (Works) = James A. Harrison, ed. Complete
Works of Edgar
Allan Poe. 17 vols. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1902.
- Harrison, L&L = James A.
Harrison. The Life
and Letters
of Edgar Allan Poe. 2 vols. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell,
1903.
- Harrison, LL = James A. Harrison,
ed. The Last
Letters
of Edgar Allan Poe to Sarah Helen Whitman. New York:
Putnams,
- Heartman and Canny = Charles F. Heartman and
James R. Canny.
A Bibliography
of First Printings of the Writings of Edgar Allan Poe. Hattiesburg,
Miss.: Book Farm, 1940.
- Heartman and Rede = Charles F. Heartman and
Kenneth Rede. A
Census
of First Editions and Source Materials by or Relating to Edgar Allan
Poe
in American Public and Private Collections. 2 vols. Metuchen, N.J.:
American Book Collector, 1932.
- HRCL = Joseph J. Moldenhauer. A
Descriptive Guide of
Edgar Allan
Poe Manuscripts in the Humanities Research Center Library, The
University
of Texas at Austin. Austin: University of Texas, 1973; also as a
bound-in
supplement to Texas Quarterly, 16 (Autumn 1973).
- Ingram = John H. Ingram. Edgar Allan
Poe: His Life,
Letters and
Opinions. a vols. London: John Hogg, 1880.
- Ingram MSS = John H. Ingram. Manuscript
revision of Edgar
Allan
Poe: His Life, Letters and Opinions, and other papers, ViU-A.
- Mabbott = Thomas Ollive Mabbott. "The
Letters from George W.
Eveleth
to Edgar Allan Poe," Bulletin of the New York Public Library, 26
(March 1922) 171-195; reprinted separately, New York: New York Public
Library,
1922.
- Mabbott, HP = Thomas Ollive Mabbott.
"Letters from Mary E.
Hewitt
to Poe," A Christmas Book from the Department of English, pp.
116-21.
Brooklyn, N.Y.: Comet Press, 1937. Published by Hunter College.
(The
check list erroneously gives the date as 1927.)
- Mabbott, Poems = Thomas Ollive
Mabbott, ed. Collected
Works of Edgar Allan Poe, 3 vols. to date. Cambridge: Harvard
University
Press, 1969- . Vol. 1, Poems ( 1969).
- L, 1:3-306, 2:309-664 = John Ward
Ostrom, ed. The
Letters
of Edgar Allan Poe. 2 vols. Cambridge: Harvard University Press,
1948.
- L, 2:671-731 (1966) = John Ward Ostrom, ed.
"Supplement" in The
Letters of Edgar Allan Poe. 2 vols. New York: Gordian Press,
19ff6.
This incorporates material from two earlier supplements: American
Literature, 24
(November 1952): 358~6, and 29 (March 1957): 79-86.
- L, 513-36 (1974) = John Ward Ostrom. "Fourth
Supplement to The
Letters of Poe," American Literature, 45 (January 1974): 513 36.
- Phillips = Mary E. Phillips. Edgar Allan
Poe, the Man. 2 vols.
Chicago: John C. Winston, 1926.
- Quinn = Arthur Hobson Quinn. Edgar Allan
Poe: A Critical
Biography. New
York: D. Appleton-Century, 1941.
- Quinn and Hart = Arthur Hobson Quinn and
Richard H. Hart,
eds. Edgar
Allan Poe: Letters and Documents in the Enoch Pratt Free Library. New
York: Scholars' Facsimiles & Reprints, 1941.
- Rose and Savoye = Alexander G. Rose III and
Jeffrey A.
Savoye, eds. Such
Friends as These: Edgar Allan Poe's List of Subscribers and
Contributors
to His Dream Magazine. Baltimore: The Enoch Pratt Free Library and
the Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore, 1986. (This item was
not
known to Ostrom in 1981 and is not mentioned in his 1981 revision of
the
check list.)
- SLM = Southern Literary Messenger.
- SP = Selling price at public or
private sale.
- Stanard = Mary Newton Stanard. Edgar
Allan Poe Letters
TiU Now
Unpublished in the Valentine Museum. Philadelphia: J. B.
Lippincott,
1925.
- Thomas = Dwight Rembert Thomas. "Poe
in Philadelphia,
1838-1844:
A Documentary Record." Ph.D. diss., University of Pennsylvania, 1978.
- Varner = John Grier Varner. "Sarah Helen
Whitman: Seeress of
Providence.-
Ph.D. diss., University of Virginia, 1940.
- Whitty = James Howard Whitty. "Memoir," The
Complete
Poems of
Edgar Allan Poe, ed. Whitty. Boston: Houghton-Mifflin, 1911.
- Wilson = James Southall Wilson. "The Letters
of Edgar A. Poe
to
George W. Eveleth," [University of Virginia] Alumni Bulletin, 3d ser.,
17 (January 1924): 34-59.
- Woodberry = George Edward Woodberry. The
Life of Edgar
AllanPoe. 2
vols. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1909.
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