Edgar Allan Poe — “Shadow — A Parable”

Reading copy:

• “Shadow — A Parable” — reading copy

Manuscripts and Authorized Printings:

• Text-01 — “Shadow. A Fable” — 1835 — (There are no known draft manuscripts or scratch notes reflecting the original effort of composition.)
• Text-02 — “Shadow. A Fable” — 1835
  • Text-02a — “Shadow. A Fable” — 1835, no original manuscript or fragments are known to exist (but this version is presumably recorded in Text-02b.)
  • Text-02b — “Shadow. A Fable” — September 1835 — Southern Literary Messenger — (Mabbott text A) (This version was printed without Poe's name, only as “By ——”)
• Text-03 — “Shadow. A Fable” — 1839-1840
  • Text-03a — “Shadow. A Fable” — about 1839 — manuscript revisions in Duane copy of Southern Literary Messenger — (Mabbott text B)
  • Text-03b — “Shadow. A Fable” — 1840 — TGA — (Mabbott text C)
• Text-04 — “Shadow. A Fable” — 1842-1845
  • Text-04a — “Shadow. A Parable” — 1842 — TGAPP — (Mabbott text D)  (This version is a modified form of Text-03b)
  • Text-04b — “Shadow. A Parable” — May 31, 1845 — Broadway Journal — (Mabbott text E) (For Griswold's 1850 reprinting of this text, see the entry below, under reprints.)

Reprints:

• “Shadow.— A Parable” — 1850 — WORKS — Griswold reprints Text-06, with very minor editorial changes — (Mabbott text F)  (This is Mabbott's copy-text)
• “Shadow. — A Parable” — 1867 — Prose Tales of Edgar Allan Poe, second series (New York: W. J. Widdleton), pp. 3-5 (This collection is extracted from the 1850-1856 edition of Poe's Works. It was reprinted several times.)
• “Shadow. — A Parable” — 1874 — Works of Edgar A. Poe, edited by J. H. Ingram (vol. II, pp. 210-212) (This collection was subsequently reprinted in various forms)
• “Shadow. — A Parable” — 1888 — The Complete Poetical Works and Essays on Poetry of Edgar Allan Poe, ed. John H. Ingram, London and New York: Frederick Warne & Co. (pp. 146-149) (This tale is included as one of six “Prose Poems,” without further explanation.)

Scholarly and Noteworthy Reprints:

• “Shadow — A Parable” — 1894-1895 — The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, vol. 1: Tales, eds. E. C. Stedman and G. E. Woodberry, Chicago: Stone and Kimball (1:125-128)
• “Shadow — A Parable” — 1902 — The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe, vol. 2: Tales I, ed. J. A. Harrison, New York: T. Y. Crowell (2:1-147-150, and 2:355)
• “Shadow — A Parable” — 1978 — The Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe, vol. 2: Tales & Sketches I, ed. T. O. Mabbott, Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press (2:187-187)
• “Shadow — A Parable” — 1984 — Edgar Allan Poe: Poetry and Tales, ed. Patrick F. Quinn (New York: Library of America), pp. 218-220

Instream Comparative and Study Texts:

• “Shadow. A Fable” — Study Text (SLM-WMD)
• “Shadow. A Fable” — Comparative Text (SLM, SLM-WMD and TGA)
• “Shadow. A Parable” — Study Text (TGAPP)
• “Shadow. A Parable” — Comparative Text (TGAPP and BJ)
• “Shadow. A Parable” — Comparative Text (BJ and WORKS)

Miscellaneous Texts and Related Items:

• ”Ombre” — (French translation by Charles Baudelaire)
  • ”L‘Ombre” — August 5, 1854 — Le Pays
  • ”Ombre” — 1857 — Nouvelles histoires par Edgar Poe, Paris: Michel Lévy frères
• “Sombras” — September 24, 1858 — La América, vol. II  (Spanish translation, noted by Englekirk, p. 482)
• “Shadow” — 1962 — a reading by James Mason, issued as a Lively Arts LP (LA-30006)
• “Shadow — A Parable” — 1969 — a reading by Martin Donegan as part of volume III of Short Stories of Edgar Allan Poe, issued on the CMS Records label (CMS-567)
• “Shadow — A Parable” — 2010 — Audio book, read by Chris Aruffo

• Burduck, Michael M., “Justifying the Ways of Death to Men: Milton's Influence on Poe's 'shadow — A Parable’ and 'silence — A Fable’,” in Perspectives on Poe, ed. D. Ramakrishna, New Delhi: APC Publications, 1996, pp. 181-190
• DeFalco, Joseph, “The Sources of Terror in Poe's 'shadow — A Parable’,” Studies in Short Fiction, Fall 1969, 6:643-649
• Englekirk, John Eugene, Edgar Allan Poe in Hispanic Literature, New York: Instituto De Las Espanas, 1934.
• 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.