Edgar Allan Poe — “Mellonta Tauta”

Reading copy:

• “Mellonta Tauta” — reading copy

Manuscripts and Authorized Printings:

• Text-01 — “Mellonta Tauta” — 1849 — (There are no known draft manuscripts or scratch notes reflecting the original effort of composition.)
• Text-02 — “Mellonta Tauta” — 1849
  • Text-02a — “Mellonta Tauta” — 1849 (Speculated faircopy manuscript that Poe prepared for publication. This manuscript has not survived, but this version is presumably recorded in Text-02b. It should also be noted that the great similarity of the “letter” and the introductory material for Eureka suggests a strong connection between these works. Although Eureka was given as a public lecture and published more than a year before “Mellonta Tauta,” it is not impossible that the order of composition was reversed.)
  • Text-02b — “Mellonta Tauta” — February 1849 — Godey's Lady's Book — (Mabbott text A — This is Mabbott's copy-text) (For Griswold's 1856 reprinting of this text, see the entry below, under reprints.)

Reprints:

• “Mellonta Tauta” — 1856 — WORKS — (Mabbott text B) (Griswold reprints Text-02b, omitting the introductory letter.)
• “Mellonta Tauta” — 1874 — Works of Edgar A. Poe, edited by J. H. Ingram, vol. 2, pp. 520-534 (This collection was subsequently reprinted in various forms)
• “Mellonta Tauta” — November 1933 — Amazing Stories, vol. 8, no. 7  (Illustrated by Leo Morey)

Scholarly and Noteworthy Reprints:

• “Mellonta Tauta” — 1894-1895 — The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, vol. 4: Tales, ed. G. E. Woodberry and E. C. Stedman, Chicago: Stone and Kimball (4:259-277) (This collection was subsequently reprinted in various forms)
• “Mellonta Tauta” — 1902 — The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe, vol. 6: Tales V, ed. J. A. Harrison, New York: T. Y. Crowell (6:197-215, and 6:295-296)
• “Mellonta Tauta” — 1976 — The Science Fiction of Edgar Allan Poe, ed. Harold Beaver (New York: Penguin Books), pp. 310-323 and pp. 415-422 (reprinted 1977, 1978, 1979, and 1982)
• “Mellonta Tauta” — 1978 — The Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe, vol. 3: Tales & Sketches II, ed. T. O. Mabbott, Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press (3:1289-1309)
• “Mellonta Tauta” — 1983 — Edgar Allan Poe: The Other Side, ed. David Galloway (New York: Penguin Books), pp. 219-232 and pp. 254-255 (annotations are minor)
• “Mellonta Tauta” — 1984 — Edgar Allan Poe: Poetry and Tales, ed. Patrick F. Quinn (New York: Library of America), pp. 871-885

Instream Comparative and Study Texts:

• “Mellonta Tauta” — Comparative Text (GLB and WORKS)

Miscellaneous Texts and Related Items:

• “Mellonta Tauta” — 1887 — Edgar Poë: Derniers Contes, Paris: Albert Savine  (French translation by Félix Rabbe)
• “Mellonta Tauta” — 1950 — Histories grotesques et sérieuse par Edgar Poe, Paris: Classiques Garnier  (French translation by Léon Lemonnier)

• 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.
• Pollin, Burton R., “Politics and History in Poe's ‘Mellonta Tauta’: Two Allusions Explained,” Studies in Short Fiction, Fall 1971, 8:627-631
• Savoye, Jeffrey A., “Poe and the Gothic Bluebooks,” Edgar Allan Poe Review vol. 10, no. 1 (Spring 2009): 102-103. (Suggests a possible source in an early article called “Five Hundred Years Hence”)
• Taft, Kendall, “The Identity of Martin Van Buren Mavis,” American Literature, January 1954, 26:562-563
• Whipple, William, “Poe's Political Satire,” University of Texas Studies in English (1956), 35:81-95.
• 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.