Text-01 — “The Philosophy of Composition” — 1846, no original manuscript or fragments
are known to exist (but this version is presumably recorded in Text-02)
“[The Philosophy of Composition]” — February 16, 1850 — New England
Washingtonian, Boston, MA (reprints 6 paragraphs)
“The Philosophy of Composition” — September 21, 1850 — The New York Tribune
“The Philosophy of Composition” — 1852 — Tales of Mystery and Imagination and Humour;
and Poems, London: Henry Vizetelly (An undated edition appears about the same time, published by Charles H. Clark and Samuel
Orchart Beeton, and their name appears as publisher for the second series), second series pp. 121-139 (with no woodcut
illustrations)
“The Philosophy of Composition” — 1875
— The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, ed. J. H. Ingram, Edinburgh, Adam and Charles Black (3:266-278)
“The Philosophy of Composition” — 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. 175-187)
“The Philosophy of Composition” — 1901 — World's Greatest Literature: Essays of
American Essayists, with an introduction by Chauncy C. Starkweather, New York: P. F. Collier & Son (pp. 255-266, with
introductory information appearing on pp. 253-254) (This essay is the only item by Poe in this collection)
Scholarly and Noteworthy Reprints:
“The Philosophy of Composition” — 1895
— The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, vol. 6: Literary Criticism, eds. E. C. Stedman and G. E. Woodberry, Chicago: Stone and
Kimball (6:31-46, and 6:323)
“The Philosophy of Composition” — 1902
— The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe, ed. J. A. Harrison, New York: T. Y. Crowell (14:193-208)
“The Philosophy of Composition” — 1909 — Selections from the Critical Writings of
Edgar Allan Poe, ed. Frederick C. Prescott, New York: Henry Holt (pp. 150-166 and 334-337)
“The Philosophy of Composition” — 1917 — The
Poems of Edgar Allan Poe, ed. K. Campbell, New York: Ginn and Co. (pp. 318-328)
“The Philosophy of Composition” — 1984 — Edgar Allan Poe: Essays and Reviews, ed.
G. R. Thompson, New York: Library of America (pp. 13-25)
“The Philosophy of Composition” — 2009 — Edgar Allan Poe: Critical Theory, Stuart
and Susan F. Levine, eds., Chicago: University of Illinois Press (pp. 55-76)
“La génèse d‘un poème” — (French translation by Charles Baudelaire)
“Méthode de composition” — April 20, 1859 — Revue
française
“La génèse d‘un poème” — 1865 — Histoires grotesques
et sérieuses, Paris: Michel Lévy frères
“Die Philosophie dichterischen Schaffens” — 1862 — Lieder und Balladenbuch
amerikanischer und englischer Dichter der Gegenwart, Hamburg: Hoffman and Campe, pp. 30-47 (German translation by Adolf
Strodtmann, noted by Ingram, The Raven, with Literary and Historical Commentary, London: George Redway, 1885, p. 72.
Additional details provided to the Poe Society by Ton Fafianie, in an e-mail dated October 11, 2018)
La philosophie de composition” — 1889 — Poésies complétes de Edgar Allan
Poe, Paris: Camille Dalou (French translation by Gabriel Mourey)
“The Philosophy of Composition” — 1923 — Representative English Essays, New York:
Harper & Brothers (selected and arranged by Warner Taylor) (This is the only Poe essay in the book. It is included in a chapter
called “Essays on the Art of Writing.”)
“[The Philosophy of Composition]” — 1926 — Trois Manifestes, Paris: Simon Kra
(French translation by René Lalou)
“The Philosophy of Composition” — 2007 — Audio book (unabridged), read by Chris Aruffo (part of a 5-CD set)
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
Bibliography:
Arrojo, Rosemary, “Literature as Fetishism: Some Consequences for a Theory of Translation,” Meta:
Joural des traaducteurs/Translators’ Journal, June 1996, 41:208-216
Bonessio di Terzet, Ettore, “Introduzione,” in La filosofia della composizione, by Edgar
Allan Poe, Milan: Guerrini e Associati, 1995, pp. 11-21
Brown, Arthur A., ‘A Man Who Dies’: Poe, James, Faulkner and the Narrative Function of Death,
PhD disseration, University of California, Davis, 1995
Eddings, Dennis W., “Mad Ravings or Sound Thinking? ‘The Philosophy of Composition’ and
Poe's Parodic Raven,” Edgar Allan Poe: Beyond Gothicism, ed. James M. Hutchisson, Newark: University of Delaware
Press, 2011, pp. 187-200.
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.
Person, Leland S., Jr., “Poe's Composition of Philosophy: Reading and Writing ‘The
Raven’,” Arizona Quarterly, vol. 46, no. 3, Fall 1990 pp. 1-15.
Wilson, James Southall, “Poe's Philosophy of Composition,” North American Review, Dec.,
1926, 223:675-684.
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
[S:0 - JAS] - Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore - Works - Essays - The Philosophy of Composition