Edgar Allan Poe — “Bon-Bon”

Reading copy:

• “Bon-Bon” — reading copy

Manuscripts and Authorized Printings:

• Text-01 — “The Bargain Lost” — 1831 (There are no known draft manuscripts or scratch notes reflecting the original effort of composition. Although this was the fifth of Poe's stories to be printed in the Courier, Mabbott (T&S, 2:83) suggests that “Because of these inartistic errors, I incline to think ‘The Bargain Lost’ was composed earlier than the other stories printed in the Saturday Courier.” The first story of the set to be printed was “Metzengerstein,” in the issue for January 1, 1832.)
• Text-02 — “The Bargain Lost” — 1831
  • Text-02a — “The Bargain Lost” — 1831 (Speculated faircopy manuscript sent to the editors of the Saturday Courier as an entry in their contest, and from which the story was initially printed. As was typical, the manuscript was probably destroyed in setting type for Text-02b.)
  • Text-02b — “The Bargain Lost” — December 1, 1832 — Saturday Courier — (Mabbott text A1)  (This is Mabbott's copy-text for this title)
• Text-03 — “The Bargain Lost” — 1832-1835
  • Text-03a — “Bon-Bon” — 1832-1835, presumed heavily revised version of “The Bargain Lost” under the new title. The extent of the changes, with many small but inconsequential variations of a phrase here and there, suggests a new manuscript was written. A new manuscript is also suggested by the fact that the tale appeared in the SLM as if it were an original printing. No original manuscript or fragments are known to exist (but this version is presumably recorded in Text-03b.)
  • Text-03b — “Bon-Bon” — August 1835 — Southern Literary Messenger — (Mabbott text A)
• Text-04 — “The Bargain Lost” — about 1839
  • Text-04a — “Bon-Bon” — about 1839 — manuscript revisions in “Duane” copy of  Southern Literary Messenger — (Mabbott text B)
  • Text-04b — “Bon-Bon” — 1840 — TGA — (Mabbott text C)
• Text-05 — “The Bargain Lost” — about 1842-1845
  • Text-05a — “Bon-Bon” — 1842 — TGAPP — (Mabbott text D)  (This version is a modified form of Text-06) (Additional changes in the BJ text suggest further revisions, possibly made in proof pages for the new printing. The chief change is the addition of the motto.)
  • Text-05b — “Bon-Bon” — 1842-April 19, 1845 — TGAPPB — (Speculated alternate copy of TGA marked by Poe with the expectation of a new publication. Changes in the Broadway Journal are far more extensive than those in TGAPP, suggesting that Poe marked another copy that has not survived.)
  • Text-05c — “Bon-Bon” — April 19, 1845 — Broadway Journal — (Mabbott text E)
• Text-06 — “The Bargain Lost” — about 1846-1849
  • Text-06a — “Bon-Bon” — 1846-1849 — speculated revised copy of Broadway Journal (Text-05c), perhaps in anticipation of reprinting elsewhere. (This version does not survive, but these revisions are presumably recorded in Text-06b. The changes are slight enough that a new manuscript is highly unlikely. At least some of these changes are significant enough that they suggest the hand of the author rather than of Griswold as editor.)
  • Text-06b — “Bon-Bon” — 1850 — WORKS — (Mabbott text F — This is Mabbott's copy-text for this title)

Reprints:

• “Bon-Bon” — July 1845 — Spirit of the Times (Philadelphia, PA)  (reprinted from the Broadway Journal)
  • “Bon-Bon [part I]” — July 22, 1845
  • “Bon-Bon [part II]” — July 23, 1845
• “Bon-Bon” — 1867 — Prose Tales of Edgar Allan Poe, second series (New York: W. J. Widdleton), pp. 183-199 (This collection is extracted from the 1850-1856 edition of Poe's Works. It was reprinted several times.)
• “Bon-Bon” — 1874 — Works of Edgar A. Poe, edited by J. H. Ingram (vol. II, pp. 401-418) (This collection was subsequently reprinted in various forms)

Scholarly and Noteworthy Reprints:

• “Bon-Bon” — 1894-1895 — The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, vol. 4: Tales, ed. G. E. Woodberry and E. C. Stedman, Chicago: Stone and Kimball (4:22-43) (This collection was subsequently reprinted in various forms)
• “Bon-Bon” — 1902 — The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe, vol. 2: Tales I, ed. J. A. Harrison, New York: T. Y. Crowell (2:125-146, and 2:348-354)
• “The Bargain Lost” — 1978 — The Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe, vol. 2: Tales & Sketches I, ed. T. O. Mabbott, Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press (2:83-95)
• “Bon-Bon” — 1978 — The Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe, vol. 2: Tales & Sketches I, ed. T. O. Mabbott, Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press (2:96-117)
• “Bon-Bon” — 1984 — Edgar Allan Poe: Poetry and Tales, ed. Patrick F. Quinn (New York: Library of America), pp. 164-180

Instream Comparative and Study Texts:

• “Bon-Bon” — Comparative Text (Saturday Courier and SLM)
• “Bon-Bon” — Study Text (SLM-WMD)
• “Bon-Bon” — Comparative Text (SLM, SLM-WMD and TGA)
• “Bon-Bon” — Study Text (TGAPP)
• “Bon-Bon” — Comparative Text (TGAPP and BJ)
• “Bon-Bon” — Comparative Text (BJ and WORKS)

Miscellaneous Texts and Related Items:

• “Le philosophe Bon-Bon” — 1882 — Contes Grotesques par Edgar Poe, Paris: Paul Ollendorff  (French translation by Émile Hennequin)
• “Bon-Bon” — 1887 — Edgar Poë: Derniers Contes, Paris: Albert Savine  (French translation by Félix Rabbe)
• ”Bon-Bon” — 1950 — Histories grotesques et sérieuse par Edgar Poe, Paris: Classiques Garnier (French translation by Léon Lemonnier, who also  translates “The Bargain Lost,” as a separate tale)

• Bachinger, Katrina E., “Towards a New Era in Poe Stdies: The Case for a Byronic Interpretation of Poe's Tales Illustrated by ‘A Decided Loss’ and ‘Bon-Bon’,”in Salzburg Miscellany: English and American Studies 1964-1984, ed. Wilfried Haslauer, Salzburg, Austra: Institut fur Anglistik & Amerikanstik, University of Salzburg, 1984, 1:37-54.
• Christie, James W., “Poe's ‘Diabolical’ Humor: Revisions in ‘Bon-Bon’,” Library Chronicle (1976), 41:44-45; reprinted as “Poe's ‘Diabolical’ Humor: Revisions in ‘Bon-Bon’,” Poe at Work: Seven Textual Studies (Baltimore: Edgar Allan Poe Society, 1978), 44-45
• Daughrity, Kenneth Leroy, “Notes: Poe and Blackwood's,” American Literature (Nov. 1930), 2:289-292
• Evans, Robert C., “Poe, O‘Connor, and the Mystery of the Misfit,” Flannery O‘Connor Bulletin, 1996-1997, 25:1-12
• 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.
• Hudson, Ruth Leigh, “Poe and Disraeli,” American Literature (January 1937), 8:402-416.
• Lynch, James J., “The Devil in the Writings of Irving, Hawthorne, and Poe,” New York Folklore Quarterly (Summer 1952), 8:111-113.
• Mabbott, Thomas Ollive, ed., The Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe (Vols 2-3 Tales and Sketches), Cambridge, MA: 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.