Edgar Allan Poe — “Morella”

Reading copy:

• “Morella” — reading copy

Manuscripts and Authorized Printings:

• Text-01 — “Morella” — about 1832-1833 — unfinished “Simmons” manuscript — (Mabbott text A)  (This is Mabbott’s copy-text for this early version) (In his edition of Poe’s Tales and Sketches [2:224], Mabbott dates the manuscript as about 1835 in the bibliography and 1834 or 1835 in the introductory text. In his edition of Poe’s Poems [1:217], Mabbott dates the manuscript as about 1833. The Poe Log, p. 126, following J. H. Whitty [Poems, 1911, p. 214], assigns the date of 1832.)
• Text-02 — “Morella” — 1835 — no original manuscript of the complete form, or fragments, are known to exist (but this version is presumably recorded in Text-03)
• Text-03 — “Morella” — April 1835 — Southern Literary Messenger — (Mabbott text B)
• Text-04 — “Morella” — about 1839 — (although these pages in the Duane copy of the Southern Literary Messenger show no sign of changes, the version published in TGA shows numerous modifications, which suggests an intermediary form. It is likely, therefore, that Poe made changes in copies other than those which were ultimately owned by Duane, and that those copies have not been located and possibly have not survived. Poe appears to have attempted to erase his changes in the Duane copies, and it is possible that a copy exists in which these erased changes have been overlooked. This missing text is presumably reflected in text-05.)
• Text-05 — “Morella” — late 1839 — TGA (1840) — (Mabbott text C)  (Although the imprint date is 1840, this book was available by early December 1839. Although it appeared after Text-06, it presumably represents a slightly earlier form.)
• Text-06 — “Morella” — November 1839 — Burton’s — (Mabbott text D) (The text in Burton’s specifically states that it is extracted from TGA, noted as forthcoming.)
• Text-07 — “Morella” — 1842 — TGAPP — (Mabbott text E)  (This version is a modified form of Text-05)
• Text-08 — “Morella” — June 21, 1845 — Broadway Journal — (Mabbott text F) (For Griswold’s 1850 reprinting of this text, see the entry below, under reprints.)
• Text-09 — “Morella” — about October 1848 — one manuscript revision in Whitman copy of Broadway Journal — (Mabbott text G)  (This is Mabbott’s copy-text for the final version)

Reprints:

• “Morella” — 1850 — WORKS — Griswold reprints Text-07  (Mabbott text H)
• “Morella” — 1852 — Tales and Sketches: to which is added The Raven: A Poem, London, George Routledge & Co, pp. 187-191 (This tale is not included in Tales of Mystery and Imagination and Humour; and Poems, London: Henry Vizetelly, printed in England about the same time)
• “Morella: A Mystery” — January 8, 1857 — Burlington Weekly Sentinel (Burlington, VT), vol. 57, no. 2, p. 1 (Information for this entry was provided to the Poe Society by Ton Fafianie in an e-mail dated May 14, 2019)
• “Morella” — 1867 — Prose Tales of Edgar Allan Poe, first series (New York: W. J. Widdleton), pp. 469-474 (This collection is extracted from the 1850-1856 edition of Poe’s Works. It was reprinted several times.)
• “Morella” — 1874 — Works of Edgar A. Poe, edited by J. H. Ingram, vol. 1, pp. 388-393 (This collection was subsequently reprinted in various forms) (Although Ingram did not yet have the copies of the Broadway Journal with Poe’s minor change for this story, Ingram is the first to editorially correct the spelling of “Hinnom” in the third paragraph, which is the only change marked by Poe. Consequently, Ingram’s 1884 printing of the tale is not included in this bibliography as it provides no new text.)

Scholarly and Noteworthy Reprints:

• “Morella” — 1894-1895 — The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, vol. 1: Tales, ed. E. C. Stedman and G. E. Woodberry, Chicago: Stone and Kimball (1:174-181)
• “Morella” — 1902 — The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe, vol. 2: Tales I, ed. J. A. Harrison, New York: T. Y. Crowell (2:27-34, and 2:318-323)
• “Morella” — 1978 — The Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe, vol. 2: Tales & Sketches I, ed. T. O. Mabbott, Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press (2:221-237)
• “Morella” — 1984 — Edgar Allan Poe: Poetry and Tales, ed. Patrick F. Quinn (New York: Library of America), pp. 234-239

Instream Comparative and Study Texts:

• “Morella” — Comparative Text (SLM and TGA)
• “Morella” — Study Text (TGAPP)
• “Morella” — Comparative Text (TGAPP and BJ)
• “Morella” — Comparative Text (BJ and WORKS)
• “Morella” — Study Text (BJ-SHW)

Miscellaneous Texts and Related Items:

• “Morella” — (French translation by Charles Baudelaire)
  • “Morella” — November 14-15, 1853 — Paris
    • “Morella” — Part I  (November 14, 1853)
    • “Morella” — Part II  (November 15, 1853)
  • “Morella” — September 18, 1854 — Le Pays
  • “Morella” — 1856 — Histoires extraordinaires, Paris: Michel Lévy frères
• “Morella” — 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)

• Dumoulié, Camille, “Des signes d‘inquiétante étrangeté,” Nouvelle revue francaise, 1994, 493:71-79 and 494:102-110
• 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.
• Holt, Palmer C., “Poe and H. N. Coleridge’s Greek Classic Poets: ‘Pinakidia,’ ‘Politian’ and ‘Morella’ Sources, American Literature, March 1962, 34:8-30
• Mabbott, Thomas Ollive, “The Source of the Title of Poe’s ‘Morella’,” Notes & Queries, January 9, 1937, 172:26-27
• 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.
• Neale, Walter G., “The Source of Poe’s ‘Morella’,” American Literature, May 1937, 9:237-239
• Richmond, Lee J., “Edgar Allan Poe’s ‘Morella’: Vampire of Volition,” Studies in Short Fiction, Winter 1972, 9:93-95
• Sandler, S. Gerald, “Poe’s Indebtedness to Locke’s An Essay Concerning Human Understanding,” Bucknell University Studies in English, Summer 1961, 5:107-121
• 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.