Text-01 — “Astounding News by Express . . .” — 1844, no original manuscript
or fragments are known to exist (but this version is presumably recorded in Text-02)
Text-03 — “The Balloon Hoax” — 1844-1849 — (a presumed modified version of the
New York Sun, Extra, for an anticipated new collection that was never printed. This version is lost, but probably
represented in text-04.)
Text-04 — “The Balloon Hoax” — 1850 —
WORKS — (Mabbott text B) (This is Mabbott's copy-text)
Reprints (full text):
“The Atlantic Crossed in Three Days ...” — April 14, 1844
— The Sunday Times (reprinted from Text-02)
“The Atlantic Crossed in Three Days ...” — April 16, 1844
— Baltimore Sun (Baltimore, MD), vol. XIV, no. 126, p. 1, cols. 4-6) (noted as reprinted “from the New York Sun
Extra.”)
“The Balloon Hoax” — 1867 — Prose Tales of Edgar Allan Poe, first series (New
York: W. J. Widdleton), pp. 86-101 (This collection is extracted from the 1850-1856 edition of Poe's Works. It was
reprinted several times.)
“The Balloon Hoax” — 1874 —
Works of Edgar A. Poe, edited by J. H. Ingram, vol. 1, pp. 94-107 (This collection was subsequently reprinted in various
forms)
“[The Balloon Hoax]” — October 19, 1910 — The New York Sun (noted by
Wyllie, p. 323)
“The Balloon Hoax” — April 1927 — Amazing Stories, vol. 2, no. 1
“The Balloon Hoax” — August 1927 — Aviation Stories and Mechanics, vol. 1, no. 2
(as by “Edgar Allen [sic] Poe”) (with illustrations by Murray Korman)
Reprints (excerpts only):
“[[The Atlantic Crossed in Three Days . . .]]” — April 20, 1844 — Saturday
Courier (New York) (excerpt only) (The Courier presents the story as obviously a hoax, and criticizes it as
“not even possessing the character of pleasantry.” (noted by The Poe Log, p. 461)
Scholarly and Noteworthy Reprints:
“The Balloon Hoax” — 1894-1895
— The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, vol. 2: Tales, ed. G. E. Woodberry and E. C. Stedman, Chicago: Stone and Kimball
(2:204-221) (This collection was subsequently reprinted in various forms)
“The Balloon Hoax” — 1902 —
The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe, vol. 5: Tales IV, ed. J. A. Harrison, New York: T. Y. Crowell (5:224-240, and
5:325)
“The Balloon Hoax” — 1978 — The
Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe, vol. 3: Tales & Sketches II, ed. T. O. Mabbott, Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard
University Press (3:1063-1088)
“The Balloon Hoax” — 1984 — Edgar Allan Poe: Poetry and Tales, ed. Patrick F.
Quinn (New York: Library of America), pp. 743-755
“Astounding Intelligence from the Man in the Moon” — April 14, 1844 — the Mercury
(New York) (parody)
”Le canard au ballon” — (French translation by Charles Baudelaire)
”Le canard au ballon” — January 31 - February 3, 1855 — Le Pays
”Le canard au ballon” — Part I (January 31, 1855)
”Le canard au ballon” — Part II (February 2, 1855)
”Le canard au ballon” — Part III (February 3, 1855)
”Le canard au ballon” — 1856 — Histoires extraordinaires, Paris: Michel
Lévy frères
“Eine Ballonfahrt über den Atlantischen Ozean” — 1890 — Seltsame Gesdichten,
Stuttgart: Spemann (Germanh translation by Alfred Mürenberg)
“The Balloon-Hoax” — 2009 — Audio book (unabridged), read by Chris Aruffo (part of a 6-CD set)
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Bibliography:
Brigham, Clarence Saunders, “Poe's ‘Balloon Hoax’,” American Book Collector
(February 1932), 1:94-95. (Reprinted as a separate pamphlet, Metuchen: NJ, 1932. Although the article is accompanied by a
photographic facsimile of the full newspaper, it is so small that it is not practical as a reading copy.)
Falk, Doris, “Thomas Low Nichols, Poe, and the ‘Balloon Hoax’,” Poe Newsletter
(Dec. 1972), 5:48-49.
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.
Jackson, Joseph, ed., The Philosophy of Animal Magnetism, Philadelphia: Privately Printed, 1928 (In
the foreword, attempting to establish Poe as the author of The Philosophy of Animal Magnetism, Jackson discusses Poe's
scientific understanding in regard to “The Balloon Hoax.”)
Mabbott, Thomas Ollive, “Poe's ‘Balloon Hoax,” New York Sun (January 23, 1943), p.
6.
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.
Scudder, H. H., “Poe's ‘Balloon Hoax’,” American Literature (May 1949),
21:179-190
Weissuch, Ted N., “Edgar Allan Poe: Hoaxer in the American Tradition,” New York Historical
Society Quarterly Bulletin, July 1961, 45:291-309
Wilkinson, Ronald S., “Poe's ‘Balloon-Hoax’ Once More, “ American Literature
(Nov. 1960), 32:313-317
Wimsatt, William K., Jr., “A Further Note on Poe's ‘Balloon Hoax’,” American
Literature (Jan. 1951), 22:491-492
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.
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[S:0 - JAS] - Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore - Works - Tales - The Balloon Hoax