Edgar Allan Poe — “The Balloon Hoax”

Reading copy:

• “The Balloon Hoax” — reading copy

Manuscripts and Authorized Printings:

• 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-02 — “Astounding News by Express . . .” — April 13, 1844 — New York Sun, Extra (with 1 illustration) — Text-02  (Mabbott text A)
• 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 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

Instream Comparative and Study Texts:

• “The Balloon Hoax” — Comparative Text (New York Sun and WORKS)

Miscellaneous Texts and Related Items:

• “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)

• Brigham, Clarence Saunders, “Poe’s ‘Balloon Hoax’,” American Book Collector (February 1932), 1:94-95. (Reprinted as a separate pamphlet, Metuchen: NJ, 1932).
• 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.
• Norris, W. B., “Poe’s ‘Balloon Hoax’,” Nation (Oct. 27, 1910), 91:389-390
• 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.