Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore - Works - Editions (original) (raw)
James Albert Harrison (1848-1911) was a professor of English at the University of Virginia. For the volume of poems, the notes were prepared by Charles William Kent (1860-1917). The bibliographical study and textual analyses for the tales were done by Robert Armistead Stewart (1877-1950). Indeed, these notes were successfully submitted by Stewart as his doctoral disseration, for which his Ph.D. was granted on June 12, 1901. (It was noted at the time that he was the youngest person to whom such a degree had been awarded by the university.)
A revised edition was first proposed and publicized in 1910 (to be done under the supervision of Robert Armistead Stewart)(see Baltimore Sun, October 16, 1910, p. 12, col. 7). On the title page of a 1911 selection of Poems and Tales of Edgar Allan Poe, (Richmond: B. F. Johnson Publishing Co., Robert Armistead Stewart is listed as “Editor of the Revised Edition of the Virginia Poe (Harrison) and Associate Professor in Richmond College.” In this edition, there is a note that appears at the end of the “Introduction,” stating that “A full Bibliography will be found in the Virginia Edition of the_Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe_. (T. Y. Crowell & Co). (Revised edition to appear in 1912)” (see p. 28). The revised edition apparently never materialized, perhaps because the market was already flooded with various ten-volume editions. When AMS Press reprinted the set in 1965, they used the original 1902 edition.
The Complete Works of the Edgar Allan Poe (edited by J. A. Harrison) (1902)
| • | Volume I: | Biography |
|---|---|---|
| • | Volume II: | Tales - Part I (“MS. Found in a Bottle,” etc.) |
| • | Volume III: | Tales - Part II (“Narrative of A. Gordon Pym,” etc.) |
| • | Volume IV: | Tales - Part III (“The Conversation of Eiros and Charmion,” etc.) |
| • | Volume V: | Tales - Part IV (“The Mystery of Marie Roget,” etc.) |
| • | Volume VI: | Tales - Part V (“The Literary Life of Thingum Bob, Esq.,” etc.) |
| • | Volume VII: | Poems |
| • | Volume VIII: | Criticism - Part I (Early Criticism, January 1835-July 1836) |
| • | Volume IX: | Criticism - Part II (Early Criticism, May 1836-January 1837) |
| • | Volume X: | Criticism - Part III (Middle Period, October 1837-December 1841) |
| • | Volume XI: | Criticism - Part IV (Middle Period, January 1842-December 1844) |
| • | Volume XII: | Criticism - Part V (Later Criticism, January 1845-November 1, 1845) |
| • | Volume XIII: | Criticism - Part VI (Later Criticism, November 22, 1845-1849) |
| • | Volume XIV: | Essays and Miscellanies (“Palaestine,” “Maelzel's Chess-Player,” etc.) |
| • | Volume XV: | Literati and Autography |
| • | Volume XVI: | Marginalia and Eureka (and general index) (see additional indicies, below) |
| • | Volume XVII: | Letters (Poe and His Friends; Letters Relating to Poe) |
Harrison suggests that he had consistently gone back to Poe's original texts, but in many instances it is evident that the text printed by Griswold was adopted. For a few of the letters, manuscripts noted as “Griswold Collection” are actually from other sources. (It cannot be determined whether this error occurred due to poor note-taking or was merely a convenient means of avoiding copyright issues with Ingram, who was still alive in 1902 and as tempermental as ever.)
Although the title boasts that it is a “Complete” collection of Poe's works, no truly complete collection has ever been printed. Many items, generally minor editorial matter but also two installments of Marginalia, are not included by Harrison, and he includes a number of reviews which are no longer attributed to Poe, most notably the highly controversial review of Paulding and Drayton's books on Slavery (SLM, April 1836).
An alternative index to the volumes II-XVI was prepared in 1968 by Burton R. Pollin (Dictionary of Names and Titles in Poe's Collected Works, New York: Da Capo Press). Burton Pollin also created an additional index of “Place Names in Poe's Creative Writings” (Poe Studies, December 1973, vol. VI, no. 2, pp. 43-48).
Still another alternative index to the volumes VIII-XV (and the “Marginalia” portion of volume XVI) was prepared in 1966 by J. Lasley Dameron and Louis Charles Stagg (An Index to Poe's Critical Vocabulary, Hartford, CT: Transcendental Books).