The Portable Edgar Allan Poe by Edgar Allan Poe Read Free Book Online Page A

consumption worsens; publishes “The Cask of Amontillado”; suffers from poor health and poverty. European translations extend Poe’s reputation abroad.
    1847 Virginia dies; Poe remains ill but sues English and Evening Mirror for libel; recovers health through care of Mrs. Shew. Wins lawsuits and receives damages; visits Washington and Philadelphia; composes “Ulalume.”
    1848 Revives plans for Stylus; gives lectures called “The Universe” and begins Eureka; exchanges poems with Sarah Helen Whitman. Lectures in Massachusetts and meets Annie Richmond. George P. Putnam publishes Eureka; Poe visits Providence and proposes to Mrs. Whitman; visits, confides in Mrs. Richmond. Takes overdose of laudanum; lectures in Providence and resumes drinking; Mrs. Whitman accepts, then breaks off marriage plans.
    1849 Corresponds with Mrs. Richmond, who inspires “For Annie”; publishes “Hop-Frog” and other tales in Boston antislavery newspaper; receives proposal from Edward Patterson to publish Stylus in Illinois. Begins journey to solicit subscriptions; drinks heavily in Philadelphia, suffers delirium tremens, and spends night in prison; sells “Annabel Lee” and “The Bells” to John Sartain, who rescues him. Reestablishes relationship with recently widowed Sarah Elmira Royster Shelton in Richmond; lectures on poetry; takes temperance pledge but lapses into insobriety. Proposes to Mrs. Shelton, who accepts; departs for New York; stops at Baltimore, lapses into unconsciousness after drinking binge; dies on October 7 in Washington Hospital. Buried in Baltimore, October 8.

A Note on Texts
    The texts of Poe’s published works are in the public domain. In this edition, taking advantage of recent textual scholarship and generally following the principles of modern bibliography in establishing the texts to be published, I have endeavored to present the most readable and reliable versions of Poe’s works. That is, I have attempted to reproduce the last published version over which the author had editorial control. For the fiction and poetry, I have mostly relied on the Redfield edition of The Works of the Late Edgar Allan Poe, edited by Rufus W. Griswold. Whatever animus Griswold bore for Poe (and betrayed in his introductory memoir), he took the trouble to reproduce, in most cases, the latest versions of each work, sometimes inserting subsequent authorial revisions that Poe had inscribed marginally in late publications of his work. Yet the Redfield edition did not incorporate all of those revisions, and in several tales and poems I have included further emendations thanks to electronic texts provided by the Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore. I thank Jeffrey A. Savoye for his kind cooperation.
    Griswold’s edition of 1850-56 also included a number of misprints and typographical errors, which I have silently corrected. For the sake of readability, I have also added accents omitted from foreign words and (in a very few cases) corrected spelling errors. I have also compared my versions of the poetry and tales with those established by Thomas O. Mabbott, sometimes adopting editorial revisions made by Mabbott and in a few cases correcting his texts.
    My texts for the critical essays and opinions—some of which appeared in Griswold’s edition—ultimately derive from the original periodical sources. These writings were not revised by Poe and so present few editorial problems. For the letters, I have relied on the texts established by John Ward Ostrom in the two-volume 1948 Harvard edition, used with permission of the Gordian Press, which now holds the copyright.

TALES
    Poe considered the domain of the short prose tale less “elevated” than that of the poem but more extensive and thus more conducive to innovation. He noted that the author of a tale “may bring to his theme a vast variety of modes or inflections of thought.” The seventy-odd narratives that he published between 1832 and 1849 represent a surprisingly diverse