PSA Newsletter, Spring 2000: Poe in Cyberspace

A New Census of Poe E-Texts
on the Internet

Heyward Ehrlich, Rutgers Univ, Newark NJ, USA

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. The Codes
3. Census Table
  • a. Books
  • b. Fiction and sketches
  • c. Poetry
  • d. Essays and Articles
  • e. Reviews and Notices
    4. Electronic References (URLs)
  •  
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    1. Introduction:

    Just ten years ago, scholars were grateful for any Poe electronic texts they could get their hands on. The 28 tales at Internet Wiretap may have been indifferently scanned, rekeyed, and documented plain texts, but no one could afford to complain about them at the time. Then came HTML markup with better screen fonts and page numbers. Now, under the spirit of historical preservation, electronic texts are expected to correspond exactly to known printed editions. For copyright reasons the scholarly Mabbott and Pollin editions of Poe are unlikely to be posted on the Web or Internet very soon. But there is no legal obstacle in the way of making and distributing electronic facsimilies of historical Poe editions, including the early poems, Arthur Gordon Pym (1838), Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque (1840), Tales (1845), The Raven and Other Poems (1845), and Eureka (1848). All these works and many others are now freely available on the Internet -- often in more than one version.

    Nevertheless, finding Poe e-texts online is not as simple as it sounds. The familiar CMU index to Online Books (now at Penn) lists only 20 assorted individual works or web sites. The Internet Public Library index has 43 items, chiefly tales at the University of Virginia site. But two old standby electronic collections are with us no more: the historical Internet Wiretap site has now been closed, and when the Eris collection at Virgina Tech shut down in 1998, its 125 items apparently perished forever. But when e-texts die, they are sometimes reborn as clones take their place. Thus the Eris e-texts are reborn in two unexpected places: in the frozen Alex index and at www.concordance.com. Of course, one can also search narrowly for titles or words within the Virginia or Michigan local text archives -- or broadly with a global Web search engine such as Altavista, then coping with untold legions of unwanted hits. Of the one thousand or so works or items which Poe signed (or which have been atrributed to him convincingly), ranging in size from complete books to brief book notices, about 350 are currently available on the Internet. But to find them you will need help.

    The first Poe e-census, which appeared in Poe Studies, 30 (1997) 1-26, was hardly up to date when it was printed in May 1999. This revision expands the list to more than twice its previous size by adding particulars of the J. H. Whitty edition of the Complete Poems (1911) at the American Verse Project of the University of Michigan, the five volume "Raven" edition (Collier, 1903) at Project Gutenberg, and the near-miraculous expansion of the Poe Society of Baltimore, under the direction of Jeffrey Savoye, which promises to put online just about everything Poe published or revised in his lifetime. The Baltimore project notably contains a substantial body of Poe's non-fiction prose -- his essays, articles, criticisms, and reviews -- which constitute his largest yet least studied body of work.

    This census is in three parts: the codes to identify each site, the e-text census, and the electronic references. The five groups of Poe e-texts represent 1) books published in his lifetime, 2) his tales and sketches, 3) his poetry, 4) his essays and articles on general subjects, and 5) his reviews and notices of particular authors or works. This census does not include about 80 early versions of Poe's writings in the Southern Literary Messenger, which are available in the Making of America e-archive at the University of Michigan <http://www.umdl.umich.edu/moa/>.

    In this census, items of uncertain authorship have a question mark (?); sets of ephemera too extensive to describe in detail have a plus sign (+); and items unprinted in Poe's lifetime or in the Griswold Works are marked (u). This census is quantitative; it does not explore the qualitative differences among e-texts, some of which are considerable.

     
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    2. THE CODES:

    CodesArchiveItems (approx.)
    PPoe Society of Baltimore (historical editions)c. 350
    GProject Gutenberg ("Raven" edition)130
    LU-M-StL ("Borzoi" edition)120
    WAmerican Verse Project (Michigan)` (Whitty, Complete Poems)   60
    VElectronic Text Center (Virginia)30
    MHumanities Text Initiative (Michigan)27
    EEarly American Fiction (Virginia/Chadwyck Healey) by sub.
    OOxford Text Archive15
    SDigitized Library of Southern Literature (North Carolina)    13
    RRepresentative Poetry (Toronto)8
       
    (?)Attribution to Poe uncertain 
    (+)Set contains additional items 
    (u)Unpublished in Poe's lifetime 

     
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    3. THE CENSUS TABLE:

    a. Books --b. Fiction and sketches -- c. Poetry --d. Essays and Articles -- e. Reviews and Notices

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    A. BOOKS (see also individual works)
     
     Codes
      PGLWVMEOSR
    Tamerlane and Other Poems (1827)PW
    Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane and Minor Poems (1829)P
    Poems (1831)P
    Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym (1838)PGLE
    Tales of Grotesque and Arabesque (1840)PE
    Tales (1845)PES
    The Raven and Other Poems (1845)PW
    Eureka (1848)P
    Works (1850--)P
     
    "Raven" Edition (1903)G
    J. H. Whitty, ed. Complete Poems (1911)W
    "Borzoi" edition (1946)L
    Letters, ed. John Ostrom (1948)P
    Burton Pollin, Poe, Creator of Words (1973-1994)P

     
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    B. FICTION AND SKETCHES
     
     Codes
     PGLWVMEOSR
    Angel of the Odd, ThePGL
    Assignation, The (The Visionary)PGLVME
    Balloon Hoax, ThePGLVM
    BerenicePGLVME
    Black Cat, ThePGLVMES
    Bon-BonPGL
    Business Man, ThePGL
    Cask of Amontillado, ThePGLVMO
    Colloquy of Monos & Una, ThePGLVMES
    Conversation of Eiros and Charmion, ThePGLVMES
    Descent into the Maelstrom, APGLVMEOS
    Devil In the Belfry, ThePGLE
    DiddlingPGL
    Domain of Arnheim, ThePGLVM
    Duc De L'omlette, ThePGLE
    EleonoraPGLVM
    EurekaP
    Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar, ThePGL
    Fall of the House of Usher, ThePGLVEOS
    Four Beasts In One (Epimanes)PGL
    Gold-Bug, ThePGLVEOS
    Hop-FrogPGLVM
    How To Write a Blackwood ArticlePGLE
    Imp of Perverse, ThePGLVM
    Island of Fay, ThePGLVM
    Journal of Julius Rodman, TheP
    King PestPGLVME
    Landor's CottagePGLVM
    Landscape Garden, ThePGL
    Lighthouse, TheP
    LigeiaPGLVO
    LionizingPGLES
    Literary Life of Thingum Bob, Esq., ThePGL
    Loss Of BreathPG
    Man in the Crowd, ThePGLVMES
    Man That Was Used Up, ThePGL
    Masque of the Red Death, ThePGL
    Mellonta TautaPGLVMO
    Mesmeric RevelationPGLES
    MetzengersteinPGLE
    MorellaPGLE
    Ms. Found In BottlePGLE
    Murders in the Rue MorguePGLVMEOS
    Mystery of Marie Roget, ThePGLVMEOS
    Mystification (Von Jung)PGLE
    Narrative of Arthur Gordon PymPGL
    Never Bet the Devil Your HeadPGL
    Oblong Box, ThePGL
    Oval Portrait, ThePGL
    Pit and the Pendulum, ThePGLVMO
    Power Of Words, ThePGL
    Predicament, APGL
    Premature BurialPGL
    Purloined Letter, ThePGLVMOS
    ShadowPGLE
    Silence (Siope)PGLE
    Some Words with a MummyPGL
    Spectacles, ThePGLVMO
    Sphinx, ThePGL
    System of Dr. Tarr and Professor Fether, ThePGL
    Tale of Jerusalem, APGLE
    Tale of the Ragged Mountains, APGLVM
    Tell-Tale Heart, ThePGLVMO
    "Thou Art the Man"PGLVMO
    Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherezade, ThePGL
    Three Sundays in a WeekPGL
    Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans PhaallPGLE
    Von Kempelen and His DiscoveryPGL
    Why the Little Frenchman Wears His Hand in a SlingPGLE
    William WilsonPGLVMEO
    X-ing A ParagrabPG

     
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    C. POETRY
     
     Codes
     PGLWVMEOSR
    Al AaraafPGLW
    Alone (u)PGLW
    Acrostic, An (u)P
    An EnigmaPGLW
    Annabel LeePGLWVMOR
    Bells, ThePGLW
    Beloved Physician (u)P
    Bridal BalladPGLW
    Campaign Song, A (u)P
    City in the Sea, ThePGLWR
    Coliseum, ThePGLW
    Conqueror Worm, ThePGLW
    Deep in Earth (u)P
    Divine Right of Kings, TheP
    Dream, APGLWR
    Dream Within Dream, APGLWR
    DreamlandPGLW
    DreamsPGLW
    EldoradoPGLW
    Elizabeth (u)PGLWE
    Enigma [On Shakepeare]P
    Epigram for Wall Street (u)P
    EulaliePGLW
    EvangelineP
    Evening StarPGLW
    Fairy-landPGLW
    FannyP
    For AnniePGLWR
    "Happiest Day, The"PGLW
    Haunted Palace, ThePGLW
    Hymn ("Catholic Hymn")PGLW
    ImitationP
    Impromptu -- to Kate CarolPW
    IsrafelPGLW
    Lake, ThePGLW
    Latin HymnPW
    LenorePGLW
    Lines on Ale (u)P
    Lines on Joe LockeP
    May Queen Ode (u)P
    Oh Tempora! Oh Mores! (u)PW
    Paean, A (u)P
    Poetry (u)P
    Raven, ThePGLWR
    RomancePGLW
    Scenes from PolitianPGLW
    SerenadePGLW
    Sleeper, ThePGLW
    SongPGLW
    Song of TriumphPW
    Sonnet - SilencePGLW
    Sonnet - To SciencePGLW
    Sonnet - To ZantePGLW
    Spirits of the DeadPGLW
    Spritual Song (u)PGLW
    Stanzas P
    Stanzas (To. F. S. O.)P
    SongPGLW
    TamerlanePGLW
    To F--s. S. O--dPGLW
    To Elizabeth WinchesterP
    To Elmira ("The bowers")P
    To Frances PGLW
    To HelenPGLWR
    To Helen [Sarah Whitman]PGLW
    To -- ("Should my early life seem...")PGLW
    To Isaac Lea (u)P
    To -- ("Sleep on...")PGLW
    To M --PGLW
    To Margaret (u)PGLW
    To M. L. S. (Marie Louise Shew)PGLW
    To Miss Louise Olivia Hunter (u)P
    To Octavia (u)P
    To My MotherPGLW
    To One In ParadisePGLW
    To The RiverPGLW
    To Violet VaneP
    UlalamePGLW
    Valentine, APGLW
    Valley Of Unrest, ThePGLW

     
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    D. ESSAYS AND ARTICLES
     
     Codes
     PGLWVMEOSR
    Alexander's Weekly Messenger (+)P
    American DramaPGL
    American Novel-WritingP
    American PoetryP
    Appendix of Autographs, AnP
    AutographyP
    Cabs and A Moving ChapterP
    Chapter of SuggestionsP
    Chapter on Autography, AP
    Chapter on Science and Art, A (?)P
    Conchologist's First Book, TheP
    Cryptographs, Puzzles and ConundrumsP
    Daguerreotype, TheP
    Desultory Notes on CatsP
    Doings of Gotham (+)P
    ExordiumPL
    Few Words on Etiquette, A (?)P
    Fifty SuggestionsP
    Harpers FerryP
    Instinct vs Reason -- A Black CatP
    IntemperanceP
    Letter to B --PGL
    Literati of New York City, The (1846-1849):
    (Godey's, Democratic Review)
    P
    Maelzel's Chess-PlayerPG
    Marginalia (complete, 1844-1849):
    (Demo. Rev., Godey's, Graham's, SLM)
    P
    Marginalia (+) L
    Morning on the WissahicconPGL
    Omniana (?)P
    Opinion on Dreams, An (?)P
    Philosophy of Composition, ThePGL
    Philosophy of Furniture, ThePG
    PinakidiaP
    Poetic Principle, ThePGL
    Rationale of Verse, ThePGL
    Secret Writing (+)P
    Some Account of StonehengeP
    Some Secrets of the Magazine Prison-HouseP
    Street-PavingP

     
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    E. REVIEWS AND NOTICES
     
     Codes
     PGLWVMEOSR
    Ainsworth, William Harrison: Guy FawkesP
    Anderson, William: Rev. Joseph Caldwell, D. D.P
    Annuals and Gift Books:
    The Gift (1836) -- English Annuals (1836)
    P
    Anthon, Charles:
       Sallust's Jurgurthine War
       Select Orations of Cicero
       A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities
    P
    Barrett, E. S. The Heroine, or Cherubina (?)P
    Barrett, Elizabeth Barrett: The Drama of ExileP
    Bird, Robert Montgomery
       Calavar (?)
        The Infidel (?)
       Sheppard Lee
       The Hawks of Hawk-Hollow
    P
    Bolles, William: Phongraphic DictionaryP
    Brainard, John Gardiner Calkins:
    "A Few Words About Brainard"
    P
    Bridgeman, T.: Young Gardener's AssistantP
    Bryant, William Cullen:
       Poems:
       William Cullen Bryant (SLM)
       Complete Poetical Works (Godey's)
    PGL
    Bulwer, Edward Lytton:
       Rienzi, The Last of the Tribunes
       Bulwer Used Up
       Night and Morning
       Critical and Miscellaneous Writings
    P
    Butler, Frances Anne: Journal (?)P
    Byron and Miss ChaworthP
    Carey, Mathew: Carey's AutobiographyP
    Chamier, Frederick: The SpitfireP
    Chandler, J. R.: Goethean & Diagnothian AddressP
    Channing, William Ellery:
       Our Amateur Poets
       William Ellery Channing
    P
    Chorley, Henry Fothergill: ContiP
    Cockton, Henry: Stanley ThornP
    Coleridge, Samuel Taylor:
       Note on Table Talk (?)
    P
    Cone, Spencer Wallace: The Proud LadyeP
    Cooper, James Fenimore:
       History of the Navy
       Wyandotte, or the Hutted Knoll
    P
    Dacre, Lady Barbarina Brand:
    Tales of Peerage and Peasantry
    P
    Dawes, Rufus: The Poetry of Rufus DawesP
    Dickens, Charles:
       Life & Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby
       Old Curiosity Shop and Master Humphrey's Clock
       Barnaby Rudge
    PGL
    Drake, Joseph Rodman:
    The Culprit Fay and Alnwick Castle
    P
    Duncan, Henry: Sacred Philosophy of SeasonsP
    Euripides: The Classical Family LibraryP
    Fauvel-Gouraud, Francis: Phreno-MnemotechnyP
    Fay, Theodore Sedgwick: Norman LeslieP
    Fouqué, Baron Fredrich de la Motte: UndineP
    Glass, Francis: Washingtonii VitaP
    Godwin, William: Lives of the NecromancersP
    Gooch, Richard: Nuts to CrackP
    Griswold, Rufus Wilmot:
       The Poets and Poetry of America
       The Female Poets of America
    P
    Haldeman, Samuel: A Monograph of The LimniadesP
    Hale, Sarah Josepha:
       Traits of American Life
       The Good Housekeeper (?)
    P
    Hawks, Francis Lister: Ecclesiastical History of U.S.P
    Hawthorne, Nathaniel:
       Twice-Told Tales (Graham's)
       Twice-Told Tales and Mosses (Godey's)
    PGL
    Hewitt, Mary E.: The Songs of Our LandP
    Horne, Richard H.: OrionP
    Irving, Washington:
       The Crayon Miscellany
        Astoria
    P
    Jones, George: Ancient AmericaP
    Kennedy, J. P.: Horse-Shoe RobinsonP
    Lever, Charles: Charles O'Malley, The Irish DragoonP
    Leslie, Eliza: Pencil SketchesP
    Lewis, Estelle Anna: The Child of the SeaP
    Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth:
       Outre-Mer
        Hyperion, a Romance
        Voices of the Night
        Tennyson vs Longfellow
        Ballads and other Poems
       The Little Longfellow War (+)
       Longfellows' Poems
    PGL
    Lowell, James Russell:
       Pioneer
       Poems
       A Fable for Critics
    P
    Macaulay, T. B.: Critical and Miscellaneous EssaysP
    Magazines and Newspapers:
       The New England Magazine
       The American Quarterly Review
       The Edinburgh Review
       The American Almanac
       The Westminster Review
       The London Quarterly Review
       The North American Review
       New York Mirror
       Southern Literary Messenger
       The Virginia Star
    P
    Malibran, Mme. M.: Memoirs and LettersP
    Marryatt, Frederick: Joseph RushbrookP
    Martin, Joseph: Gazetteer of VirginiaP
    Mathews, Cornelius:
       Wakondah; The Master of Life
    P
    Mattson, Morris: Paul UlricP
    Maxwell, William: Reverend John H. RiceP
    Minor, Lucian: An Address on EducationP
    Miscellaneous:
        Critical Notices and Literary Intelligence
        Blackbeard
        The Canons of Good Breeding
        Note on French Tragedy (?)
    P
    Moore, Thomas
        Alciphron, a Poem
        The History of Ireland
    P
    Morris, George Pope: National Melodies
    Where Hudson's Wave, Ida
    P
    Osborn, Laughton: Confessions of a PoetP
    Osgood, Frances Sargent:
       A Wreath of Wild Flowers and Poems
       Notice of Frances Sargent Osgood
    Poe, Edgar Allan:
       Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque (?)
        Tales (?)
    P
    Power, Marguerite: The GovernesssP
    Reed, Andrew et al: American ChurchesP
    Rose HillP
    Reynolds, Jeremiah N.:
       Voyage of the U. S. Frigate Potomac
        Expedition to Pacific Ocean and South Seas
    P
    Roget, Peter Mark: Animal & Vegetable PhysiologyP
    Sedgwick, Catherine Maria: The LinwoodsP
    Slidell, Lt. Alexander: The American in EnglandP
    Smith, Mr. Seba: PowhatanP
    Southey, Robert: The Early Naval History of EnglandP
    Thomas, Frederick William: Clinton BradshawP
    Tucker, Judge N. B.: George BalcombeP
    Tuckerman, Henry T.: The Italian Sketch-Book (?)P
    Walsh, R. M.: Living Characters of FranceP
    Ward, Thomas: Our Amateur Poets - FlaccusP
    Warren, Samuel: Ten Thousand a YearP
    Williams, R. F.: Mephistopheles in EnglandP
    Willis, Nathaniel Parker:
       Tortesa, The Userer. A Play
        Romance of Travel
       American Prose Writers, No. 2
    P
    Wilmer, Lambert A.
        The Confessions of Emilia Harrington
        The Quacks of Helicon
    PGL

     
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    4. Electronic References (URLs):

  • Alex: A Catalog of Electronic Texts:
    http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/alex/

  • Altavista:
    www.altavista.com

  • Concordance.Com:
    www.concordance.com

  • Internet Public Library: Online Books Collection:
    http://www.ipl.org/reading/books/

  • Making of America project at the University of Michigan: http://www.umdl.umich.edu/moa/"

  • Online Books Page at Penn (formerly at CMU):
    http://digital.library.upenn.edu/books/authors.html

  • Oxford Text Archive:
    http://ota.adhs.ac.uk.

  • Poe Society of Baltimore:
    http://www.eapoe.org

  • Project Gutenberg:
    http://promo.net/pg/index.html

  • University of Michigan (Humanities Text Initiative):
    http://www.hti.umich.edu/english/pd-modeng/bibl.html

  • University of Michigan (American Verse Project):
    http://www.hti.umich.edu/bin/amv-idx.pl?page=bibl

  • University of Missouri-St. Louis:
    gopher://gopher.umsl.edu:70/11/library/stacks/books/poe

  • University of North Carolina (Digitized Library of Southern Literature):
    http://metalab.unc.edu/docsouth/poe/poe.html

  • University of Toronto (Representative Poetry):
    http://library.utoronto.ca/utel/rp/authors/poe.html

  • University of Virginia (Electronic Text Center):
    http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/modeng/modengP.browse.html

  • University of Virginia (Early American Fiction project with Chadwyck-Healey):
    http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/eaf/authors/first/eap.html
  • Credits:

    "Poe in Cyberspace" columns are at http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~ehrlich/psa

    "A Poe Webliography: Edgar Allan Poe on the Internet," Poe Studies, 30 (1997), 1-26, is online at http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~ehrlich/poesites.html (updated).

    Heyward Ehrlich, Dept. of English, Rutgers Univ., Newark, NJ 07102, USA
    ehrlich@andromeda.rutgers.edu
    Page last revised: February 29, 2000