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edited by Rufus Wilmot Griswold (editor) (1815-1857) and printed by J. S. Redfield (printer) (Justus Starr Redfield (printer) , 1810-1888) is an important crossroads in the publication of Poe's writings. It was the first attempt at collecting both poetry and prose, and the first collection of Poe's critical, editorial and miscellaneous writings. Relying on a wealth of manuscript notes and corrections, it is also the last collection to be at least partially authorized by Poe. It became the standard edition of Poe's works for 25 years, and served as the model for nearly another quarter of a century. It is also the
edition upon which Charles Baudelaire based his famous translations of Poe's
works into French in Histoires Extraordinaires (1856), Nouvelles
Histoires Extraordinaires (1857) and Histoires Grotesques Et
Sérieuses (1865). The Works of the Late Edgar Allan Poe (The Griswold (editor) Edition) (1850-1856)
Shortly thereafter, she and Mrs. Shew appear to have approached Rufus W. Griswold (editor) and requested that he edit and publish a collection of Poe's writings. It is often repeated that Poe himself asked that Griswold (editor) be his editor, but there is no definitive surviving evidence for this statement nor any explanation for why Poe should have thought that he would require an editor. In 1854, Mrs. Lewis wrote, "I did tell Griswold (editor) that Mr. Poe expressed a desire that he should become his editor, in case of his death. I did this in compliance with Mr. Poe's own request. He had great confidence in Griswold (editor) 's editorial ability . . ." (Sarah Anna Lewis to George W. Eveleth, Nov. 6, 1854, quoted in Miller, pp. 199-200). At the time, Griswold (editor) himself wrote, "I undertook to edit his writings to oblige Mrs. Clemm (mother-in-law) . . ." (R. W. Griswold (editor) to S. H. Whitman, December 17, 1849, Harrison, vol. II, p. 406). To J. R. Lowell, Griswold (editor) wrote, "Poe was not my friend — I was not his — and he had no right to devolve upon me this duty of editing his works. He did so, however, and under the circumstances I could not well refuse compliance with the wishes of his friends here. From his constant habit of repeating himself, but I shall execute it as well as I can, in the short time that is allowed to me — that is, in three weeks" (R. W. Griswold (editor) to J. R. Lowell, October 18 or 25, 1849, quoted in Quinn, 1941, p. 658). Whether the idea was Poe's, Mrs. Clemm (mother-in-law) 's, Mrs. Lewis's or Griswold (editor) 's, Mrs. Clemm (mother-in-law) had a contract written up on October 15, 1849 which granted Griswold (editor) full power of attorney. (This contract is itself the subject of some controversy as Poe's true legal heir should have been his sister, Rosalie, rather than Mrs. Clemm (mother-in-law) .) A notice "To the Reader" from Mrs. Clemm (mother-in-law) was to appear in the first volume, stating that the publication was for her financial benefit, although she seems never to have received more than a number of sets of the volumes to sell. On March 9, 1850, Mrs. Clemm (mother-in-law) wrote to James Russell Lowell, "I have received a letter from Mr. Redfield (printer) . (The publisher of my dear son[[']]s E. A. Poe[[']]s works) in which he states that I will not receive any thing from those works until the expenses are paid. I suppose this is right, but in the mean time I must be entirely destitute" (M. Clemm (mother-in-law) to J. R. Lowell, March 9, 1850, quoted in Quinn, 1941, p. 461). Later in the same year, Mrs. Clemm (mother-in-law) wrote to another correspondent that selling the volumes she has on hand is "the only emolument that I shall receive from them at present" (M. Clemm (mother-in-law) to unknown correspondent, December 2, 1850, quoted in Gimbel, 1959, p. 185). After the appearance of Griswold (editor) 's slanderous "Memoir" several months later in 1850, Mrs. Clemm (mother-in-law) came to regret her actions. In an 1860 letter to Neilson Poe, she refers to Griswold (editor) as "that base, base man" (M. Clemm (mother-in-law) to N. Poe, August 26, 1860, quoted in Miller, p. 50). In 1875, E. Dora Houghton wrote to John Ingram, "When the books were published her indignation and grief was heart-rending to witness, and after ineffectual efforts, to get justice — expressed herself as heartbroken and was said never to have smiled again" (E. D. Houghton to J. Ingram, January 9, 1875, quoted in Miller, 1977, p. 90). Mrs. Shew also recalled that Maria Clemm (mother-in-law) had sold a bracelet "for three hundred dollars . . . intended to pay Griswold (editor) to keep his infamous life or destroy it and make none but such as Mr. Poe's friends approved" (M. L. Shew to J. Ingram, January 23, 1875, quoted in Miller, 1977, p. 97). Griswold (editor) , likewise, had no love for Mrs. Clemm (mother-in-law) , writing to S. H. Whitman, "I cannot refrain from begging you to be very careful what you say or write to Mrs. Clemm (mother-in-law) , who is not your friend, nor anybody's friend, and who has no element of goodness or kindness in her nature, but whose heart and understanding are full of malice and wickedness" (R. W. Griswold (editor) to S. H. Whitman, December 17, 1849, quoted in Harrison, vol. XVII, p. 406). T. O. Mabbott notes, "The appointment has led to much discussion; the most reasonable view is that Poe had wished Griswold (editor) , a very able man, to be his editor, and had even mentioned the possibility to him, but in a way that Griswold (editor) had not thought a firm commitment" (Mabbott, Poems, p. 571, n. 8). Having secured the rights and material for two volumes, Griswold (editor) immediately set to work. He asked Nathaniel Parker Willis and James Russell Lowell to revise previously published essays they had written about Poe so that these could be used as introductory material. A letter from Griswold (editor) to J. R. Lowell notes that "There are now six persons employed in setting up the copy, and I understand four others will be added next week" (R. W. Griswold (editor) to J. R. Lowell, October 31, 1849, quoted in Quinn, 1941, p. 659.) James Cephas Derby comments that "Dr. Griswold (editor) had offered the works to nearly all the leading publishers, who declined to undertake the publication. He finally persuaded Mr. Redfield (printer) to try the experiment of issuing two volumes first, which were published and had a fair sale — then the third, and finally the fourth, volume were added to complete the works. The sale reached about fifteen hundred sets every year" (Derby, 1884, pp. 586-587). Curiously, Derby also claims, "The copyright was paid at first to Mr. Poe, and after his death to his mother-in-law, Mrs. Clemm (mother-in-law) , who received the copyright on several editions. She came to Mr. Redfield (printer) one day in a great strait — saying she was going to Baltimore to enter a home for aged females. She wanted to raise two hundred and fifty dollars, and if he would let her have that amount, she would relinquish all claims to copyright. Mr. Redfield (printer) hesitated at first, but finally yielded to her importunities and paid her the money, thus becoming owner of the copyright as well as stereotype plates of Poe's complete works" (Derby, 1884, p. 587). This claim has two serious flaws. Firstly, the edition did not even appear until after Poe's death, so that he could hardly have received any copyright payments. Secondly, the copyright notices on all volumes, including the earliest printings, clearly give J. S. Redfield (printer) as the holder. Derby's comment about Griswold (editor) having trouble finding a publisher for the set echoes statements made in an anonymous article many years earlier: "On the death of the late Edgar A. Poe, and when almost every other publisher in the City had declined bringing out his works, he issued them, in three ample volumes. They were remarkably successful, five large editions having since been sold" ("Publishers and Publishing in New-York," The New-York Tribune, March 17, 1854.) The first two volumes were advertised as early as October of 1849, but were probably not actually available until about January 10, 1850. (In the first editions, both volumes carry the copyright date of 1849. In later editions, volume I continues to carry the 1849 copyright, while volume II carries a copyright date of 1850. A notice from the Richmond Whig and Public Advertiser for October 30, 1849 requests anyone with letters from Poe to forward them to Griswold (editor) through J. R. Thompson, and states, "Two volumes of the Works of Mr. Poe, comprising about 1000 pages, will be issued under Mr. Griswold (editor) 's supervision, in New York, in about 4 weeks." An advertisement in the New-York Tribune of January 9, 1850 announces that the volumes will be published on January 10, 1850. A brief but very favorable review appeared in The Dollar Newspaper (Philadelphia) of January 16, 1850, just three days before what would have been Poe's 41st birthday.) It seems to have sold well, as a second printing was required within four months. (J. H Whitty, in printing J. R. Thompson's The Genius and Character of Edgar Allan Poe, includes a letter of February 19, 1850 to Thompson from Griswold (editor) (pp. 54-56) in which Griswold (editor) claims that the first two volumes have not been selling.) The third volume was first issued on September 21, 1850. (The "Preface" is dated "New-York, September 2, 1850." The New York Tribune for September 19, 1850 notes that the volume will be available in two days.) Griswold (editor) claimed that it required more editorial work than the first two volumes. In the same letter to Thompson, mentioned above, he notes "Yet, I am preparing a third volume, which I propose to entitle Literary Characters, Marginalia, and Discourses of the late E. A. Poe, the third and concluding volume of his works" (p. 55). Griswold (editor) continues, "Under the head of Literary Characters I propose to place not only the notices of men and women which he himself printed under the title, but the more personal reviews which I can identify in the S. L. M, Graham's Magazine, The Whig-Review, &c. In the Marginalia I shall include the various series of thoughts and suggestions which he published in this form and has not repeated in his more elaborate performances" (p. 55). There has been some discussion as to whether volume III was initially sold as a continuation of the prior two volumes or as a separate book. The title page of the 1850 edition does not bear any indication of being volume III, although bindings often do carry the designation of "Vol. 3." Some of these books have clearly been rebound by owners seeking to have a unified appearance for the set. Others, however, appear to be original publishers' bindings. It is not unlikely that the book was available both ways, or that the publishers provided a binding based on the preference of the buyer. An advertisement in Thomas Wrights's book Narratives of Sorcery and Magic (New York: J. S. Redfield (printer) , 1852, mentioned in the Poe Catalogue of the 19th Century Shop, 1992, as item #655) shows that the first two volumes were still being sold separately from the third volume (for $2.50). In 1852, all three volumes were reprinted exactly as they were issued in 1850. (Only the date on the title page was changed.) In 1853, a number of modifications were made to reshape the three books into a cohesive set. In this process, the "Preface" and "Memoir" were relocated from volume III to volume I and "The Poetic Principle" moved to volume II. In repositioning "The Poetic Principle," which had been at the front of volume III, the printer renumbered the pages of the essay as prefatory material (pages vii - xxvi) but left volume III starting at page 21. (This anomaly was left unchanged in future printings.) The title page of volume II was changed from "Poems and Miscellanies" to "Poems and Tales," and the copyright date on the back of the title page changed from 1849 to 1850. The title of volume III was also changed at this time to simply "The Literati," and was clearly marked as volume III. In this form, the three volumes were again reprinted in 1855. In spite of Griswold (editor) 's statement to Thompson that the third volume was to be the final one, a fourth volume was issued in 1856, one year before Griswold (editor) 's own death. (The "Preface" for this volume is dated "New York, Feb. 13, 1856.") The chief item in this volume was "The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym." Griswold (editor) had apparently debated as to whether or not to include this work in the set as early as 1849. On November 3, 1849, Mrs. Lewis wrote to him, "I have read carefully 'Arthur Gordon Pym.' It is not written with the care and classic finish that characterize 'The Gold Bug,' and 'The House of Usher,' but with more freshness and dramatic effect. The interest never lags. The movement is almost constant. I think that a collection of Mr. Poe's Tales will be incomplete without it" (quoted by Bayless, p. 283-284, n 24). Many sets combine this one volume with earlier printings of the previous three. (A number of obvious typographical errors, especially in "Pym," remained through several subsequent printings. These were corrected when W. J. Widdleton printed its slightly revised edition in 1861.) There are nearly annual reprints of the full four-volume set: 1857, 1858, 1859, 1861, 1863, 1864, 1866, 1868, 1870, etc., until John Ingram's revisions in 1874-1875. At some point, the one-page notice by Maria Clemm (mother-in-law) "To The Reader" was also removed, though it remained in place as late as 1870. (It was apparently removed after Maria Clemm (mother-in-law) died in 1871.) Sometime between 1870 and 1876, Griswold (editor) 's "Memoir" was replaced by Ingram's far more sympathetic account of Poe's life. An 1859 edition, clearly from the Redfield (printer) plates, was printed by the New York firm of Blakeman & Mason. By 1861, Redfield (printer) had sold the rights to W. J. Widdleton, which modified the title of the volumes to "The Works of Edgar Allan Poe," dropping the phrase "The Late," but retaining the Redfield (printer) copyright, lamp and serpent logo, Griswold (editor) 's "Memoir of the Author" and the "To the Reader" notice by Maria Clemm (mother-in-law) . Widdleton reapplied for the copyright in 1876 and continued to issue both the full set and a single volume of poems until about 1882, when the rights were acquired by W. C. Bush. In 1884, Bush sold the rights to A. C. Armstrong & Sons (owned by Andrew C. Armstrong), which issued Poe's writings in several forms, most notably a six volume set with additional material and also a new memoir, by Richard Henry Stoddard. Armstrong appears to have sold the rights to George Putnam's Sons about 1902. Several years earlier (1894-1895), George Edward Woodberry and Edmund Clarence Stedman had created a new edition of Poe's works, extending the collection to 10 volumes. These editors were aware of concerns raised by John H. Ingram (1874) and W. F. Gill (1878) that Griswold (editor) had tampered with Poe's writings. Their "General Preface" (signed "The Editors" and dated "New York, Oct. 28, 1894") deals with this concern by stating that "in view of the contemporary uncertainty of Poe's fame, the difficulty of obtaining a publisher, and the fact that the editorial work was not paid for, little fault can justly be found with Griswold (editor) , who did secure what Poe in his lifetime could never accomplish, — a tolerably complete collected edition of the tales, reviews, and poems" (Woodberry and Stedman, "General Preface," 1894-1896, p. v.). (Ironically, Woodberry and Stedman even begin their first volume with a frontispiece engraving of the same portrait of Poe used by Griswold (editor) in his edition.) More recently, Burton Pollin contradicts Woodberry's insistence that Griswold (editor) had undertaken the editing of Poe's works out of a sense of charity, noting "Everyone soon knew of the great benefit to editor Griswold (editor) , in both income and reputation, brought by this large, lavish volume . . . " (Pollin, 1991, p. 151). Given Griswold (editor) 's notorious "memoir" of Poe and numerous variations from earlier printings, the debate about the authority of the Griswold (editor) texts continued. James Albert Harrison, for example, commented in his 1902 edition of Poe's works, "After a thorough examination of all the existing editions of Poe's works, the editor became convinced that no satisfactory text of the poet's writings could be established without direct study of the original sources in which these writings first and last appeared. Existing editions conflicted in so
many points that no course was left except to reject them all — beginning with
Griswold (editor) , whom all had more or less faithfully These errors are recorded as Griswold (editor) 's in the variants of Harrison's Complete works of Poe (1902). Apparently one of the 'defective' later copies of Works was used for collation, and the errors in it were, no doubt, one of the reasons R. A. Stewart (Harrison II, 299) called the Works 'very defective in typography.' The texts therein are not free from errors, but a comparison of the original 1850 Works text with the original Broadway Journal texts shows by far more typographical errors in the latter" (Mabbott, Tales and Sketches, 1978, p. 1400). Reviewing the Harrison edition in 1902, Woodberry again emphasized Griswold (editor) 's "lack of motive." (This review is not signed, but Killis Campbell identifies it as by G. E. Woodberry in The Mind of Poe and Other Studies, 1933, p. 95, note 1. The tone and contents of the review strongly support this attribution.) Woodberry goes on to say, "The truth is, that the editor's [Harrison's] prejudice against Griswold (editor) has led him to reject Poe's own late and mature revision of his major critical writing in favor of these early, scattered, and fragmentary forms in which they appeared in the magazines in their original helter-skelter production. . . . In conclusion, it must be held that Griswold (editor) 's authority, so far from being impaired, is strengthened by the present attack on him, and that the edition itself suffers in just that proportion in which it departs from him in substance. In any discussion of the text of Poe the primary fact should never be lost sight of, namely, that Griswold (editor) had Poe's papers, as collected and prepared by Poe himself. . ." (Woodberry, The Nation, p. 446). Perhaps in a further response to Harrison, a revised reprint was issued in 1903 of the landmark 10-volume edition prepared in 1894-1895 by Woodberry and Stedman. They repeated their earlier "General Preface" (now dated "New York, October 1, 1902) and added several sentences to the end: "On reviewing their work, the editors feel assured that the present edition embodies Poe's writings, both as to substance and form, in the way that he desired when he intrusted [sic] them to his literary executor, Dr. Griswold (editor) . It would be possible to expand the critical portion of his works indefinitely by collecting the large number of his early reviews; but nothing of value would thereby be added, as he himself included in his later notices all that was not purely contemporary and transitory in these; in 'The Literati' especially, and its cognate pieces, he had summed up his lifelong critical work in the form in which he desired it to survive. It is with confidence, therefore, that the editors present this edition as complete and definitive" (Woodberry and Stedman, "General Preface," 1903, p. xi.) Rather more succinctly, T. O. Mabbott stated, "Harrison distrusted Griswold (editor) and all his works, and preferred the periodicals when it was possible to use them, although he accepted the extensive changes of 'The Balloon Hoax' and several other pieces. Griswold (editor) 's tampering with texts of letters discredits him badly. But no evidence of mistreatment of the text of the tales can be found, and, after all, the man had no motive to alter Poe's fiction" (Mabbott, Tales and Sketches, 1978, p. 1400, footnote.) George E. Hatvary makes an even bolder statement: "Since the Harrison text [of the essay "Fifty Suggestions"] is identical to the Griswold (editor) text, it is clear that, notwithstanding his frequent disparagement of Griswold (editor) 's editing, Harrison, while creating the impression that he was going back to the original version, was actually basing his text on Griswold (editor) 's" (Hatvary, 1971, p. 47). As Mabbott points out elsewhere, however, Griswold (editor) 's text cannot be considered definitive as he did not always have copies of Poe's latest corrections and, particularly in volume III, seems to have imposed a somewhat heavier editorial hand. In a few cases, he may even have manipulated some of the material to support charges made in his "memoir" of Poe. Edward H. O'Neill, examining the text of Poe's "Marginalia," commented "Griswold (editor) must have known of the various installments of 'Marginalia' published by Poe, though he made no attempt to print them as they originally appeared. Instead, . . . he made a new text, dropping and adding for no apparent reason" (E. H. O'Neill, "The Poe-Griswold (editor) -Harrison Texts of the 'Marginalia'," American Literature, pp. 238-250). This charge is mostly unfounded, as Griswold (editor) likely was following manuscript notes left by Poe for a proposed but never completed edition variously called "A Critical History of American Literature," "The American Parnassus" and "Literary America." (O'Neill acknowledges this possibility on p. 246 of his article: "It may be that Griswold (editor) prepared his 'Marginalia' from notes or revised manuscripts which have disappeared.") In this effort, Poe himself had somewhat haphazardly cut and pasted material from various reviews, the "Literati" papers and his "Marginalia" series. The final product, at least as it stood when Poe seems to have abandoned it in 1848, was certainly not ready for publication and its full form, and Griswold (editor) 's modifications to it, will never fully be known since only parts of the manuscript have survived intact. Whether or not Poe intended to include the five special items not printed as part of the original "Literati" series of 1846 (namely those for "Charles F. Briggs," "James Lawson," "Frances Sargent Osgood," "Mary E. Hewitt" and especially "Thomas Dunn Brown [English]") cannot now be conclusively ascertained. In a footnote, Burton Pollin comments "Poe clearly intended to include all or many of his Literati sketches of 1846 in 'Literary America,' as Griswold (editor) knew from the copies in Poe's literary remains. His substitution of these five papers was not a fraud or deception as James Harrison said" (Pollin, 1991, p. 161, note 18). In the same footnote, Pollin also quotes from a penciled note in Mabbott's own set of Harrison's edition of Poe's works: "All are undeniably Poe's save, perhaps, for a small interpolation (on English) by . . . Griswold (editor) ." Whichever side one favors in the debate, there is no doubting the important and influential position of this collection in the history of Poe's literary legacy. Dismissing the "Memoir," the Griswold (editor) edition of Poe's works remains a significant archive of Poe's writings, embodying some revisions which might otherwise have been entirely lost.
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