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Edgar Allan Poe — “The Conqueror Worm”






Texts and Variant Texts

Reading copy:
  • “The Conqueror Worm” — reading copy (copy-text is based on Text 00)

Manuscripts and Authorized Printings:

  • "The Conqueror Worm" — 1842, no original manuscript or fragments are known to exist (but this version is presumably recorded in Text 02) — Text 01
  • "The Conqueror Worm" — February 25 and March 4, 1843 — Saturday Museum — Text 03  (Mabbott text B)
    • "The Conqueror Worm" — February 25, 1843  (no surviving copies located)
    • "The Conqueror Worm" — March 4, 1843  (from February 25, 1843)
  • "The Conqueror Worm" — February 15, 1845 — in "Ligeia," New World — Text 04  (Mabbott text C)
  • "The Conqueror Worm" — May 24, 1845 — Broadway Journal — Text 05  (Mabbott text D)
  • "The Conqueror Worm" — September 27, 1845 — in "Ligeia," Broadway Journal — Text 06  (Mabbott text E)
  • "The Conqueror Worm" — about March 1847 — "Griswold" manuscript, lost but presumably recorded in Text 09 — Text 08  (Mabbott text G)  (J.H. Whitty, in his edition of Poe's poems, 1911, p. 224, claims to have seen this manuscript, but does not record the text nor where he saw it. He comments: "A MS. copy of the poem, originally sent to Griswold by Poe and noted in Griswold's hand 'Last poem sent by Poe,' has been compared. It follows the early texts with slight punctuation changes." Whitty first mentions this manuscript in "New Poe Poems and Manuscripts Found," New York Sun, also printed, on the same date, in the Baltimore American. In that article, he comments only: "It was also thought that no manuscript copy of his poem The Conqueror Worm was in existence, but one has been discovered." Although no date is given, it seems most reasonable that Poe sent the poem as the new edition of Griswold's anthology was in preparation.)
  • "The Conqueror Worm" — May 29, 1847 — Poets and Poetry of America (8th edition) — Text 09  (Mabbott text H)
  • "The Conqueror Worm" — 1849 — minor manuscript changes in the J. L. Graham copy of RAOP — Text 10  (Mabbott text J)  (This is Mabbott's copytext)

Reprints:

  • "The Conqueror Worm" — about September 1849 — Richmond Examiner proof sheets — (the text given by Whitty matches Text 10 almost exactly. It may be surmised that the Examiner text was set from Poe's copy of RAOP. Strangely, Whitty does not list the J. L. Graham copy of RAOP in his versions of this poem, although he does include two references to this volume in the variants.)
  • "The Conqueror Worm" — 1850 — in "Ligeia" WORKS — Griswold merely reprints Text 06  (Mabbott text K)
  • “The Conqueror Worm” — 1875 — The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, vol 3: Poems  and Essays, ed. J. H. Ingram, Edinburgh, Adam and Charles Black (3:21-22)
  • “The Conqueror Worm” — 1894-1895 —  The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, vol. 10: Poems, ed. G. E. Woodberry and E. C. Stedman, Chicago: Stone and Kimball (10:33-34, and p. 182)
  • “The Conqueror Worm” — 1902 — The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe, vol. 7: Poems, ed. J. A. Harrison, New York: T. Y. Crowell (10:87-88, and 10:204)
  • “The Conqueror Worm” — 1911 — The Complete Poems of Edgar Allan Poe, Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Co. (pp. 36-37, and pp. 224-225)
  • “The Conqueror Worm” — 1917 —  The Poems of Edgar Allan Poe, ed. Killis Campbell, Boston: Ginn and Company (pp. 105-106, and pp. 242-243)
  • “The Conqueor Worm” — 1965 — The Poems of Edgar Allan Poe, ed. Floyd Stovall, Charlottesville: The University Press of Virginia (pp. 91-92, and pp. 257-258)
  • “The Conqueror Worm” — 1969 — The Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe, vol. 1: Poems, ed. T. O. Mabbott, Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press (1:323-328)

Associated Material and Special versions:

  • None













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Bibliography:
  • 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.
  • Lubbers, Klaus, "Poe's 'The Conqueror Worm'," American Literature, 1967, 39:375-379
  • Mabbott, Thomas Ollive, ed., The Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe (Vol 1 Poems), Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1969.
  • Routh, James, "Notes on the Sources of Poe's Poetry: Coleridge, Keats, Shelley," Modern Language Notes, March 1914, 29:72-75
  • Tritt, Michael, " 'Ligeia' and 'The Conqueror Worm'," Poe Studies, 1976, 9:21-22
  • Whitty, James Howard, ed., The Complete Poems of Edgar Allan Poe, Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co, 1911





 
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