There has been a great deal of discussion of the publishing history of
"The Raven" and much controversy about its first appearance. But it has
apparently not been noticed before that one of the early republications of
"The Raven" was in the New York Weekly News for
February
8, 1845.
No two Poe bibliographers give the same list of appearances of "The
Raven," but none lists this Weekly News reprint. In order to
see its relative position, therefore, it may be of some value to construct a
composite list based on the information supplied by previous bibliographies,
principally four: Killis Campbell's notes to The Poems of Edgar
Allan
Poe (1917); John W. Robertson's Poe bibliography (1934); Charles
F. Heartman and James R. Canny's Poe bibliography (1943); and Edward
H. O'Neill's bibliographical notes to The Complete Poems and
Stories
of Edgar Allan Poe (1946).
- 1. New York Evening Mirror, January 29,
1845.
- 2. American Review, I, 143-145 (February
1845).[1]
- 3. New York Tribune, February 4, 1845.
- 4. Broadway Journal, I, 90 (February 8,
1845).
- 5. New York Weekly Mirror, February 8,
1845.
- 6. New York Weekly News, February 8,
1845.
- 7. New York Weekly Tribune, February 8,
1845.
- 8. Howard District Press (Ellicotts, Md.), February
15, 1845.[2]
- 9. Southern Literary Messenger, XI, 186-188
(March
1845).
- 10. London Critic, June 14, 1845.
- 11. Littell's Living Age, July 1845.[3]
- 12. G. Vandenhoff, A Plain System of Elocution,
2nd
ed., 1845.[4]
- 13. The Raven and Other Poems, 1845.
- 14. Literary Emporium, II, 376 (December
1845).[5]
- 15. Graham's Magazine, April 1846 (extracts).[6]
- 16. Philadelphia Saturday Courier, July 25,
1846.
- 17. Griswold's Poets and Poetry of America, 8th
ed.,
1847.
- 18. Southern Literary Messenger, January 1848
(extracts).
- 19. Richmond Examiner, September 25,
1849.
- 20. Philadelphia Saturday Courier, November 3,
1849.
The Weekly News text is thus tied with three others for
the position of fourth printing. It occupies the first column and part of the
second column of the first page, and it is labeled as a reprint from the
Evening Mirror. A collation of this text with Campbell's text
and his variorum notes shows that it does follow the Evening
Mirror text, except for three misprints (exclusive of alterations in
punctuation): line 8 reads "it ghost" for "its ghost"; line 16 reads "'This"
for "'Tis"; and line 45 reads "are" for "art." This faithful copying includes
the erroneous repetition of "he" in line 59 (which occurs in both the
Mirror printings). It also means, of course, that the eleventh
stanza begins with "Startled at" rather than the "Wondering at" of the
American Review and that the last three lines of the
stanza follow the uncorrected
American Review version.
[7] The poem is introduced with the
same
note by Willis about "the following remarkable poem by Edgar Poe" that
accompanied the poem frequently in its reprintings around the
country.
[8]
The New York Weekly News: A Journal of Miscellaneous
Intelligence, Literature, Agriculture, and Politics was edited by John
L. O'Sullivan (1813-1895), who also edited the New York Morning
News and the United States Magazine and Democratic
Review (which published some of Poe's Marginalia
and
work by Hawthorne, Whitman, Whittier, Longfellow, and Lowell).[9] The Weekly News'
republication of "The Raven" was not the only way in which Poe entered
its columns during 1845. Two of Poe's stories were reprinted and the 1845
Tales reviewed there.[10]
In addition, on March 22, 1845, Philip P. Cooke's "Florence Vane"
(reprinted from the Broadway Journal) is introduced with this
comment: "We have had frequent requests within the last ten days, for a
copy of 'Florence Vane'—a little poem merited [sic]
by Mr.
Poe, in his late Lecture on the Poetry of America." Two months later, on
May 24, three long paragraphs entitled "Old English Poetry" are labeled
"From a critique by Edgar A. Poe, in the Broadway Journal";
and on November 8 a review of Sarah Josepha Hale's Alice
Ray
is taken from "Mr. Poe's Broadway Journal."
The week after "The Raven" appeared the Weekly
News
points out (p. 2), in a review of the American Review for
February 1845, that the "Poem of the Raven we have already laid before
our readers." And the week just before its appearance (February 1, 1845)
the Weekly News reviewer comments (p. 2) on Poe in a
discussion of the current Graham's:
Graham's Magazine for February is illustrated by a
portrait of Edgar A. Poe, with an accompanying biography by Lowell. We
cordially give a welcome to this distinct recognition of Mr. Poe's merits.
Whenever his name is mentioned it has been with the comment that he is
a remarkable man, a man of genius. Few knew precisely what he had
written, his name was not on Library catalogues or any of his books on the
shelves. His influence has been felt while the man was unknown. Lowell's
article removes the anonymous and exhibits the author of some of the most
peculiar and characteristic productions in our literature. Metaphysical
acuteness of perception, resting on imagination, might be no unapt
description of the powers developed in the creation of tales remarkable for
touching the extreme of mystery and the most faithful literalness of daily
life, and criticisms, profoundly constructed and original in the mind of the
critic, and calling forth the same faculties as the production of the best
books themselves.
The New York Weekly News must now be added to the
list of newspapers that play a part in the story of Poe's career.
