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Notes
It has often been argued that the American Review printing was the first on the grounds that the February issue probably came out before the January 29 newspaper. Robertson, for example, believes that the American Review contained the first printing (II, 224) and lists eight republications through the Griswold publication of 1847 (I, 23). J. H. Whitty, in "First and Last Publication of Poe's Raven," Publishers' Weekly, CXXX (October 17, 1936), 1635, discusses the question and suggests that the American Review was first. Heartman and Canny say that the American Review text was undoubtedly the earlier and that the Evening Mirror version is revised, but they feel one cannot be sure which was available for sale first (p. 233); they list both as the original publication (p. 100). O'Neill follows this practice (II, 1070), while Campbell gives priority to the Evening Mirror (p. 246), as does David Randall in his review of Robertson's bibliography in Publishers' Weekly, CXXV (April 21, 1934), 1542. The matter is also discussed by Hervey Allen in Israfel (rev. ed., 1934), pp. 505-507, and by A. H. Quinn in his Edgar Allan Poe (1941), pp. 438-439.
The confusion in the listings is shown by the fact that items 7 and 8 are not listed by Campbell (1917), they are listed by Heartman and Canny (1943), and they are not listed by O'Neill (1946).
T. O. Mabbott announced in two articles that this volume, which was published by September 1845, contained the first book publication of "The Raven": "The First Publication of Poe's 'Raven,'" BNYPL, XLVII (August 1943), 581-584; Poe's 'Raven': First Inclusion in a Book," N & Q, CLXXXV (October 9, 1943), 225.
Heartman and Canny, on p. 100, date the Emporium appearance February 1845, but this is an error (not listed on the errata sheet), for on p. 218 they give Poe's only appearance in the Emporium as December 1845, as do Campbell and O'Neill.
In Poe's essay "The Philosophy of Composition"; listed in the Riverside edition (ed. J. H. Whitty, 1911), p. 338, and in Campbell.
As well as in Campbell's notes, these variants are discussed in John D. Gordan, "Edgar Allan Poe: An Exhibition on the Centenary of His Death . . .," BNYPL, LIII (October 1949), 471-491.
This note originated in the Mirror, but the January 29 printing of the poem labels it "by Quarles." The February 8 paragraph in the Mirror, identical with the one in the Weekly News, is reproduced in Allen, p. 503. On p. 507, however, Allen is somewhat misleading in his comment on the Howard District Press, for a reader could easily infer from his remark that this newspaper first revealed Poe as author or at least first reprinted the introductory paragraph. But it appeared in the Weekly News a week earlier than in the Howard District Press.
The Weekly News began publication on September 7, 1844, and by the following August 23 it was advertised as "already the second in point of circulation of the weekly papers published in the city of New York, not taking the exclusively religious journals into the count. It is so generally known, that any comment upon its merits is not necessary." For further information about O'Sullivan (mainly in his connection with the Democratic Review), see Frank Luther Mott, History of American Magazines 1741-1850 (1930), pp. 677-684.
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