BIB_ID
127580
Accession number
MA 950
Creator
Poe, Edgar Allan, 1809-1849.
Display Date
[1835 April or May].
Credit line
Purchased by J.P. Morgan Jr., 1919.
Description
1 item (20 p.), unbound ; 19.3 cm
Notes
An accompanying bookseller's description notes that Admiral Melancton Smith's aunt Mrs. Mary Jones Osborne was an intimate friend of Virginia Clemm Poe, and that Deborah B. Martin believed the manuscript was given by Poe to either Mrs. Osborne or Admiral Smith.
High reserve.
Signed below the title "A Tale by Edgar A. Poe," apparently at a later date.
The text is preceded by the motto ""With a heart of furious fancies, / Whereof I am commander, / With a burning spear and a horse of air, / To the wilderness I wander." / Song of Tom O'Bedlam," which has been heavily canceled.
The top (ca. 1.5 cm) of p. 17-18 has been cut away, as has a lower quarter of p. 19-20. Lacking a final leaf, and apparently lacking a leaf between p. 18 and 19.
With "King" penned in the margins of p. 7 and p. 8 and "Dexter" in the margin of p. 14. King and Dexter were likely the typesetters responsible for those portions of text.
High reserve.
Signed below the title "A Tale by Edgar A. Poe," apparently at a later date.
The text is preceded by the motto ""With a heart of furious fancies, / Whereof I am commander, / With a burning spear and a horse of air, / To the wilderness I wander." / Song of Tom O'Bedlam," which has been heavily canceled.
The top (ca. 1.5 cm) of p. 17-18 has been cut away, as has a lower quarter of p. 19-20. Lacking a final leaf, and apparently lacking a leaf between p. 18 and 19.
With "King" penned in the margins of p. 7 and p. 8 and "Dexter" in the margin of p. 14. King and Dexter were likely the typesetters responsible for those portions of text.
Provenance
Admiral Melancton Smith; found among his papers by his niece Deborah B. Martin; purchased by J.P. Morgan Jr. from Lathrop C. Harper in 1919.
Summary
A fair copy written in Poe's fine Roman script.
Catalog link
Department