A World of Sours and Sweets

The Broadview Press series of editions, according to the copyright page of this volume, “bring[s] together texts long regarded as classics with valuable lesser-known works.” The Hutchisson edition of Poe’s poetry and tales offers both, with mixed results. Notably, the uncorrected is followed by the well selected.

The introduction is problematic and would benefit from an errata sheet. We are informed, for instance, that Poe was born on “9 January 1809” [11] (it was 19 January 1809); that after his mother Eliza’s death in Richmond, “the three children were taken in by charitable local families” [12] (older brother Henry was taken in by paternal grandparents in Baltimore); that “Annabel Lee” featured the lines “a water that flows, / With a lullaby sound, / From a spring but a very few / Feet under ground—” [14] (these lines are from “For Annie”); that “from Richmond, Poe moved to Philadelphia in 1837” [15] (he moved from Richmond to New York City in 1837 and from New York City to Philadelphia in 1838); that Poe was “a savvy literary businessman” [15] (he declared bankruptcy on 19 December 1842); that “The Balloon-Hoax” was published on 13 April 1944 [18] (it was published on 13 April 1844); that “serious scholarly work on Poe began” in “the 1940s” [21] (and yet there was, before the 1940s, the serious scholarly work of Killis Campbell, the early T. O. Mabbott, and others); that Poe’s gravesite was rededicated in 1874 [22] (it was rededicated in 1875); and that “Poe’s world was small and dark” [27] (it could be otherwise, as at the end of “The Domain of Arnheim” and in the famous conclusion of Poe’s novel The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym: “But there arose in our pathway a shrouded human figure, very far larger in its proportions than any dweller among men. And the hue of the skin of the figure was of the perfect whiteness of the snow” [Writings, 1:206]). (It should be added that some of the factual detail misstated in the introduction is correctly presented in the chronology [35–37].)

There is also a question of citation here—Hutchisson cites the 1966 edition of John Ward Ostrom’s letters instead of the expanded 2008 third edition, by Burton R. Pollin and Jeffrey A. Savoye [17]. And Hutchisson’s language is sometimes infelicitous, as when he relies on various clichés: “Eventually Poe’s relationship with Allan passed the tipping point” [12]; with regard to his plan for gathering together his “Folio Club” tales, Poe “never gained traction” [14]; despite the conventions of the time for reviewing books gently, “Poe . . . pulled no punches” [15]; and those contemporaries who defended Poe against Rufus W. Griswold were “swimming against the tide” [21–22]. The introduction is not an especially auspicious start.

Reservations may continue with “A Note on the Texts” [39–40], when Hutchisson writes, “There are no controversial textual issues in Poe” [39]. (For a summary of issues regarding Pym, for example, see Jerome McGann’s recent book A New Republic of Letters: Memory and Scholarship in the Age of Digital Reproduction [Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Press, 2014], 163–65.) Hutchisson goes on to claim that “there is no recorded evidence of editorial malfeasance, error, or ill-judged second thoughts in his revision” [40]. Yet Poe was displeased when the “object of unceasing pursuit” necessary for a life of “Bliss” in “The Landscape Garden” (an earlier version of “The Domain of Arnheim”) became “an object of unnecessary pursuit” [Works, 2:704, 704v]. He wrote to Robert Hamilton, associate editor of Snowden’s Ladies’ Magazine: “I see that you have my Landscape-Garden in your last number—but, oh Jupiter! The typographical blunders. Have you been sick, or what is the matter?” [Letters, 1:365]. Such an editorial error may not warrant our foremost interest, but it does exist. And, notably, although Hutchisson mentions the Harrison, Mabbott, and Pollin editions here, he does...