A Catalog of Edgar Allan Poe Manuscripts Belonging to the Poe Museum, Richmond, Virginia; Part One: Letters

Abstract

ABSTRACT While the Poe Museum’s collection of original Edgar Allan Poe letters and manuscripts is modest in number, it contains some especially significant pieces, including Poe’s early notes on Shakespeare and Milton, his autobiography, and what is quite possibly the last letter Poe wrote before his untimely death in 1849. A few of these documents are well known to scholars, but many, among which are some recent discoveries, are lesser known. This catalog, the first published survey of the museum’s holdings of documents from Poe’s hand, will provide a physical description, text, provenance, publication history, and commentary for each item. In some cases, errors made by previous transcribers will be corrected to provide the definitive text for each document. The authors intend this catalog to serve as both a resource for researchers of Poe manuscript material and a guide to the Poe Museum’s collection.