I need to know what other name Poe used when he wrote.(His pen name)please respond by tonight..today is Sept.29....THANK YOU!!

-- Anonymous, September 29, 2002

Answers

Emily,

There are three pen-names which Poe used for publications:

Quarles -- used for the publication of "The Raven" Barry Littleton -- used in The Broadway Journal Walter G. Bowen -- used for the unpublished "A Reviewer Reviewed"

He also signed a couple of letters 'Edward Gray', but that was less a pen-name than an attempt to disguise his true identity.

Hope this helps.

-- Anonymous, September 30, 2002

Let's try those again, with better paragraphing ...

Quarles -- used for the publication of "The Raven"

Barry Littleton -- used in The Broadway Journal)

Walter G. Bowen -- used for the unpublished "A Reviewer Reviewed"

-- Anonymous, September 30, 2002

Tonight shall be another day, and the converse too. Perhaps a little bit late for you, but we may add a few ones more, for example (from memory): "A Bostonian" (for Poe's first - anonymous - 1827-volume of poems "Tamerlane and Other Poems"); "Tamerlane" (for some minor early verses in a gazette, according to Mabbott); "Sir Launcelot Canning" (the pseudo-author of "The Mad Tryst" in "The Fall of the House of Usher", as well as of the motto to Poe's Prospectuses for his long- hoped Magazine "The Stylus"); "Outis" (for the defence of Longfellow in order to export the reflections about plagiarism from the "NY Mirror" to the "Broadway Journal"); plus, evidently, "Arthur Gordon Pym"... Probably still others. Yours sincerely, Raven's Shade (Belgium).

-- Anonymous, October 03, 2002

Hmmm ...

I don't think that 'A Bostonian' counts as a nom de plume. It is merely in the fashion of a gentleman-amateur. A true pen name should be an attempt (however feeble) to disguise the identity of a known author.

My copies of Mabbott are upstairs, and it is very late so I will let 'Tamerlane' slide until I can be bothered to check.

But ... 'Sir Launcelot Canning' is *not* a nom de plume. Merely a made-up author in a tale. (If you can provide more details about 'The Stylus' claim I am prepared to reverse this, but I'm not convinced.)

'Outis' -- yes, I simply (and unforgivably) forgot this one.

And as for 'Arthur Gordon Pym', no no no. An alterego, perhaps, but a pen name? The novel was published under Poe's name, not anyone elses.

Best wishes,

-- Anonymous, October 03, 2002

The distinction made by Eddie about the "nom de plume" is "right to a t" and may be used to rub out some of my propositions. To see the motto for the "Stylus"-prospectus, take www.eapoe.org, and, among the "Works", the "Miscellanies". If I remember well, the best commentary on this subject was given by B. R. Pollin in his "Discoveries in Poe" (1971?). "Tamerlane" was appended as signature to "TO ---- " and "TO FANNY", both published in the "Baltimore Saturday Visitor", 1833. Mabbott gave the lines "TO (VIOLET VANE)" (Broadway Journal, 1845), i.e. "To F. S. Osgood", signed "M.", as attributed to Poe too, here thus an additional (rather short!) pen name to the informal list. The remarque about "Pym" is correct, but note that I did not include "Julius Rodman" for the reason precisely invoqued by Eddie, the editorial fate of the latter being quite different to my mind. I leave all this matter to your own judgment and heartily hail Eddie's sagacious eye and mind. Yours, Raven's Shade (Belgium).

-- Anonymous, October 04, 2002

I just check a capital point. "The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym" was never published under Poe's name before Griswold's posthumous edition in... 1856 (vol. IV of "The Works of E. A. Poe"). The preface to the first edition in book-form (NY - Harper & Bros - 1838), signed "Arthur Gordon Pym", well explained (fictionally, as a literary sly!) the part held by Poe in the publication of this sea journal. Note that in this clever form of composition, the concluding reflections are left as from the pen of another one than Pym's or Poe's. All the pirated European (British) versions, before the Griswold-1856-edition, appeared with "Pym" as the author, and "edited" by Poe, in the same way as "Ned Myers" of J. F. Cooper. The two (and sole) instalments given in the "Southern Literary Messenger" for Jan. and Feb., 1837, were published without Poe's signature. Alas, from an editorial blunder, Poe's name was appended in the cover's table of contents, so destroying Poe's intended hoax- effect. Thus, in 1837, everybody could know, thanks to the wrappers, that "Pym" was Poe! Thence the necessity of the 1838-book preface... With "Julius Rodman", the case is more simple because Poe left it unfinished, anonymous, and never reprinted nor revised. And we are now again at our very beginning. "Pym" and "Rodman" were two fictitious narrators, created by Poe, but effectively not "noms de plume" in the proper sense of the term, as well pointed out by our friend Eddie. Yours, Raven's Shade (Belgium). P.S. Please, correct, in my previous comment, "FANNY", instead of "TO FANNY".

-- Anonymous, October 04, 2002