"Short Stories" including Journal of Julius Rodman

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I found a book at a garage sale entititled "Short Stories - Journal of Julius Rodman and Others - Edgar A. Poe" hardback, green cloth with elaborate black geometric/floral design. Published by D.M mcClellan Book Company, New York and Akron Ohio. Flyl eaf quote from H W. Longfellow, backof flyleaf says "Made by The New Werner Company Akron, Ohio. Copyright is The Werner Company, 1908. I have been unable to find any reference to this volume anywhere on the net. Anybody know anything about it? Approximate value? Anything you can tell me would be appreciated.

-- Anonymous, June 26, 2004

Answers

The reason you cannot find any information about it on the net, quite frankly, is that it is a common edition of no particular interest or value. There are thousands of editions of Poe's works, in various formats and with various focuses. It would be a ponderous and thankless task to even attempt to document all of them. Unfortunately, it takes more than age to make a book valuable.

-- Anonymous, June 29, 2004

Thanks for the input. I am a hobby book-dealer, and picked this one up because it was very cheap and in remarkably good condition for a book nearly 100 years old. (I am aware of what makes a book valuable - edition, rarity, condition, demand, etc.). As it turns out, this particular edition is of some value, and not very common, certainly not in the condition of this one - but I appreciate your input.

-- Anonymous, June 29, 2004

Sorry, but what "Outis" said you is quite right. Your volume is merely some later very common reprint of an odd one (the fifth, if I remember well) from the original 1908 TEN-volumes edition organised by Nathan H. Dole for the Akron (Ohio) Werner Company publisher, as well indicated in his first volume that you, alas, don't possess. The "new" Poe text (the unfinished "Rodman" novel), though discovered by the British J. H. Ingram, did not appear, in its complete form, before the 1894-5 Stedman/Woodberry edition, but was regularly included in almost all of the subsequent so-called "Complete Works of E. A. Poe". Thus, not at all rare, I confirm. And about money, for merely a late reprint, and for an odd volume.... Yours sincerely, Raven's Shade (Belgium).

-- Anonymous, June 30, 2004

Sorry again, but I see that in my hasty answer I omit to give you the actual first publication, in book form, of the complete text of Poe's unfinished "Rodman" narrative: as I evoked, it is J. H. Ingram, its "discoverer", who included it, in fact, in the fourth volume of his 1884 British 4-vols set of the "Tales and Poems of E. A. Poe" published by Nimmo with fine engravings; this set having been exactly reprinted during the following year (1885) by (NY) Scribner, from those Nimmo plates; this US edition being thus the earliest one issued in America, and not, as often believed, and almost suggested by me in my previous hurried message!, the 1894-5 Woodberry Chicago Stone & Kinball one. And about your own odd volume, it is not the fifth but the fourth one of the 1908 10-vols indicated set. I have just checked it now. Yours, Raven's Shade (Belgium).

-- Anonymous, June 30, 2004

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