DOES ANYBODY KNOWS WHICH WAS THE LAST WORD EVER WRITTEN BY E. A. POE IN A BOOK? I COULD FIND IT IF SOMEONE KNOWS THE LAST BOOK HE PUBLISHED IN HIS LIFETIME. I GUESS IT IS "GOD", WRITTEN IN EUREKA. AM I RIGHT?

THANKS.

-- Anonymous, September 01, 2004

Answers

A strange question, indeed... You are right when saying that "Eureka" was Poe's last printed (1848) book during his lifetime. But, in it, the last word was actually "Divine" in italics. "God" is the last one from a MS pencilled note added later at the end of the published text. Yours sincerely, Raven's Shade (Belgium).

-- Anonymous, September 02, 2004

Oh! But now, if you are really speaking of a WRITTEN (= NOT PRINTED) word, in any book, nothing does permit us to believe that "Eureka" was the last book he annotated in such a manner, nor that the last book he annotated was necessarily one from his own works... For example, we know that, during 1849, either when lecturing about "The Poetic Principle", or when writing his critical reviews on newly issued books, Poe did really pencil some marks or notes upon some pages of the volumes from various authors which he used for these jobs. Thus, a far more complex matter, I think, than it seems to be at first sight... In any case, good luck! Yours, Raven's Shade (Belgium).

-- Anonymous, September 02, 2004

Oh! Oh!... And back from my bookshelves, I believe useful, to be still more exact, to precise you that the very last (PRINTED, from written by either the author or by the editor I am not prepared to decide just now) word(s) closing the 1848 Putnam edition of "Eureka" actually is/are :

THE END.

It might seem evident, but, in fact, most of the reprints of this bright text curiously omit them, from the earliest ones, including the Griswold 1850 posthumous edition of the "Works" (in vol. II) -- and thus all that are depending on it, -- to the later ones, even the very scholarly issued ones (e. g. the Stedman/Woodberry 1895 one, in vol. IX)!

Yours, Raven's Shade (Belgium).

-- Anonymous, September 02, 2004