"The Purloined Letter"
"Burton's September 1839, vol. 5, p. 169"
recto & verso
Details
Title
"Burton's September 1839, vol. 5, p. 169"
recto & verso
recto & verso
Creator
Edgar Allan Poe
Contributor
Maureen Cobb Mabbott
Format
Manuscript
Description
Transcription of an excerpt from [Edgar Allan Poe,] "[Review of:] John Parish Robertson, Solomon Seesaw," Burton's Gentleman's Magazine 5 (September 1839): 159. In note 16 of his version of the tale Mabbott cites the review as one of several instances where Poe had quoted the same aphorism by French cynic Chamfort before having Dupin utter it in "The Purloined Letter." The quote says: "You can wager that every public idea, every received convention, is a stupidity, for it pertains to the greatest number of people." ["Il y a à parier que toute idée publique, toute convention reçue, est une sottise, car elle a convenu au plus grand nombre."] On the verso of this manuscript are notes relating to Poe's "Mellonta Tauta" and "Murders in the Rue Morgue." The transcription and notes are in Maureen Mabbott's handwriting.
Relation
Thomas Ollive Mabbott's Research Files for the Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe
Source
Papers of Thomas Ollive Mabbott, Special Collections, University of Iowa Libraries; “The Purloined Letter,” in Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe, Vol. III: Tales and Sketches, ed. Thomas Ollive Mabbott (Cambridge: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1978), 972-997.