"The Purloined Letter"
"Graham's Magazine | May 1841"
Details
Title
"Graham's Magazine | May 1841"
Creator
Edgar Allan Poe
Contributor
Thomas Ollive Mabbott
Format
Photocopy of bound periodical
Description
Photocopy of excerpt from [Edgar Allan Poe,] "[Review of] The Writings of Charles Sprague," Graham's Magazine (May 1841): 252. 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." Mabbott has bracketed the quote in the left margin of his photocopy. He has also noted where the review appears in James Harrison's edition of Poe (vol. 10, pg. 140). 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."]
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.