HELP WANTED: Academic proofreaders with experience to compare
computer scanned texts character-by-character with historical originals.
Zero error tolerance. Absolute reliability essential. Unpaid volunteers only.
The advertisement is imaginary but the conditions are real for Jeffrey Savoye of the Poe Society of Baltimore, who heads the world’s largest archive of academic-quality electronic texts of Edgar Allan Poe, online at http://www.eapoe.org. Most Poe scholars are aware that the Baltimore web site has a unique collection of Poe’s complete poetry and tales, all historically accurate and freely available online, often in several variant forms. What is less well known is the extent to which Savoye is adding to his web site other essential Poe material -- his own articles and reviews, articles by others on him, and letters to and from him. The latest project is the addition to the Baltimore web site of scholarly articles from Poe Studies/Dark Romanticism. In all of this, a backlog of work is growing half-cp0kpleted
As historical originals become available – articles by or about Poe -- scanners can mechanically produce a computer image file that then is rendered into readable text by software for OCR (optical character recognition). Although the process is reasonably accurate for contemporary documents that use known typefaces and are in perfect condition, historical originals are likely to suffer from slightly wavy line alignment, broken characters, the irregularities and uncertainties of handset type, and the injuries of time on paper and ink. The process normally is about 90% accurate – or about 8 errors per line – rising with extreme
quality control to 99% accurate – about one error per line. Ordinary language is sufficiently redundant for these high error rates, which can be reduced somewhat by spelling checkers, not to be critical. But no spelling checker has a nineteenth century literary dictionary of Poe’s language. And any auto-correction in the scanning or verification process in the case of Poe may well introduce more errors than it corrects.
Stealing time for proofreading whenever he can, Savoye was checking proof of a scanned text against a photocopy of the historical original while waiting for his plane at the airport. A fellow passenger found it amazing: “How can you read two books at the same time?/
The Works of Edgar Allan Poe
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Wherever possible, the original sources have been used, retaining Poe's punctuation and spellings.
A few words on method: Generally, printed text is scanned on a Relisys 2400 (a TWAIN compatible flatbed scanner using ART-SCAN). Optical Character Recognition (OCR) is performed with Caere's OmniPage 7.0 and saved as a document. This document is imported into Corel WordPerfect 7.0, where the text is examined for obvious errors, many of which are conveniently highlighted by WordPerfect's spell checker. Manuscript material, which cannot be interpreted by OCR, is entered by hand. Variants are usually created from a basic version of the text, modified as required. Since OCR and spell checkers are notoriously unreliable and inherently limited by their mechanical nature, text must ultimately be verified manually. (OCR, for example, routinely misreads "hath" as "bath" and "thine" as "shine," especially when the source font is smaller than 12-point. Spell checkers are inadequate for Poe's historical spellings and frequent coining of words. Greek and Hebrew text, which does not use standard character sets, is provided as a[n] image, scanned and manipulated under Adobe's PhotoShop 4.0. Illustrations originally published with the text are similarly provided.) At the end of each text, a proofreading mark is maintained to keep track of its status.
General Topics about Poe
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Standard Poe References Oct. 25, 1999
Poe Chronology Sept. 8, 2001 with some links to figures and works
Poe's Problematic Biography May 10, 1999 with extensive bibliography
Poe and Griswold Sept. 12, 1999
Poe's death, including theories (alcohol, disease and medical problems, cooping [captured and being forced to vote] Nov. 13, 1999 with bibliography
Poe's appearance, including clothing, voice, known portraits, links to daguerreotypes, engravings Nov. 12, 1999, using Michael Deas's Portraits and Daguerreotypes of Edgar Allan Poe
Drugs and Alcohol, Religion, Music, Phrenology, Fame, Middle Name, Family Tree, Friends and Enemies,
and Where Poe Lived, Worked and Visited.
The Works of Edgar Allan Poe
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The Works of Edgar Allan Poe
***Poe's Works of Fiction:
**Poe's Poems April 7, 2004. [Why are poems under fiction? Don't we know what the poems are?]
This selection of Poe's poems contains at least one example of every surviving poem of which he is certain or nearly certain to be the author. Variants, noted parenthetically beside the name of the poem, refer to those given in the edition of Poe's poems edited by Thomas Ollive Mabbott (The Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe - Volume I: Poems, Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1969). Mabbott's is the definitive edition of Poe's poems, including notes on all textual variants from manuscripts and texts published up to the edition edited by Griswold in 1850. For punctuation variants, refer to the very fine collection of Poe's poems by Floyd Stovall (The Poems of Edgar Allan Poe, Charlottesville: The University Press of Virginia, 1965). In general, Mabbott assigns each variant a one-letter code of "A" through "Z." It should be noted, however, that Mabbott never assigns a text "I" or "O." To a few variants, Mabbott assigns a 2-character value, with a letter and a number, such as "J2." Where we have added our own items to the list of variants, we have adopted a 2-character value comprised of letters only, such as "CB." A number of recognized reprints and translations from Poe's lifetime have been included on the list to reflect public reaction to a tale. This list is not necessarily exhaustive as there were many unauthorized reprints. (Mabbott does not list reprints, so these have been culled from a variety of other sources, especially the Bibliography (1943) by Heartman and Canny.) Generally, the text for reprints is not given here as these can hardly add to our documentation of Poe's intentions or our understanding of its meaning.
Within these selections, all original punctuation, abbreviations and spellings have been retained. Where these spellings differ greatly from modern spellings, the most current form is noted in brackets immediately following the word. A number of obvious variants, such as "colour" for "color," reflect conventions to which we no longer adhere, but which were considered acceptable during Poe's lifetime and are left to stand without additional commentary. For manuscript material, including Poe's own corrections to printed sources, text contained within angle brackets "<...>" shows annotations made by Poe himself for the main text given. Reversed double-angle brackets ">...<" show text that Poe has canceled by striking or scratching out. Text contained within square brackets "[...]" is not part of the original. This text is intended as notes or corrections of typographical errors. In the original printings, some text occasionally appears within square brackets "[...]." In such cases, these have been changed to standard parentheses to avoid confusion. (Note: Over the next several months, we will be changing our stated policy concerning square brackets to retain Poe's usage and distinguish our own editorial notes by enclosing these in double-square brackets "[[...]]".)
*Related Material:
An index of first lines
A chronological index
The Canon of Poe's Poems
*The Collections and Books:
During his lifetime, Poe published four collections of his poetry. A posthumous collection, edited by Rufus Wilmot Griswold, incorporates some additional manuscript changes, although Griswold did not have access to a few other important corrections and is therefore less than definitive. These collections are listed chronologically. Within each of these, there is a list of poems which links to the appropriate text of text.
Tamerlane and Other Poems (1827, Poe's first published collection of poetry, TAOP)
"Wilmer" manuscript collection (about 1828, several poems in manuscript)
Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane and Minor Poems (1829, Poe's second published collection of poetry, ATMP)
Poems (1831, Poe's third published collection of poetry, POEMS)
The Raven and Other Poems (1845, Poe's fourth published collection of poetry, RAOP)
"Richmond Examiner" manuscript collection (late 1849, several poems for which the contents are recorded but the manuscript apparently lost)
The Works of the Late Edgar Allan Poe (1850, volume II: Poems and Miscellanies, WORKS)
*The Poems: lists all known versions with links to many texts and variants, Alp[hab]etical short cuts, bibliograh[p]y
**Poe's Tales ("The Fall of The House of Usher," etc.) [Why Usher? What about fictional sketches? See Mabbott>]
Jan. 1, 2004. This selection of Poe's tales contains at least one example of every surviving tale of which he is certain or nearly certain to be the author. Variants, noted parenthetically beside the name of the tale, refer to those given in the edition of Poe's tales edited by Thomas Ollive Mabbott (The Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe - Volumes I & IIII: Tales and Sketches, Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1978). For The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, The Journal of Julius Rodman and The Unparalled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall, these variants are given in the edition of Poe's longer tales edited by Burton R. Pollin (The Collected Writings of Edgar Allan Poe - Volume I: The Imaginary Voyages, Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1981). Mabbott's is the definitive edition of Poe's short fiction, including notes on all textual variants from manuscripts and texts published up to the edition edited by Griswold in 1850.
Chronological index in preparation
*The tales: lists all known versions with links to many texts and variants, Alpbabetical short cuts, bibliograhy
**Poe's Works of Non-Fiction:
*.Poe's Literary Criticism (Reviews and Notices) April 12, 2002
This selection of Poe's literary criticisms is just in the beginning stages. Since most of the literary criticism of Poe's era is unsigned, attribution is a complex and divisive issue. All items included here have been attributed to Poe at one time or another, but are subject to further analysis as our project proceeds. In general, uncertain attributions are noted by the presence of a question mark ("?"), with more question marks ("???") being used to denote less certain items. A few doubtful items are included merely because they have not been disproven. Again, these marks are not definitive at this stage.
* Lit crit: variants, links
.Poe's Essays, Sketches & Lectures (Eureka, "The Philosophy of Composition," etc.) Jan. 24, 2002.
Alpha, variants, links
**.Poe's Miscellanea ("Marginalia," "The Literati," etc.) March 11, 2004 .
[very useful]
**.Poe's Letters (including letters from and to Poe, with a checklist) June 23, 2003 [very useful]
This collection includes all of Poe's letters (and all of the letters written to Poe) for which surviving text is known. In a few instances, items are also noted for which no text is known, but the contents have been described. (At the bottom of this list are given some well-known fakes and forgeries.) The Poe Society is very interested in information about any letters that are not on this list or the accompanying checklist, or for which the location of the manuscript is noted as unknown. Photocopies of manuscripts, transcripts and other information may be sent to the Poe Society. The anonymity of any private collector will be honored in accordance with his or her wishes.
Currently, the most comprehensive printed collection of letters written by Poe is the 2-volume edition by John W. Ostrom, The Letters of Edgar Allan Poe, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1948 (reprinted, with supplemental material by Gordian Press, 1966. The supplement of the 1966 edition includes new material as well as combining material published in American Literature, XXIV (November 1952), pp. 358-366 and American Literature, XXIX (March 1957), pp. 79-86. A fourth supplement was printed in American Literature, XLV, no. 4 (January 1974), pp. 513-536. Letters printed as part of these collections are noted with a code of "OL#n", where "n" is the letter number. Letters added or appearing with textual corrections in the supplement to the 1966 edition are noted as "OS#n" and in the 1974 supplement as "OS4#n". Ostrom's final Revised Check List of letters from and to Poe was published in Studies in the American Renaissance 1981, pp. 169-255. This Check List is referenced as "RCL#n". Where the text here is printed from the manuscript, and there are notable variances from Ostrom's text, the item is also noted as "MS".) A few items included by Ostrom, somewhat erroneously as letters, remain in the checklist but have been moved to more appropriate sections of this web page. It should be noted, of course, that the approximately 407 surviving letters probably represent only a portion of those Poe wrote during his lifetime. In some cases, it is only Poe's draft of a letter that comes down to us, so that we cannot be certain of the final version. Also, a large number of letters are known only through typescripts, excerpts or copies handwritten by others.
The most complete printed collection of letters written to Poe is James A. Harrison's The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe - Volume 17: Letters, New York: T. Y. Crowell, 1902 (also printed as a separate volume, along with Harrison's biography of Poe). Regrettably, Harrison omitted many items, excerpted text and was not scrupulous in his readings of the manuscripts. As early as 1921, Thomas Ollive Mabbott sought to remedy these problems and began to collect material for a comprehensive edition of Poe's correspondence, with the texts of all known letters from and to Poe. It was a formidable goal, and over twenty years later, the edition had still not appeared. Even after John Ward Ostrom published the 1948 edition of Poe's letters noted above, Mabbott planned to include the correspondence as part of his complete edition of Poe's works. About 1963, Mabbott appears to have shifted his intention, seeking to print only letters to Poe, since these were noted by Ostrom in his check list, but not generally quoted in the text. At some point, Mabbott planned to print only previously unpublished letters to Poe, as short articles in N&Q (Notes & Queries). With Ostrom's 1966 revised edition of Poe's letters, Mabbott seems to have abanonded his own plans, or at least to have put them on hold. Eventually, Mabbott's notes on the letters to Poe were given to Joseph V. Ridgely, who continued the effort until financial problems in the publishing industry put an end to the project in the 1980s. The materials accumulated by Mabbott and Ridgely were subsequently made available to the Poe Society of Baltimore, and substantially constitute the basis for the texts for the letters written to Poe. It is hoped that in making all of these letters available to the scholarly community, we have, at long last, fulfilled Mabbott's original intentions.