This small, slender, paper-bound volume of about 40 pages was the inauspicious beginning of Poe’s career as a poet. It was published about June or July of 1827, and received almost no notice at all during Poe’s lifetime. (It was listed in the United States Review and Literary Gazette for August 1827 as a recent publication. It was similarly noted in the North American Review for October 1827.) Indeed, when Poe published Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane and Minor Poems in 1829, his claims of an earlier edition were considered untrue. No copy was known until 1876, when one was found in the library of the British Museum, where it had been sent as part of a miscellaneous collection of American books in 1860. A second copy was not found until 1890, in Boston. Perhaps as many as 200 copies were printed (Mabbott, 1941, p. xxx.), though J. A. Harrison guessed that there were fewer than 40 (Harrison, 1902, 1:66). In any case, today, there are only about 12 surviving copies, several being imperfect. A number of facsimiles of this book have been printed.

Tamerlane and Other Poems (1827)

There are no known signed or presentation copies of this book. In fact, it appears that Poe himself kept no copy. The bibliography of Poe’s works compiled in 1943 by Heartman and Canny notes: “a copy autographed by the author has been rumored.” This possibility was discounted by T. O. Mabbott in 1941. As Mabbott notes, this is probably the Young-Berg copy, which bears a “presentation” from someone other than Poe.

There is some question as to whether or not the pamphlet was technically “published” or, as Poe suggested in 1829, “suppressed.” T. O. Mabbott reasonably surmised that Poe intended “suppressed” as a euphemism for not having been formally circulated. A few copies, however, apparently did circulate, probably disbursed from a sale of Thomas’s stock when he moved from Boston around 1828. The Berg-Young copy has a handwritten price, in ink, of “9d,” about 12 1/2 cents. This price is presumed to predate 1835. Since two notices appeared in 1827, it is likely that a few early copies were sent out for review. One copy was also likely sent by Edgar to his brother Henry, in Baltimore. From this copy, Henry had two of the poems reprinted in a Baltimore newspaper, The North American.

No reviews of the book were written, and only a few notices are known: The United States Review and Literary Gazette (Boston, August 1827), The North American Review (October 1827) and Samuel Kettle, “Catalogue of American Poetry,” Specimens of American Poetry (Boston, 1829). Two of the poems were slightly revised and reprinted in the Baltimore newspaper The North American. (On October 20, 1827, appeared “Dreams,” misleadingly titled “Extract” and on September 15, 1827, appeared the untitled poem beginning “The happiest day . . . ,” re-titled “Original.” Both poems carry the initials “W. H. P.,” Edgar’s brother, William Henry Leonard Poe.)

Very little is known about the printer of this pamphlet, Calvin Frederick Stephen Thomas. (Most of what we do know was compiled by T. O. Mabbott in the introduction to his 1941 facsimile of Tamerlane and Other Poems.) He was born in New York on August 5, 1808 and died in Buffalo on September 19, 1876. (He was buried in Forest Lawn Cemetery, in Buffalo, New York in Lot No. 13, Section 1 on September 22, 1876.) He left Boston around 1828, although he continued to practice his profession as a printer. About 1829, he married Eliza Ann Shields. Over the years, they had two sons (Calvin Frederick and Alfred) and five daughters (Agnes, Susan, Martha, Katherine and Ida). He moved to Buffalo, New York in May of 1835, where he published the Buffalo Daily Centinel (for six months in 1840), the Commercial Advertiser (early 1840s), the Commercial Advertiser Directory (1850s), the Western Literary Messenger (1846-1857) and the Buffalo Medical Journal (1846-1860). He also published a series of directories (1862-1868) and at least 19 books on a variety of topics. In 1869, he retired from the printing trade and moved to Springfield, Missouri. What printing experience he may have had prior to Tamerlane and Other Poems seems to have been limited to apothecary labels and similarly modest efforts. David Randall reprints the text of a receipt written by Thomas “Boston, Nov. 23, 1826 [/] Mr. A. F. Lowe [/] to Calvin F. S. Thomas, Dr. [/] to printing 3000 labels — $10.00 [/] Recd. Payt [/] Calvin F. S. Thomas,” quoted on p. 27. Randall also comments on two similar notes, one of 1827 to a Boston druggist is in the J. K. Lilly collection. The Lilly note is reprinted in Mabbott, 1941, p. xxx, footnote 19.