# Is "Eureka: A Prose Poem" by Edgar Allan Poe a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Eureka: A Prose Poem by Edgar Allan Poe (Geo. P. Putnam, 1848) is identified by: First edition, issued about July 11, 1848, by 'Geo. The New York Putnam printing, issued about July 11, 1848, is the true first edition.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- First edition, issued about July 11, 1848, by 'Geo
- P. Putnam, of late firm of "Wiley & Putnam," 155 Broadway,' New York, dated MDCCCXLVIII on the title page
- Poe's ambitious cosmological prose-poem, which he hoped would sell tens of thousands of copies but which was printed, by most accounts, in only about 500
- Small 12mo, pages [1]-143 plus a rear publisher's catalogue, bound in black cloth of two recorded varieties
- First-issue copies lack any review notice for Eureka itself within the sixteen-page publisher's catalogue bound in at the rear; later-issue catalogues added such a review, which is therefore absent from the earliest copies
- Publisher imprint reads Geo. P. Putnam
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Edgar Allan Poe |
| Publisher | Geo. P. Putnam |
| Year | 1848 |
| True first | — |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | First edition, issued about July 11, 1848, by 'Geo |
| Book-club edition exists? | — |

## Points of issue
First edition, issued about July 11, 1848, by 'Geo. P. Putnam, of late firm of "Wiley & Putnam," 155 Broadway,' New York, dated MDCCCXLVIII on the title page. Poe's ambitious cosmological prose-poem, which he hoped would sell tens of thousands of copies but which was printed, by most accounts, in only about 500. Small 12mo, pages [1]-143 plus a rear publisher's catalogue, bound in black cloth of two recorded varieties. First-issue copies lack any review notice for Eureka itself within the sixteen-page publisher's catalogue bound in at the rear; later-issue catalogues added such a review, which is therefore absent from the earliest copies.

## Is this the true first?
The New York Putnam printing, issued about July 11, 1848, is the true first edition. A London listing under John Chapman's imprint appeared in the Manchester Courier in September 1848, but no copy bearing a separate Chapman imprint has been located, so it likely reflects a distribution arrangement for Putnam-printed sheets rather than an independent London printing.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
Later reprintings of Eureka appear only within collected editions of Poe's works and are distinguishable by their series bindings and the absence of the original 1848 Putnam rear advertisement catalogue.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Eureka: A Prose Poem* by Edgar Allan Poe a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/eureka-a-prose-poem
CC BY 4.0. Part of the Canonical First-Edition Points of Issue dataset (https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/api/first-edition-titles.json). Last reviewed 2026-07-04.