The Pioneer.: A Literary and Critical Magazine [Vol. I, nos. 1-3, all published]

Boston: Leland and Whiting, 1843. 4to. 3 engraved plates in no. 2 (plates to nos. 1 & 3 in facsimile). 1-48; [49]-96; [97]-144 pp. Later 19th-century half red morocco and marbled boards, no. 1 rear wrapper and no. 2 wrappers bound-in (upper portion of no. 2 front wrapper filled in, no. 1 front wrapper in facsimile); covers lightly rubbed and faded, a few small tape repairs, light staining to margins of no. 2, foxing and toning to no. 3. The complete run of this short-lived periodical edited by James Russell Lowell with contributions by Poe in each volume, including the first printings of "The Tell-Tale Heart" (no. 1, pp. 29-31) and "Notes Upon English Verse" (no. 3, p. 102-112). Other contributions include short stories by Nathaniel Hawthorne ("The Hall of Fantasy" and "The Birthmark") and poems by Jones Very, John Greenleaf Whittier, Elizabeth Barrett Browning and James Russell Lowell. "The Tell-Tale Heart" was first rejected by the Boston Miscellany with the editor's request that "if Mr. Poe would condescend to furnish more quiet articles he would be a most desirable correspondent." Lowell accepted the story for the first number of The Pioneer. "Before its demise, Poe had contributed, at Lowell's invitation, to each number.... For these contributions he was never paid" (Heartman & Canny). PROVENANCE: Richardson (book-plate, ms notes on comparable copies, 1900-05, on front pastedown)REFERENCE: Heartman & Canny, p. 240