The Conchologist's First Book

The Conchologist's First Book

Cover for the first edition
Author	Edgar Allan Poe
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre	Scientific textbook
Publisher	Haswell, Barrington, and Haswell
Publication date	1839
Media type	Print

The Conchologist's First Book (sometimes subtitled with Or, A System of Testaceous Malacology) is an illustrated textbook on conchology issued in 1839, 1840, and 1845. The book was originally printed under Edgar Allan Poe's name. Poe never claimed, however, that he was the author. Poe's condensed version was based on the textbook by Thomas Wyatt, an English author and lecturer. Wyatt wrote the original, longer textbook, Manual of Conchology, upon which Poe based his shorter, condensed version. Poe was the editor or compiler of the work.

Poe originally wrote just the preface and introduction but, for $50, Poe lent his name on the title page of the book, published in Philadelphia by Haswell, Barrington, and Haswell. Poe also edited, arranged, compiled, and made translations. Poe was one of the most important editors in the U.S. at the time. This odd arrangement was to avoid copyright problems with the original edition of Wyatt's book, Manual of Conchology, previously published by Harper & Brothers. Wyatt's book contained multiple illustrations of shells and carried the cover price of $8, a price too high for both beginners and advanced students of conchology. Wyatt intended a cheaper, concise edition to be used in schools with a price of $1.50. Harper's, however, did not want to produce a second edition that would compete with sales of the first. Wyatt had said, "Poe needed money very sorely at the time," and so Poe allowed the use of his name to popularize the book.

Poe made some significant changes to Wyatt's original text. Poe edited, compiled, translated, and organized the textbook into an inexpensive and condensed version intended for use in classrooms. Poe wrote the preface, the introduction, translated the French text by Georges Cuvier into English, worked on the accounts of the animals, constructed a new classification or taxonomy scheme, and organized the book. So Poe made translations of the scientific descriptions by the French naturalist and zoologist Georges Cuvier, although he was uncredited on the title page.

The new edition sold out within two months and was used in schools as had been hoped, though Poe received no royalties for its sales. It was the only volume by Poe to go into a second edition in the United States during his lifetime. The edition, nonetheless, caused some criticism in later years not only of copyright problems but of plagiarism. In 1844, Poe tried to publish more of his work with Harper's (which had also printed his novel The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket) but was informed by a friend, "They have complaints against you... grounded on certain movements of yours."