1842-04

Life in Death - Graham's Magazine, April 1842

First publication of Edgar Allan Poe's tale 'Life in Death,' later revised as 'The Oval Portrait.'

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About this source

The tale's first appearance in print, in the April 1842 Graham's Magazine (issue pp. 200-201), under the original title 'Life in Death.' This first printing includes an opening paragraph (the narrator's opium and wound) that Poe deleted when he shortened and retitled the tale 'The Oval Portrait' in 1845.

Date: 1842-04
Credits: Edgar Allan Poe (author)
Publisher: George R. Graham — Graham's Magazine
Where to find it: 2 tale pages (issue pp. 200-201); complete issue is 64 scanned pages
Reference collection: Internet Archive

AI-assisted transcription produced by Claude and visually checked against this Internet Archive scan; no independent human proofread. Running heads, page numbers and two-column breaks removed for reading; the original 1842 title 'Life in Death', the St. Bruno epigraph, and the opening opium paragraph (deleted by Poe in the 1845 'Oval Portrait') are retained. The scan remains authoritative for exact typography.

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Image PDF - work pages

Pages 8-9 of the received PDF.

PDF · 2.4 MB · 2

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Original scan - complete issue (April 1842)

Unmodified received Internet Archive PDF preserved; original scan/capture date per Internet Archive.

PDF · 28.9 MB · 64

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Text PDF - reading transcription

No independent human proofread. Line wraps, column breaks, running heads and page numbers regularized for reading; edition wording and spelling retained. The scan remains authoritative for exact typography.

PDF · 0.0 MB

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Citation & reuse

Poe, Edgar Allan. 'Life in Death.' Graham's Magazine, vol. 20, no. 4 (April 1842): 200-201.

Public domain. First published in the United States in April 1842; copyright long expired. Internet Archive scan of a public-domain serial.

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