MS. Found in a Bottle

"MS. Found in a Bottle" is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe, first published in the weekly Baltimore Saturday Visiter on October 19, 1833.

Plot summary

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MS. Found in a Bottle

The unnamed narrator, estranged from his family and country, sets sail as a passenger aboard a cargo ship from Batavia. Some days into the voyage, the ship is first becalmed then hit by a giant wave that washes everyone overboard except the narrator and an old Swede. Driven southward by a typhoon, they eventually collide with another ship, a gigantic black galleon. Only the narrator manages to scramble aboard. He finds it to be manned by extremely elderly crewmen who are unable to see him; he steals writing materials from the captain's cabin to keep a journal which he resolves to cast into the sea. This ship too continues to be driven southward, and he notices the crew appear to show signs of hope at the prospect of destruction as it reaches the Antarctic. Ultimately the ship enters a clearing in the ice where it is caught in a vast whirlpool and begins to sink.

Major themes

• Sea tale (see also "A Descent into the Maelström" and The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket)

The horror of “MS. Found in a Bottle” comes from its scientific imaginings and its description of a physical world beyond the limits of human exploration. It emphasizes ideas, calling us back to the introduction of the story, in which the narrator announces his allegiance to realism. That realism is lost with the descent into the whirlpool, as, presumably, is the narrator’s life.^{[original research?]}

Publication history

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

Baltimore Saturday Visiter
June 15, 1833

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

Baltimore Saturday Visiter
October 12, 1833

Baltimore Saturday Visiter
October 19, 1833

In the issue of June 15, 1833, publishers Charles F. Cloud and William L. Pouder of the Baltimore Saturday Visiter announced a prizes of "50 dollars for the best Tale and 25 dollars for the best poem, not exceeding one hundred lines," submitted by October 1, 1833. Poe submitted "MS. Found in a Bottle" along with five others. The judges, John Pendleton Kennedy, Dr. James Henry Miller and John H. B. Latrobe met at the house of Latrobe in October, and unanimously selected Poe's tale for the prize. The award was announced in the October 12 issue, and the tale was printed in the following issue on October 19, with the remark, "The following is the Tale to which the Premium of Fifty Dollars has been awarded by the Committee. It will be found highly graphic in its style of Composition."^[1] Poe's poetry submission, "The Coliseum," was published a few days later, but did not win the prize.^[2] In a Philadelphia Saturday Museum article on March 4, 1843, Henry B. Hirst mentioned that Timothy Shay Arthur had also entered a story into the competition.^[1] "MS. Found in a Bottle" was reprinted in the Newburyport People's Advocate on October 26.^[3] It was planned that "MS. Found in a Bottle" would be collected into a volume called Tales of the Folio Club. The "Folio Club" would be a fictitious literary society the author called a group of "dunderheads" out to "abolish literature." The idea was similar in some respects to The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer. At each monthly meeting, a member would present a story. The Saturday Visiter ran an advertisement calling for subscribers at $1 apiece. A week later, however, the newspaper announced that the author had withdrawn the pieces with the expectation they would be printed in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.^[4]

Editions

Additional editions include

• Text B - printed in The Gift: A Christmas and New Year's Present for 1836 (1835) (pp. 67-68) with a preface dated October 1835. According to a statement made by Kennedy in 1851, Miss Leslie paid $20 for this tale
• Text C - Southern Literary Messenger (December 1835)
• Text D - Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque (1840) I, 111-126; reprinted in Richmond Semi-Weekly Examiner on October 10, 1849.^[3]
• Text E - Phantasy-pieces (1842), being copy of D with manuscript changes that were adopted in later editions
• Text F - Broadway Journal, October 11, 1845 (2:203-206)
• Text G - Works (1850) I, 150-160

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Edgar Allan Poe (2000). in Thomas Ollive Mabbott: Tales and Sketches: 1831-1842. University of Illinois Press, p.30,31. ISBN 0252069234. 
2. ^ Sova, Dawn B. Edgar Allan Poe: A to Z. Checkmark Books, 2001.
3. ^ ^{a b} Edgar Allan Poe (1990). in Stuart Levine and Susan Levine: The Short Fiction of Edgar Allan Poe: An annotated edition. University of Illinois Press, p.630. ISBN 025206125X. 
4. ^ Silverman, Kenneth. Edgar A. Poe: Mournful and Never-ending Remembrance. Harper Perennial, 1991. pp. 90-93.