The Conchologist's First Book - Significance and Response

Significance and Response

There was much controversy over this book, but Poe never claimed or implied that he wrote or was the author, emphasizing that he edited and arranged a student textbook. Poe was, in fact, the editor, compiler, organizer, and translator, of the book. Poe used his skills as an editor and his knowledge of French to help simplify the book into an inexpensive, condensed format. In the preface, for example, Poe went to great lengths to explain the term conchology. In "Poe's Greatest Hit", American paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould showed how Poe made significant contributions to the text by simplifying, organizing, and condensing the text, Manual of Conchology, and, more importantly, by translating Cuvier's passages into English (Gould, Stephen Jay, "Poe's Greatest Hit". Natural History, CII, No. 7, July 1993, pp. 10–19.; also contained in Gould's book Dinosaur in a Haystack: Reflections in Natural History. New York: Harmony Books, 1995, Chapter 14.). Poe contributed in popularizing and simplifying a subject that otherwise was too esoteric. In this respect, Poe made significant contributions in popularizing science in the United States.

Gould noted that Poe, who was fluent in French, analyzed and translated French naturalist Georges Cuvier's scientific classification scheme. Poe changed the organization of Wyatt's original book. Wyatt had arranged the animals by the shapes of their shells. Poe, however, regarded that mode of classification as too simplistic and superficial. Poe created a much broader classification system by analyzing the derivation of the term conchology, the scientific study of mollusk shells: "The Greek conchylion from which it is derived, he says, embraces both the animal and shell." In fact, Poe constructed a superior system of classification, according to Gould. So while Poe biographers disparage Poe as being "boring, pedantic, and hair-splitting", Poe actually made meaningful and important contributions to the book, and to biological taxonomy, in creating a new and more complex system of classification for mollusks. In other words, according to Gould, Poe did not just put his name on the book, but made significant and meaningful contributions and changes to the text, which was intended as an abridged textbook or primer, not as an original work.

On the title page of the first edition in 1839, it states that the book consists of "A System of Testaceous Malacology Arranged expressly for the use of Schools ... By Edgar A. Poe." This is an accurate description of Poe's role in the production of the book. Poe "arranged" the material, edited, organized, and assembled the material. Moreover, Poe wrote: "The title-page acknowledges that the animals are given 'according to Cuvier'." A second edition appeared in 1840 with Poe's name on the title page. An 1845 edition, however, appeared without Poe's name on it. The controversy and confusion is largely a semantic one. If Poe is credited as the editor, compiler, organizer, translator, and "arranger" of the material, then there is no controversy. The controversy was used largely to slander and libel Poe and to destroy his reputation and credibility during his lifetime. When all the facts and circumstances are analyzed and examined, however, as Harvard paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould did, Poe's role in the production of the book can be more accurately determined and assessed.