The Mystery of Marie Roget. A Sequel to "The Murders in the Rue Morgue." First Printing Published in Three Serialized Parts in the Ladies' Companion

Poe, Edgar Allan. The Mystery of Marie Roget. A Sequel to "The Murders in the Rue Morgue." First Printing Published in Three Serialized Parts in the Ladies' Companion: A Monthly Magazine Embracing Every Department of Literature. Embellished With Original Engravings, and Music Arranged for the Piano Forte, Harp and Guitar. New-York: William W. Snowden, November 1842, December 1842, and February 1843. FIRST EDITION, FIRST PRINTING IN THREE SERIALIZED PARTS. 4to - 10-1/4" x 6-1/2". Contemporary quarter-bound black shagreen textured morocco over combed marbled paper covered boards, bound by P. [Peter] Low of Boston, with his binder's ticket affixed to the front paste-down; titles and decoration stamped in gilt to spine. Light wear confined in the main to the extremities, for what is a very nicely preserved, bound set of Volume XVIII of the periodical. Bound together with Sargent's New Monthly Magazine Volume I Nos. I-VI (Jan-June 1843). 308 pp.; the Poe story appearing across pp. 15-20, 93-99, and 162-167. A few pages with scattered foxing but generally in FINE condition internally. The overall condition of the book is VERY GOOD. The Foundations of Detective Fiction & The "Beautiful Cigar Girl" Murder The Mystery of Marie Roget was Edgar Allan Poe's second detective story, following The Murders in the Rue Morgue which had been published the previous year. Poe's legendary fictional detective, C. Auguste Dupin, undertakes the unsolved murder of Marie Roget in Paris. This historic tale was directly based on the horrific real-life death of Mary Cecilia Rogers, whose body was found floating in the Hudson River on July 28, 1841. The apparent murder of Rogers, who was widely known across New York as the "Beautiful Cigar Girl," captured intense national attention for weeks. Although Poe provided a rigorous, real-world analysis of the tragedy under the guise of fiction, neither he, his detective Dupin, nor the police were ever able to definitively solve the mystery. Rare Periodical Publishing & Peter Low Boston Binding This true first appearance precedes any book format collection and represents the actual vehicle through which the public first read Poe's landmark sequel. This volume is beautifully anchored by the presence of the original binder's ticket of Peter Low, one of Boston's prominent mid-19th-century bookbinders. # 001277