Source for Poe’s Dupin
Memoirs of Vidocq, Principal Agent of the French Police until 1827. Written by Himself. Translated from the French.
Philadelphia: E.L. Carey & A. Hart, Chesnut Street. Baltimore: Carey, Hart & Co, 1834.
Price: $1,750.00
About the item
First American edition. xx, 496 pp. 1 vols. Thick 8vo. Source for Poe’s Dupin. Original publisher's muslin-backed paper boards, remnants of printed title label, uncut. Upper cover detached and crudely resewn at an early date, worn at edges. American Imprints 29555; OCLC: 3859253.
Item #320566
Vidocq (1775-1857), first a convicted criminal and then “the principal and most active agent of the police”, was head of the Paris Sureté from 1810 to 1827. He wrote only the first volume in the French original, published in four volumes in 1828; a ghost writer was brought in for the rest of the work. The translation is variously attributed to George Borrow or H.T.R. (William Maginn), and its importance cannot be underestimated. Carey & Hart printed three editions between 1834 and 1844. “Numerous influences on detective story writers to come especially on Poe” — Queen's Quorum.
