Publish Your Own Book: History of Edgar Allan Poe and Tamerlane

About the famous writer Edgar Allan Poe who self-published Tamerlane and Other Poems, history and information.

Publish Your Own Book

A self-publishing flop doesn't always remain a flop. Edgar Allan Poe was not yet 20 years old when he contracted with a Boston printer to do 40 copies of Tamerlane and Other Poems. In 1827, Poe sank most of his meager U.S. Army private's salary into the printing of this slim volume of 406 lines of poetry by "A Bostonian" and priced at 12 1/2 cent.

Poe mailed review copies to all the proper sources but his poems were totally unreviewed. Two magazines bothered to include the title in lists of recently published books. One hundred years later a single copy of Tamerlane offered in a New York auction brought over $11,000.

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