Edgar Allan Poe's 'The Tell-Tale Heart' published in a Boston periodical

Publication Context. The story appeared in the inaugural issue of The Pioneer: A Literary and Critical Magazine, a short-lived Boston publication edited by James Russell Lowell and Robert Carter. The magazine was published in Boston by Leland and Whiting and in Philadelphia by Drew and Scammell. Poe wrote the story while residing in Philadelphia between 1838 and 1844.

Genre and Style. Often considered a classic of Gothic fiction, the story is one of Poe's best-known works. It is a first-person narrative told by an unnamed narrator, starting in medias res with a conversation already in progress. Every word contributes to moving the story forward, exemplifying Poe's theories about short story writing.

Original Text and Revisions. The original 1843 publication included an epigraph quoting Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem 'A Psalm of Life.' The story was slightly revised when republished in the August 23, 1845, edition of the Broadway Journal. The first printing is preserved as a historical text from The Pioneer.