The Works of Edgar Allan Poe — Volume 3

Volume III

NARRATIVE OF A. GORDON PYM

INTRODUCTORY NOTE

Upon my return to the United States a few months ago, after the
extraordinary series of adventure in the South Seas and
elsewhere, of which an account is given in the following pages,
accident threw me into the society of several gentlemen in
Richmond, Va., who felt deep interest in all matters relating to
the regions I had visited, and who were constantly urging it upon
me, as a duty, to give my narrative to the public. I had several
reasons, however, for declining to do so, some of which were of a
nature altogether private, and concern no person but myself;
others not so much so. One consideration which deterred me was
that, having kept no journal during a greater portion of the time
in which I was absent, I feared I should not be able to write,
from mere memory, a statement so minute and connected as to have
the appearanceof that truth it would really possess, barring
only the natural and unavoidable exaggeration to which all of us
are prone when detailing events which have had powerful influence
in exciting the imaginative faculties. Another reason was, that
the incidents to be narrated were of a nature so positively
marvellous that, unsupported as my assertions must necessarily be
(except by the evidence of a single individual, and he a
half-breed Indian), I could only hope for belief among my family,
and those of my friends who have had reason, through life, to put
faith in my veracity—the probability being that the public at
large would regard what I should put forth as merely an impudent
and ingenious fiction. A distrust in my own abilities as a writer
was, nevertheless, one of the principal causes which prevented me
from complying with the suggestions of my advisers.