Glenn Burghardt wrote,
"I have read that R.W. Griswold stated in the International  monthly
magazine, Oct. 1850, that Edgar Allan Poe's book "The Conchologist's First
Book..." , 1840, is a copy,  nearly verbatim, of the text-book of
conchology by Captain Thomas Brown printed in Glasgow in 1833.
   Interesting, it also stated that this title holds the distinction of
being the only work published by Poe that went to a second printing during
his lifetime."
 
Always steal from the best, that's what I say.
 
I've seen the book--a small manual--and I don't think that anyone would
recognize it as a work by Poe without seeing the title page.
 
Andrew K. Rindsberg
Geological Survey of Alabama