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{{Short description|1843 short story by Edgar Allan Poe}}
{{Good article}}
{{Use American English|date=May 2025}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}}
{{Infobox short story
| name          = The Gold-Bug
| image         = The Dollar The Gold Bug 1843.jpg
| author        = [[Edgar Allan Poe]]
| country       = United States
| language      = English
| genre         = [[Short story]]
| published_in   = ''Philadelphia Dollar Newspaper''
| media_type    = Print ([[Periodical]])
| pub_date      = June 21, 1843
| preceded_by   =
| followed_by   =
| wikisource = Tales (Poe)/The Gold-Bug
}}

"'''The Gold-Bug'''" is a [[short story]] by American writer [[Edgar Allan Poe]] published in 1843. The plot follows William Legrand, who becomes fixated on an unusual gold-colored bug he has discovered. His servant Jupiter fears that Legrand is going insane and goes to Legrand's friend, an unnamed narrator, who agrees to visit his old friend. Legrand pulls the other two into an adventure after deciphering a secret message that will lead to a [[buried treasure]].

The story, set on [[Sullivan's Island, South Carolina]], is often compared with Poe's "tales of [[ratiocination]]" as an early form of [[detective fiction]]. Poe became aware of the public's interest in [[secret writing]] in 1840 and asked readers to challenge his skills as a code-breaker. He took advantage of the popularity of [[cryptography]] as he was writing "The Gold-Bug", and the success of the story centers on one such [[cryptogram]]. Modern critics have judged the characterization of Legrand's servant Jupiter as [[racism|racist]], especially because of his dialect speech.

Poe submitted "The Gold-Bug" as an entry to a writing contest sponsored by the ''Philadelphia Dollar Newspaper''. His story won the grand prize and was published in three installments, beginning in June 1843. The prize also included $100 ({{Inflation|US|100|1843|fmt=eq}}), probably the largest single sum that Poe received for any of his works. An instant success, "The Gold-Bug" was the most popular and widely read of Poe's prose works during his lifetime. It also helped popularize cryptograms and secret writing.

==Plot==
[[File:The Gold Bug Herpin.JPG|alt=Elaborate drawing of a man sitting on a tree limb, looking at a skull on one of its branches. Two small figures can be seen on the slopes beneath him.|thumb|Illustration by "Herpin Inv" for an early edition]]
After losing his family fortune, William Legrand has relocated from [[New Orleans]] to a remote cabin on [[Sullivan's Island, South Carolina|Sullivan's Island]], [[South Carolina]], along with his [[African-American]] servant Jupiter. The story's narrator, Legrand's friend, visits him one evening and Legrand tells him of an unusual [[Scarabaeidae|scarab-like]] beetle ('bug') he has collected that day. Legrand has lent it to an officer stationed at nearby [[Fort Moultrie]], but he draws a sketch of it and notes that its markings resemble a skull. When the narrator queries the accuracy of the drawing, Legrand becomes withdrawn and carefully locks it in his desk for safekeeping. Confused, the narrator takes his leave.

A month later, Jupiter visits the narrator and asks him to come to the cabin immediately. When they arrive, Legrand insists that the bug will be the key to restoring his lost fortune. Refusing to explain, he leads them on a night expedition to a prominent tree on the mainland, and has Jupiter climb it until he finds a skull nailed at the end of one branch. At Legrand's direction, Jupiter drops the bug through one eye socket, and Legrand lays out a line extending between the tree and the point at which the bug landed. Measuring a distance of fifty feet, he marks a spot and they begin to dig. After laboring for several hours and finding nothing, Legrand questions Jupiter and discovers that he had mistakenly dropped the bug through the skull's right eye socket rather than the left, resulting in the bug landing a few inches from where it should. He corrects the point, measures out a new distance of fifty feet, and the group dig at the new location. There, they unearth two skeletons and a chest packed with valuable gold coins and jewelry. 

Legrand explains that on the day he found the bug, Jupiter had picked up a nearby scrap of [[parchment]] to wrap it in. Legrand kept the scrap and used it to sketch the bug. The narrator had been looking not at his sketch but at a rather similar image of a skull on the other side of the sheet, an image in [[invisible ink]] that was not initially visible but which was revealed by the heat of the fire burning on the [[hearth]]. Later study of the parchment showed it to contain a [[substitution cipher]], which Legrand deciphered as a set of directions for finding treasure buried by the pirate [[William Kidd|Captain Kidd]]. He explains his working method in some detail. Legrand muses that the skeletons found with the treasure may be the remains of two members of Kidd's crew, who had buried the chest and were then killed to silence them.

==Analysis==
"The Gold-Bug" includes a simple substitution cipher. Though he did not invent "secret writing" or cryptography (he was probably inspired by an interest in [[Daniel Defoe]]'s ''[[Robinson Crusoe]]''<ref>{{harvnb|Rosenheim|1997|p=13}}</ref>), Poe certainly popularized it during his time. To most people in the 19th century, cryptography was mysterious and those able to break the codes were considered gifted with nearly supernatural ability.<ref name="Friedman, William F 1993. p. 40-1">{{citation |last=Friedman |first=William F. |author-link=William F. Friedman |contribution=Edgar Allan Poe, Cryptographer |title=On Poe: The Best from "American Literature" |location=Durham, NC |publisher=Duke University Press |year=1993 |pages=40–41 |isbn=0-8223-1311-1}}</ref> Poe had drawn attention to it as a novelty over four months in the Philadelphia publication ''Alexander's Weekly Messenger'' in 1840. He had asked readers to submit their own substitution ciphers, boasting he could solve all of them with little effort.<ref>{{harvnb|Silverman|1991|p=152}}</ref> The challenge brought about, as Poe wrote, "a very lively interest among the numerous readers of the journal. Letters poured in upon the editor from all parts of the country."<ref name=Hutchisson112>{{harvnb|Hutchisson|2005|p=112}}</ref> In July 1841, Poe published "A Few Words on Secret Writing"<ref>{{harvnb|Sova|2001|p=61}}</ref> and, realizing the interest in the topic, wrote "The Gold-Bug" as one of the few pieces of literature to incorporate ciphers as part of the story.<ref>{{harvnb|Rosenheim|1997|p=2}}</ref> Poe's character Legrand's explanation of his ability to solve the cipher is very like Poe's explanation in "A Few Words on Secret Writing".<ref>{{harvnb|Rosenheim|1997|p=6}}</ref>

[[File:Eyed Click Beetle Alaus oculatus 056428.jpg|alt=A photo of a small beetle on the bark of a tree trunk.|thumb|The [[click beetle]] ''[[Alaus oculatus]]'', along with a [[longhorn beetle]], inspired the fictional "gold-bug" of Poe's tale.]]
The actual "gold-bug" in the story is not a real insect. Instead, Poe combined characteristics of two insects found in the area where the story takes place. The ''Callichroma splendidum'', though not technically a scarab but a species of [[longhorn beetle]] (Cerambycidae), has a gold head and slightly gold-tinted body. The black spots noted on the back of the fictional bug can be found on the ''[[Alaus oculatus]]'', a [[click beetle]] also native to Sullivan's Island.<ref>{{harvnb|Quinn|1998|pp=130–131}}</ref>

Poe's depiction of the African servant Jupiter is often considered [[stereotype|stereotypical]] and [[racism|racist]]. Jupiter is depicted as [[superstitious]] and so lacking in intelligence that he cannot tell his left from his right.<ref>{{harvnb|Silverman|1991|p=206}}</ref> Poe scholar Scott Peeples summarizes Jupiter, as well as Pompey in "[[A Predicament]]", as a "minstrel-show caricature".<ref>Peeples, Scott. ''The Afterlife of Edgar Allan Poe''. Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2004: 97. {{ISBN|1-57113218-X}}</ref> Leonard Cassuto, who called Jupiter "one of Poe's most infamous black characters", emphasizes that the character has been [[manumission|manumitted]] but refuses to leave the side of his "Massa Will". He sums up Jupiter by noting, he is "a typical [[Sambo (racial term)|Sambo]]: a laughing and japing comic figure whose doglike devotion is matched only by his stupidity".<ref>Cassutto, Leonard. ''The Inhuman Race: The Racial Grotesque in American Literature and Culture''. New York: Columbia University Press, 1997: 160. {{ISBN|978-0-231-10336-7}}</ref> Poe probably included the character after being inspired by a similar one in ''Sheppard Lee'' (1836) by [[Robert Montgomery Bird]], which he had reviewed.<ref>{{harvnb|Bittner|1962|p=184}}</ref> Black characters in fiction during this time period were not unusual, but Poe's choice to give him a speaking role was. Critics and scholars, however, question if Jupiter's accent was authentic or merely comic relief, suggesting it was not similar to accents used by blacks in Charleston but possibly inspired by [[Gullah]].<ref>[[Liliane Weissberg|Weissberg, Liliane]]. "Black, White, and Gold", ''Romancing the Shadow: Poe and Race'', J. Gerald Kennedy and Liliane Weissberg, eds. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001: 140–141. {{ISBN|0-19-513711-6}}</ref>

Though the story is often included amongst the short list of detective stories by Poe, "The Gold-Bug" is not technically detective fiction because Legrand withholds the evidence until after the solution is given.<ref>Haycraft, Howard. ''Murder for Pleasure: The Life and Times of the Detective Story''. New York: D. Appleton-Century Company, 1941: 9.</ref> Nevertheless, the Legrand character is often compared to Poe's fictional detective [[C. Auguste Dupin]]<ref>{{harvnb|Hutchisson|2005|p=113}}</ref> due to his use of "ratiocination".<ref>{{harvnb|Sova|2001|p=130}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Stashower|2006|p=295}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Meyers|1992|p=135}}</ref> "Ratiocination", a term Poe used to describe Dupin's method, is the process by which Dupin detects what others have not seen or what others have deemed unimportant.<ref>{{harvnb|Sova|2001|p=74}}</ref>

==Publication history and reception==
[[File:Histoires extraordinaires, 104.jpg|alt=A page of a book.|thumb|right|An 1875 French translation of "The Gold-Bug"]]
Poe wrote the short story in [[Philadelphia]], where he resided at various locations from 1838 to 1844.<ref>Oberholtzer, Ellis Paxson. ''The Literary History of Philadelphia''. Philadelphia: George W. Jacobs & Co., 1906: 286. {{ISBN|1-932109-45-5}}</ref><ref>[https://www.theconstitutional.com/blog/2018/08/20/edgar-allan-poe-house-%E2%80%93-national-historic-site# "Edgar Allan Poe House"], The Constitutional Walking Tour, August 22, 2018</ref>

Poe originally sold "The Gold-Bug" to [[George Rex Graham]] for ''[[Graham's Magazine]]'' for $52 ({{Inflation|US|52|1843|fmt=eq}}) but asked for it back when he heard about a writing contest sponsored by Philadelphia's ''Dollar Newspaper''.<ref>Oberholtzer, Ellis Paxson. ''The Literary History of Philadelphia''. Philadelphia: George W. Jacobs & Co., 1906: 239.</ref> Incidentally, Poe did not return the money to Graham and instead offered to make it up to him with reviews he would write.<ref>{{harvnb|Bittner|1962|p=185}}</ref> Poe won the grand prize; in addition to winning $100, the story was published in two installments on June 21 and June 28, 1843, in the newspaper.<ref name=Sova97>{{harvnb|Sova|2001|p=97}}</ref> His $100 payment from the newspaper may have been the most he was paid for a single work.<ref>Hoffman, Daniel. ''Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe''.  Louisiana State University Press, 1998: 189. {{ISBN|0-8071-2321-8}}</ref> Anticipating a positive public response, the ''Dollar Newspaper'' took out a [[copyright]] on "The Gold-Bug" prior to publication.<ref name=PoeLog419>{{harvnb|Thomas|Jackson|1987|p=419}}</ref>

The story was republished in three installments in the ''Saturday Courier'' in Philadelphia on June 24, July&nbsp;1, and July 8; the last two appeared on the front page and included illustrations by [[F. O. C. Darley]].<ref>{{harvnb|Quinn|1998|p=392}}</ref> Further reprintings in United States newspapers made "The Gold-Bug" Poe's most widely read short story during his lifetime.<ref name=Sova97/> By May 1844, Poe reported that it had circulated 300,000 copies,<ref name=Meyers136>{{harvnb|Meyers|1992|p=136}}</ref> though he was probably not paid for these reprints.<ref>{{harvnb|Hutchisson|2005|p=186}}</ref> It also helped increase his popularity as a lecturer. One lecture in Philadelphia after "The Gold-Bug" was published drew such a large crowd that hundreds were turned away.<ref>{{harvnb|Stashower|2006|p=252}}</ref> As Poe wrote in a letter in 1848, it "made a great noise."<ref>{{harvnb|Quinn|1998|p=539}}</ref> He would later compare the public success of "The Gold-Bug" with "[[The Raven]]", though he admitted "the bird beat the bug".<ref>{{harvnb|Hutchisson|2005|p=171}}</ref>

The ''Public Ledger'' in Philadelphia called it "a capital story".<ref name=PoeLog419/> [[George Lippard]] wrote in the ''Citizen Soldier'' that the story was "characterised by thrilling interest and a graphic though sketchy power of description. It is one of the best stories that Poe ever wrote."<ref>{{harvnb|Thomas|Jackson|1987|p=420}}</ref> ''Graham's Magazine'' printed a review in 1845 which called the story "quite remarkable as an instance of intellectual acuteness and subtlety of reasoning".<ref>{{harvnb|Thomas|Jackson|1987|p=567}}</ref> [[Thomas Dunn English]] wrote in the ''Aristidean'' in October 1845 that "The Gold-Bug" probably had a greater circulation than any other American story and "perhaps it is the most ''ingenious'' story Mr. POE has written; but... it is not at all comparable to the '[[The Tell-Tale Heart|Tell-tale Heart]]'—and more especially to '[[Ligeia]]'".<ref>{{harvnb|Thomas|Jackson|1987|pp=586–587}}</ref> Poe's friend [[Thomas Holley Chivers]] said that "The Gold-Bug" ushered in "the Golden Age of Poe's Literary Life".<ref>Chivers, Thomas Holley. ''Life of Poe'', Richard Beale Davis, ed. E. P. Dutton & Co., Inc., 1952: 36.</ref>

The popularity of the story also brought controversy. Within a month of its publication, Poe was accused of conspiring with the prize committee by Philadelphia's ''Daily Forum''.<ref name=Meyers136/> The publication called "The Gold-Bug" an "''abortion''" and "''unmitigated trash''" worth no more than $15 ({{Inflation|US|15|1843|fmt=eq}}).<ref>{{harvnb|Thomas|Jackson|1987|pp=419–420}}</ref> Poe filed for a [[defamation|libel]] lawsuit against editor Francis Duffee. It was later dropped<ref>{{harvnb|Meyers|1992|pp=136–137}}</ref> and Duffee apologized for suggesting Poe did not earn the $100 prize.<ref>{{harvnb|Thomas|Jackson|1987|p=421}}</ref> Editor John Du Solle accused Poe of stealing the idea for "The Gold-Bug" from "Imogine; or the Pirate's Treasure", a story written by a schoolgirl named Miss Sherburne.<ref>{{harvnb|Thomas|Jackson|1987|p=422}}</ref>

"The Gold-Bug" was republished as the first story in the Wiley & Putnam collection of Poe's ''Tales'' in June 1845, followed by "[[The Black Cat (short story)|The Black Cat]]" and ten other stories.<ref>{{harvnb|Thomas|Jackson|1987|p=540}}</ref> The success of this collection inspired<ref>{{harvnb|Silverman|1991|p=298}}</ref> the first French translation of "The Gold-Bug", published in November 1845 by Alphonse Borghers in the ''Revue Britannique''<ref>Salines, Emily. ''Alchemy and Amalgam: Translation in the Works of Charles Baudelaire''. Amsterdam-New York: Rodopi, 2004: 81–82. {{ISBN|90-420-1931-X}}</ref> under the title, "Le Scarabée d'or", becoming the first literal translation of a Poe story into a foreign language.<ref>{{harvnb|Thomas|Jackson|1987|p=585}}</ref> In the French version, the enciphered message remained in English, with a parenthesized translation supplied alongside its solution. The story was translated into Russian from that version two years later, marking Poe's literary debut in that country.<ref>{{harvnb|Silverman|1991|p=320}}</ref> In 1856, [[Charles Baudelaire]] published his translation of the tale in the first volume of ''Histoires extraordinaires''.<ref>Salines, Emily. ''Alchemy and Amalgam: Translation in the Works of Charles Baudelaire''. Amsterdam-New York: Rodopi, 2004: 82. {{ISBN|90-420-1931-X}}</ref> Baudelaire was very influential in introducing Poe's work to Europe and his translations became the definitive renditions throughout the continent.<ref>{{citation |last=Harner |first=Gary Wayne |contribution=Edgar Allan Poe in France: Baudelaire's Labor of Love |title=Poe and His Times: The Artist and His Milieu |editor-first=Benjamin Franklin |editor-last=Fisher IV |location=Baltimore |publisher=The Edgar Allan Poe Society |year=1990 |page=218 |isbn=0-9616449-2-3}}</ref>

==Influence==
[[File:The Dollar The Gold Bug 1843 Poe.png|thumb|"The Gold-Bug" as it appeared in ''The Dollar Newspaper'', June 21, 1843, with the illustration on the bottom right]]
"The Gold-Bug" inspired [[Robert Louis Stevenson]] in his novel about treasure-hunting, ''[[Treasure Island]]'' (1883). Stevenson acknowledged this influence: "I broke into the gallery of Mr. Poe... No doubt the skeleton [in my novel] is conveyed from Poe."<ref>{{harvnb|Meyers|1992|p=291}}</ref>

"The Gold-Bug" also inspired [[Leo Marks]] to become interested in cryptography at age 8 when he found the book in his father’s bookshop at [[84 Charing Cross Road]].{{citation needed|date=October 2023}} Marks would go on to lead Britain’s code-breaking efforts during World War Two as a member of the [[Special Operations Executive]] (SOE).{{citation needed|date=October 2023}}

Poe played a major role in popularizing cryptograms in newspapers and magazines in his time period<ref name="Friedman, William F 1993. p. 40-1"/> and beyond. [[William F. Friedman]], America's foremost cryptologist, initially became interested in cryptography after reading "The Gold-Bug" as a child—interest that he later put to use in deciphering [[Empire of Japan|Japan]]'s [[Purple (cipher machine)|PURPLE]] code during [[World War II]].<ref>{{harvnb|Rosenheim|1997|p=146}}</ref> "The Gold-Bug" also includes the first use of the term ''cryptograph'' (as opposed to ''cryptogram'').<ref>{{harvnb|Rosenheim|1997|p=20}}</ref>

Poe had been stationed at [[Fort Moultrie National Monument|Fort Moultrie]] from November 1827 through December 1828 and utilized his personal experience at Sullivan's Island in recreating the setting for "The Gold-Bug".<ref>{{harvnb|Sova|2001|p=98}}</ref> It was also here that Poe first heard the stories of pirates like Captain Kidd.<ref name=Poe35>Poe, Harry Lee. ''Edgar Allan Poe: An Illustrated Companion to His Tell-Tale Stories''. New York: Metro Books, 2008: 35. {{ISBN|978-1-4351-0469-3}}</ref> The residents of Sullivan's Island embrace this connection to Poe and have named their public library after him.<ref>Urbina, Ian. "[https://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/06/us/06poe.html Baltimore Has Poe; Philadelphia Wants Him]". ''The New York Times''. September 5, 2008: A10.</ref> Local legend in Charleston says that the poem "[[Annabel Lee]]" was also inspired by Poe's time in South Carolina.<ref>Crawford, Tom. "[http://www.ghostsource.com/hauntings/hauntings_ghostbythesea.php The Ghost by the Sea] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120510184347/http://www.ghostsource.com/hauntings/hauntings_ghostbythesea.php |date=2012-05-10 }}". Retrieved February 1, 2009.</ref> Poe also set part of "[[The Balloon-Hoax]]" and "[[The Oblong Box (short story)|The Oblong Box]]" in this vicinity.<ref name=Poe35/>

[[O. Henry]] alludes to the stature of "The Gold-Bug" within the buried-treasure genre in his short story "Supply and Demand". One character learns that the main characters are searching for treasure, and he asks them if they have been reading Edgar Allan Poe. The title of [[Richard Powers]]' 1991 novel ''[[The Gold Bug Variations]]'' is derived from "The Gold-Bug" and from [[Bach]]'s composition ''[[Goldberg Variations]]'', and the novel incorporates part of the short story's plot.<ref>{{cite news |title=Genetic Coding and Aesthetic Clues: Richard Powers's 'Gold Bug Variations.' |url=https://www.questia.com/read/1G1-53643784 |newspaper=Mosaic |location=[[Winnipeg]] |date=December 1, 1998 |access-date=}}{{dead link|date=July 2021}}</ref>

==Adaptations==
The story proved popular enough in its day that a stage version opened on August 8, 1843.<ref>{{harvnb|Bittner|1962|p=186}}</ref> The production was put together by Silas S. Steele and was performed at the American Theatre in Philadelphia.<ref>{{harvnb|Sova|2001|p=268}}</ref> The editor of the Philadelphia newspaper ''The Spirit of the Times'' said that the performance "dragged, and was rather tedious. The frame work was well enough, but wanted filling up".<ref>{{harvnb|Thomas|Jackson|1987|p=434}}</ref>

In film and television, an adaptation of the work appeared on ''[[Your Favorite Story]]'' on February 1, 1953 (Season 1, Episode 4). It was directed by [[Robert Florey]] with the teleplay written by Robert Libott. A later adaptation of the work appeared on ''[[ABC Weekend Special]]'' on February 2, 1980 (Season 3, Episode 7). This version was directed by [[Robert Fuest]] with the teleplay written by Edward Pomerantz.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082458/|title="ABC Weekend Specials" The Gold Bug (1980)|website=[[IMDb]] }}</ref> A Spanish feature film adaptation of the work appeared in 1983 under the title ''En busca del dragón dorado''. It was written and directed by [[Jesús Franco]] using the alias "James P. Johnson".<ref>[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085487/ IMDb: En busca del dragón dorado]</ref>

"The Gold Bug" episode on the 1980 ''[[ABC Weekend Special]]'' series starred [[Roberts Blossom]] as Legrand, [[Geoffrey Holder]] as Jupiter, and [[Anthony Michael Hall]]. It won three [[Daytime Emmy Award]]s: 1) Outstanding Children's Anthology/Dramatic Programming, [[Linda Gottlieb]] (executive producer), Doro Bachrach (producer); 2) Outstanding Individual Achievement in Children's Programming, Steve Atha (makeup and hair designer); and, 3) Outstanding Individual Achievement in Children's Programming, [[Alex Thomson (cinematographer)]]. It was a co-production of [[Learning Corporation of America]].<ref>[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082458/?ref_=fn_tt_tt_5 The Gold Bug. IMDB.]</ref>

In 2001, [[Gregory Evans (dramatist)|Gregory Evans]] adapted the story for a [[BBC Radio]] drama. Directed by [[Ned Chaillet]], it told the story from Jupiter's point of view and presented him as the protagonist; he was played by [[Rhashan Stone]]. [[John Sharian]] played Legrand.<ref>{{Cite web |title=BBC Radio 4 Extra - Edgar Allan Poe, The Gold Bug |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00grs8w |access-date=2025-02-26 |website=BBC |language=en-GB}}</ref>

==References==
{{reflist|3}}

==Sources==
* {{citation |last=Bittner |first=William |title=Poe: A Biography |location=Boston |publisher=Little, Brown and Company |year=1962}}
* {{citation |last=Hutchisson |first=James M. |title=Poe |location=Jackson, MS |publisher=University Press of Mississippi |year=2005 |isbn=1-57806-721-9 |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9781578067213 }}
* {{citation |last=Meyers |first=Jeffrey |title=Edgar Allan Poe: His Life and Legacy |publisher=Cooper Square Press |year=1992 |isbn=0-8154-1038-7}}
* {{citation |last=Quinn |first=Arthur Hobson |title=Edgar Allan Poe: A Critical Biography |location=Baltimore |publisher=The Johns Hopkins University Press |year=1998 |isbn=0-8018-5730-9}}
* {{citation |last=Rosenheim |first=Shawn James |title=The Cryptographic Imagination: Secret Writing from Edgar Poe to the Internet |location=Baltimore |publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press |year=1997 |isbn=978-0-8018-5332-6}}
* {{citation |last=Silverman |first=Kenneth |title=Edgar A. Poe: Mournful and Never-ending Remembrance |location=New York |publisher=Harper Perennial |year=1991 |isbn=0-06-092331-8 |url=https://archive.org/details/edgarpoe00kenn }}
* {{citation |last=Sova |first=Dawn B. |title=Edgar Allan Poe: A to Z |location=New York |publisher=Checkmark Books |year=2001 |isbn=0-8160-4161-X |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/edgarallanpoetoz0000sova }}
* {{citation |last=Stashower |first=Daniel |author-link=Daniel Stashower |title=The Beautiful Cigar Girl: Mary Rogers, Edgar Allan Poe, and the Invention of Murder |location=New York |publisher=Dutton |year=2006 |isbn=0-525-94981-X |url=https://archive.org/details/beautifulcigargi00stas }}
* {{citation |last1=Thomas |first1=Dwight |first2=David K. |last2=Jackson |title=The Poe Log: A Documentary Life of Edgar Allan Poe, 1809–1849 |location=Boston |publisher=G. K. Hall & Co. |year=1987 |isbn=0-7838-1401-1}}

==External links==
{{wikisource}}
{{commons category}}
* [http://www.eapoe.org/works/tales/goldbga2.htm "The Gold-Bug"] – Full text from the ''Dollar Newspaper'', 1843 (with two illustrations by [[F. O. C. Darley]])
* [https://www.ciphermachinesandcryptology.com/en/goldbug.htm The Gold-Bug – Introduction to Cryptography] – The story, how to solve it, and Poe's essay on secret writing, on [https://www.ciphermachinesandcryptology.com Cipher Machines and Cryptology]
* [http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/PoeGold.html "The Gold-Bug"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090425175216/http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/PoeGold.html |date=April 25, 2009 }} from the [[University of Virginia]] Library
* {{gutenberg|no=2147|name=The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, Volume 1}} — includes "The Gold-Bug"
* [http://poestories.com/read/goldbug "The Gold-Bug" with annotated vocabulary] at PoeStories.com
* [http://www.eapoe.org/works/info/pt042.htm Publication history of "The Gold-Bug"] at the [http://www.eapoe.org Edgar Allan Poe Society]
* {{Cite Americana|wstitle=Gold-Bug, The|year=1920|author=William B. Cairns |short=x}}
* {{librivox book | title=The Gold-Bug | author=Edgar Allan Poe}}

{{Edgar Allan Poe}}
{{Daytime Emmy Award Outstanding Children's Special}}
{{Pirates}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gold-Bug, The}}
[[Category:1843 short stories]]
[[Category:Fiction about cryptography]]
[[Category:Books about piracy]]
[[Category:Short stories adapted into films]]
[[Category:Short stories by Edgar Allan Poe]]
[[Category:Works originally published in American newspapers]]
[[Category:Buried treasure]]
[[Category:South Carolina in fiction]]