I found my source on JSTOR, and did an advanced search “Von Kempelen” and “hoax”; which limited my search results down to 37. I selected this source over the others because it was one of the first few search results and while I skimmed through the first 5 search results it had the most relevant information for my paper. The source discussed Poe’s hoax in pages 31-36, and in those pages began by giving a general idea of what the hoax is about, and then it went on to bring in the letter Poe sent to the editor of the paper in which his hoax was published stating that his article in the paper was just a hoax. The source then went on and discussed Poe’s possible reasoning behind the hoax, his intentions, and then phrases in the hoax that Poe intended his audience to realize what they were reading was a hoax. This source gave me an insight on the significance of the gold rush and it gave me the idea of analyzing the hoax more and points to search for in order to find puns in the hoax that Poe inserted to show what he was writing was a hoax. It showed me the possibility of approaching the hoax to show different intentions Poe might have had when writing this.
McGann, Jerome J.. “Shall These Bones Live?”. Text 1 (1981): 21–40. Web. 4 Nov. 2015
This is a great source, Yemaj! It sounds like it not only gave you a lot of good material, but also helped you narrow in on what you’ll write about.
Looking up the source, it actually looks like it’s a chapter in a book called “The beauty of inflections : literary investigations in historical method and theory” (though one that you can find online). How would that change your citation?
McGann, Jerome. The Beauty of Inflections: Literary Investigations in Historical Method and Theory. Oxford: Clarendon, 1981. Print.