Plans were made in 1923 to stage a French translation of "Politian" by the Grand Guignol players; though an article about the project was published in the "New York Times", the project was never completed. The first performance of Poe's original text of "Politian" was given well after its composition, on January 19, 1933, by the Virginia Players of the University of Virginia, under the direction of Harry Rogers Pratt; the production was co-sponsored by the Raven Society, a group dedicated to keeping Poe's memory alive at the institution he briefly attended.