The Library of America presents โthe first truly dependable collection of Poeโs poetry and talesโโfeaturing well-known works like โThe Ravenโ and โThe Fall of the House of Usherโ, plus a selection of rarely published writings (New York Review of Books).
Edgar Allan Poeโs poetry is famous both for the musicality of โTo Helenโ and โThe City in the Seaโ and for the hypnotic, incantatory rhythms of โThe Ravenโ and โUlalume.โ โThe Fall of the House of Usherโ and โThe Cask of Amontilladoโ show his mastery of Gothic horror; โThe Pit and the Pendulumโ is a classic of terror and suspense. Poe invented the modern detective story in โThe Murders in the Rue Morgue,โ and developed the form of science fiction that was to influence, among others, Jules Verne and Thomas Pynchon. Poe was also adept at the humorous sketch of playful jeu d'esprit, such as โX-ing a Paragraphโ or โNever Bet the Devil Your Head.โ All his stories reveal his high regard for technical proficiency and for what he called โrationation.โ
Poeโs fugitive early poems, stories rarely collected (such as โBon-Bon,โ โKing Pest,โ โMystification,โ and โThe Duc De L'Omeletteโ), his only attempt at drama, โPolitianโโthese and much more are included in this comprehensive collection, presented chronologically to show Poeโs development toward Eureka: A Prose Poem, his culminating vision of an indeterminate universe, printed here for the first time as Poe revised it and intended it should stand.
A special feature of this volume is the care taken to select an authoritative text of each work. The printing and publishing history of every item has been investigated in order to choose a version that incorporates all of Poeโs own revisions without reproducing the errors or changes introduced by later editors. Here, then, is one of Americaโs and the world's most disturbing, powerful, and inventive writers.
LIBRARY OF AMERICA is an independent nonprofit cultural organization founded in 1979 to preserve our nationโs literary heritage by publishing, and keeping permanently in print, Americaโs best and most significant writing. The Library of America series includes more than 300 volumes to date, authoritative editions that average 1,000 pages in length, feature cloth covers, sewn bindings, and ribbon markers, and are printed on premium acid-free paper that will last for centuries.