A Historical Guide to Edgar Allan Poe (Historical Guides to American Authors)

256 Pages·2001·12.56 MB·English

by  J. Gerald Kennedy

A H I S T O R I C A L G U I D E T O
Edgar Allan Poe
H I S T O R I C A L G U I D E S
TO A M E R I C A N A U T H O R S
The Historical Guides to American Authors is an interdisciplinary, his-
torically sensitive series that combines close attention to the United
States' most widely read and studied authors with a strong sense of
time, place, and history. Placing each writer in the context of the vi-
brant relationship between literature and society, volumes in this series
contain historical essays written on subjects of contemporary social, po-
litical, and cultural relevance. Each volume also includes a capsule biog-
raphy and illustrated chronology detailing important cultural events as
they coincided with the author's life and works, while photographs and
illustrations dating from the period capture the flavor of the author's
time and social milieu. Equally accessible to students of literature and
of life, the volumes offer a complete and rounded picture of each au-
thor in his or her America.
A Historical Guide to Ernest Hemingway
Edited by Linda Wagner-Martin
A Historical Guide to Walt Whitman
Edited by David S. Reynolds
A Historical Guide to Ralph Waldo Emerson
Edited by Joel Myerson
A Historical Guide to Henry David Thoreau
Edited by William E. Cain
A Historical Guide to Edgar Allan Poe
Edited by J. Gerald Kennedy
A Historical Guide to Nathaniel Hawthorne
Edited by Larry Reynolds
A
Historical Guide
to Edgar Allan Poe
EDI T E D BY
J . G E R A L D K E N N E D Y
OXFORD
UNIVERSITY PRESS
2OOI
OXFORD
UNIVERSITY PRESS
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Copyright © 2001 by J. Gerald Kennedy
Published by Oxford University Press, Inc.
198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016
Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
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without the prior permission of Oxford University Press.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A historical guide to Edgar Allan Poe / edited by J. Gerald Kennedy.
p. cm. — (Historical guides to American authors)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-19-512I49-X; ISBN 0-19-512150-3 (pbk.)
1. Poe, Edgar Allan, 1809-1849—Criticism and interpretation.
2. Literature and society—United States—History—19th century.
I. Kennedy, J. Gerald II. Series.
PS2638 .H54 2001
818'.309—dc2l 00-020192
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
Contents
Abbreviations vii
Introduction:
Poe in Our Time 3
J. Gerald Kennedy
Edgar Allan Poe, 1809-1849:
A Brief Biography 19
J. Gerald Kennedy
POE IN HIS TIME
Poe and the American
Publishing Industry 63
Terence Whalen
Spanking the Master:
Mind-Body Crossings in
Poe's Sensationalism 95
David Leverenz
Poe and Nineteenth-Century
Gender Constructions 129
Leland S. Person
VI Contents
Poe and the Issue of
American Privacy 167
Louis A. Renza
Illustrated Chronology 189
Bibliographical Essay:
Major Editions and Landmarks of
Poe Scholarship 209
Scott Peeples
Contributors 233
Index 235
Abbreviations
ER Poe, Edgar Allan. Essays and Reviews. Ed. G. R. Thompson.
New York: Library of America, 1984.
L Poe, Edgar Allan. The Letters of Edgar Allan Poe. Ed. John Ward
Ostrom. 2 vols. 1948. Reprint, New York: Gordian Press,
1966.
P Poe, Edgar Allan. Poems. Ed. Thomas Ollive Mabbott. Vol. 1 of
The Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe. Cambridge, Mass.:
Harvard University Press, 1969.
PL Thomas, Dwight, and David K. Jackson. The Poe Log: A
Documentary Life of Edgar Allan Poe, 1809-1849. Boston:
G. K. Hall, 1987.
PT Poe, Edgar Allan. Poetry and Tales. Ed. Patrick F. Quinn. New
York: Library of America, 1984.
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A H I S T O R I C A L G U I D E T O
Edgar Allan Poe