edgar allan poe: the critical heritage

438 Pages·2002·1.13 MB·English

EDGAR ALLAN POE: THE CRITICAL HERITAGE
THE CRITICAL HERITAGE SERIES
General Editor: B.C.Southam
The Critical Heritage series collects together a large body of
criticism on major figures in literature. Each volume presents the
contemporary responses to a particular writer, enabling the student
to follow the formation of critical attitudes to the writer’s work
and its place within a literary tradition.
The carefully selected sources range from landmark essays in the
history of criticism to fragments of contemporary opinion and
little published documentary material, such as letters and diaries.
Significant pieces of criticism from later periods are also included
in order to demonstrate fluctuations in reputation following the
writer’s death.
EDGAR ALLAN POE

THE CRITICAL HERITAGE
Edited by
IAN WALKER
London and New York
First published in 1986
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2002.
11 New Fetter Lane
London EC4P 4EE
&
29 West 35th Street
New York, NY 10001
Compilation, introduction, notes and index © 1986 Ian Walker
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented,
including photocopying and recording or in any information storage
or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the
publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
ISBN 0-415-15929-6 (Print Edition)
ISBN 0-203-19547-7 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-203-19550-7 (Glassbook Format)
General Editor’s Preface
The reception given to a writer by his contemporaries and
near-contemporaries is evidence of considerable value to the
student of literature. On one side we learn a great deal about
the state of criticism at large and in particular about the
development of critical attitudes towards a single writer; at the
same time, through private comments in letters, journals or
marginalia, we gain an insight upon the tastes and literary
thought of individual readers of the period. Evidence of this
kind helps us to understand the writer’s historical situation, the
nature of his immediate reading-public, and his response to
these pressures.
The separate volumes in the Critical Heritage Series present
a record of this early criticism. Clearly, for many of the highly
productive and lengthily reviewed nineteenth- and twentieth-
century writers, there exists an enormous body of material; and
in these cases the volume editors have made a selection of the
most important views, significant for their intrinsic critical
worth or for their representative quality— perhaps even
registering incomprehension!
For earlier writers, notably pre-eighteenth century, the
materials are much scarcer and the historical period has been
extended, sometimes far beyond the writer’s lifetime, in order
to show the inception and growth of critical views which were
initially slow to appear.
In each volume the documents are headed by an
introduction, discussing the material assembled and relating the
early stages of the author’s reception to what we have come to
identify as the critical tradition. The volumes will make
available much material which would otherwise be difficult of
access and it is hoped that the modern reader will be thereby
helped towards an informed understanding of the ways in
which literature has been read and judged.
B.C.S.
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GENERAL EDITOR’S PREFACE
In lieu of the rest I venture to place in your hands the published
opinions of many of my contemporaries. I will not deny that I have
been careful to collect & preserve them. They include, as you will
see, the warm commendations of a great number of very eminent men,
and of these commendations, I should be at a loss to understand why
I have not a right to be proud.
(Poe to Charles Anthon, late October 1844)
Poe was sensitive to opinion. He sought, at least, as I often witnessed,
with an intense eagerness the smallest paragraph in a newspaper
touching himself or his writings. What if he had lived a little longer
to enjoy the European fame which his works were on the eve of
receiving when he died. A few months longer and ‘Fame that the clear
spirit doth raise’ might have proved the beacon and incentive to a
better and higher life.
(MS. Diary of E.A.Duyckinck, 1 November 1875)
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Contents
page
PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xv
ABBREVIATIONS xvii
INTRODUCTION 1
NOTE ON THE TEXT 64
Tamerlane and Other Poems (1827)
1 Poe’s ‘Preface’, 1827 65
Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane, and Minor Poems (1829)
2 [JOHN NEAL], pre-publication notices in the
Yankee and Boston Literary Gazette, September
and December 1829 66
3 [JOHN NEAL], notice in the Boston Ladies’
Magazine, January 1830 69
4 Review in an unidentified Baltimore paper,
1830 70
5 JOHN HILL HEWITT, review in the Baltimore
Minerva and Emerald, 1830 72
Poems (1831)
6 Notice in the New-York Mirror, May 1831 75
7 [JOHN NEAL], notice in the Morning Courier and
New York Enquirer, July 1831 76
The Young Magazinist (1832–6)
8 Editorial in the Baltimore Saturday Visiter, August
1832 77
9 From reports in the Baltimore Saturday Visiter,
October 1833 78
10 Editorial notices of Poe’s tales in the Southern
Literary Messenger, March, April and June 1835 80
11 PHILIP PENDLETON COOKE, from a letter to Thomas
White in the Southern Literary Messenger,
September 1835 81
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CONTENTS
12 From the ‘Supplement’ to the Southern Literary
Messenger, January 1836 83
13 From the ‘Supplement’ to the Southern Literary
Messenger, April 1836 86
14 From the ‘Supplement’ to the Southern Literary
Messenger, July 1836 89
The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym (1838)
15 Unsigned review in the New-York Mirror, August
1838 91
16 [LEWIS GAYLORD CLARK], review in the
Knickerbocker Magazine, August 1838 92
17 Notice in the New York Albion, August 1838 93
18 Unsigned notice in Alexander’s Weekly Messenger,
August 1838 94
19 [WILLIAM BURTON], review in Burton’s Gentleman’s
Magazine, September 1838 95
20 Unsigned notice in the New York Review, October
1838 98
21 From an unsigned review in the Torch, October
1838 99
22 From an unsigned review in the London Atlas,
October 1838 101
23 From an unsigned review in the London Spectator,
October 1838 103
24 Review in the London New Monthly Magazine,
November 1838 105
25 Unsigned review in the London Monthly Review,
December 1838 106
Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque (1839)
26 JAMES E.HEATH condemns Poe’s ‘Germanism’,
September and October 1839 109
27 PHILIP PENDLETON COOKE, from letters to Poe,
September and December 1839 111
28 Poe’s ‘Preface’, December 1839 115
29 ‘Personal’ and ‘Editorial Opinions’, December
1839 116
30 [JOSEPH CLAY NEAL], notice in the Pennsylvanian,
December 1839 122
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CONTENTS
31 Notice in the Philadelphia Saturday Courier,
December 1839 123
32 Unsigned notice in the Boston Morning Post,
December 1839 124
33 [JOHN FROST], review in Alexander’s Weekly
Messenger, December 1839 124
34 Unsigned notice in the New York American,
December 1839 125
35 Notices in the New-York Mirror, December 1839 126
36 [MORTON MCMICHAEL], notice in Godey’s Lady’s
Book, January 1840 129
37 [JAMES E.HEATH], review in the Southern Literary
Messenger, January 1840 129
Prose Romances (1843)
38 Unsigned notice in the Philadelphia Saturday
Museum, July 1843 131
39 Unsigned review in the Pennsylvania Inquirer, July
1843 132
40 Notice in the Philadelphia Saturday Courier, July
1843 133
41 Notice in the Ladies’ National Magazine, September
1843 135
Some Popular Successes
(a) The Gold-Bug’ (1843)
42 Discussion of ‘The Gold-Bug’ in the Philadelphia
Saturday Museum, July 1843 136
(b) ‘The Balloon Hoax’ (1844)
43 Poe’s account of the reception of The Balloon
Hoax’ in the Columbia Spy, May 1844 138
(c) ‘The Raven’ (1845)
44 NATHANIEL PARKER WILLIS, introductory note in the
New York Evening Mirror, January 1845 140
45 GEORGE HOOKER COLTON, introduction to The
Raven’ in the American Review, February 1845 141
46 Introductory note to ‘The Raven’ in the Southern
Literary Messenger, March 1845 142
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