SELECTED POE BIBLIOGRAPHY
*indicates a Citadel Library volume
Bibliography and Reference
*Dameron, J. Lasley and Irby B. Cauthen, Jr. Edgar Allan Poe: A Bibliography of Criticism, 1827-1967. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1974. REF Z8699 /D34 [Not annotated]
Hyneman, Esther F. Edgar Allan Poe: An Annotated Bibliography 1827-1972. Boston: G.K. Hall. CofC: REF PS 2630/H9/REF {‘Annotated’ means a brief description of the article follows the entry}
Annual bibliographies in Poe Studies (a journal/ CC of C); the MLA online bibliography; American Literary Scholarship: An Annual (CCofC); CARL online. *Use these to find journal articles on Poe that may pertain to your topic.
Pollin, Burton R. Dictionary of Names and Titles in Poe's Collected Works. New York: Da Capo Press
______. Word Index to Poe’s Fiction. NY: Guardian P, 1968.
*Thomas, Dwight and David K. Jackson. The Poe Log. Boston: G. K. Hall, 1987. A day-by-day record of Poe’s life with all sources identified. Very useful.
Wiley, Elizabeth. Concordance to the Poetry of Edgar Allan Poe. Selinsgrove: Susquehanna Univ. Press, 1989. CCofC
Scholarly Editions
[useful for footnotes, source information, bibliographies]
*Campbell, Killis, ed. Poems.
Griswold, Rufus Wilmot, ed. The Works of the Late Edgar Allan Poe. 4 vols. New York: Redfield, 1853-56.
*Mabbot, Thomas Ollive, ed., Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe. 3 vols, Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University, 1969-78. vol. 1 = Poetry, vols. 2 & 3 = Tales and Sketches. Now the standard edition of the poems and tales.
Pollin, Burton R., ed. Collected Writings of Edgar Allan Poe. v. 1 (1981), Imaginary Voyages (Pym, Pfaall, Rodman) (CofC); *v. 2 (1985), The Brevities:Pinakidia, Marginalia, Fifty Suggestions. V.3. Writings in the Broadway Journal. Boston: Twayne, 1981- .
Now the standard edition for the materials it contains.
*Thompson. G.R. Edgar Allan Poe: Essays and Reviews. New York: Library of America, 1984.
*Harrison, James A., ed. The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe. 17 vols. New York: T.Y. Crowell, 1902. Formerly the standard edition. vols 1, 2
*Ostrom, John Ward, ed. The Letters of Edgar Allan Poe. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1948. The standard collection of the letters. vols 1, 2. Ostrom supplemented these w/ various articles in the journal American Literature some years later.
*Quinn, Patrick, ed. Edgar Allan Poe: Poetry and Tales. NY: Library of America.
*Stovall, Floyd, ed. Poems [by] Edgar Allan Poe. Charlottesville: Univ. Press of Virginia, 1965.
Biography
*Allen, Hervey. Israfel: The Life of Edgar Allan Poe. 2 vols.
Allen and Mabbott. Poe’s Brother: The Poems of William Henry Poe. Doran, 1926. Texts w/ biographical commentary.
*Hutchisson, James M. Poe. Jackson: UP of Mississippi, 2005.
Meyers, Jeffrey. Edgar Allan Poe: Life and Legacy. Scribner’s, 1992. useful for its view of Poe as a working journalist, but does not cover many important texts. Useful appendix on Poe’s influence on later writers.
*Phillips, Mary E. Edgar Allan Poe: The Man. Houghton Mifflin, 1928[?]. Avoid.
Quinn, Arthur Hobson. Edgar Allan Poe, a Critical Biography. New York: Appleton-Century Co.,1941. Rather dry, but contains some specific detail not found in Silverman et al. Also good early chapters on Poe’s ancestry, his parents, the early theatre in America. Also useful appendixes on cruxes in Poe biography, such as the circumstances of Poe’s death.
*Silverman, Kenneth. Edgar A. Poe: Mournful and Never-Ending Remembrance. HarperCollins, 1991. The best all-around biography; psychoanalytic emphasis.
*Symons, Julian. The Tell-Tale Heart: The Life and Works of Edgar Allan Poe. New York: Harper & Row, 1978. Lightweight biography but well informed.
*Smith, Geddeth. The Brief Career of Eliza Poe. Rutherford, NJ: Farleigh Dickinson UP, 1988. PN 2287/.P56/ S65 [P’s mother]
*Winwar, Frances. The Haunted Palace: A Life of Edgar Allan Poe. New York: Harper, 1959. Not very good.
Collections of Criticism
Bloom, Harold, ed. The Tales of Poe: Modern Critical Interpretations. Chelsea House, 1987. NB: Bibliography but no footnotes to individual essays.
Carlson, Eric W. ed. The Recognition of Edgar Allan Poe: Selected
Criticism Since 1829. Ann Arbor: Univ. of Michigan Press, 1966.
A general survey of representative critical opinion on Poe
*Carlson, Eric W. ed. Critical Essays on Poe. Boston: GK Hall. Supersedes Carlson 1966. Contains some essays not published elsewhere.
*Kopley, Richard, ed. Pym: Critical Explorations. Duke UP. papers from a conference on Pym.
*Regan, Robert,ed. Twentieth Century Views of Poe’s Tales. Prentice Hall. Mostly excerpts from longer, full-length works; some focused readings of individual tales. Many are dated now.
*Silverman, Kenneth, ed. New Essays on Poe’s Tales. Oxford. Small number of essays by different hands; provocative topics.
Walker, I. M., ed. Poe: The Critical Heritage. London: Routledge &
Kegan Paul, 1986. Contemporary magazine and newspaper reviews of Poe’s work; some estimates of Poe shortly after his death, by Griswold, RL Stevenson, the French poets, et al.
*Veler,ed. Papers on Poe. Festscrift for John Ward Ostrom. Wittenburg UP, 1972.
Critical Books [some titles are self-explanatory]
*Allen, Michael. Poe and the British Magazine Tradition. New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1969.
*Alterton, Margaret. Origins of Poe’s Critical Theory. One of the few treatments of this topic. Standard.
Alterton, Margaret, and Hardin Craig, eds. "Introduction" to Edgar Allan Poe: Representative Selections. New York: American Book Company, 1935. Somewhat dated, but otherwise an excellent critical introduction.
Bloom, Clive. Reading Freud Reading Poe. St Martins, 1988. CC ofC
*Bonaparte, Marie. The Life and Works of Edgar Allan Poe: A Psychoanalytical Interpretation. Foreword by Sigmund Freud. Tr. by John Rodker. London: Hogarth Press, 1949. Sometimes far-fetched, always interesting.
*Buranelli, Vincent. Edgar Allan Poe. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1961. A very good introduction.
*Davidson, Edward Poe: A Critical Study. Belknap Press of Harvard Univ. Press, 1957. One of the best critical studies; some biographical interpretations. Gives context for many tales.
Dayan, Joan. Fables of Mind: An Inquiry into Poe’s Fiction. Oxford, 1987. CCofC. Postmodernist readings.
*Fagin, Nathan Brylhon. The Histrionic Mr. Poe. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1949.
*Fisher, Benjamin Franklin. Poe in his Times. Contextual/historical criticism
Fisher, Benjamin Franklin. Poe At Work. [Poe’s revisions of texts]
Foerster, Norman. American Criticism: Studies in Literary Theory from Poe to the Present. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1928.
*Forrest. Biblical Allusions In Poe. 1928.
Halliburton, David. Edgar Allan Poe: A Phenomenological View. Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 1973.
*Hoffman, Daniel. Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe. Doubleday, 1972.
Idiosyncratic, but the most readable of all Poe criticism. Use the index to find your topics/area of interest.
Humphries, Jefferson. Metamorphoses of the Raven: Literary Overdeterminatedness in France and the South Since Poe. Louisianna State UP, 1985. CCofC {Postmodern reading]
*Irwin, John T. The Mystery to a Solution: Poe, Borges, and the Analytic Detective Story. Johns Hopkins, 1994. {postmodern reading]
Jackson, David K. Poe and the Southern Literary Messenger. Richmond: Dietz; rpt. Haskell House. Most of the info in this early book may now be found in the Silverman biog and other sources. Some original letters reprinted in back.
Jacobs, Robert D. Poe: Journalist and Critic. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State Univ. Press, 1969. Deadly going, but full of new information. Good on Poe’s critical theories. Application of theories to some tales. Baptist; CofC
Kennedy, J. Gerald. Poe, Death, and the Life of Writing. New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 1987. Concerns the language/death/discovery theme in Poe’s texts; interesting chapter on Poe’s letters to John Allan.
Ketterer, David. The Rationale of Deception in Poe. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State Univ. Press, 1979. Concerns this theme of duplicitiousness in Poe; good on Poe’s hoaxing of the reader.
Levin, Harry. The Power of Blackness: Hawthorne, Poe, Melville. New York: Knopf, 1958. Interesting for its comments on race.
*Levine, Stuart. Edgar Poe: Seer and Craftsman. Deland, Fla.: Everett Edwards, 1972.
*Miller, Perry. The Raven and the Whale: The War of Words and Wits
in the Era of Poe and Melville. New York: Harcourt, Brace,
1956. Concerns Poe as player in American literary affairs
*Moss, Sidney P. Poe's Literary Battles: The Critic in the Context of his Literary Milieu. Durham, N.C.: Duke Univ. Press, 1970. Same subject as Perry Miller book.
------. Poe's Major Crisis: His Libel Suit. [The Thomas Dunn English affair]
*Quinn, Patrick Francis. The French Face of Edgar Poe. Carbondale: Southern Illinois Univ. Press, 1957. Poe’s influence on the symbolists; their admiration of him.
Ransome, Arthur. Edgar Allan Poe: A Critical Study. 1910 rpt. Folcroft, Pa.: Folcroft Press, 1970.
*Richardson, Muller, The Purloined Poe. 1988. Postmodernist.
Saliba, David R. A Psychology of Fear: The Nightmare Formula of Edgar Allan Poe. Lanham, Md.: Univ. Press of America, 1980.
Thompson, G.R. Poe's Fiction: Romantic Irony in the Gothic Tales Madison: Univ. of Wisconsin Press, 1973. Standard reading of this issue in Poe.
*Wagenecht, Edward Charles. Edgar Allan Poe: The Man Behind the Legend. New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1963. Like Buranelli, a good introduction and basic survey of Poe.
Walsh, John. Poe The Detective. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1967. Concerns the origins of “The Murder of Marie Roget”
Journals devoted to Poe
Poe Studies. v. 1 (1968) Pullman, Wash.: WASU Press / CofC subscribes
Poe Studies Association Newsletter. Western Oregon University. For Poe scholars and enthusiasts: announcements of new books and articles, conferences, discoveries, some reviews.
Other likely places to find articles on Poe: *AMERICAN LITERATURE, *NINETEENTH-CENTURY LITERATURE, STUDIES IN THE AMERICAN RENAISSANCE, *STUDIES IN AMERICAN FICTION, *STUDIES IN SHORT FICTION, JOURNAL OF THE SHORT STORY IN ENGLISH, many others.
Other
Catalog of the John Henry Ingraham Collection of Poe at the University of Virginia Library. 1994 (2/e) John E. Reilly. Describes the original Poe manuscripts at the UVA library. CCofC
*Deas. Michael. J. Portraits and Daguerreotypes of Edgar Allan Poe. All known likenesses of Poe, authentic and spurious, w/ commentary.
Whitman, Sarah Helen. Edgar Poe and His Critics. 1849; rpt. Gordian, 1981. Whitman wrote this book as a defense of Poe against his detractors. CCofC
*Note: You will also find discussions of Poe in literary histories of America, such as The Columbia History of American Literature; Literary History of the United States, etc. Many books on topics or themes in American literature have chapters on Poe--books on race, on language, on narrative techniques, on the city, on reader response criticism, etc. And in (usually older) general books on American literature (found mostly in the early “PS” numbers in the library), you’ll likely find extended discussions of Poe.
Always use the footnotes and bibliography to books and articles as ‘leads’ to other sources. And start early on your outside reading: Some materials may not be available when you need them.