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. v 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) vi 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 vii 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 viii 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 ix