POE: POETRY AND TALES

The Library of America presents the first truly dependable collection of Poes poetry and talesfeaturing well-known works like The Raven and The Fall of the House of Usher, plus a selection of rarely published writings (New York Review of Books).

Edgar Allan Poes poetry is famous both for the musicality of To Helen and The City in the Sea and for the hypnotic, incantatory rhythms of The Raven and Ulalume. The Fall of the House of Usher and The Cask of Amontillado show his mastery of Gothic horror; The Pit and the Pendulum is a classic of terror and suspense. Poe invented the modern detective story in The Murders in the Rue Morgue, 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 X-ing a Paragraph or Never Bet the Devil Your Head. All his stories reveal his high regard for technical proficiency and for what he called rationation.

Poes fugitive early poems, stories rarely collected (such as Bon-Bon, King Pest, Mystification, and The Duc De L'Omelette), his only attempt at drama, Politianthese and much more are included in this comprehensive collection, presented chronologically to show Poes 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 Poes own revisions without reproducing the errors or changes introduced by later editors. Here, then, is one of Americas and the world's most disturbing, powerful, and inventive writers.