Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe BY Edmund Clarence Stedrnan PRNATELY PRINTED CEDAR RAPIDS. IOWA 1909 EDGAR AUAN POE Edition Eitzted to 2Ofl copies COPYRIGIIT, lg85, BP ERMVND CLARENCB 8TEDhfAN Rerinted by colrrlru of Houghton, Mimh C Co. THE TORCH PRESS CEDAR RAPIDS. IOWA FOREWORD This reprint of the late Edmund Clarence Stedmans admirable essay on Edgar Allan Poe is from a recent imprasion of his Pots of America, and is republished in this form by permission of his publishers, Jlessrs. Ijoughton, hiflin Company. This permission was given heartily at the kindly suggestion of the author himself a few months before he died. The essay was published first in Scribqzers Jfoortfhly for Riay, 1880. It was issued in small octavo form that same yeay by Houghton, Ilifflin Company, though the title page bears the date 1881. The covers of the little volume were of genuine vellum, and the book was the first one so brought out in America. The format was in imitation of a series started in London by Kegan Paul with The Vicar of Wakefield at the suggestion of Mr. Stedman. The essay was revised and extended by the author in 1886 and made the Poe chapter in his book of criticism, Poets of America. It is felt no apology is needed for this reprint of that appreciative essay. It is a modcl of its kind, and is fitly represcnta- tive of the genid, sympathetic nature of its author. Mr. Stedman was a friendly man. In his critical rork he aimed to build, not to destroy. Lovers of that er- ratic genius, Edgsr Allan Pm, feel grate- ful .to our author for the liindly and the jmpathetic touch every portion of the es- sap cvidenees. A few brief words as to Mr. Stedman are not inappropriate here. He was born in IIartford, Connecticut, October 8, 1833. men still a child he lost his father, and his mother soon afterwards married and went to Italy to live. The future poet and critic was placed in charge of an uncle in Bonvic.h, where he lived from the age of five to sixteen, and where he fitted himself for cdlege. Hc entered Yale in 1849 as FORE WORD 7 a member of the class of 1853. IIe did not complete the course, a student pranlr hav- ing brought his college career to m abrupt close. Long years afterwards his alma nlater repented of her previoas action and made up for the degree then ithheld by bestowing upon him hcr highest academic distinctions. For the ncxt four years he was z country journalist. He then joined the staR of the New York Tribune, and did some rnagazine work. During the Civil War he served for two years as special cormpondent of the New York World. He next studied law, and in 1864 becrtme connected with the work of the Union Pacific Rail- road. In 1869 he bixamc a member of the New York Stock Exchange, and for morc than thirty years his activities were devoted to banking. Throughout all these busy years he kept up his literary activities, doing editorial, critical, and original work. With Professor Woodberry he edited an edition of Poe, and in collaboration with 8 PORE WORD IIiss IIutchison the Library of Americaa Litwaiure. His most serious work rt. in the field of criticism. His Victorian Poets, Pots of America, Vicioriun Anthology, dmsrican Anthology, and hrature and Kle- merits of Poetry are performances that cmnot be bettered, As a poet Rh. Stcdman takes high rank. A sudden failure of the heart on Jannary 18, 1908, and Dead be lay among his boolrs. LUTHER A. BREWER Cedar Rapids, IowaJuly l, 1909 EDGAR ALLAN POE U EDGAR ATATJAY POE PON the roll of druerican authors a ntti, fe rercparfew namcs are written apart from talioRs. the many. With each of these is associated some accident of condition, some memory of original or eeccntric genius, through whieh it arresls attention and claims our special wonder. The light of none among these few has been more fervid and recurrent than that of Edgw rillan Poe...