Poe, Edgar Allan:

$3,850 · Offered by William Reese Company

THE WORKS OF THE LATE EDGAR ALLAN POE: WITH NOTICES OF HIS LIFE AND GENIUS... IN TWO VOLUMES. First edition, first printings of the first two volumes of Poe's posthumously collected works which would, by 1856, extend to four volumes. As proper, these volumes are in matching bindings (BAL's binding A). Edited by Rufus Griswold, with prefatory essays by J.R. Lowell (revised from its appearance in GRAHAM'S MAGAZINE in Feb. 1845), and "Death of Edgar A. Poe" by N.P. Willis (reprinted from the number of HOME JOURNAL published the week Poe died). The whole is preceded by a note "To the Reader" by Maria Clemm, Poe's mother-in-law. The portrait is an engraving by J. Sartain. "Mrs. Clemm persuaded Griswold a few days after Poe's death to be his literary executor, claiming that Poe had asked for him. The news that Griswold would be the editor of Poe's collected works raised a clamor from Poe's supporters. Griswold was not willing to give up the executorship so long as he believed it was Poe's wish. Griswold used his editing of Poe's works to purge uncomplimentary references to his own work, and he inserted material into letters from Poe that made Poe seem dependent on him and treacherous to other editors such as George Graham, Louis Godey, and George W. Eveleth. His forgeries were not discovered at the time" (ANB). The first volume collects the "Tales" and the second "Poems and Miscellanies." The subsequent third volume, THE LITERATI... included a controversial "Sketch" by Griswold, an

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