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 EDGAR ALLAN POE

Review of My Two Books By Prof. Tom Graves
Editor, Blog Scarriet & Prof. Lesley University,
Cambridge, MA, US
1.The Haunted Palace
I have finished your book. It is an admirable study---mostly for its focused and sober affirmation of Poe's principles of "unity, limit, and intensity" within the mingling realms of the "ratiocinative, arabesque, gothic, satiric, burlesque" trailing along the liquid borders of "poetry, tale, essay," and novel amidst gloomy and glorious "rhythm, incident, and tone" by fine degrees.
I did enjoy your take on Hans Pfall and the balloon hoax. Poe always slips in extra symbols in case we don't have enough!
As an added bonus, you give a calm and thorough overview of Poe's critical reception in a calm manner--- mine is the over-excited approach; I sneer and yell at Poe's detractors (they were legion) whereas you take a more measured position which is fitting for scholarship. Winters and "one-eyed" Eliot mostly ignored the fiction, true; so did Harold Bloom, who viciously attacked Poe in the New York Review of Books Oct 11 1984 in a review of Poe's two Library of America volumes (Hilton Kramer sent them to me as a gift). Bloom champions Emerson in this review of Poe I've mentioned, and Mr. Emerson also is guilty of disliking Poe in a narrow manner, leaving the world only his "jingle man" slur in a private conversation. Huxley's smear of Poe is included in a textbook! Understanding Poetry by Brooks and Warren, the most used textbook in the mid-20th century. Poe hatred runs deep. Jill Lepore also smeared Poe more recently in the New Yorker. It doesn't stop, unfortunately. Most only know the "macabre" Poe who "died of drink." The question of why Poe had so many enemies is perhaps larger than Poe and is perhaps best ignored. Let those who deserve Poe be inspired by him and receive joy from him.
2.The Wizard in the Street
Ten Best Stories of Edgar Allan Poe
What a beautiful book! I love the commentary before each tale---which most such collections lack---and the illustrations, too, are wonderful.
You helped me to see how Philadelphia 1838 to 1844 was the stable home in which so many of the tales were produced. I hadn't really thought of this before. This really was the "sweet spot" of his life. "M.S." from the Baltimore period (and some would say he went to Russia during this time) already shows his genius fully formed---and he simply went on to produce masterpiece after masterpiece during that Philadelphia period, short stories which were like poems (and "Ligeia" and "Usher" contain poems), perhaps the greatest fiction the world had ever seen.
And his handwriting is exquisite and beautiful. There is no way Poe was the debased, depraved, person depicted by those who must have been (truthfully) depraved themselves!
You chose the 10 classics, the central canon which contains his unmistakable, tormented yet redeeming, genius, the group of tales which forever and unmistakably gives the lie to all those worldly influential figures like Emerson, Winters, T.S. Eliot, Henry James, and Harold Bloom, and even many of his biographers! who outright damned him. God bless you, sir! Tom
Copies are available through: bsmmurty@gmail.com

P.S. I must add the story of the cover design of my book 'The Haunted Palace'. On net one day while my book was being readied for publication I came across this illustration of Poe's story 'The Fall of the House of Usher' created as poster by the famous American artist, illustrator and sculptor, Bill Nelson. I contacted him through Facebook (and we became FB friends since) for allowing me to use the illustration for my book's cover. He gave permission and the cover was designed with his illustration. After publication of the book I sent him 2 complimentary copies of the book. Since then we are FB friends. Several of my posts are shared on his FB page and can be seen there. He is an American artist of international repute (see Google). His pictures have adorned the covers & interiors of the New Yorker, New York Times Book Review, Time, Newsweek, The Atlantic, etc. According to his FB page he lives in Austin, Texas, US. Here he is, in a typical self-portrait.

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