Allen, Hervey. Israfel: The Life and Times of Edgar Allan Poe. New York: Farrar and Rinehart, 1934.
Allen, Michael. Poe and the British Magazine Tradition. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1969.
Asselineau, Roger. Edgar Allan Poe. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1970.
Baudelaire, Charles. Baudelaire on Poe: Critical Papers, trans. Lois Hyslop and Francis E. Hyslop. State College, PA: Bald Eagle Press, 1952.
Benton, Richard P., ed. New Approaches to Poe: A Symposium. Hartford, CT: Transcendental Books, 1970.
Buranelli, Vincent. Edgar Allan Poe, 2nd ed. Boston: Twayne, 1977.
Broussard, Louis. The Measure of Poe. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1969.
Campbell, Killis. The Mind of Poe and Other Studies. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1933.
Carlson, Eric W., ed. The Recognition of Edgar Allan Poe: Selected Criticism since 1829. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1966.
Davidson, Edward H. Poe: A Critical Study. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1957.
Eliot, T.S. “From Poe to Valery.” Hudson Review 2 (1949): 327–43.
Fagin, N. Bryllion. The Histrionic Mr. Poe. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1949.
Fiedler, Leslie A. Love and Death in the American Novel, rev. ed. New York: Stein and Day, 1966.
Hoffman, Daniel G. Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1972.
Howarth, William L., ed. Twentieth Century Interpretations of Poe’s Tales: A Collection of Critical Essays. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1971.
Jacobs, Robert D. Poe: Journalist and Critic. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1969.
Ketterer, David. The Rationale of Deception in Poe. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1979.
Lawrence, D. H. Studies in Classic American Literature. London: Seltzer, 1924.
Levin, Harry. The Power of Blackness: Hawthorne, Poe, Melville. New York: Knopf, 1958.
Miller, Perry. The Raven and the Whale: The War of Words and Wits in the Era of Poe and Melville. New York: Harcourt Brace, 1956.
Pollin, Burton R. Discoveries in Poe. Notre Dame, IN: Notre Dame University Press, 1970.
Praz, Mario. “Poe and Psychoanalysis.” Sewanee Review 68 (1960): 374–90.
Quinn, Patrick F. The French Face of Poe. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1957.
Regan, Robert, ed. Poe: A Collection of Critical Essays. Engle-wood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1967.
Rein, David. Edgar Allan Poe: The Inner Pattern. New York: Philosophic Library, 1960.
Shulman, Robert. “Poe and the Powers of the Mind.” Journal of English Literary History 37 (1970): 245–62.
Stovall, Floyed. Edgar Allan Poe the Poet: Essays Old and New on the Man and His Work. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1969.
Symons, Julian. The Tell-Tale Heart: The Life and Works of Edgar Allan Poe. New York: Harper & Row, 1978.
Thompson, G. R. Poe’s Fiction: Romantic Irony in the Gothic Tales. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1973.
Wagenknecht, Edward. Edgar Allan Poe: The Man Behind the Legend. New York: Oxford University Press, 1963.
Walsh, John Evangelist. Plumes in the Dust. The Love Affair of Edgar Allan Poe and Fanny Osgood. Chicago: Nelson-Hall, 1980.
Williams, William Carlos. In the American Grain. Norfolk, CT: New Directions, 1925.
Winters, Yvor. Maule’s Curse: Seven Studies in the History of American Obscurantism. Norfolk, CT: New Directions, 1938.
Woodberry, George E. Edgar Allan Poe. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1885.
Woodson, Thomas, ed. Twentieth Century Interpretations of The Fall of the House of Usher. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1969.
EDGAR ALLAN POE, in his short, troubled life, originated the mystery story, brought new psychological depth to the tale of horror, and made inimitable contributions to Romantic poetry and literary criticism. Yet bad luck, pride, and a difficult temperament kept him in a lifelong struggle with poverty and illness.
Born in Boston in 1809 to itinerant actors, Poe was orphaned as an infant and sent to live with a Richmond merchant, John Allan. Allan sent him to the University of Virginia in 1826, but Poe withdrew because of gambling debts. In 1830, with his first book of poems already published, he entered West Point but was dishonorably discharged the next year, and his relationship with Allan, always stormy, broke off completely. In the next five years Poe’s stories began to be published and praised, and Poe grew close to a young cousin, Virginia Clemm. In 1835 Poe was chosen editor of the Southern Literary Messenger. In 1836 he married Virginia, listing her age as twenty-one; she was actually thirteen years old.
The family—Poe, his bride, and her mother—moved to Philadelphia and then New York. Contributing to a newspaper and editing magazines, Poe eked out a marginal living while publishing dozens of his stories and poems. He was a combative but brilliant editor, yet he never received adequate pay for his accomplishments. He was already established as an author when, in 1845, the publication of “The Raven” made him famous. He began his own magazine, Broadway Journal. But in 1846 the magazine went bankrupt, and in 1847, after years of suffering, Poe’s wife died of consumption. His ill health and drinking worsened. In October 1849 he was found semiconscious outside a polling place in Baltimore; a few days later he died without regaining consciousness.
Ignored for the most part by his countrymen, he was idolized by the French Symbolists, who thought of him as the first modern poet and helped to win him the recognition that he is now regarded to have deserved.
ASK YOUR BOOKSELLER FOR THESE
BANTAM CLASSICS
BEOWULF AND OTHER ENGLISH POEMS, 0-553-21347-4
THE BHAGAVAD-GITA: KRISHNA’S COUNSEL in Time of War, 0-553-21365-2
THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE and THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES, 0-553-21482-9
THE FEDERALIST PAPERS, 0-553-21340-7
FOUR GREAT AMERICAN CLASSICS: The Scarlet Letter; The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn; The Red Badge of Courage; Billy Budd, Sailor, 0-553-21362-8
GREEK DRAMA, 0-553-21221-4
JO’S BOYS, Louisa May Alcott, 0-553-21449-7
LITTLE WOMEN, Louisa May Alcott, 0-553-21275-3
WINESBURG, OHIO, Sherwood Anderson, 0-553-21439-X
THE COMPLETE PLAYS, Aristophanes, 0-553-21343-1
EMMA, Jane Austen, 0-553-21273-7
MANSFIELD PARK, Jane Austen, 0-553-21276-1
NORTHANGER ABBEY, Jane Austen, 0-553-21197-8
PERSUASION, Jane Austen, 0-553-21137-4
PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, Jane Austen, 0-553-21310-5
SENSE AND SENSIBILITY, Jane Austen, 0-553-21334-2
PETER PAN, J. M. Barrie, 0-553-21178-1
BRADBURY CLASSIC STORIES, Ray Bradbury, 0-553-28637-4
THE MARTIAN CHRONICLES, Ray Bradbury, 0-553-27822-3
JANE EYRE, Charlotte Brontë, 0-553-21140-4
VILLETTE, Charlotte Brontë, 0-553-21243-5
WUTHERING HEIGHTS, Emily Brontë, 0-553-21258-3
THE SECRET GARDEN, Frances Hodgson Burnett, 0-553-21201-X
ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND & THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS, Lewis Carroll, 0-553-21345-8
MY ÁNTONIA, Willa Cather, 0-553-21418-7
O PIONEERS!, Willa Cather, 0-553-21358-X
THE CANTERBURY TALES, Geoffrey Chaucer, 0-553-21082-3
STORIES, Anton Chekhov, 0-553-38100-8
THE AWAKENING, Kate Chopin, 0-553-21330-X
THE WOMAN IN WHITE, Wilkie Collins, 0-553-21263-X
HEART OF DARKNESS and THE SECRET SHARER, Joseph Conrad, 0-553-21214-1
LORD JIM, Joseph Conrad, 0-553-21361-X
THE DEERSLAYER, James Fenimore Cooper, 0-553-21085-8
THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS, James Fenimore Cooper, 0-553-21329-6
MAGGIE: A GIRL OF THE STREETS AND OTHER SHORT FICTION, Stephen Crane, 0-553-21355-5
THE RED BADGE OF COURAGE, Stephen Crane, 0-553-21011-4
; THE INFERNO, Dante, 0-553-21339-3
PARADISO, Dante, 0-553-21204-4
PURGATORIO, Dante, 0-553-21344-X
THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES, Charles Darwin, 0-553-21463-2
MOLL FLANDERS, Daniel Defoe, 0-553-21328-8
ROBINSON CRUSOE, Daniel Defoe, 0-553-21373-3
BLEAK HOUSE, Charles Dickens, 0-553-21223-0
A CHRISTMAS CAROL, Charles Dickens, 0-553-21244-3
DAVID COPPERFIELD, Charles Dickens, 0-553-21189-7
GREAT EXPECTATIONS, Charles Dickens, 0-553-21342-3
HARD TIMES, Charles Dickens, 0-553-21016-5
OLIVER TWIST, Charles Dickens, 0-553-21102-1
THE PICKWICK PAPERS, Charles Dickens, 0-553-21123-4
A TALE OF TWO CITIES, Charles Dickens, 0-553-21176-5
THREE SOLDIERS, John Dos Passos, 0-553-21456-X
THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV, Fyodor Dostoevsky, 0-553-21216-8
CRIME AND PUNISHMENT, Fyodor Dostoevsky, 0-553-21175-7
THE ETERNAL HUSBAND AND OTHER STORIES, Fyodor Dostoevsky, 0-553-21444-6
THE IDIOT, Fyodor Dostoevsky, 0-553-21352-0
NOTES FROM UNDERGROUND, Fyodor Dostoevsky, 0-553-21144-7
SHERLOCK HOLMES VOL I, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 0-553-21241-9
SHERLOCK HOLMES VOL II, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 0-553-21242-7
SISTER CARRIE, Theodore Dreiser, 0-553-21374-1
THE SOULS OF BLACK FOLK, W. E. B. Du Bois, 0-553-21336-9
THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO, Alexandre Dumas, 0-553-21350-4
THE THREE MUSKETEERS, Alexandre Dumas, 0-553-21337-7
MIDDLEMARCH, George Eliot, 0-553-21180-3
SILAS MARNER, George Eliot, 0-553-21229-X
SELECTED ESSAYS, LECTURES, AND POEMS, Ralph Waldo Emerson, 0-553-21388-1
TEN PLAYS BY EURIPIDES, Euripides, 0-553-21363-6
APRIL MORNING, Howard Fast, 0-553-27322-1
MADAME BOVARY, Gustave Flaubert, 0-553-21341-5
HOWARDS END, E. M. Forster, 0-553-21208-7
A ROOM WITH A VIEW, E. M. Forster, 0-553-21323-7
THE DIARY OF A YOUNG GIRL, Anne Frank, 0-553-57712-3
ANNE FRANK’S TALES FROM THE SECRET ANNEX, Anne Frank, 0-553-58638-6
THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND OTHER WRITINGS, Benjamin Franklin, 0-553-21075-0
THE YELLOW WALLPAPER AND OTHER WRITINGS, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, 0-553-21375-X
FAUST: FIRST PART, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 0-553-21348-2
THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS, Kenneth Grahame, 0-553-21368-7
THE COMPLETE FAIRY TALES OF THE BROTHERS GRIMM, The Brothers Grimm, 0-553-38216-0
ROOTS, Alex Haley, 0-440-17464-3
FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD, Thomas Hardy, 0-553-21331-8
JUDE THE OBSCURE, Thomas Hardy, 0-553-21191-9
THE MAYOR OF CASTERBRIDGE, Thomas Hardy, 0-553-21024-6
THE RETURN OF THE NATIVE, Thomas Hardy, 0-553-21269-9
TESS OF THE D’URBERVILLES, Thomas Hardy, 0-553-21168-4
THE HOUSE OF THE SEVEN GABLES, Nathaniel Hawthorne, 0-553-21270-2
THE SCARLET LETTER, Nathaniel Hawthorne, 0-553-21009-2
THE FAIRY TALES OF HERMANN HESSE, Hermann Hesse, 0-553-37776-0
SIDDHARTHA, Hermann Hesse, 0-553-20884-5
THE ODYSSEY OF HOMER, Homer, 0-553-21399-7
THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME, Victor Hugo, 0-553-21370-9
FOUR GREAT PLAYS: A DOLL’S HOUSE, GHOSTS, AN ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE, and THE WILD DUCK: Henrik Ibsen, 0-553-21280-X
THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY, Henry James, 0-553-21127-7
THE TURN OF THE SCREW AND OTHER SHORT FICTION, Henry James, 0-553-21059-9
A COUNTRY DOCTOR, Sarah Orne Jewett, 0-553-21498-5
DUBLINERS, James Joyce, 0-553-21380-6
A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN, James Joyce, 0-553-21404-7
THE METAMORPHOSIS, Franz Kafka, 0-553-21369-5
THE STORY OF MY LIFE, Helen Keller, 0-553-21387-3
CAPTAINS COURAGEOUS, Rudyard Kipling, 0-553-21190-0
THE JUNGLE BOOKS, Rudyard Kipling, 0-553-21199-4
KIM, Rudyard Kipling, 0-553-21332-6
LADY CHATTERLEY’S LOVER, D. H. Lawrence, 0-553-21262-1
SONS AND LOVERS, D. H. Lawrence, 0-553-21192-7
WOMEN IN LOVE, D. H. Lawrence, 0-553-21454-3
THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, Gaston Leroux, 0-553-21376-8
BABBITT, Sinclair Lewis, 0-553-21486-1
MAIN STREET, Sinclair Lewis, 0-553-21451-9
THE CALL OF THE WILD and WHITE FANG, Jack London, 0-553-21233-8
THE SEA WOLF, Jack London, 0-553-21225-7
TO BUILD A FIRE AND OTHER STORIES, Jack London, 0-553-21335-0
THE PRINCE, Niccolò Machiavelli, 0-553-21278-8
DEATH IN VENICE AND OTHER STORIES, Thomas Mann, 0-553-21333-4
THE COMMUNIST MANIFESTO, Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels, 0-553-21406-3
OF HUMAN BONDAGE, W. Somerset Maugham, 0-553-21392-X
THE BALLAD OF THE SAD CAFE AND OTHER STORIES, Carson McCullers, 0-553-27254-3
THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER, Carson McCullers, 0-553-26963-1
THE MEMBER OF THE WEDDING, Carson McCullers, 0-553-25051-5
BILLY BUDD, SAILOR AND OTHER STORIES, Herman Melville, 0-553-21274-5
MOBY-DICK, Herman Melville, 0-553-21311-3
ON LIBERTY and UTILITARIANISM, John Stuart Mill, 0-553-21414-4
THE ANNOTATED MILTON, John Milton, 0-553-58110-4
THE SCARLET PIMPERNEL, Baroness Emmuska Orczy, 0-553-21402-0
COMMON SENSE, Thomas Paine, 0-553-21465-9
THE DIALOGUES OF PLATO, Plato, 0-553-21371-7
THE TELL-TALE HEART AND OTHER WRITINGS, Edgar Allan Poe, 0-553-21228-1
CYRANO DE BERGERAC, Edmond Rostand, 0-553-21360-1
IVANHOE, Sir Walter Scott, 0-553-21326-1
THE COMPLETE WORKS OF SHAKESPEARE (29 vols.), William Shakespeare
PYGMALION and MAJOR BARBARA, George Bernard Shaw, 0-553-21408-X
FRANKENSTEIN, Mary Shelley, 0-553-21247-8
THE JUNGLE, Upton Sinclair, 0-553-21245-1
THE WEALTH OF NATIONS, Adam Smith, 0-553-58597-5
ONE DAY IN THE LIFE OF IVAN DENISOVICH, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, 0-553-24777-8
THE COMPLETE PLAYS OF SOPHOCLES, Sophocles, 0-553-21354-7
DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE, Robert Louis Stevenson, 0-553-21277-X
KIDNAPPED, Robert Louis Stevenson, 0-553-21260-5
TREASURE ISLAND, Robert Louis Stevenson, 0-553-21249-4
DRACULA, Bram Stoker, 0-553-21271-0
UNCLE TOM’S CABIN, Harriet Beecher Stowe, 0-553-21218-4
GULLIVER’S TRAVELS AND OTHER WRITINGS, Jonathan Swift, 0-553-21232-X
VANITY FAIR, William Makepeace Thackeray, 0-553-21462-4
WALDEN AND OTHER WRITINGS, Henry David Thoreau, 0-553-21246-X
DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA, Alexis de Tocqueville, 0-553-21464-0
ANNA KARENINA, Leo Tolstoy, 0-553-21346-6
THE DEATH OF IVAN ILYICH, Leo Tolstoy, 0-553-21035-1
THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN, Mark Twain, 0-553-21079-3
THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER, Mark Twain, 0-553-21128-5
THE COMPLETE SHORT STORIES OF MARK TWAIN, Mark Twain, 0-553-21195-1
A CONNECTICUT YANKEE IN KING ARTHUR’S COURT, Mark Twain, 0-553-21143-9
LIFE ON THE MISSISSIPPI, Mark Twain, 0-553-21349-0
THE PRINCE AND THE PAUPER, Mark Twain, 0-553-21256-7
PUDD’NHEAD WILSON, Mark Twain, 0-553-21158-7
20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA, Jules Verne, 0-553-21252-4
AROUND THE WORLD IN EIGHTY DAYS, Jules Verne, 0-553-21356-3
FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON, Jules Verne, 0-553-21420-9
THE AENEID OF VIRGIL, Virgil, 0-553-21041-6
CANDIDE, Voltaire, 0-553-21166-8
THE INVISIBLE MAN, H. G. Wells, 0-553-21353-9
THE ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU, H. G. Wells, 0-553-21432-2
THE TIME MACHINE, H. G. Wells, 0-553-21351-2
THE WAR OF THE WORLDS, H. G
. Wells, 0-553-21338-5
THE AGE OF INNOCENCE, Edith Wharton, 0-553-21450-0
THE CUSTOM OF THE COUNTRY, Edith Wharton, 0-553-21393-8
ETHAN FROME AND OTHER SHORT FICTION, Edith Wharton, 0-553-21255-9
THE HOUSE OF MIRTH, Edith Wharton, 0-553-21320-2
SUMMER, Edith Wharton, 0-553-21422-5
LEAVES OF GRASS, Walt Whitman, 0-553-21116-1
THE ACCIDENT, Elie Wiesel, 0-553-58170-8
DAWN, Elie Wiesel, 0-553-22536-7
NIGHT, Elie Wiesel, 0-553-27253-5
THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY AND OTHER WRITINGS, Oscar Wilde, 0-553-21254-0
THE SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON, Johann David Wyss, 0-553-21403-9
EARLY AFRICAN-AMERICAN CLASSICS, 0-553-21379-2
FIFTY GREAT SHORT STORIES, 0-553-27745-6
FIFTY GREAT AMERICAN SHORT STORIES, 0-553-27294-2
SHORT SHORTS, 0-553-27440-6
GREAT AMERICAN SHORT STORIES, 0-440-33060-2
SHORT STORY MASTERPIECES, 0-440-37864-8
THE VOICE THAT IS GREAT WITHIN US, 0-553-26263-7
THE BLACK POETS, 0-553-27563-1
THREE CENTURIES OF AMERICAN POETRY, (Trade) 0-553-37518-0, (Hardcover) 0-553-10250-8
THE TELL-TALE HEART AND OTHER WRITINGS
A Bantam Book
PUBLISHING HISTORY
The poems and stories in this volume are based on the “Virginia” edition of 1902. Where several versions of a poem are available, selections reflect the preferences of modern Poe scholarship.
For permission to reprint the manuscript version of “Ulalume—A Ballad,” grateful acknowledgment is made to The Pierpont Morgan Library.
Bantam Classic edition / February 1982
Bantam Classic reissue / October 2004
Published by
Bantam Dell
A Division of Random House, Inc.
New York, New York
All rights reserved
The copyrighted portions of this book may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the publisher, except where permitted by law. For information address: Bantam Books, New York, New York.