1886 Rare Book - Poems, The Fall of the House of Usher by of Edgar Allan Poe

Author: Edgar Allan Poe. Edited by Joseph Skipsey.
Title: The Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe. With a Prefatory Notice, Biographical and Critical.
Publisher: London, Walter Scott, 24 Warwick Lane, Paternoster Row, and Newcastle-on-Tyne, 1886.
Language: Text in English. 
Size: 6 x 4.5 inches.
Pages: viii, 288 pages, followed by publisher’s catalogue.
Binding: Very good original publisher’s dark blue cloth binding, with printed paper title label to the spine. Light rubbing and minor wear to corners and spine ends, with a few small marks to the boards. Spine label lightly toned and rubbed, but still legible. Hinges fine, binding sound and well preserved. Protected in a removable mylar cover. 
Content: Very good condition. Light to moderate foxing, mainly to the outer edge, preliminary leaves, and final pages, as shown. Early ownership inscription dated 1889 on front free endpaper, with small old bookplate or ownership label to front pastedown. Interior otherwise clean and well kept.
Illustrations: Not illustrated, but attractively printed with red ruled borders to the title page and contents pages, decorative headpieces, initials, and ornaments throughout.

Estimate: (USD 250 – 300)

The book: The Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe is a handsome late-Victorian edition of Poe’s poems, published by Walter Scott in 1886, with a prefatory biographical and critical notice by Joseph Skipsey. The volume includes many of Poe’s most celebrated poems, among them The Raven, Lenore, The Bells, The Conqueror Worm, Annabel Lee, Ulalume, Eldorado, A Dream within a Dream, The City in the Sea, and To Helen.

This edition also includes a selection of prose extracts, notably The Poetic Principle, Ligeia, The Fall of the House of Usher, The Masque of the Red Death, and The Assignation. Its compact format, red-and-black decorative printing, and sober cloth binding with spine label give it the character of an attractive literary pocket edition of the late nineteenth century.

The author: Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849) was one of the most influential American writers of the nineteenth century, celebrated as a poet, critic, and master of the short story. His works helped shape modern Gothic fiction, detective fiction, psychological horror, and the literature of the macabre. Poems such as The Raven and Annabel Lee remain among the most enduring in American literature, admired for their musicality, atmosphere, and haunting emotional power.

The editor: Joseph Skipsey (1832–1903) was an English poet, critic, and editor, often remembered as the “pitman poet” because of his early life working in the coal mines of Northumberland. His literary work and editorial contributions helped bring important poets to Victorian readers, and his prefatory notice in this edition places Poe within the broader literary and critical imagination of the period.