1890 Rare Book - The Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe, Illustrated
An attractive late nineteenth-century edition of Poe’s poetry and critical writings, richly illustrated and preserved in its striking original gilt-decorated Moxon binding.
Author: POE, Edgar Allan (William Michael Rossetti, editor).
Title: The Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe, Together with His Essays on the Poetic Principle and the Philosophy of Composition, and a Critical Memoir.
Publisher: London, Ward, Lock & Co., Limited, [circa 1890s]. Moxon’s Popular Poets series.
Edition: Illustrated edition edited by William Michael Rossetti. Undated, with an early ownership inscription dated July 1903.
Language: Text in English.
Pages: cxi + 254 pages, followed by publisher’s catalogue.
Size: 7.5 x 5 inches.
Binding: Very good original blue-green decorated cloth binding, elaborately stamped in gilt and black on the front board and spine, with all edges gilt. Light rubbing and wear at the extremities and light toning to the rear cover, as shown. Binding remains firm and highly attractive. Protected in a removable mylar cover.
Content: Very good content, complete and firmly bound, with light general toning to the pages consistent with age. Early ownership inscriptions to the front endpaper, including one dated July 1903, as shown.
Illustrations: Illustrated throughout with a portrait frontispiece of Edgar Allan Poe, protected by tissue guard, and numerous engraved illustrations by John Tenniel, Birket Foster, Felix Darley, F. R. Pickersgill, Jasper Cropsey, and others. Decorative headings, borders, and ornaments throughout.
Estimate: USD 300–350.
The book: A handsome illustrated collection from the Moxon’s Popular Poets series, bringing together Poe’s principal poems with his celebrated essays The Poetic Principle and The Philosophy of Composition, as well as a substantial critical memoir. The volume includes such major works as The Raven, Lenore, The Bells, Ulalume, Annabel Lee, and The Conqueror Worm.
The illustrations are especially notable, including several evocative interpretations of The Raven by John Tenniel, better known as the original illustrator of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. The elaborate Victorian binding, gilt edges, red-ruled page borders, engraved ornaments, and extensive introductory material make this an unusually decorative presentation of Poe’s poetry.
The editor: William Michael Rossetti (1829–1919) was an English writer, critic, and editor, and a founding member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Brother of Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Christina Rossetti, he became an important commentator on nineteenth-century art and literature and edited numerous editions of major poets.
His editorial work helped introduce and preserve the writings of earlier and contemporary literary figures for Victorian readers. In this edition, Rossetti combines Poe’s poetry and critical writings with biographical and explanatory material, presenting the author as both poet and literary theorist.
The author: Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849) was an American poet, author, editor, and literary critic whose work profoundly influenced Gothic fiction, detective literature, science fiction, and modern poetry. His best-known writings include The Raven, The Tell-Tale Heart, The Fall of the House of Usher, The Black Cat, and The Murders in the Rue Morgue.
Poe’s poetry is celebrated for its musicality, melancholy atmosphere, and recurring preoccupations with beauty, loss, memory, and death. His essays on poetic composition were equally influential, offering an unusually deliberate account of literary technique and helping establish Poe as one of the most important figures in nineteenth-century American literature.