Jan. 19, 2009, marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Edgar Allan Poe. Poe died at 40, on Oct. 7, 1849, but his poetic and storytelling genius changed literature forever.
Looking at a historic author like Poe through the fine lens of edited works is one way to appreciate him, but another way is to look at the literary artifacts that date from his own time.
Following are images from Poe manuscripts and published works in the Berg Collection of the New York Public Library.
The engraving here is from "The Raven and Other Poems" (Wiley & Putnam, New York, 1845)The beginning of the title poem in "Tamerlane and Other Poems" (Boston, 1827). The book was published anonymously (credited to "a Bostonian"), and its preface states, "The greater part of the Poems which compose this little volume, were written in the year 1821-2, when the author had not completed his fourteenth year." According to the library, only 12 copies are known to existA letter dated Aug. 20, 1835, from Poe in Richmond, Va., to his second cousin William Poe in Augusta, Ga., discusses their relatives. He writes that his father, David Poe, "married a Mrs. Elizabeth Hopkins, an English lady, by whom he had 3 children, Henry, myself, and Rosalie. Henry died about 4 years ago — Rosalie and myself remain."
