Searching the Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe

Due to the overhead of creating and supporting an independent search function, this site does not currently have such a capability internally. Fortunately, searching of the site may be accomplished through the use of a commercial search engine, like GOOGLE, and probably better than we could do it anyway. Select the scope of the search and press “submit.” The user will then be taken to the search results, with the appropriate domain and sub-directory restriction already applied, based on the selection. (Formerly, for GOOGLE, we used the advanced search box with parameters preset, but GOOGLE appears to have dropped support for this option at the beginning of 2025.)

 
Tips:

• The appropriate directory will be determined based on the selection made above. It is not possible to specify multiple directories for a single search.
• Our web site is structured in such a way that the file names displayed for the search results give some idea as to whether the resulting page is a tale, poem, letter, etc. Admittedly, the actual file names are somewhat cryptic, but at least the path names are somewhat meaningful. For example:
  • “www.eapoe.org/works/tales/morguec.htm” is one of several versions of Poe's tale “The Murders in the Rue Morgue.”
  • “www.eapoe.org/works/letters/p2910300.htm” is one of Poe's letters, dated October 30, 1829.
• When searching within full books, such as the Mabbott and Pollin editions, it may be a good idea to start with the indexes that were provided with the original print editions. In the online versions, the refereneces in these indexes have been linked to the corresponding page. One advantage of an index over searching is that a good subject index is often more comprehensive. For example, if one is searching for references in Poe's works to William Shakespeare, searching for “Shakespeare“ will miss instances where Poe spells the name in the older form of “Shakspeare” It will also miss notes that refer only to specific plays, such as Hamlet or Julius Ceasar without repeating the name of Shakespeare. There is a similar issue if one is searching for Griswold's “Poets and Poetry of America”, where a search will turn up references to the book and to Poe's lecture of the same name. It will also fail to find a reference in Poe' letters where he only comments, without giving the title, on “Griswold's new book.” In addition, a good subject index can also provide references that combine two or more subjects, in a context that might not show up in a search. Of course, it must also be admitted that even a good subject index may omit some references in error or to save space when there are a lot of such references. It is also true that not every book has an index, and some indexes are better formed than others.