Current Poe Studies
The primary purpose of this column is to keep students of Poe and his times informed on work in progress or contemplated. It is our hope that duplicated efforts brought to general attention will result in cumulative and cooperative collaboration. We desire to list here new books, research in progress (including M.A. theses), symposiums on Romanticism, fugitive Poe references, queries, and general Poeana. We earnestly request students of Poe to send all odds and ends of such information to the Editor of the Poe Newsletter, who will attempt to present it in some orderly fashion.
Particularly important to any further study of Poe are matters of the
bibliography. The four bibliographical projects described immediately following
represent a loosely collaborative effort on the part of Poe scholars to
organize and keep track of the volume of writing on Poe; the individual
addresses of the bibliographers and reviewers are given below, but any
offprints or information sent directly to the Poe Newsletter will
be reproduced and sent to the bibliographers concerned.
Annual Poe Bibliographies
Bibliography of Poe Criticism 1827-1967
.
J. Lasley Dameron (Memphis State University) and I. B. Cauthen, Jr.
(University of Virginia) are currently working on a complete bibliography
of Poe criticism, a project now underwritten by the National Endowment
for the Humanities. Professor Dameron invites all manner of help in collecting
entries not generally listed in standard bibliographies. Address him in
care of the English Department, Memphis State University, Memphis, Tenn.
38111. Dameron has recently published Edgar Allan Poe: A Checklist of
Criticism 1942-1960 (Charlottesville: Bibliographical Society of the
University of Virginia, 1966). This Checklist represents a preliminary
step in the compilation of the complete bibliography and extends Cauthen's
"A Descriptive Bibliography of Criticism of Edgar Allan Poe, 1827-1941"
(Unpub. Master's Thesis, University of Virginia, 1942). The Checklist
contains 123 pages of annotated bibliographical entries (including
28 pages of foreign entries) and a highly useful 17-page coded index. The
Checklist was published in an issue of 500 copies, of which approximately
200 are available from the Bibliographical Society, c/o Alderman Library,
University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Va. 22901.
Descriptive Bibliography of Poe Dissertations and Theses
.
In response to J. Albert Robbins' challenge to Poe scholars to create
the basic research tools, the Poe Newsletter is undertaking an annotated
bibliography of Ph.D. dissertations and Master's theses devoted to or relevant
to Poe. Tentatively, the annotations will include both an abstract and
a brief critique; for works not already abstracted in DA, one will
be provided. Those interested in serving on the editorial staff, and those
wishing to provide a reference to a thesis or dissertation should write
to G. R. Thompson, Editor, Poe Newsletter. In addition, notices
of Master's
The Harvard Poe
.
Thomas Ollive Mabbott (St. John's University) has offered the following
report on the state of the Complete Poe:
"The Editor of the Poe Newsletter has asked me to send a report on the state of the Complete Works of Poe I am editing for Harvard Press. It is a long way from completion even now, but I am reading proof on the first volume — the Poems — at present. The Prose Fiction is almost ready for the printer. Poe text copy — almost all Xerox pasted up — for the stories is complete. The verbal variants of other authorized texts have been gathered, introductions and commentaries written and typed for almost everything. Final verification of references — by no means a simple matter — is our next task.New Index to the Harrison Poe"The critical and miscellaneous prose texts are about three-fourths pasted up. Identification of unsigned articles in periodicals Poe edited took time, but far more evidence is available than Harrison had in 1902, and the number of doubtful items is small, surprisingly so to me, I confess. We have about twenty-five percent more material than Harrison. It is not claimed that we can identify every item in the New York Evening Mirror, where Poe was one of four staff members who could use the editorial 'We,' nor in the Broadway Journal where he was one of three. But perhaps we have all we should wish for. Both sides of Poe's Correspondence are to be printed so far as texts are now available. Great emphasis is laid throughout the edition on the explanatory notes."
New Poe Studies in Progress
.
James W. Lee writes that a pamphlet on Poe by Robert Jacobs is scheduled
for publication in the Southern Writers Series late this year or early
in 1969. The Minnesota American Writers pamphlet on Poe is being written
by Roger Asselineau, publication date uncertain. R. H. W. Dillard (Hollins
College) and W. R. Robinson (University of Florida) are writing a book
on the "Poe tradition" in the Southern short-story for Louisiana State
University Press, publication date uncertain.
Just Published
.
Rutgers University Press published in February Poe the Detective:
the Curious Circumstances Behind the Mystery of Marie Roget, by John
Walsh, with a foreword by Thomas Ollive Mabbott. Mr. Walsh has investigated
the actual circumstances of the murder of Mary Rogers, combing the newspapers
of the time thoroughly; he makes observations not only on Poe's detective
work but also on his methods of composition. Scheduled for review in a
later issue of the Poe Newsletter (as are other recent publications
on or relevant to Poe).
Query
.
"I would appreciate information on any extant copies of the Spirit
of the Times (a Philadelphia newspaper that commenced in 1838) for
the years 1839-1844 — other than those listed in Winifred Gregory, American
Newspapers, 1821-1936, A Union List. Apparently Poe had some connection
with this paper and I would very much like to see unrecorded copies." —
J. A. Robbins, English Department, Indiana University, Bloomington, Ind.
47401.
G. R. T.
[S:1 - PSDR, 1968]