Text: Editor's Foreword, “Editor's Foreword,” Papers on Poe, 1972, p. vii

[page vii:]

Editor's Foreword

 

This collection commemorates the retirement of a man who for me has been both teacher and colleague. Its subscribers and contributors, furthermore, attest to his constant devotion to humanity as well as his rigorous scholarship in the humanities. John Ostrom's abiding commitment to classic professionalism and his own detective-work in Edgar Allan Poe studies make imperative appropriate recognition. This volume attempts to provide that, for just as Professor Ostrom's interests, so do these essays treat diverse aspects of Poe and his work. Papers on Poe contains articles about Poe's philosophy of man and his place in the universe, analyses of individual poems and stories implicitly representing the Poe canon, and new insights into several biographical curiosities. The essays discuss the “shadowy sounds from visionary wings” heard distinctively by Poe, some works that he labored to set “before the eye of the world” — both the “eye” and the “I” confounded him —, and a few “intervals of horrible sanity” that filled his life. Together these fresh interpretations of topics chosen by the authors themselves focus a diffused but penetrating light upon contemporary Poe scholarship. I believe that this collection, therefore, is significant in both breadth and depth.

My acknowledgments are several: to Professor Minnie Cate Morrell, my respected colleague, for graceful guidance; to Professor Allen J. Koppenhaver, former chairman of Wittenberg's Department of English, for continuing encouragement; to Mr. Bob Lee Mowery, Director of Wittenberg University Libraries, for particular support; and to Mrs. James B. Saylor, my secretary, for managerial expertise. The greatest acknowledgment goes, of course, to John Ostrom himself, who, like Poe, believes that “ ... Literature is the most noble of professions” (Poe in a letter to Frederick W. Thomas, 14 February 1849).

R.P.V.

Wittenberg University

Springfield, Ohio