Text: J. Lasley Dameron, “New Preface,” Selections from the Critical Writings of Edgar Allan Poe, New York: Gordian Press, 1981, pp. i-v

[page i:]

Professor Frederick Clarke Prescott, without the precedent of any previous single-volume edition of Poe's criticism, winnowed out the best of Poe's critical thought for his Selections from the Critical Writings of Edgar Allan Poe, published by Henry Holt in 1909 and now being printed by the Gordian Press. Carefully scrutinizing the bulk of Poe's critical writings — including prefaces, reviews, essays, and editorial fillers, Professor Prescott chose Poe's best and his most representative criticism. Designing his volume as a teaching edition for college or secondary school use, he presented selections chronologically, largely for the purpose of acquainting the student with the development of Poe's generic concepts. As yet, no one volume of Poe's criticism offers so much in a workable form.

Among other things, Professor Prescott was no doubt aware of Poe's inclination toward prolixity in composing reviews that had to be of a certain length and ready for printing by a deadline on occasions before Poe had ample time to think about what he was reviewing. Yet any reader who takes the time to examine the eight volumes of Poe's critical writings presented in the Virginia edition (1902) will certainly be aware of Poe's maturation as a critic and his growing mastery of aesthetic principles.

Professor Prescott's critical and editorial capacities are very evident throughout the volume. Teacher, author, and editor — he died at the age of 85 as Emeritus Professor of English at Cornell University with an impressive bibliography to his credit. His Poetry and Dreams (Boston: R.G. Badger, 1912) and The Poetic Mind (New York: Macmillan, 1922) reflect his interest in the psychoanalytical [page ii:] approach to the study of literature. According to July 28, 1957, issue of the New York Times, Professor Prescott taught the “Psychology of Poetry” at Cornell for twenty years and was among the first to apply “Freudian psychoanalytic theory to literature.” In 1932, the University of Vermont conferred upon him an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters. Examples of his editorial work, aside from his volume of Poe criticism, include Prose and Poetry of the Revolution (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1925), coedited with John H. Nelson; and An Introduction to American Poetry (New York: F.S. Crofts, 1932), coedited with Gerald D. Sanders. As an accomplished scholar, he was absolutely correct in drawing upon the standard text of Poe's writing, the Virginia edition (The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe. Edited by James A. Harrison. 17 vols. New York: T. Y..Crowell, 1902) and in selecting the first printed text of some of Poe's articles.

Most importantly, Professor Prescott, at a time when Poe's criticism was neglected, found Poe's reviews and essays to be valid expressions of Poe's artistic credo. He was among the first to emphasize the fact that Poe's criticism both explains and complements his poetry and fiction. Unlike many of his predecessors, he had little to say about Poe's personality and character, but concentrated on his cultural heritage and background. His chief concern was the presentation of Poe as a serious critic whose insights are perceptive, balanced, and largely generic. Except in two instances — Poe's reviews of Drake's Culprit Fay and of Bryant's Poems — he offers here the complete text of Poe's compositions, which he explicates and enhances by copious and instructive notes. His introduction still stands as a model of meticulous scholarship. His judgments are substantiated by carefully chosen citations from a variety of Poe's works. His cross-references are most helpful in understanding the diversity of Poe's views on several aesthetic questions Poe entertained throughout his career. In all probability, Professor Prescott in preparing this edition [page iii:] largely benefited [[benefitted]] from the aid he acknowledged from one of Poe's most distinguished biographers and editors — George Edward Woodberry. Woodberry's The Life of Edgar Allan Poe, Personal and Literary 2 vols. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1909) and Professor Prescott's edition appeared in the same year — 1909, the centennial year of Poe's birth. During 1909, Poe was honored as no other American writer had ever been honored by the Anglo-American world.

But Professor Prescott does not overpraise Poe, nor does he hesitate to point out certain elements of narrowness in some of Poe's critical pronouncements. Like Robert Jacobs in his Poe: Journalist and Critic (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1969), he recognized Poe's breadth as a generic critic. Both find Poe to be a hard-working magazinist who stressed the value of criticism for its own sake and who formulated critical principles of art throughout his life.

Since Prescott's edition, scholars have made notable contributions to our understanding of Poe's criticism, especially its influence, origins, and magazine milieu. This scholarship includes the following: (1) Poe's intimate knowledge of and reliance upon current periodical literature (Margaret Alterton, The Origins of Poe's Critical Theory, Iowa City: University of Iowa, 1925); (2) his debt to eighteenth-century ideas, especially the common-sense school of Scottish philosophy (Robert D. Jacobs, Poe: Journalist and Critic); (3) his importance in the development of literary theory throughout Europe, particularly Symbolism (Célestin P. Cambiaire, P. Cambiaire, The Influence of Edgar Allan Poe in France, New York: G.E. Stechert, 1927, and Carl L. Anderson, Poe in Northlight: The Scandinavian Response to His Life and Work, Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1973); and his contributions to the theory and practice of short fiction (Arthur H. Quinn, “Edgar Allan Poe and the Establishment of the Short Story,” American Fiction: An Historical and Critical Survey, New York: D. Appleton-Century, 1936, pp[[.]] 77-101, and George D. Snell, “Poe,” The Shapers of American [page iv:] Fiction, 1798-1947, New York: E.P. Dutton, 1947, pp. 45-60). One recent collection of Poe's critical writings, but not nearly so complete as Prescott's, is Literary Criticism of Edgar Allan Poe, edited by Robert L. Hough (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1965). Two additional works of significant importance in shedding light upon Poe as critic are Sidney P. Moss, Poe's Literary Battles: The Critic in the Context of His Literary Milieu (Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1963) and Michael Allen, Poe and the British Magazine Tradition (New York: Oxford University Press, 1969). For more references, see Edgar Allan Poe: A Bibiography of Criticism, 1827-1967 compiled by Irby B. Cauthen, Jr., and J. Lasley Dameron (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1974) and checklists of criticism on Poe (beginning with the year 1967) presently available in issues of Poe Studies.

Bringing Professor Prescott's edition up to date does necessitate a few revisions in his introduction and notes. First, some comments in the introduction concerning Poe's cultural background should be modified. Recent scholars would argue that John Keats and Percy Shelley exerted more influence on Poe's critical thought than did Hazlitt and Wordsworth from whom (along with Coleridge), argues Prescott, Poe learned a great deal about criticism (xxxv). Poe's concept of the short poem was no doubt derived from a variety of sources, including Coleridge's Biographia Literaria — the one and only source proposed by Professor Prescott (xxxiii). Poe's reading was not wholly desultory, as Professor Prescott assumes, nor was his learning insufficient (xxvi). The most apparent inaccuracy Professor Prescott makes in his introduction is this blanket indictment of Poe's associates:

To the contrary, recent scholars point to Poe's cultural Opportunities and rich associations with people like John Pendleton Kennedy and George R. Graham. See, for example, Robert Jacobs, Poe: Journalist and Critic, and The Courage of a Critic: Edgar Poe as Editor (Baltimore: The Edgar Allan Poe Society, 1971); Arthur Hobson Quinn, Edgar Allan Poe: A Critical Biography (New York: D. Appleton-Century, 1941); and Richard Beale Davis, Intellectual Life in Jefferson's Virginia (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1964).

Secondly, in three instances Professor Prescott alludes to specific titles which Poe did not compose. Although included in the standard Virginia edition, the following reviews (see my note “Thomas Ollive Mabbott on the Canon of Poe's Reviews,” Poe Studies, 5, Dec. 1972, p. 56) should not be attributed to Poe: Professor Prescott in quoting from John Macy, “The Fame of Poe,” Atlantic Monthly, 102 (Dec. 1908), 832 [[836]]. 1) G.W. Featherstonhaugh's I Promessi Sposi (xxii); 2) Bryant's Poems published in the Southern Literary Messenger, January, 1835, and in the Virginia edition, VIII, pp. 1-2 (Notes, 32:1, p. 327); and 3) The Poems of Alfred Tennyson appearing in Graham's Magazine, September, 1842, and in the Virginia edition, XI, pp. 127-131 (Notes, 253:23, p. 345).

Remarkably, only a few editorial changes are required to update this functional one-volume edition of Poe's criticism designed for classroom use. As critic, Professor Prescott was a pioneer in perceiving the breadth and independence of Poe's critical mind. At the same time, however, he recognized Poe's limitations and prejudices. In 1909, when his edition appeared, few Americans were aware of Poe's accomplished criticism. Even now, when we revere Poe as a leading American critic, no definitive edition of his essays and reviews exists.

J. Lasley Dameron

November 4, 1980