Poe in Imaginative Literature, (1965), title page and table of contents

Notes:

John Edward Reilly was born in March 5, 1928 in New Rochelle, NY. After serving in the military in Germany, he earned his bachelor's degree from New York University, a master’s in English literature from Rutgers University, and a doctorate in English and American literature from the University of Virginia. He taught English at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh in the late 1950s and again in the eary to mid-1960s. In 1968, he joined the faculty of Holy Cross College, where he remained until his retirement in 1990. He was a long-time member of the American Antiquarian Society and the Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore, and a founding member of the Poe Studies Assocation. Dr. Reilly died on October 28, 2014, and is buried in Notre Dame Cemetery in Worcester, MA.

Technically, the contents of this disseration are protected by copyright, but with Dr. Reilly having died, special permission was obtained by the Poe Society from his sons for to formal approval to present this electronic version of the disseration, and we ask all users of this material to respect the copyright, and not to exceed what would typically be considered as fair use (generally interpreted as selective quotations and/or paraphrasing of only a small percentage of the total material, and with the appropriate attribution and citation). © 1966, by John Edward Reilly. (The dissertation was approved on May 4, 1965 by Dr. Floyd Stovall and Dr. James B. Colvert.)

Because the original disseration was prepared on a ordinary typewriter, with very little available in regard to formatting options, some liberties have been taken in this electronic presentation for the sake of improved appearance and readability. The use of underlines, for example, has been interpreted as indicating italics. As an amusing anecdote, one of John's sons mentions in an e-mail to the Poe Society that his father, during the process of composing the dissertation, kept a copy in the refridgerator, in case of fire. (This precaution may not have been so unusual in the days before computers and digital backups.)