Text: John E. Reilly, “Preface,” Poe in Imaginative Literature, dissertation, 1965, pp. ii-iv (This material is protected by copyright)

[page ii:]

Commenting upon what he calls “the potentialities” that Edgar Allan Poe still offers to “the traditional scholarly methods of research,” Professor Jay B. Hubbell has suggested that ‘'some Poe scholar should investigate the role which Poe has played — second perhaps among famous Americans only to those of Washington and Lincoln — in the numerous poems, plays, novels, in which he has figured conspicuously.” The subject had not been entirely neglected when Professor Hubbell made his Proposal (1956). In the closing chapter to his The Histrionic Mr. Poe (1949), N. Brython Fagin examined some of the novels and dramas in which Poe appears as a character. Five years later (1954), Francis B. Dedmond published a partially annotated bibliography of drama, fiction, and poetry devoted to Poe (Bulletin of Bibliography, XXI, 107-114). Beyond these, passing attention has been given from time to time to specific items such as Mrs. Whitman's and Mrs. Osgood's verses on Poe, the Poe passage in Lowell's A Fable for Critics, Thomas Dunn English's novels which touch upon Poe, and several other satirical works which figured in Poe's literary battles. What has been neglected is a comprehensive survey of Poe in imaginative literature, and it is my aim in the present study to make up at least in part for this neglect.

I had not proceeded very far with my investigation of Poe in imaginative literature when it became apparent that the subject would [page iii:] have to be limited in several ways if it were to remain within manageable bounds. One limitation I adopted was to confine myself to imaginative literature of American origin. By doing so I have been able to make my coverage more nearly exhaustive than it possibly could be if I had taken the whole world for my stage. Furthermore, imaginative literature devoted to Poe which originates beyond America is properly a part of his foreign reputation, and this, it seems to me, is a distinct discipline within the broad field of Poe scholarship. Another limitation I adopted was to eliminate from my investigation parodies of Poe's works unless they take Poe himself as their subject. Mere burlesques of Poe's poems and tales are more than legion, but their significance is confined to measuring the popularity of Poe's works and to illustrating that Poe's style is so idiosyncratic and exaggerated it readily lends itself to imitation. Still another limitation is the elimination of dramatic adaptations of Poe's tales for the stage and, especially at the present moment, for the screen. Their significance is confined chiefly to the irony that fortunes can now be made from efforts for which Poe received but a pittance.

Even within the limitations I have adopted, this study is based upon a substantial body of material. I have tried to organize this material around the image of Poe that these imaginative works record. In dealing with the material written during Poe's lifetime, I have touched upon every item I could find in the belief that each item is of [page iv:] biographical and historical significance. Thereafter my treatment becomes increasingly selective, and I depend upon the reader to consult the bibliography appended to this study for a detailed listing of all the materials upon which this investigation is based. For reasons which I trust are adequately explained in the text, consideration of the poems which Mrs. Osgood and Mrs. Whitman devoted to Poe has been relegated to appendixes.

This study has not been made without the help of many hands from many quarters, and I am grateful for more assistance than I can possibly acknowledge here. I am grateful first to Professor Dedmond for permission to use his bibliography which has served as the starting point for my investigation. I am grateful to the following holders of copyright: to Metro-Goldwyn Mayer for making available a script of The Man with a Cloak for my use at the University of Virginia, to Twentieth Century-Fox for permission to examine a script of The Loves of Edgar Allan Poe on deposit at the Enoch Pratt Library in Baltimore, to Universal Pictures for permission to obtain a microfilm of David Boehm's The Raven, to the family of the late Catherine Chisholm Cushing for permission to obtain a microfilm of her Edgar Allan Poe: A Character Study, and to Miss Sophie Treadwell, Mrs. Elizabeth Dooley, Mr. B. Iden Payne, and Mr. J. Richard Iander for permission to obtain copies of their dramas on Poe. I am especially grateful to Miss Treadwell, Mrs. Dooley, and Mr. Iander for offering comments [page v:] upon their own efforts to dramatize Poe's life. Among a host of institutions and organizations which have responded to my many queries about poems, plays and novels, I wish to acknowledge the special assistance of the Enoch Pratt Library, the Boston Public Library, the New York Public Library, the Copyright Office of the Library of Congress, and the Players’ Club in New York, where I passed a delightful August afternoon rummaging through their archives. Among a number of individuals who have cooperated in my search for materials, I wish to thank Eric Bentley, Dean Napier Wilt, Professor C. Carroll Hollis, and Mr. Nolan E. Smith. Mr. George Freedley, Curator of the Theatre Collection at the New York Public Library, provided direction in my search for manuscripts of dramas on Poe. Mr. Mills Ten Eyck, Jr., Executive Secretary of the Dramatists’ Guild, located several holders of copyright for me. And Professor Milton Smith, Director Emeritus of the School of Dramatic Arts at Columbia University and producer-director of Mrs. Dooley's Poor Eddy, offered valuable observations upon problems confronting the playwright who attempts to dramatize genius. In common with almost every other student of Poe in the past forty-odd years , I owe a special debt of gratitude to Professor Thomas Ollive Mabbott. Professor Mabbott has often been my last resort, cheerfully and most helpfully responding to salvos of hard core queries.

The foundation of this study was laid while I was in residence at the University of Virginia. There the Staff of the Alderman Library [page vi:] was of inestimable assistance. Above all, I remain grateful to the late Louise Savage, Acquisitions Librarian, without whose kind scholarship would wither.

Professor Floyd Stovall has directed this study, but that fact does not even suggest my indebtedness to him.

Closer to home, I am thankful for a patient and encouraging wife and for three boys who have learned to live with a distracted father.