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Title page:
THE HISTRIONIC MR. POE
N. BRYLLION FAGIN
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH AND DRAMA
THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
BALTIMORE
THE JOHNS HOPKINS PRESS
1949
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Table of Contents
TABLE OF CONTENTS
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| CHAPTER | [[PAGE]] | ||
| [FRONTISPIECE] | |||
| [PREFACE] | vii] | ||
| I. | THE ONLY PROPER STAGE | 1 | |
| II. | THE PROOF OF DRAMATISM | 67 | |
| III. | SCHOLARLY GENTLEMAN | 93 | |
| IV. | RED PAINT AND BLACK PATCHES | 133 | |
| V. | A SKILFUL LITERARY ARTIST | 160 | |
| VI. | THE ANGEL ISRAFEL | 217 | |
| BIBLIOGRAPHY | 241 | ||
| NOTES | 255 | ||
| INDEX | 277 | ||
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Notes:
Dr. Nathan Bryllion Fagin (1892-1971) was an professor of English at Johns Hopkins University, and the director of its theater group. He was born in Russia, and emigrated to the US as a young man. He briefly attended Michigan State College, but obtained his B. A. from George Washington University (in 1923). The following year, he obtained his M. A., also from George Washington University. He obtained his Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins in 1931. Before graduating, and becoming a professor at Hopkins, he worked as a law clerk for the US Department of Agriculture. His association with Hopkins began in 1925, as a graduate student, and ended in 1951, when he retired. Among his many students was one named John Astin, who went on to a notable career as a professional actor (perhaps best remembered as Gomez Addams from the television series), long toured in a one man show as Edgar Allan Poe, and eventually returned to Hopkins to reestablish the theater department. Dr. Fagin was also a founding member of the Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore.
All material in this edition is protected by copyright. The original copyright was ©1949 by The Johns Hopkins Press, renewed ©1976 by Clara Fagin Levine. Permission has been obtained by the Poe Society of Baltimore from the legal copyright holders to provide this electronic edition for academic and research purposes only. The Poe Society of Baltimore asks all users of this material to respect these copyrights, 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).
The first edition was printed in 1949. A second edition was printed in 1966 and a third edition in 1967.
The text for this electronic version of the book was taken from an original printed form, revised for XHTML/CSS and to follow our own formatting preferences. Pagination of the original edition has been included. This book is unusual in having both footnotes and endnotes, both indicated with numeric values. To distiguish these, the end notes are rendered in square brackets, while footnotes are rendered in parentheses.
The table of contents is a reasonable representation of the table of contents from the original printing.
The front cover features a quote from H. L. Mencken:
“... of all the Poe books ever done in English .... it seems to me the best, and by long odds. It is well informed, it is shrewd and convincing in its judgements, and it is beautifully written.”
The following text appears on the inner flaps of the dust jacket:
[Inside front flap:]
THE HISTRIONIC MR. POE
By N. Bryllion Fagin
— An engima? A mystery?
In this biography Poe retains no such “inky cloak.”
Prevented from following the profession of his play actor parents through the accident of his adoption, by a Richmond merchant, Poe is here presented as a ‘literary histrio,’ as a consumate [[consummate]] actor in his relations with others, particularly women, and as a writer whose literary outpourings must be considered as a species of theatrical performances.
Thus, if his poems and stories have little of the flesh and blood reality of the actual world, they overflow with color and vitality. It is only as projections for the unreal world of the stage that their full flavor and uniqueness becomes apparent.
An associate professor of English and Drama at the Johns Hopkins University, Dr. Fagin has examined every facet of Poe's life and writings, and has so closely fitted the one upon the other that the contrapuntal effect [inside back flap] of the whole stands out as the only possible key to a true understanding of this world famous literary figure.
Dr. Fagin's work in the theatre, at present concentrated on The Experimental Playshop at Johns Hopkins, further qualifies him for this task. His insight into the histrionic qualities of his protagonist marks him as one of the few men capable of such a work.
For Poe must be seen from the dramatic as well as the literary point of view before the complete picture of the man swings into a final and lasting focus.
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[S:0 - NBF49, 1949] - Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore - Bookshelf - The Histrionic Mr. Poe - (1949)