Text: William C. Woolfson, “Foreword,” Flora and Fauna in the Works of Edgar Allan Poe (1992), pp. 5-8 (This material is protected by copyright)

[page 5:]

FOREWORD

This work has been a long time in the writing. It was actually begun in the winter of 1975-76, the first year I was able to leave New York City to avoid its cold, cruel winters. My wife and I spent the coldest part of that winter in Puerto Rico, that heavenly island, where we had taken up residence in the San Juan suburb of Isola Verde. To keep myself occupied I had taken along a copy of “The Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe,” the Modern Library Giant edition.

Poe had been a favorite author of mine for a long time. As a youth growing up in a suburb north of Boston, I had come under the influence of two unusual high school teachers, the ebullient young Violet Pike, and the venerable Ruth Sabina Lavinia Child. In my sophomore year Miss Pike introduced me to the stories of Poe. I was an editor of the Malden High School newspaper and she was the faculty adviser. One of the news stories I submitted to the “Blue and Gold” dealt with the disappearance of a valuable book from the school library. Miss Pike said that the story had a “Poe quality.” That comment started me reading Poe's short stories.

In my senior year I had as my English teacher Miss Child. She taught me to love Poe's poetry. I committed many of his poems to memory. During my undergraduate years at Boston University, this interest earned me approbation from my favorite English professor, Dr. Edward A. “Pinky” Post, because, in his classes, I was able to quote from Poe at length. But that was back in 1925.

In 1928, when I became a resident of New York, I made my first pilgrimage to the Poe Cottage on the Grand Concourse at Kingsbridge Road in The Bronx. It was a shrine to which I returned many times. And when I was married and we moved to that section of The Bronx, I became even more addicted to Poe. I can remember reading “Landor's Cottage” while sitting on a bench one warm spring Sunday morning a few yards from the Poe Cottage.

I began to teach English in a Bronx high school in 1939. In 1962 I joined the faculty of Bronx Community College and there I met Dr. [page 6:] Burton R. Pollin, the foremost Poe scholar. Dr. Pollin inherited the mantle of the foremost Poe authority, on the death of the learned Thomas Ollive Mabbott. Pollin's depth of scholarly expertise further stimulated my interest in Poe, that ill-fated genius.

My interest was greatly intensified when, in 1970, Bronx Community College acquired the building of the New York Institute for the Destitute Blind, located on the Grand Concourse opposite the Poe Cottage. Work began to convert it to a college facility. As assistant to the Dean of Administration, I was placed in charge of the building during its final renovation. My office faced the Poe Cottage. I began to call the facility “The Poe Center” and it became known officially by that name.

During the months of tearing out and reconstructing, I was visited a number of times by Frank Wuttge, Jr., a Bronx historian and Poe enthusiast. He persuaded me to undertake a revival of The Bronx Society of Arts and Science of which he was the sole surviving member. The Society had been founded in 1905 to assume supervision of and to preserve the Poe Cottage, which had fallen into disrepair.

I acceded to his urging and became the President, for nine years, of the revived society under its present name, The Bronx Society of Science and Letters. Frank Wuttge became its Secretary. I retired from Bronx Community College in 1973 with an augmented affection for and a greater awareness of the genius of Poe.

While reading in the garden at Isole Verde in the warm winter sunshine in 1975, I visualized Poe wandering through what are now the grounds of the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx. His numerous allusions to plants and trees and flowers reminded me of a book I had read on the flowers in Shakespeare's writings. I had visited the Shakespeare Flower Garden in Stratford-on-Avon one summer. I thought, “What a familiarity with plants and flowers Shakespeare had. Poe, too, shows a vast knowledge of plants and flowers in his writings.” That led me to begin this book. As I read I recorded the names of the plants, flowers, and trees that Poe mentioned. Then I became aware of his numerous references to animal life, so I decided to add Fauna to my project.

On my return to New York I happened to mention what I had done in Puerto Rico, to Dr. Howard Irwin, the President of the New York Botanical Garden. He was very enthusiastic about the project. When, in the spring of 1979, I discussed the proposed directory with Dr. Pollin, he suggested that a more scholarly work would be produced if I used the Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe, edited by Dr. James A. Harrison of the University of Virginia (New York: Thomas [page 7:] Y. Crowell and Co., 1902) instead of the one-volume Modern Library edition.

So I read through the seventeen volumes of the Harrison edition that were in the Bronx Community College library, and I made my citations correspond with the pagination in all the Harrison volumes. It was an interesting though arduous undertaking.

In 1980, after reading the first draft of the manuscript, Dr. Pollin suggested that I add notations from the three-volume “Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe,” edited by Thomas Ollive Mabbott, published in 1978 by the Belknap Press of the Harvard University Press.

Personal illness caused the project to lie fallow until 1982. In the late summer of that year I added the references from Mabbott, and in the early fall, additional references from “The Collected Writings of Edgar Allan Poe,” edited by Burton R. Pollin and published by Gordian Press of New York. At his suggestion, in addition I added some few citations from Edgar Allan Poe's contributions to “Alexander's Weekly Messenger,” by Clarence S. Brigham, editor, Worcester, Massachusetts, American Antiquarian Society, 1943; (reprinted from the Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society, 1942.)

This project lists 253 plants, trees, and flowers in the Flora section and 308 animals, birds, fish and insects in the Fauna section. The “Mythical and Supernatural” listings were an afterthought and, although incomplete, are listed because they are interesting.

There are no citations from Volume 1 because it is Dr. Harrison's Biography of Poe. Citations from Harrison volume 2 through 6 are the Tales; volume 7, from the Poems; volume 8 through 13, Criticism; volume 14, Essays and Miscellaneous; volume 15, “Literati of New York City” and “Autography”; volume 16, “Marginalia” and the long essay Eureka; and volume 17, Poe's Letters.

I wish here to express my thanks to all those who helped me to my deeper understanding and appreciation of the creative genius of Edgar Allan Poe. I must thank the staff of the Bronx Community College library whose courtesy and cooperation often made long and tiring hours endurable. I owe special thanks to Dr. Burton R. Pollin for his continued inspiration, scholarly advice, and generous assistance. Also to Dr. Howard S. Irwin, former president of the New York Botanical Garden, for his scholarly contribution of the Latin names and all illustrations of the flora. Thanks also to Steven P. Johnson, librarian of the New York Zoological Society (The Bronx Zoo) for assisting with illustrations of the fauna. Special thanks are also due to Fanny K. Casher, first woman president of The Bronx Society of Science and Letters for her untiring support and interest in this project and to the [page 8:] Society for sponsoring its publication. Lastly, a word of deep gratitude to my wife, Edith, for the many hours of help in preparing this material for publication and supplying the text for some of the flora and fauna.

It is my hope that this work will provide both Poe scholars and amateurs with additional knowledge about Poe — and inspire further studies that will enhance the already brilliant reputation and the luster of the writer who, in his brief lifetime, gave the world such a rich legacy, a varied and brilliant collection of literary masterpieces.