Text: Anonymous, “The Works of the Late Edgar Allan Poe,” American Artisan (New York, NY), vol. 3, no. 32, whole no. 136, March 9, 1850, p. 2, col. 9

[page 2, middle of column 9:]

NEW PUBLICATIONS.

The Works of the late Edgar Allen [[Allan]] Poe, in two volumes, containing his Tales, Poems, and Msscellanies [[Miscellanies]]. New York, J. S. Redfield, Clinton Hall, Nassau st. 8150 [[1850]]

Edgar A Poe was a man of gigantic mental qualities, with wild and eccentric ideas, yet clothed with such grandeur, and sublimity of thought, as to extenuate the many freaks of which he was the subject. For power and originality, he had but few equals; ever dwelling in imaginary realms, he, with passionate and truthful exactitude, painted his writings in unfading colors. He was naturally of a tho’tful, melancholy temperament, frequently muttering bitter invectives, or breathing a prayer, as he walked the streets, not for himself, but of the objects of his deep solicitude and regard. He was looked upon as ambitious, arrogant, vain and depraved; he nevertheless stemmed the torrent of opposition, and gained an eminence in literature, which will perpetuate his name. In his ambition, he had a desire to rise, but not with a view to secure the favor and esteem of his fellow men, but that he might have the right to “despise a world which galled his self conceit.” His other imperfections may in part be attributable to the many reverses which he met with in earlier life. Fortune seemed to frown upon him, and adversity to obscure his horizon, like a dark cloud, — shutting out the sunshine of prosperity, and enshrouding it in a perpetual, and consequently his writings possess more of that sublime, though imaginary interest, which is calculated to charm the reader.