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PREFACE

THESE papers, with a single exception, were originally conceived without any thought of their being ultimately combined into a volume; but they have this in common, that they all deal with some matter that has been in dispute among students of Poe.

Of the seven papers that make up the volume, four have been published before, either in whole or in part. The papers on “Contemporary Opinion of Poe,” “The Poe-Griswold Controversy,” and “The Poe Canon” originally appeared in the Publications of the Modern Language Association of America, and are here reproduced, revised, and enlarged in each instance, with the permission of the Secretary of the Association, Professor Carleton Brown. The essay on “The Backgrounds of Poe” was originally published in part, under the title “Poe in Relation to his Times,” in Studies in Philology, and is here reproduced with the permission of the editor, Professor George R. Coffman.

For aid in the reading of proofs I am deeply indebted to Professor Morgan Callaway, Jr., of the University of Texas, and to Professor Hyder E. Rollins, of Harvard University.

K. C.

AUSTIN, TEXAS

August 31, 1932