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Fugitive Poe References: A Bibliography

Judy Osowski

Washington State University

The primary purpose of the “fugitive” Poe bibliography is to bring together recent books, essays, and miscellaneous publications (since about 1960) that do not focus on Poe but which discuss Poe within a larger perspective or with a special angle of vision. Although this bibliography also lists a few works dealing specifically with Poe that have been overlooked in other bibliographies, the entries here are principally brief items buried in longer works under different headings, or in works that were, on first publication, not readily accessible. Effort has been made to cite only those references that seem to be of some significance, whether involving a point of information or a large conceptual framework.

Adams, Richard P. “Focus on William Faulkner’s ‘The Bear’: Moses and the Wilderness” in American Dreams, American Nightmares, ed. David Madden (Carbondale and Edwardsville: Southern Illinois U P, 1970). [The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym may be an influence on “The Bear.” An explicit though minor parallel is Dirk Peters’ killing of a bear. Other parallels are “labyrinth imagery,” themes of rebirth, and conflicts between black people and white people (pp. 133-134).]

Balakian, Anna. The Symbolist Movement: A Critical Appraisal (New York: Random House, 1967). [Poe created with words the hypnotic atmosphere that Wagner created with music; both influenced Baudelaire (p. 44). Poe’s mingling of the angelic and diabolical also influenced Baudelaire (p. 51). Five other references to Poe.]

Bloom, Harold. “Bacchus and Merlin: The Dialectic of Romantic Poetry in America,” The Southern Review, 7 (1971), 140175. [As a poet Poe is close to the English Romantic consciousness. “Israfel” is an excellent poem because of its expressed conflict between the “angelic bard” and the earthly imitator (p. 156) .]

Burnshaw, Stanley. The Seamless Web: Language-Thinking, Creative-Knowledge, Art-Experience (New York: George Braziller, 1970). [Poe’s work, like Valery’s, may be regarded as a laboratory for examining the workings of a poet making a poem (pp. 49-50). See also pp. 99 and 131.]

Clarens, Carlos. An Illustrated History of the Horror Film (New [page 45:] York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1967). [D. W. Griffith’s The Avenging Conscience ( 1914), the first masterpiece of screen horror, is a mosaic of Poe’s tales, lore, verse, life, and spirit. The film comments on the works and the man (pp. 42-43). Ten other references to Poe’s influence on the horror film.]

Cook, Albert. Prisms: Studies in Modern Literature ( Bloomington: Indiana U P, 1967). [Poe theorizes in Eureka that the world which the poem envisions extends beyond the poem (p. 27). Other references passim.]

Cowan, James C. D. H. Lawrence’s American Journey: A Study in Literature and Myth (Cleveland: Case Western Reserve U P, 1970). [Lawrence’s essay on Poe in Studies in Classic American Literature is commented on seven times—usually to emphasize Lawrence’s view that symbolism takes place beneath the consciousness.]

Crawley, Thomas Edward. The Structure of Leaves of Grass (Austin: U of Texas Press, 1970). [Both Poe and Whitman pondered the possibility that the lliad, though epic in intention, was really a series of lyrics. Whitman’s comments on Leaves of Grass consider this problem of a long poem (p. 7).]

Davis, Morton D. Game Theory: A Nontechnical Introduction, with a foreword by Oscar Morgenstern (New York and London: Basic Books, 1970). [Davis quotes the passage from “The Purloined Letter” in which a schoolboy is able to win all the marbles of his opponents in the game of “Odd and Even.” The schoolboy wins because he is able to identify with his opponents and thus choose the correct response. Davis theorizes how a clever opponent could even up the odds against Poe’s “wonder child” by randomizing his responses (pp. 26-29). Cf. pp. 39, 46.]

Derrida, Jacques. Discussion of Roland Barthes, “To Write: Intransitive Verb” in The Languages of Criticism and the Science of Man: The Structuralist Controversy, ed. Richard Macksey and Eugenio Donato (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1970). [Derrida uses M. Valdemar’s statement, “I am dead” to clarify what he means by the absence of the speaker from his language or the absence of the self from the new experience of the language (pp. 155-156).]

Detaller, Roger. The Plain Man and the Novel (1st pub 1940; Port Washington, N.Y.: Kennikat Press, 1970). [Discusses Poe as the originator of the modern detective story (pp. 1821). “The Mystery of Marie Roget” is discussed as an example of Poe’s analytical method (pp. 22-25).]

Dew, Marjorie. “The Attorney and the Scrivener: Quoth the Raven, ‘Nevermore,’” in Melville Annual 1965: A Symposium: “Bartlelby the Scrivener,” ed. Howard P. Vincent (Kent, Ohio: Kent State U P, 1966), pp. 94-103. [The author suggests two parallels between “The Raven” and “Bartleby” (pp. 101-102). Bartleby’s refusal to copy is like the Raven saying “Nevermore.” The attorney’s fear that Bartleby will haunt him is like that of the narrator in “The Raven”— “And the Raven . . . . still is sitting . . . . just above my chamber door.” Cf. James L. Colwell and Gary Spitzer, Georgia Review, 23 (1969), 37-43.]

Douglas, Drake. “The Creators of Horror: I. The Alcoholic,” in Horror! (New York: Macmillan, 1966). [In a biographical sketch which emphasizes Poe’s flawed character, Douglas claims that Poe “is an alcoholic, an inveterate gambler and, if whispers are true, a narcotics addict” (p. 248). Poe’s immortal tales reflect the wild fantasies of alcoholism and his melancholy mind. Douglas briefly discusses the following tales to illustrate his autobiographical interpretation of Poe’s work: “The Fall of the House of Usher,” “The Premature Burial,” “The Cask of Amontillado,” “The Tell-Tale Heart,” “The Black Cat,” “The Pit and the Pendulum.” The essay is concluded with a discussion of Hollywood’s current interest in the macabre and adaptations of Poe’s tales. Douglas does not seem to be aware of the last twenty years of Poe scholarship.]

Edelstein, Tilden G. Strange Enthusiasm: A Life of Thomas Wentworth Higginson (New Haven: Yale U P, 1968). [Higginson considered Poe’s work a “dangerous model to emulate,” [column 2:] a work that lacked philosophical profundity (p. 359). Other references passim.]

Fiedler, Leslie A. “The Dream of the New” in American Dreams, American Nightmares, ed. David Madden (Carbondale and Edwardsville: Southern Illinois U P, 1970). [Discusses Poe as an artist who invented at least two forms: the detective story and science fiction. It was only when Poe turned to Pop art that he went further than “limp along behind the German experimenters” (pp. 23-24).]

“Traitor or Laureate: The Two Trials of the Poet,” in New Approaches to Ezra Pound: A Coordinated Investigation of Pound’s Poetry and Ideas, ed. with introduction by Eva Hesse (Berkeley & Los Angeles: U Calif Press, 1969). [Claims that the “anti-popular” poet Poe has a wider reading public than the “popular” poet Whitman, partially because school children are urged to read Poe and not Whitman. In the 19th century, neither poet was popular because the public, which had not yet developed the fear of Harvard professors, had the “academic” Longfellow (pp. 369-370).]

Waiting for the End (New York: Stein and Day, 1964). [Discusses Poe as an anti-Whitmanian poet who is representative of an anti-democratic line of American poetry (pp. 193, 196, 198-206). Other references to Poe passim.]

Hall, Donald. “The Inward Muse” in The Poet as Critic, ed. Frederick P. W. McDowell (Evanston: Northwestern U P, 1967) . [In his outward pose as critic Poe is the ultimate craftsman (pp. 82-83).]

Hamberger, Michael. The Truth of Poetry: Tension in Modern Poetry from Baudelaire to the 1960’s (New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1969). [Discusses Poe passim six times as a proponent and forerunner of the Romantic-Symbolist movement.]

Harris, Wendell V. “English Short Fiction in the 19th Century,” Studies in Short Fiction, 6 (1968), 1-93. [Several Poe tales (”Silence,” “A Fable,” “Monos and Una,” “William Wilson,” and “The Tell-Tale Heart”) seem to have been influenced by Edward Bulwer Lytton’s “Monos and Daimonos” (p. 85). See also page 23.]

Hauck, Richard Boyd. Cheerful Nihilism: Confidence end “The Absurd” in American Humorous Fiction (Bloomington: Indiana U P, 1971). [Poe’s “Lygeia” is an example of the ambiguous tall-tale frame story with an unreliable narrator (p. 55). Modern readers of Poe realize that distortion is the norm (p. 243) .]

Hesse, Eva. “Introduction” to New Approaches to Ezra Pound; A Co-ordinated Investigation of Pound’s Poetry and Ideas (Berkeley & Los Angeles: U Calif Press, 1969). [Pound’s and Poe’s views of the role of the artist are exactly opposite. Pound believes that the artist has a duty to humanity because the perceptibility of the artist is above average. Poe believes that the artist has no direct relationship with Duty, Truth, Conscience, or Intellect (p. 33). The affinities of Baudelaire and Poe are discussed on pages 34-36.]

Hillegas, Mark R. “Out of the Silent Planet as Cosmic Voyage” in Shadows of Imagination: The Fantasies of C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, and Charles Williams (Carbondale: So III U P, 1969). [Though George Tucker’s A Voyage to the Moon (1827) is probably the first realistic cosmic voyage, Poe’s “The Unparalleled Adventures of One Hans Pfaal” (1835) is a more significant manifestation of this “new realism.” Unfortunately, Poe’s story is not very good because he unsuccessfully attempts to join fantasy and realism (p. 44).]

Malin, Irving. “The Compulsive Design,” in American Dreams, American Nightmares, ed. David Madden (Carbondale and Edwardsville: So III U P, 1970) pp. 58-75. [Poe is a major figure in Malin’s discussion of American heroes’ attempt to master their environment by constructing designs to pattern their experience. Malin discusses “The Black Cat,” “Berenice,” [page 46:] and “Ligeia” as examples of Poe’s lack of faith in decorum in these stories the designer is afflicted with a monomania to control his environment. “The Masque of the Red Death” and “The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar” are also mentioned (pp. 60-63). Poe is mentioned passim in the rest of the discussion.]

McLuhan, Marshall. Counter-Blast (New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc., 1969). [Poe is a press man, and, like Dickens, he learned the process of writing by beginning with effect and ending with process because of the conditions of serial publication (p. 48) .]

McLure, Michael. “Defense of Jayne Mansfield,” in Film Culture Reader, ed. P. Adams Sitsney (New York: Preager, 1970), pp. 160-167. [In this rather strange article, McLure claims that Poe, Thoreau, and Jayne Mansfield share a secret darkness that allows them to capture human imagination by their existence—Poe with his mind, Jayne with her beauty, and Thoreau with his desire for freedom. McLure comments that Poe’s view of the universe is based on inspired idealistic thought and that The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym is an example of Poe’s lamblike sensibility.]

Miller, J. Hillis. Charles Dickens: The World of His Novels (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard U P, 1958). [Contains several comparisons of Poe’s and Dickens’ characters. One of the most interesting comparisons is that of the characters of Bleak House and the characters of what George Poulet calls Poe’s “circumscribed universe.” Miller’s referral of the reader to Poulet’s “L’Univers Circonscrit d’Edgar Poe” equates the world of Dickens with the world of Poe that Poulet describes.]

Press, John. The Fire and the Fountain: An Essay on Poetry (New York: Barnes and Noble, Inc., 2nd ea., 1965). [The psychoanalysts’ suggestion that poetry is the product of a neurotic and divided temperament is born out in such poets as Poe, Beddoes, Rimbaud, and others (pp. 86-88). Poe’s obsession to be musical in poetry hurt the quality of his work (pp. 135-139). Four other references to Poe.]

Pritchett, V. S. “The Poe Centenary” in Books in General (Westport: Greenwood Press, 1970; reprint of the 1953 Harcourt, Brace ea.) [Discusses Poe (pp. 185-190) as a second-class writer with a wide influence on other writers and as a writer who expresses the loneliness of Americans.]

Raban, Jonathan. The Technique of Modern Fiction, Essays in Practical Criticism (London: Edward Arnold, 1968), pp. 26, 112-113. [Raban uses the appearance of the house in “The Fall of the House of Usher” as an example of the “visual interaction between character and landscape” that can be a striking feature of fiction and which is a necessary element in cinema.]

Richardson, Robert. Literature and Film ( Bloomington: Indiana U P, 1969), pp. 38, 39, 93. [D. W. Griffith’s film directing technique may have been influenced by his careful reading of Poe’s work and his direction of film versions of Poe stories (p. 39). Other references passim. See Clarens, Carlos.]

Rogers, Robert. A Psychoanalytic Study of the Double in Literature (Detroit: Wayne State U P, 1970). [Discusses Poe’s “William Wilson” as an example of the superego double (pp. 2, 25, 60, 143, 167). Other references passim.]

Sarris, Andrew. Confessions of a Cultist: On the Cinema, 1955- 1969 (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1970). [Like Poe’s poem of the same title, Howard Hawks’ El Doredo is less a place than a state of mind. Also, both Poe and Hawks are better appreciated by the French than the Americans (pp. 299-300). The adaptability to the screen of Poe’s illusory tales is discussed pp. 459-461.]

Stern, Philip Van Doren, ed. The Annotated Walden (New York: Clarkson N. Potter, Inc., 1970). [Though Poe and Thoreau were contemporaries, they paid little attention to each other. Both bitterly complained of the lack of recognition of their work (p. 80). The word “tintinnabulum” in Walden is similar to Poe’s word “tintinnabulation” in “The Bells” (p. 290) .] [column 2:]

Taylor, John Russell. Cinema Eye, Cinema Ear: Key Film-Makers of the Sixties (New York: Hill and Wang, 1964). [Poe’s “The Oval Portrait” is mentioned in Jean-Luc Godard’s film, Vivre sa Vie ( 1962) to explain by allusion what Godard’s film is about. The lover attempts to make his love immortal in art but when the portrait is complete she must die. Her soul has been painted into the portrait (pp. 217-218).]

Tebbel, John. The American Magazine: A Compact History (New York: Hawthorne Books, Inc., 1969). [In Poe’s day, payment to magazinists was improving but it was not “sufficient to compensate for editorial tyranny.” Poe’s “The Raven,” for example, brought him a mere ten dollars from the Whig Review. Poe’s enduring contributions to American literature brought him as little money as the pay scale would allow. He was also among the lowest paid of editors (pp. 68-71, 75). Other references passim.]

Waskow, Howard J. Whitman: Exploration in Form (Chicago: U of Chicago Press, 1966). [Whitman creates poems out of the awareness of the dream world between sleep and waking that Poe claimed language could not be fully adapted to (p. 137).]

Wellek, Rene. “The Poet as Critic, the Critic as Poet, the Poet-Critic,” in The Poet as Critic, ed. Frederick P. W. McDowell (Evanston: Northwestern U P, 1967), pp. 92-107. [Poe’s stunt or hoax in “The Philosophy of Composition” is an example of the imaginative or poetic mind hindering the cause of criticism (pp. 96-97).]

Weisstein, Ulrich. “Modes of Criticism: Studies in Hamlet,” in Comparative Literature: Method and Perspective, ed. Newton P. Stallknecht and Horst Frenz (Carbondale: So III U P, 1961). [The value of the interpretation of Hamlet as a character drama is questioned by Benedetto Croce who, like Poe in his review of Hazlitt’s Characters of Shakespeare, urges that critics concentrate on the text rather than its ramifications (pp. 260-280). Poe and Croce have very similar theories of criticism.]

Woodall, Guy R. “Robert Walsh’s War with the New York Literati: 1827-1836,” Tennessee Studies in Literature, 15 (1970), 25-47. [Woodall’s discussion of Robert Walsh’s campaign (1827-1836) against the New York literati describes the milieu from which Poe emerged to carry on his own campaign (1835-1849) which begins with his review of Theodore Sedgwick Fay’s Norman Leslie. ]