[page 31, column 2:]

Fugitive Poe References: A Bibliography

Benjamin Franklin Fisher IV

University of Mississippi

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 the author 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. For materials and other assistance with this issue of the column, I am indebted to Donna Balopole, Richard P. Benton, James B. Berger, J. Lasley Dameron, Jim McCahery, Alexander G. Rose III, Jeff Jerome, Maureen C. Mabbott, Eric W. Carlson, William J. Zimmer, Kent P. Ljungquist, David H. Flood, Suzanne S. Dean, and Harry and Jean Pflum.

Anderson, Frederick Irving. The Book of Murder (New York: E. P. Dutton 1930). [In “Beyond All Conjecture,” the first story in the collection, Oliver Armiston recalls the passage from Sir Thomas Browne that Poe used as an epigraph to “The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” which passage also furnishes the ironic title of Anderson’s story — an unmistakably Poesque creation.]

Anon. Prism of Terror: An Exploration of Edgar Allan Poe (Philadelphia: Free Library of Philadelphia, 1979). [A pamphlet outlining a series of films and discussions pertinent to Poe and his work. A large exhibit, principally from the Richard Gimbel Collection, and a performance by Will Sutts as Poe are also sketched.]

Ashley, Mike. Who’s Who in Horror and Fantasy Fiction (New York: Taplinger, 1978). [Dubs Poe the father of modern horror stories and, possibly, the greatest writer of them. Mentions Verne’s and Lovecraft’s continuations of Poe works.]

Ayles, Daphne. “The Two Worlds of Bram Stoker,” Dublin Magazine, 9 (1971-1972), 62-66. [In this critique of Stoker’s fiction, the correspondences between Jewel of the Seven Stars (1904) and “Morella” are noted.]

Balopole, Donna. “The Mystery of Mary Rogers,” Oh, My Fur and Whiskers, 11 (June 1976), 1-7. [Reviews the facts and attempts to correct some of the fictions in the history of Mary Rogers. Three more studies in this publication — “The Mystery of Marie Roget,” 11 (September 1976), 1-5; “The Mystery of Marie Roget — Part 11,” and “Last Words — Part Four,” 12 (November 1976), 1-5 — attempt to modify and supplement the work of Raymond Paul, whose charge that Poe’s revisions for the 1845 Tales were slipshod, Balopole reasonably challenges.]

Banks, Jeff. “Verdia,” The Mystery FANcier, (May/June 1979), 41-42. [Comments that Kingsley Amis’ The Riverside Villas Murder (1973) presents a detective with eccentricities like those of sleuths in Christie, Carr, or Poe.]

Bates, David. “Can Such Things Be?” The Not So Private Eye, 2 (October/November 1978), 25-26. [Brief but significant critique of Robert Bloch’s mixture of reality and fantasy in his short story “The Man Who Collected Poe,” as well as bibliographical information; it first appeared in Famous Fantastic Mysteries for October 1951, then in Bogey Men, Pyramid Books No. 839.] [page 32:]

Benet, Laura. “Introduction,” Edgar Allan Poe Stories: Twenty-eight Thrilling Tales by the Master of Suspense, Edgar Allan Poe (New York: Platt and Munk, 1961), pp. 5-10. [Emphasizing Poe’s Romanticism, particularly of the macabre variety, Benet credits him with daring originality in creating the detective tale, the Holmes prototype, and the science-fiction tale.]

Bill, Terry. “Program Notes,” Memphis Symphony Program, 5-6 November 1977, n. p. [Sketches account of James Richens’ “The Bells, for Chorus and Orchestra,” a musical rendition of Poe’s poem in premier performance.]

Bleiler, Everert F. “Introduction,” Three Victorian Detective Novels (New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1978), pp. vii-xvi. [Keen perceptions about Poe’s impact upon British writers of detective fiction, such as Andrew Forrester, Wilkie Collins, and Israel Zangwill, with the caution that British detective fiction initially did not follow patterns established by Poe.]

Bollier, E. P. “Against the American Grain: William Carlos Williams between Whitman and Poe,” Tulane Studies in English: Essays in American Literature in Memory of Richard P. Adams 23 (1978), 123-142. [Argues thee Poe as alien and Romantic in a mundane literary climate was the figure that Williams discerned. Unlike Whitman, Poe did not pose a threat to Williams.]

Chaudhry, Ghulam Ali. “Dickens and Hawthorne,” Essex Institute Historical Collections, 100 (1964), 256-273. [In the opening he discusses the Dickens-Poe relationship, of greater importance perhaps than the Dickens-Hawthorne bond.]

Earley, Steven C. An Introduction to American Movies (New York: New American Library, 1978; London: New English Library, 1978). [The chapter on horror films mentions Corman’s Poe productions, which are not close to originals but are good Gothic sets, popular in box offices if not with critics.]

Fadiman, Clifton. “Ghost Story,” Book of-the-Month-Club News, May 1979, pp. 2-4. [Straub’s novel makes us forget about the world of hard facts a trait it shares with Poe’s works and The Turn of the Screw.;

Fisher, Benjamin Franklin IV. “The Book of Murder, by Frederick Irving Anderson,” The Poisoned Pen, 2 (March/April, 1979), 25-26. [Noting typical Andersonian characteristics, the reviewer points out the influence of Poe. Much remains to be done in presenting Poe’s impact upon this twentieth-century mystery writer.]

————————. “G. Richard Thompson, ed. Romantic Gothic Tales 1790-1840,” PSA Newsletter, 7 (May 1979), 4. [Comments upon Poe’s “Usher” as apogee selection in this important new anthology.]

————————. Letter to the Editor, The Poisoned Pen, 2 (January/February 1979), 34-35. [In addition to noting the omission of “The Black Cat’: from Grochowski’s article (see below), Fisher calls attention to the scanting of Poe’s importance in the development of detective fiction. A list of organizations and journals centering on Poe accompanies this information.] Fletcher, Connie. “The Case of the Missing Criminal: Crime Fiction’s Unpaid Debt to Its Ne’er-Do-Wells,” Armchair Detective, 10 (1977), 20. [“Starting with Poe’s Dupin and Watson’s Holmes, the detective and reader begin with the corpse and work backward to the murderer.”]

Gartegno, Jean. “Criminals et Deteaives ou la Prehistoire du Roman Policier a propos d’un Livre de lan Ousby,” Etudes Anglaises, 31 (1978), 188-197. [Supplementing Ousby’s theories in Bloodhounds of Heaven: The Detective in English Fiction from Godwin to Doyle (1976), Gattegno indicates the impact of Poe’s tales upon the detective fiction of Wilkie Collins.] [column 2:]

Gilbert, Elliot L. “Murder without Air: Jaques Futrelle,” New Republic, 30 July 1977, pp. 33-34. [Perceives parallels between “The Problem of Cell 13” and “The Murders in the Rue Morgue”: the sleuths’ names and the locked-room mystery. The locked room combines with the theme of premature burial in Poe’s imagination, as seen in “The Black Cat,” “The Cask of Amontillado,” and “The Fall of the House of Usher.”]

Gottschalk, Jane. “The Games of Detective Fiction,” Armchair Detective, 10 (1977), 74-76. [In a discussion of parodies and pastiches of the genre, she points out Michael Harrison’s continuation of Dupin’s adventures as kindred to Jon L. green’s of those involving Philo Vance and the many extensions of Holmes’ adventures by writers after Doyle.]

Graham, Don B. “Yone Noguchi’s ‘Poe Mania,’” Markham Review, 4 (1974), 58-60. [Outlines the controversy occasioned by Noguchi’s verse modelled upon Poe’s which appeared in little magazines in 1896.]

Graham, Kenneth. “Introduction,” Edgar Allan Poe: Selected Tales (London: Oxford Univ. Press, 1967), pp. vii-xxii. [A valuable sketch, emphasizing Poe’s treatment of Gothicism and his affinities with Gothicists and fantasists, European and American, antecedent, contemporaneous, and subsequent — respectively, Walpole, Bulwer, Beardsley, and Faulkner.]

Grochowski, Mary Ann. “A Beastly Case of Murder,” The Poisoned Pen, 1 (November 1978), 3-10. [Surveying detective stories from the time of Poe’s “Murders,” the author points out a continuing fascination with animals, as either murderers or accessories, among writers of detective fiction. A checklist, alphabetically by animal, is included.]

Heaney, Howell J. “The Extraordinary Mr. Poe: A Biography of Edgar Allan Poe, by Wolf Mankowitz,” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, 103 (1979), 409-411. [Rather gentle treatment of this sensationalizing account of Poe’s life.]

Hine, Thomas. “‘A Third-rate Job’ on the Poe House,” Philadelphia Inquirer, 14 January 1979, pp. 1-B, 4-B. [Summarizing report of state historic preservation officer Edward Weintraub’s discovery of deficient work in the Free Library-Federal Government restoration of the last of Poe’s Philadelphia homes, at 530 N. Seventh St., especially noting the rapidity ordered for planning. For other relevant notices, see Philadelphia Evening and Sunday Bulletin, 10 September 1978, p. XA18; Baltimore Sun, 6 October 1978, p. B-3; and Pottsville Republican, 22 November 1978, p. 33.]

Hubin, Allen J. “AJH Reviews,” Armchair Detective, 12 (1979), 111-117. [Noticing Manny Meyers’ The Last Mystery of Edgar Allan Poe, Hubin comments that, although the story itself is not impressive, the character of Poe and the “ambience of mid-nineteenth century New York” are.]

Jepson, Edgar. Memories of an Edwardian (London: Martin Secker, 1937, 1938). [Several times Jepson speaks of Poe and T. S. Eliot as the only genuine poets ever to come out of the U.S.A.]

Jerome, Jeff. “Reverend Griswold’s Ghastly Smear,” Baltimore Sun, 6 October 1978, p. 30. [Rehearses the Poe legend as begun by Griswold, remarking that its fantasies die hard — many of them persisting into the present. Also comments upon resurgence of interest in Poe and his times in Baltimore, noting the University of Maryland’s taking over Westminster Presbyterian Church, in which graveyard Poe, Virginia, and Maria Clemm are buried. For paraphrase and comment on this article, see Washington Star, 12 October 1978, p. 1.]

Kittredge, William, and Steven M. Krauzer. “The Evolution of the Great American Detective: The Reader as Detective Hero,” Armchair Detective, 11 (1978), 318-333. [High praise for Poe as creator of the detective story, emphasizing Dupin’s eccentricity. Establishing conventions of the genre, Poe is outstanding at two: the sleuth’s solution, and correct solution, of the case; and the use of the detective as the only character “capable of success.”] [page 33:]

Lachman, Marvin. “Julian Symons, The Tell-Tale Heart,” The Poisoned Pen, 2 (May/June 1979), 32-33. [Hostile review from the bias of a detective fiction buff. Rightly, Lachman criticizes Symons’ indefiniteness; perversely, he believes that of all of Poe’s works only the detective tales stand the test of time.]

Latimer, Jonathan. Murder in the Madhovse (New York: Doubleday, Doran, for the Crime Club, 1935). [A private investigator poses as Dupin to gain admittance to an upstate New York sanitarium to investigate a supposed robbery there.]

Lawrence, J. Stephan. Catalogue No. 44 (Chicago: P. Stephan Lawrence, 1979). [Item 83 corrects thc works by Sydney Kramer on Stone and Kimball and A. E. Gallatin on Aubrey Beardsley. It offers for sale illustrations prepared by the graphicist for Stone and Kimball’s edition of Poe’s works, these for the special ten-set issue on Japanese vellum put out probably in 1895 and previously cited as appearing in 1901.]

Ludlam, Harry. A Biography of Dracula: The Life Story of Bram Stoker (London, New York, Toronto, Cape Town, and Sydney: Fireside Press, 1962). [Stoker’s mother writes that Dracula surpasses any of Poe’s horrors; ch. 26 places Poe in the tradition of Gothic romance.]

McBain, Ed. “Introduction,” A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle (New York: Ballantine Books, i975), pp. vii-xv. [Quoting the famous passage in which Holmes poo-poos Dupin’s methods, McBain states that the detective and his creator are ridiculed. Because Dupin never became so popular as Holmes, we must consider the latter as establishing the tradition in detective fiction of casting the cops as dunces.]

McBain, Laurie. Tears of Gold (New York: Avon Books, 1979). [Ch. 1 has for a motto the final stanza of “Eldorado,” fitting because the heroine seeks for great happiness and satisfaction. Ch. 5 contains lines from “Dreamland,” which also accord with the theme of the drabness of everyday life.]

Michelson, Bruce F. “Richard Wilbur: The Quarrel with Poe,” Southern Review, N.S. 14 (1978), 245-261. [A penetrating survey of Poe’s impact upon symbolism, language, and imagination in Wilbur’s poetry. Michelson hopes to correct some misunderstandings, perhaps created by Wilbur’s own statements about his “quarrel” with Poe, about the relationship between the two.]

Miller, John C. “The Tell-Tale Heart: The Life of Edgar Allan Poe, by Julian Symons,” American Literature, 51 (1979), 115-116. [Opines that Symons attempts to cover too much, to separate too widely Poe’s life and works, and to present his as a definitive life of Poe — which it is not.]

Miller, Karl. “Poe in the Sky,” New York Review, 28 June 1979, pp. 46-50. [Reviewing the Mabbott Edition and the recent books by David Sinclair, Julian Symons, and John Carl Miller, the author provides provocative critiques of “Hans Pfaall” and “William Wilson,” as well as surveying and refuting the Griswold conception of Poe’s life and character.]

Nadel, Norman. “Sherlock Holmes Alive and Well,” Pottsville Republican, 31 October 1978, p. 15. [Mentions Gaboriau and Poe among Doyle’s literary ancestors.]

Nevins, Francis M., Jr. “Cornell Wollrich: The Years before Suspense,” Armchair Detective, 12 (1979), 106-110. [Lauds Woolrich as the “Poe of the twentieth century.”]

————————. “The Sound of Suspense: John Dickson Carr as a Radio Writer,” Armchair Detective, 11 (1978), 335-341. [In a list of CBS Suspense broadcasts, we find “The Pit and the Pendulum,” a free adaptation of Poe’s tale, a collaboration with Henry Hull, presented 12 January 1943. It was offered again, 11 November 1947, with Jose Ferrer.] [column 2:] Norton, Alden H., and Sam Moskowitz, eds. Great Untold Stories of Fantasy and Horror (New York: Pyramid Books, 1969). [The introduction ranks Poe with Hawthorne, Bierce, and O’Brien as America’s famous horror-story writers. W. C. Morrow and Robert W. Chambers are cited as their peers.]

Occhiogrosso, Frank. “Murder in the Dark: Dashiell Hammett,” New Republic, 30 July 1977, pp. 28-30. [Dupin numbers among protagonists prior to Hammett’s innovations whose deductions were based upon material clues. Hammett’s detectives can better “read people.”]

Parrinder, Patrick. “George Orwell and the Detenive Story,” Journal of Popular Culture, 6 (1973), 292-297. [Calls attention to Orwell’s little known essay “Grandeur et Decadence du Roman Policier Anglais” in the 1944 Fontaine. Arthur Conan Doyle, Ernest Bramah, and R. Austin Freeman, says Orwell, were inspired by Poe.]

Penzler, Otto. “Crime Dossier,” Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, 72, No. 420 (1978), 90-92. [Calls attention to burgeoning mystery-detective-fiction courses in the U.S.A., particularly to that taught by Elliot L. Gilbert, University of California, Davis, in which Poe is prominent.]

————————. “Crime Dossier,” Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, 73, No. 424 (1979), 93-94. [Cautions the unwary about errors concerning Poe in Chris Steinbrunner and Norman Michaels’ The Films of Sherlock Holmes, such as dubbing Dupin as Arsene Lupin, Leblanc’s character!]

————————. The Private Lives of Private Eyes: Spies, Crime Fighters, and Other Good Guys ( New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1977). [Penzler’s introduction states that although there were predecessors, Dupin was the first genuine literary detective. Ch. 9 is devoted to his career and to Poe’s detective tales — in film as well as in literary versions.] Philbrick, Thomas. “Thomas Ollive Mabbott, ed. (with the assistance of Eleanor D. Kewer and Maureen C. Mabbott), Tales and Sketches . . . , Volumes II and III of the Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe,” Nineteenth-Century Fiction, 33 (1978), 403-405. [The reviewer argues that Mabbott’s use of Griswold’s edition for copy text violates principles for handling accidentals accepted by most modern editors; he praises the usefulness and learning of the edition’s annotations.]

Poe, Edgar Allan. “‘Visions of the Wissahiccon . . . ,’ ” Philadelphia Evening and Sunday Bulletin, 10 September 1978, p. XA-19. [Reprint of a portion of “Morning on the Wissahiccon,” with editorial commentary and a remark by Regan (see below) on its “local color” substance.]

Queen, Ellery [Frederic Dannay]. “Introduction (Looking Back),’’ The Roman Hat Mystery: A Problem in Deduction. Golden Anniversary Edition (New York: Mysterious Press, 1979), pp. i-iv. [Points out his deliberate omission of Poe’s name from those of influences, although he read Poe when young. Comments that recent writers of detective fiction frequently do not acknowledge debts to Poe because either they take him for granted or they resist the admission. In the genre “his position . . . is so towering that he stands absolutely alone.”]

Regan, Robert. An Exploration of Edgar Allan Poe: Discovering Poe — Some Suggestions for Readers (Philadelphia: Free Library of Philadelphia, 1979). [A pamphlet prepared in conjunction with the Free Library’s exhibit and the reopening of the Poe House, 530 N. Seventh St., Regan’s survey ranges over the Poe of legend and fact.]

————————. “Poe Was No Monster,” Philadelphia Evening and Sunday Bulletin, 10 September 1978, p. XA-19. [Leading up to outlining the circumstances of restoring the Poe House on N. Seventh St., Regan demolishes a recent television presentation of the Dickens-Poe meeting in 1842, as well as the legends that arose around Poe beginning with Griswold’s embroidery.] [page 34:] Rosenbach, A. S. W., as told to Avery Strakosch. “Among Old Manuscripts,” Saturday Evening Post, 5 March 1927, pp. 26-27, 56-58, 60, 62. [The famous bibliophile once owned an unpublished poem of Poe’s, bought “at the rate of $2.05 a line,” as well as the letter to the Buckinghams containing the “original of ‘Epimanes’,” an evident misstatement (Poe copied it from his original).]

————————. “Talking of Old Books,” Saturday Evening Post, 22 January 1927, pp. 3-5, 94. [He describes dialogues between his uncle Moses Polock and editor and book collector George P. Philes as they reminisced about Poe’s merits (both knew him).] Starrett, Vincent. “Have You a Tamerlane in Your Attic? — On the Trail of Rare Books,” Saturday Evening Post, 27 June 1928, p. 72. [Discusses the rarity of Tamerlane in the first edition, along with anecdotes about collectors seeking it.]

Stecklow, Steve. “Poe’s Note to Library,” Philadelphia Evening and Sunday Bulletin,” 29 November 1978, p. B-61. [Remarks upon the removal of Poe’s letter to F. W. Thomas, 4 February 1842, from the Hammond Museum, North Salem, N.Y., to the Gimbel Collection in Philadelphia’s Free Library, via a Sotheby-Parke Bernet sale. The letter, sold for $17,000, contains the first mention of Virginia’s tuberculosis, as well as a reference to Poe’s review of Barnaby Rudge. For other comment on this letter and its purchase, see Danville News, 29 November 1978, p. 10, and Philadelphia Inquirer, 10 December 1978, p. 31-G.]

Steinbrunner, Chris. “Bloody Visions,” Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, 72, No. 420 (1978), 92-93. [Discussing popular American Theme Parks, he remarks on “scenes of terror from Poe to Psycho” in the Haunted Mansion, Long Branch, N.J.]

Thomas, Gilbert. How to Enjoy Detective Fiction (London: Rickcliff, 1947). [Ch. 2 credits Poe, and Dickens via Poe, with creating the detective story as we now know it, listing Poe’s contributions.]

Thorn, John. “Introduction,” A Study in Scarlet, by Arthur Conan Doyle (New York: Hart Publishing Co., 1976) pp. 7-14. [Sherlock Holmes’ character and methods owe something to Poe’s Dupin and Gaboriau’s M. Lecoq, as well as to Joseph Bell.]

Tracy, Jack, ed. The Encyclopedia Sherlockiana ( Garden City: Doubleday, 1977). [Creating the Dupin tales makes Poe the “father of the modern detective story.” Mentions Holmes’ attitude toward Dupin, as noted in A Study in Scarlet and “The Cardboard Box” — but not Doyle’s own admission of his debt to Poe, stated in the preface to Adventures in the “Author’s Edition” of 1903.]

Underwood, Paul. The Vampire’s Bedside Companion: The Amazing World of Vampires in Fact and Fiction (London: Leslie Frewin, 1974). [Brief comment upon Poe’s interest in and writing about vampirism — a topic worth pursuing in depth.)

Weeks, Lewis E., Jr. “Whittier Criticism over the Years,” Essex Institute Historical Collections, 100 (1964), 159-182. [Mentions important nineteenth-century notices wherein Poe is ranked as an American writer, along with other contemporaries.]

Witkiewicz, Stanislaw Ignacy. Trans. Daniel C. Gerould and C. S. Durer. “The Water Hen: A Spherical Tragedy in Three Acts,” Avant Garde Drama: A Casebook, ed. Bernard F. Dukore and Daniel C. Gerould ( New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1976), pp. 1-50. [This translation from Polish makes convenient a play featuring protagonist Edgar Valopr, evidently a composite of the legendary Poe and of Poe’s literary heroes, with major scenes occurring in “Nevermore Palace.” Valopr is involved in obvious role-playing and masquerading, all in the manner of the surrealism popular during the 1920’s. The play dates from 1921, was produced in 1922, and first published in 1962. This translation originally appeared in First Stage (Summer 1967).]