The Poe Society of Baltimore Website

The purpose of the website for the Poe Society of Baltimore is to help fulfil the mission of the Poe Society itself, namely to provide information about Poe's life and writings and to encourage scholarship in general, particularly in regard to Poe, his writings, the context in which he lived, and the evolution of his reputation and of academic investigations and interpretations of his life and works.

Of especial importance is to provide as complete a collection of Poe's writings as possible, with notable historical texts, but emphasizing those that were authorized by Poe himself and establishing the existence, known or probable, of every "version" in which a given work exists or did at one time exist, even when that "version" is now lost. (The condition of authorization is presumed to extend to some degree to the posthumous edition prepared by Rufus W. Griswold, with the exception of the material identified as having been written by Griswold, Willis or Lowell, and excluding the forged letters that Griswold included in the "Preface" and attributed erroneously to Poe.) The value of providing multiple "versions" is to show Poe's penchant for revision, and to reveal something in regard to his creative process. A major complication in regard to Poe's writings is that a large amount of material that he provided for magazines and newspapers was not signed. Consequently, many items must be included as possibly being by Poe, or having been attributed as one time or another to Poe. Some other, rejected material is also included for the sake of its status being clearly documented. In addition to contemporary texts, it is important to include a variety of historical collections of Poe's works, particularly those with notes or annotations.

To assist in interpreting Poe's works, and understanding his life, the website will also include a selection of contemporary notices, reviews and articles that help to establish Poe's historical context and views about his reception and reputation. Moving beyond his immediate era, a selection of books and articles about Poe and his writings will be provided, based on their historical, social or academic value. Many of these items will necessarily reflect the biases of their authors, and include information that is opinion, and even misleading. Such material should contain a statement in the notes to assist the reader. Of particular interest are biographies and academic studies.

All material on the website is to be rendered in the form of HTML/XHTML plain text, with CSS for formatting. Images will be used only as needed, and will be provided as JPGs or GIFs.

As much as possible, the principles of copyright will be honored, although for some items that lay within grey areas of ownership and coverage of copyrights, the tendency will be to honor the principle of making information freely available, and with the confidence that scholars want their work to be seen and used.