Edgar A. Poe (Magill’s Literary Annual 1991-2005)
At a glance:
- Author: Kenneth Silverman
- First Published: 1991
- Type of Work: Literary biography
- Time of Work: 1809-1849
- Setting: Boston, Richmond, Philadelphia, and New York City
- Principal Characters: Edgar Allan Poe, Eliza Poe, John Allan, Maria Poe Clemm (“Muddy”), George Rex Graham, Rufus Griswold, Thomas Dunn English, Frances Sargent Osgood, Nancy Richmond, Sarah Helen Whitman, Elmira Shelton
- Genres: Nonfiction, Biography
- Subjects: Family or family life, Psychology or psychologists, Poetry or poets, Poverty or poor people, Alcoholism or alcoholics, Substance abuse, Sick persons, Orphans or orphanages, Literacy
- Locales: New York, NY, Boston, MA, Philadelphia, PA, Richmond, VA
There have been several stimulating reinterpretations of Edgar Allan Poe’s writing in recent years, but a full-fledged accurate, scholarly, and readable life has not been available. Kenneth Silverman has remedied this deficiency by producing an engrossing life of the artist, rooted in a sensitivity to psychology and sources, and providing succinct, perceptive readings of the entire Poe canon.
As his subtitle indicates, Silverman traces the biographical thread in Poe’s poetry, criticism, and fiction, contending that Poe never recovered from his mother’s early death and his...
[The entire page is 1973 words long]
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