Poe on Prose and Poetry

Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) was an American poet, writer, editor, and literary critic. He pioneered writings on critical theory and developed an aesthetic for both poetry and the short story that remains influential. However, Poe scattered his thoughts on writing among his almost one thousand editorials, reviews, critical notices, essays, and tales.

Poe on Prose and Poetry: A Sourcebook of Selected Writings provides excerpts from selected primary source documents, with each introduced, summarized, and carefully annotated to provide the reader with a clear understanding of Poe's main theoretical statements and essential comments on writing prose and poetry. Also, included in their entirety, are the three documents considered foundational to his theories on writing-"Letter to B-" (1831), "The Philosophy of Composition" (1845), and "The Poetic Principle" (printed posthumously, 1850).

Poe on Prose and Poetry: A Sourcebook of Selected Writings is a superbly curated single-source compendium of Poe's thoughts on writing.