Suggested Reading

(* Indicates the most important sources of information.)

I. Biography

Mary Phillips.  Edgar Allan Poe, The Man.  Chicago: John Winston and Co., 1926. (This book contains several inaccuracies but has many excellent illustrations.)
*Arthur Hobson Quinn.  Edgar Allan Poe: A Critical Biography. 1941; rpt. New York.  Cooper Square Publishers, 1969; rpt. Baltimore, John Hopkins University Press, 1998. (This is the best researched and least biased Poe biography to date)
Kenneth Silverman.  Edgar A. Poe: Mournful and Never-Ending Remembrance.  New York, Harper Collins, 1991. (This book is more readable than Quinn’s but is very negatively biased against Poe.)
Dawn B. Sova. Edgar Allan Poe: A to Z. New York, Checkmark Books, 2001. (Though useful for general information, this book contains too many blatant inaccuracies to allow us to recommend it.)
*Dwight Thomas and David K. Jackson.  The Poe Log.  A Documentary Life of Edgar Allan Poe.  1809-1849.  New York: G.K. Hall and Co., 1987: rpt. New York.  Simon and Schuster Macmillan. 1995.  (This  day-by-day account of Poe’s life directly quotes many contemporary documents.  It is a good source of documentation on Poe’s life but is not very readable.)

II. Works*

Edgar Allan Poe.  Essays and Reviews.  New York: Library of America, 1984.
*Edgar Allan Poe. Poetry and Tales.  New York:  Library of America, 1984.
*Edgar Allan Poe.  The Unabridged Edgar Allan Poe.  Philadelphia, PA: Running Press Book Publishers, 1983. (This contains the earliest published versions of Poe’s works.  The later versions are the ones normally contained in anthologies.)
*Thomas O. Mabbott, ed.  The Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe.  Volume 1.  Poems.  Cambridge, Belknap Press, 1969.  (Each poem is introduced with excellent documentation about possible inspirations, the publishing history, and the changes Poe made to it over time.)
*Thomas O. Mabbott, ed.  The Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe- Tales and Sketches 1831- 1842.  Cambridge, Belknap Press, 1978.
*Thomas O. Mabbott, ed.  The Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe-Tales and Sketches 1843- 1849.  Cambridge, Belknap Press, 1978.
*John Ward Ostrom, ed.  The Letters of Edgar Allan Poe.  New York:  Gordian Press, Inc., 1966.  2 vols.
*Stephen Peithman.  The Annotated Tales of Edgar Allan Poe.  New York:  Doubleday, 1980.  (Each tale contains extensive annotations including definitions of words and explanations of certain allusions.)
Burton R. Pollin, ed.  Collected Writings of Edgar Allan Poe.  Boston: Twayne.  v.1 The Imaginary Voyages..., v. 2 The Brevities..., v. 3 The Broadway Journal pt. 1 and pt. 2, v. 4 The Southern Literary Messenger.  1981-v.2-4, New York Gordian Press, 1986-1997.
Mary Newton Stanard, ed.  Edgar Allan Poe Letters Till Now Unpublished in the Valentine Museum, Richmond, Virginia.  Philadelphia: J.B. Lippencott Co., 1925. (This is a collection of Poe’s early letters to John Allan.  It reveals many details about their difficult relationship.)

III. Works Illustrations

*Roscoe Brown Fisher.  The James Carling Illustrations of The Raven.  Charlotte: Delmar Publishers, 1982.
*Edgar Allan Poe.  The Raven.  Illustrated by Gustav Dore.  New York: Harper and Brother, 1884.
*Burton R. Pollin.  Images of  Poe’s Works.  A Comprehensive Catalogue of Illustrations.  New York.  Greenwood Press, 1989.

IV. Miscellaneous

*Agnes M. Bondurant.  Poe’s Richmond.  Richmond: Garrett and Massie, 1941. rpt. Richmond: Poe Associates, 1978; rpt. Richmond: Edgar Allan Poe Museum, 1999. (This book provides a good deal of useful information about Richmond as Poe would have known it.)
Lasley Dameron and Irby B. Cauthen Jr.  Edgar Allan Poe, A Bibliography of Criticism 1827-1967.  Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1974.
*Michael J. Deas.  The Portraits and Daguerreotypes of Edgar Allan Poe.  Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1989.
Robert D. Jacobs.  Poe, Journalist and Critic.  Baton Rouge, Louisiana State University Press, 1969.
*David K. Jackson.  Poe and the Southern Literary Messenger.  Richmond:  The Dietz Press Co., 1934.
Richard Kopley, ed.  Poe’s Pym: Critical Explorations.  Durham: Duke University Press, 1992.
Richard Kopley.  Edgar Allan Poe and The Philadelphia Saturday News.  Baltimore, MD: Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore...1991.
*Burton R. Pollin.  Poe Creator of Words.  Bronxville, NY: Rev. ed.  Nicholas T. Smith, 1980.

V. Web Resources

Poe Museum in Richmond, VA: www.poemuseum.org
Poe Historic Site in Philadelphia: parec.com/natnl_parks
Poe House and Society in Baltimore, MD: www.eapoe.org
Poe Studies Association: www.lv.psu.edu/PSA

Other sites of interest:

www.poedecoder.com
www.poedecoder.com/PreciselyPoe
www.astin-poe/links.html