“AND THE RED DEATH HELD ILLIMITABLE DOMINION OVER ALL”: THE RARE ISSUES OF GRAHAM’S MAGAZINE, 1842, CONTAINING THE FIRST APPEARANCES OF POE’S “LIFE IN DEATH” AND “MASK OF THE RED DEATH,” IN STRIKING INLAID PICTORIAL BINDING

POE, Edgar Allan. “Life in Death” AND “The Mask of the Red Death” IN Graham’s Lady’s and Gentleman’s Magazine, Volume XX (Nos. 4 and 5, the April and May issues only; i.e., pages 194-300 of Vol. XX). Philadelphia: George R. Graham, 1842. Slim octavo, modern full navy morocco with red morocco and cream vellum inlays, raised bands, red morocco spine label, all edges gilt.

Two original issues of Graham’s Magazine, “the most important and widely circulated magazine of its era” (Lomazow 404a), illustrated with six plates, and containing the first appearances of “Life in Death” and “The Mask of the Red Death,” two classic tales by “one of the most important figures in the development of the American short story” (Clute & Grant, 769).

“The contribution of Graham’s Magazine to American literary development was of two kinds: it showed that adequate and even liberal payment for contributions might actually be profitable… and it published some important work by the best American writers of the time” (Mott I:555)-among them, Edgar Allan Poe. Poe was first an editorial assistant and ultimately literary editor for Graham’s (formerly Burton’s Gentleman’s Magazine). As part of his duties, he contributed much material of his own, including the two tales in the issues bound together here. “Life in Death” (subsequently entitled “The Oval Portrait”) (pages 200-1), Poe’s exploration of how “the artist feeds on-and sometimes destroys-the life he has transformed into art” (Meyers, 290), would become a major influence on Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray. “The Mask of the Red Death” (pages 257-59) is “a crescendo of mounting terror… Although Poe wrote other stories, including several humorous ones, it is his works of terror and anguish that made him famous and which have had an incalculable effect on literature” (Clute & Grant, 769). These two issues also contain the first printings of several reviews by Poe, including essays on Hawthorne’s Twice-Told Tales (April, page 254 and pages 298-300), which is itself now regarded as a landmark in American literary criticism. Handsomely bound in navy morocco with vellum inlay on the front cover depicting the inescapable, bloody, skeletal specter of the Red Death, holding “illimitable dominion over all.” Heartman & Canny, 208. Biondi, 46.

Scattered light foxing to plates and text. An excellent copy of the scarce first appearances of two unforgettable Poe stories.