“THIS FINEST OF FINEST OF ARTISTS”: HANDSOMELY BOUND "AMONTILLADO EDITION" OF POE’S WORKS, ONE OF ONLY 315 NUMBERED SETS

POE, Edgar Allan. The Works. New York: George P. Putnam's Sons; A.C. Armstrong & Son, (1884). Eight volumes. Octavo, contemporary three-quarter crimson morocco gilt, elaborately gilt-decorated spines, raised bands, marbled endpapers, top edges gilt, uncut. $8800.

The desirable "Amontillado" edition of Poe’s complete works in eight volumes, one of only 315 sets, with etched frontispiece and vignette title page in each volume, handsomely bound by Ringer for A.C. McClure & Co.

"Poe was the founder of the modern detective story… [as well as] the ablest critic of his time in America. In verse he achieved incomparable melodic effects… His influence has been incalculable in both verse and prose on later writers… 'This finest of finest of artists,' Bernard Shaw has called him" (Kunitz & Haycraft, 625). These volumes include Poe's prose tales, poems, literary criticism and essays, together with a critical introduction and memoir of Poe's life by Richard Stoddard, along with two facsimile letters. Each volume was signed and dated by G.P. Putnam's Sons. While this set is uniformly bound, the volumes bear two different limitation numbers: volumes I, II, III, V and VI are numbered copy 45, and volumes IV, VII and VIII are numbered copy 56. BAL 16228.

A very few scattered light spots, contents otherwise clean. An attractive set in beautiful condition.