“TRUE! NERVOUS, VERY, VERY DREADFULLY NERVOUS I HAD BEEN AND AM”: EDGAR ALLAN POE’S WORKS, HANDSOMELY BOUND BY ZAEHNSDORF

POE, Edgar Allan. The Works. Edinburgh: Adam and Charles Black, 1874-75. Four volumes. Octavo, early 20th-century three-quarter navy morocco gilt, raised bands, elaborately gilt-decorated spines with burgundy morocco onlays, marbled boards and endpapers, top edges gilt. $3200.

First edition of Poe's complete works edited by Poe scholar John Ingram, with engraved frontispiece portrait in Volume I, handsomely bound by Zaehnsdorf.

After his death, Poe's reputation suffered under the willful misrepresentation of his literary executor, critic Rufus Griswold. In an attempt to set the record straight, Englishman "John Henry Ingram published the first significant life of Poe in 1874, which he expanded into two volumes in 1880… Ingram devoted years of his life to corresponding with everyone he could find who had known Poe or who had reliable information about him. Ingram also edited a four-volume edition of Poe's works and wrote nearly 50 articles about him… Ingram's biography… effected a turning point in Poe's reputation" (Meyers, 264). This compilation includes Poe's tales, poems, essays, and criticism, as well as a "memoir" by Poe's friend George Graham, the editor and publisher of Graham's Magazine. Graham noted that "Literature to him [Poe] was religion; and he, its high-priest" (Meyers, 282). BAL 16162. Volume I with small owner marks to contents list.

Very slight rubbing to some joints and edges. A fine set, handsomely bound.