Poe was the saddest and strangest figure in American literature. Jeffrey Meyers' biography portrays the unbearable tensions in his paradoxical character. He was a Virginia gentleman and the son of itinerant actors, the heir to a great fortune and a disinherited outcast, a university man who had failed to graduate, a soldier bought out of the army, a court-martialled West Point cadet, a husband with an unapproachable child-bride, a brilliant editor and a low-salaried hack, a world-renowned but improverished author, the ...
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Poe was the saddest and strangest figure in American literature. Jeffrey Meyers' biography portrays the unbearable tensions in his paradoxical character. He was a Virginia gentleman and the son of itinerant actors, the heir to a great fortune and a disinherited outcast, a university man who had failed to graduate, a soldier bought out of the army, a court-martialled West Point cadet, a husband with an unapproachable child-bride, a brilliant editor and a low-salaried hack, a world-renowned but improverished author, the fiance of two women who would not marry him, a normally temperate man and an uncontrollable alcoholic, a rationalist with a mystical cast of mind, a materialist who yearned for a final unity with God. Poe was the prototype of the self-destructive American writer. Throughout his life he would repeatedly strive for a desperately desired goal and, when it was nearly in reach, deliberately destroy his chance of achieving it. After attempting suicide, he tried to drink himself to death and was found in the gutter - delirious, hallucinating and comatose. Poe's life was as strange as his works and even his most bizarre stories - "The Fall of the House of Usher", "The Murders in the Rue Morgue", The Cask of Amontillado" and "The Black Cat" - were autobiographical distortions of his own experience.
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Seller's Description:
Very Good Condition. Dust jacket fully intact, only lightly rubbed at edges. Internally, clean and fresh, with unmarked and uncreased pages. Overall, very sound and presentable. Publisher's note: "This biography of Edgar Allan Poe portrays the unbearable tensions in his paradoxical character." Size: x 24 x 16 cm. xii, 348 pp. Shipped Weight: Under 1 kilo. Category: Biography & Autobiography; Poe, Edgar Allan, 1809-1849; Authors, American; ISBN: 0719550238. ISBN/EAN: 9780719550232. Add. Inventory No: 20221025ABX072042.
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Seller's Description:
Very good in good dust jacket. 352 p. Audience: Professional and scholarly; College/higher education; General/trade. TRUE FIRST EDITION thus. Examing the life of this tortured writer who virtually singlehandedly invented the horror and detective genres that we know today.9x6" Sky Boards HB with Navy Spine Bindings, Gilt Titles on Spine. VG. In Mario Pulice designed unpriceclipped DJ, torn at head and tail, But Good+. RARE copy. 348pp with index ~ 76.95 ~ Poe, The Fall Of the House Of Usher, The Raven, The Masque Of The Red Death, The Pit and the Pendulum ~ Fiction
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Seller's Description:
Fine in Fine jacket. First edition. 348pp. Illustrated. A couple of easily erased pencil marks in the text, else fine in fine dustwrapper. Card laid in from a Scribner's editor sending the book to a poet and literary scholar.
