Customer Reviews

Edgar Allan Poe: A Critical Biography

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A meticulous and massive work that piles fact upon fact. This is a reprint of a 1941 work, and the author, Quinn, was born in 1875. He is concerned to defend Poe's reputation against charges of immorality. More background about the marriage to Virginia would have been interesting. How common were such marriages in Virginia at that time? Was the full age of 21 claimed on the marriage bond legally necessary? I don't know if Silverman's 1992 biography has this, I might try it, but 750 pages on Poe is enough for now. If you really need to see an exact reproduction of the title page of Poe's textbook of conchology, this is the book for you.

As a lifelong fan of Edgar Allan Poe, I admit that I worship at the altar of Poe. Therefore it was a delight to discover this most excellent bio, extensively researched by another worshipful fan (from an earlier era) of American's greatest short story writer. This is a must for your reference library. I read and absorbed every single page. I'm grateful that the author followed his own lifelong passion for Poe and went against the grain of Poe bashing biographers of his time, and produced this work that extols Poe's positive character features while not neglecting the negatives. Compare this bio with other "negative" Poe bios of the past (esp. early 20th century), still available in libraries, and you'll understand why it was such a pleasure for me to find this particular book which provides a more balanced picture of the artist's life and career.

I stumbled across Quinn's biography of Edgar Allen Poe while doing research for my Master's thesis on Poe's work. The size of the book is daunting, but I found it amazingly easy to read (yes, it's harder to follow than Dick And Jane, but it's easier to read than a lot of academic writing) and Quinn was incredibly thorough in backing up his contentions.

He follows Poe's life from birth to death, using Poe's work; his critics; letters to, from, and about the man; and numerous other sources to paint a picture of Poe not as an opium-addicted, death-obsessed pedophile, but rather as a writer devoted to literature and his quest to elicit a visceral reaction in his reader, as well as a man devastated by the loss of his teenage wife. (Yes, Virginia was young by 21st-century standards, but Poe didn't live in the 21st century. I seem to recall hearing that Juliet was 12.)

This book may be daunting for the casual reader--804-pages daunting--but if you're looking for a biography that looks under the bed and between the sofa cushions, I definitely recommend this book. Poe will always remain a shrouded figure who died under mysterious circumstances--in large part because the man he trusted as his literary executor betrayed him--but Quinn does an amazing job at fleshing out what was going on in his life and painting as objective and complete a picture as possible.

First published in 1941, Arthur Hobson Quinn's critically acclaimed Edgar Allan Poe: A Critical Biography is a dry, strictly academic work which presents its readership with over 700 dense pages containing thousands of thoroughly researched 'hard' facts concerning the life of one of America's greatest literary figures, but which completely neglects to create a vibrant, three-dimensional, shadow-casting portrait of the writer himself.

Throughout the volume, its human subject remains little more than a blank, three-letter sieve endlessly referred to as "Poe": "Poe lived up to his standard...", "Poe signalized his departure from the editorial staff of...", "Poe wrote the critical notices for October and November...", "Poe did not lecture, however....", "Poe was still hearing echoes of his visits to Mrs. Whitman's home..."

The problem, of course, is that, despite the avalanche of facts, many of which are utterly superfluous, the reader comes no closer to gaining an understanding of the man behind them. "Who was Edgar Allan Poe?" is a fundamental question the text never comes close to providing a genuine answer to.

As Quinn's evaluation of Poe's prose and poetry is routinely perfunctory and unexceptional, Edgar Allan Poe: A Critical Biography is a work that few readers, with the exception of committed Poe scholars, are likely to find worthwhile or engrossing.

This is the best biography about Edgar Allan Poe I have ever seen. Meticulous and clear, Arthur H. Quinn take us to the real world that E.A.POE lived and show us with facts that Poe was more than a writer, a Genius.

This is the best biography about Edgar Allan Poe I have ever seen. Meticulous and clear, Arthur H. Quinn take us to the real world that E.A.POE lived and show us with facts that Poe was more than a writer, a Genius.

This is the best biography about Edgar Allan Poe I have ever seen. Meticulous and clear, Arthur H. Quinn take us to the real world that E.A.POE lived and show us with facts that Poe was more than a writer, a Genius.

if you agree alot with the title you would love this book.Before copyright laws and respectability for writers,authors unless they were connected with money would literally peddle their offerings like a door to door magazine subscription salesperson.So the story of Poe goes. Needless to say the hardships attendant on such a life. there are alot of primary sources here in fact a goldmine for readers unwilling to take anyones suspect interpretations.The rev. griswold letters are here exposed in all their distortions with a column showing what Poe actually wrote and then as Griswold reprinted them adding his own "spin". If education without religion creates clever devils then education with religion can at times create even cleverer devils as proved by the Reverend Griswold.An excellent biography,you might even run the Poe category (or potent potables) on Jeopardy and make the first payment on that student loan---NAAAA!!.You just choked and for Rev. Griswold you answered Gus Griisom(the astronaut)!! Alex sent you packing and that what you get for treating Poe as trivia. This book right up there with the Silverman bio.