| Poe in His Own Time: A Biographical Chronicle of His Life, Drawn from Recollections, Interviews, and Memoirs by Family, Friends, and Associates Subjects: Poe Edgar Allan 1809–1849; Authors American -- 19th century -- Biography; Poe Edgar Allan 1809–1849 -- Correspondence; Poe Edgar Allan 1809–1849 -- Friends and associates; An image of Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) as a man of gloom and mystery continues to hold great popular appeal. Long recognized as one of the greats of American literature, he elicited either highly commendatory or absolutely hostile reactions from many who knew him, from others who claimed to comprehend him as person or as writer, and from still others who circulated as fact opinions intuited from his writings. Whether promoting him as angel or demon, "a man of great and original genius" or "extraordinarily wicked," the viewpoints in this dramatic collection of primary materials provide vigorous testimony to support the contradictory images of the man and the writer that have prevailed for a century and a half. Professor of English at the University of Mississippi, Benjamin Fisher has focused on the life and writings of Edgar Allan Poe for four decades. Most recently, he is the author of Poe and the 1890s and the editor of Masques, Mysteries, Mastodons: A Poe Miscellany , the Poe volume in the American Critical Archives series, and Poe's Horror Stories . |