Poe, Edgar Allan

The Works of the late Edgar Allan Poe; with Notices of His Life and Genius. By N.P. Willis, J.R. Lowell and R.R. Griswold. New York: J.S. Redfield, 1850 (Vols. I-III); 1856 (Vol. IV)

4 volumes, 12mo. Engraved portrait. Vols. I-II in original matching publisher's blue cloth stamped in blind with gilt spine titles and Vols. III-IV in varying publisher's brown cloth with gilt spine titles;ജ some trivial fading to first two volumes, but fine copies. Cloth chemises.

The very fine Swann-Self set of the first collected edition.

Griswold's last and greatest betrayal.

The tension between Rufus Griswold and Edgar Allan Poe was one of the great feuds in American literature. As critics they assailed one another's choices for anthologies and reviews, with Poe finding insult at Griswold's underwhelming opinion of his poems, compounded by the fact that Griswold replaced Poe at Graham's Magazine, and was paid a higher salary.

The fondness for t🎐he same woman, Frances Osgood, didn't help matters, nor did Griswold's editing a popular volume of her poetry while Poe broke off whatever tangled relationship he had with her. That she continued to be enamored of Poe no doubt rubbed Griswold the wrong way.

Griswold was singularly determined in his animosity—an arch-nemesis after it would seem to matter less—responding to Poe's death with a strange mixture of outright venom and considered praise. His long and widely read obituary of Poe set the tone, its opening a model of vitriol: "Edgar Allan Poe꧅ is dead. He died in Baltimore the day before yesterday. This announcement will startle many, but few will be grieved by it. The poet was🔥 well known, personally or by reputation, in all this country; he had readers in England, and in several of the states of Continental Europe; but he had few or no friends..."

But Griswold was far from done. He somehow convinced Poe's heirs to assign him the rights to the late a🙈uthor's writings, and to publish the present set of his collected works. Griswold took the opportun♔ity to print letters from Poe praising his own material at length, letters he fabricated or forged, putting words into the better writer's mouth after he could no longer defend himself.

Perhaps t൲he most ironic of Griswold's strategies against his rival was the sketch of the author he included, wherein he made sure the reader was aware of Poe's drunkenness, his drug use, and near madness. It was a defamation that wasn't, as the public saw whatever failings Griswold sought to highlight less as the f𓆉laws of a scoundrel with some talent, but instead as the tortured soul of a genius.

Being the standard set of Poe for some 25 years, it usually shows up well read, faded, and worn. With the issue of the last volume six years after the first three, this makes assembling any decent set of first printings difficult. The present is likely the finest surviving. 

Of note is that this edition was used by Charles Baudelaire for his translations of Poe into French, works met with great enthusias𓄧m, while Griswold has languished here and abroad still. 

REFERENCE:

BAL 16158, 16159 and 16161; Heartman &💮♕; Canny, pp. 129-33

PROVENANCE:

John T. McViccar (bookplates Vols. I-II) — Arthur Swann (bookplates in vol. I; his sale Parke-Bernet, 22 March 1960, lot 339) — Florence & Edward Kaye (bookplate ♊in each volume) — William E. Self, his sale Christie's New York, 4 December, 2009, lot 173 (realised $80,500) — Dr. Rodney Swankto, purchased at the preceding