Included among the 25 Poe tales are such classics as The Tell-Tale Heart, The Cask of Amontillado, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Fall of the House of Usher, The Murders in the Rue Morgue, The Purloined Letter.

With twelve mounted color plates, seventeen black and white plates, numerous in-text drawings, and wonderfully frightening decorated endpapers. SIGNED LIMITED FIRST EDITION, number 322 of 460 copies signed by illustrator Arthur Rackham. I struggled no more, but the agony of my soul found vent in one loud, long, and final scream of despair. At length for my seared and writhing body there was no longer an inch of foothold on the firm floor of the prison. 'I shrank back- but the closing walls pressed me resistlessly onward. In 2016, the Maryland Historical Society selected a new Toaster to revive the tradition in a less mysterious – but still anonymous – form.Poe, Edgar Allan Rackham, Arthur. In 2006 an unsuccessful attempt was made to unmask the Toaster. The anonymous stranger disappears into the night leaving three roses and the unfinished bottle of cognac. Perfect for Halloween!įun fact: Since the 1930’s, a mysterious figure has paid annual tribute to Edgar Allan Poe by visiting the cenotaph marking his original grave in Baltimore and pouring himself a glass of cognac, raising a toast to Poe’s mystery. The illustrations by Harry Clarke found in Tales of Mystery and Imagination, currently on display in Archives and Special Collections (and seen here), are often grotesque and definitely very scary. The Saturday News piece also refers to Coleman’s then “dropping her upon the pavement ” Poe’s story relates that the orangutan “hurled through the window headlong” to “the stone pavement.” Illustration for Poe’s “The Black Cat” Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Edgar Allan Poe: Tales of Mystery & Imagination (Franklin Library of Mystery.

The article in the Saturday News stated that Coleman had killed his wife by “nearly severing her head from her body with a razor.” In “Murders in the Rue Morgue,” Poe work states of the razor-wielding orangutan, “With one determined sweep of its muscular arm it nearly severed her head from her body.

The second story likely to have influenced Poe was of Edward Coleman who was suspected of having murdering his wife on a busy New York City street by slitting her throat with a razor. Published in May 1838, the first was titled “Orang Outang” in which an orangutan at the London Zoo was described as having “prodigious” strength in attempting to escape from its confinement. This post is part of a series written by Alison Hobbs, curator of the 2017 Archives and Special Collections exhibition, “Tales of Mystery and Imagination.”Įdgar Allan Poe’s story “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” was most likely inspired by two articles published in the Philadelphia newspaper Saturday News. Illustration for Poe’s “Murders in the Rue Morgue”

Poe tales of mystery and imagination