The Morgan Library & Museum announce Edgar Allan Poe: Terror of the Soul an exhibition on view October 4, 2013–January 26, 2014.
Poe’s mastery of multiple writing genres, including his ironic reworking of the Gothic tradition as a vehicle for his psychologically acute and metaphysically ambitious dramatizations of the terrified soul, will be elucidated by manuscripts of several of his famous poems and short stories, early printed editions, letters, and literary criticism published in contemporary newspapers, magazines, and journals. On view will be such works as “Annabel Lee” and “The Bells” in Poe’s own hand; one of the earliest printings of “The Raven;” the first printing of “The Cask of Amontillado;” and an unprecedented three copies of Tamerlane, Poe’s earliest published work and one of the rarest books in American literature. Lesser-known writings, including A Reviewer Reviewed—Poe’s never-before-exhibited critique of his own work, written under a pseudonym— and the author’s annotated copy of his last published book, Eureka, provide a more complete picture of this complex writer.
Terror of the Soul is among the first museum exhibitions to explore Poe’s reception by, and wide-ranging influence on, fellow writers as diverse as Charles Dickens, Stéphane Mallarmé, Vladimir Nabokov, and Terry Southern. Manuscripts by other literary masters on view include Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Hound of the Baskervilles, Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and T. S. Eliot’s manuscript of The Waste Land, annotated by Eliot and his friend, Ezra Pound. Another highlight of the exhibition is the notebook containing Paul Auster’s previously unpublished lecture on Poe’s significance as an American writer and his influence on French literature.
The Morgan Library & Museum 225 Madison Avenue, at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016-3405 212.685.0008 www.themorgan.org