† ‘The Literati of New York’, Godey’s Lady’s Book, 1846.
*Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Part IV, 224–31.
†Camille Mauclair, Le Genie d’Edgar Poe (Paris, 1928), p. 123.
*Edward Davidson, Poe, A Critical Study (1957), p. 207.
* ‘The Literati of New York’, Godey’s Lady’s Book, 1846.
† For a rather different view, of Poe perversely sabotaging his own success, see Doris V. Falk, ‘Thomas Low Nichols, Poe, and the “Balloon Hoax” ’, Poe Studies vol. 5 (1972), pp. 48–9.
‡ ‘The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall’, p. 30.
*Which is precisely what he planned. On 20 December 1843, in fact, John Wise petitioned the United States Congress for permission to cross the Atlantic by balloon. A few months after ‘The Balloon-Hoax’ he even published a notice in the Lancaster Intelligence advertising the attempt, requesting help from seamen of all nations.
*Maunsell B. Field, Memories of Many Men (New York, 1874), p. 224.
† R. E. Shapley in a Philadelphia newspaper, quoted by George E. Woodberry (1894).
‡As he wrily informed Charles Astor Bristed, grandson of John Jacob (Fordham : 7 June 1848).
*See letter to Charles Fenno Hoffman (Fordham : 20 September 1848).
† By William Whewell in Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences (1840).
‡To George E. Isbell (New York: 29 February 1848).
* The description is Stephen Toulmin’s.
*Since Einstein a wholly new vocabulary of astronomical collapse has entered the language: white dwarf, quasar, pulsar, supernova, neutron star, black hole. The concept of a ‘black hole’ – an assemblage of matter shrunk to a state so dense as to become invisible – would have particularly appealed to Poe. As early as 1926 R. H. Fowler proposed that a star, which has burned all its fuel, collapses upon itself to form one gigantic, dense super-molecule, or ‘white dwarf’.
*See ‘Lionizing’ (1835) and ‘The Landscape Garden’ (1842).
Table of Contents
About the Author
Title Page
Copyright Page
Contents
Introduction
A Note on the Text
Bibliography
The Science Fiction of Edgar Allan Poe
MS. Found in a Bottle
The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall
The Conversation of Eiros and Charmion
A Descent into the Maelström
The Colloquy of Monos and Una
The Balloon-Hoax
Mesmeric Revelation
The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherazade
Some Words with a Mummy
The Power of Words
The System of Dr Tarr and Prof. Fether
The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar
EUREKA
Dedication
Preface
Eureka: AN ESSAY ON THE MATERIAL AND SPIRITUAL UNIVERSE
Mellonta Tauta
Von Kempelen and His Discovery
Commentary
Appendix
Footnotes
Introduction
Page vii
Page viii
Page ix
Page x
Page xi
Page xii
Page xiii
Page xiv
Page xv
Page xvi
Page xvii
Page xviii
Page xix
Page xxi
The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall
Page 29
Page 30
Page 53
A Descent into the Maelström
Page 87
The Colloquy of Monos and Una
Page 92
Page 93
The Balloon-Hoax
Page 110
Page 121
The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherazade
Page 143
Page 144
Page 145
Page 146
Page 147
Page 148
Page 149
Page 150
Page 151
Page 152
EUREKA
Eureka: AN ESSAY ON THE MATERIAL AND SPIRITUAL UNIVERSE
Page 234
Page 243
Page 246
Page 247
Page 259
Page 261
Page 262
Page 265
Page 267
Page 270
Page 274
Page 279
Page 297
Page 306
Page 308
Commentary
Page 338
Page 339
Page 341
Page 357
Page 360
Page 369
Page 370
Select Bibliography
Page 396
Page 397
Page 398
Page 401
Page 417