The Raven and Other Poems.

POE, Edgar Allan .

Item Number: 136294

London: Wiley & Putnam, 1846.

First English edition of one of the most important volumes of poetry published in America, one of 750 copies of the first American sheets, a handful of which were sent to London with a cancel title page. Octavo, original publisher’s green cloth stamped in blind, gilt titles to the spine, yellow endpapers, half-title and publisher’s advertisements present. In very good condition. Housed in a custom half morocco clamshell box. Rare.

The Raven and Other Poems “was published at one of the low ebbs of Poe’s fortunes, when his Broadway Journal was about to expire, and is thus characterized by his biographer Hervey Allen: The most important volume of poetry that had been issued up to that time in America… In this little volume the weary, wayworn wanderer had successfully reached his own native shore in the realm of imagination” (Grolier, 100 American 56). Poe considered “The Raven” to be his finest poem—indeed, he was quoted as saying it was the finest poem ever written. Dedicated to Elizabeth Barrett Barrett and first published by Wiley & Putnam in November 1845 in an edition of roughly 750 copies, The Raven and Other Poems "made Poe's name known both in America and England, and brought him an immortality that by no other means could he have attained" (Robertson, 224).