AMONG the great masters of the short story, Edgar Allan Poe retains his preeminence after more than a century. Ligeia, The Tell- Tale Heart, The Fall of the House of Usher, The Masque of the Red Death, The Cask of Amontillado brought the suspense story to a point of artistic perfection not since surpassed. Every sentence carries the reader irresistibly toward a climax which continues to build to the last line, even the final word.

Poe is at the same time the father of another major branch of modern fiction: the detective story. His character Dupin, original exponent of scientific deduction, appeared a generation before Sherlock Holmes, and in Murders in the Rue Morgue Poe created, at the very birth of the genre, one of its greatest master- pieces. Rarely since has the detective story attained the literary distinction which its inventor brought to it.

Besides mystery and suspense, Poe was adept at fantasy, humor, satire and (The Adventure of Hans Pfaal ) science fiction. In addition to all this he wrote a first-rate adventure yarn, The Narrative of A. Gordon Pym, which is actually long enough to classify as a novel.

Finally, there is Poe's lyric poetry which at its best — The Raven, UlItone, Annabel Lee, The Bells — achieves astonishing rnusical effects sea reelv if ever equaled in words. The shortness of Poe's life (he died tragically at forty) and his failure to produce any single "major" work haw somewhat obscured the true magnitude of his total production. Taken together, Poe's short stories cornprise one of the half dozen great works of literature by an American writer, and his verse — slender olume though it is — forms a rich and nnique contribution to the poetry of the English language.

The present edition brings together all Poe's stories and poems in a single volutne designed for easy readability and as a permanent part of the American home library.
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