Edgar Allan Poe - Edgar Allan Poe, Eureka, and scientific imagination

Edgar Allan Poe,
Eureka,
and
Scientific Imagination

Edgar Allan Poe,
Eureka,
and
Scientific Imagination

DAVID N. STAMOS

Mathew Brady photograph of Poe, seated, ca. 1845/1848.

Courtesy of the Edgar Allan Poe Museum.

Published by State University of New York Press, Albany

2017 State University of New York

All rights reserved

Printed in the United States of America

No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.

For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY

www.sunypress.edu

Production, Jenn M. Bennett

Marketing, Kate R. Seburyamo

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Stamos, David N., author.

Title: Edgar Allan Poe, Eureka, and scientific imagination / David N. Stamos.

Description: Albany, NY : State University of New York Press, 2017. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2016031441 (print) | LCCN 2016049033 (ebook) | ISBN 9781438463919 (hardcover : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781438463926 (e-book)

Subjects: LCSH: Poe, Edgar Allan, 1809-1849KnowledgeScience. | Poe, Edgar Allan, 1809-1849Religion. | Poe, Edgar Allan, 1809-1849. Eureka. | Imagination. | Creative ability. | SciencePhilosophy.

Classification: LCC PS2642.S3 S73 2017 (print) | LCC PS2642.S3 (ebook) | DDC 818/.309dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016031441

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

To John Cusack,
and the makers of The Raven ,
for their wonderfully imaginative tribute to Poe,
to the man and his powers of ratiocination,
dedicated here is thisoctavo,
for evermore.

Contents

Acknowledgments

I am deeply indebted to my editor at SUNY Press, Andrew Kenyon, and the two scholars he commissioned as anonymous reviewers, to the production editor, Jenn Bennett, and the production team, to the copy editor, John Wentworth, and to the artist. A debt of thanks is also due to a select group of friends and acquaintances, (some of them former students,) either for their inspiration, or for guiding me toward certain readings, or for feedback on certain chapters or parts thereof, namely, Robert H. Haynes, Bernard Lightman, Jason Buccheri, Mauro Buccheri, Julia Tourianski, David Livingstone Smith, Graham McCreath, George Perry, Brandon Fenton, Bobbak Makooie, Andrew Robinson, Karina Chornenka, Neven Sesardic, Susan Chen, Vincenzo Domanico, Kassandra Sharma, Neda Maki, and last but not least, Matthew H. Kelley, Suzanne Underwood Rhodes, William E. Engel, and the other scholars I had the pleasure to meet and converse with at the Fourth International Edgar Allan Poe Conference held in Manhattan at the end of February 2015, where I gave my talk on Poes double Dupin.

Sources

F or references to and quotations from Poes writings, I usually refer to the collections listed below rather than the original sources of publication. The year following a work by Poe, for example The Raven (1845), indicates the year of its earliest publication or the year of composition if it was unpublished. Pages following a work refer to the following collections:

The following are anthologies I use with varying frequency:

In terms of biographies of Poe, I make use of the following:

Aside from biographies and critical collections, there are many useful monographs and commentaries on aspects of Poes writings. The ones I make the most use of are the following: