American Authors

THE PREMATURE BURIAL by Edgar Allan Poe THERE are certain themes of which the interest is all-absorbing, but which are too entirely horrible for the purposes of legitimate fiction. These the mere romanticist must eschew, if he do not wish to offend or to disgust. They are with propriety handled only when the severity and […]

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THE BALLOON-HOAX by Edgar Allan Poe [Astounding News by Express, via Norfolk!—The Atlantic crossed in Three Days! Signal Triumph of Mr. Monck Mason’s Flying Machine!—Arrival at Sullivan’s Island, near Charlestown, S.C., of Mr. Mason, Mr. Robert Holland, Mr. Henson, Mr. Harrison Ainsworth, and four others, in the Steering Balloon, “Victoria,” after a passage of Seventy-five […]

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LENORE POEM by Edgar Allan Poe Ah, broken is the golden bowl! the spirit flown forever! Let the bell toll!—a saintly soul floats on the Stygian river; And, Guy de Vere, hast thou no tear?—weep now or nevermore! See! on yon drear and rigid bier low lies thy love, Lenore! Come! let the burial rite […]

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Morning on the Wissahiccon by Edgar Allan Poe Morning on the Wissahiccon (1843) by Edgar Allan Poe The natural scenery of America has often been contrasted, in its general features as well as in detail, with the landscape of the Old World—more especially of Europe—and not deeper has been the enthusiasm, than wide the dissension, […]

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EULALIE—A SONG POEM by Edgar Allan Poe I dwelt alone In a world of moan, And my soul was a stagnant tide, Till the fair and gentle Eulalie became my blushing bride— Till the yellow-haired young Eulalie became my smiling bride. Ah, less—less bright The stars of the night Than the eyes of the radiant […]

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THE CONQUEROR WORM POEM by Edgar Allan Poe Lo! ’tis a gala night Within the lonesome latter years! An angel throng, bewinged, bedight In veils, and drowned in tears, Sit in a theatre, to see A play of hopes and fears, While the orchestra breathes fitfully The music of the spheres. Mimes, in the form […]

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DIDDLING by Edgar Allan Poe CONSIDERED AS ONE OF THE EXACT SCIENCES. Hey, diddle diddle The cat and the fiddle SINCE the world began there have been two Jeremys. The one wrote a Jeremiad about usury, and was called Jeremy Bentham. He has been much admired by Mr. John Neal, and was a great man […]

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A TALE OF THE RAGGED MOUNTAINS by Edgar Allan Poe DURING the fall of the year 1827, while residing near Charlottesville, Virginia, I casually made the acquaintance of Mr. Augustus Bedloe. This young gentleman was remarkable in every respect, and excited in me a profound interest and curiosity. I found it impossible to comprehend him […]

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THE BLACK CAT by Edgar Allan Poe FOR the most wild, yet most homely narrative which I am about to pen, I neither expect nor solicit belief. Mad indeed would I be to expect it, in a case where my very senses reject their own evidence. Yet, mad am I not—and very surely do I […]

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THE TELL-TALE HEART by Edgar Allan Poe TRUE!—nervous—very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad? The disease had sharpened my senses—not destroyed—not dulled them. Above all was the sense of hearing acute. I heard all things in the heaven and in the earth. I heard […]

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THE LANDSCAPE GARDEN by Edgar Allan Poe The garden like a lady fair was cut That lay as if she slumbered in delight, And to the open skies her eyes did shut; The azure fields of heaven were ‘sembled right In a large round set with flow’rs of light: The flowers de luce and the […]

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THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH by Edgar Allan Poe THE “Red Death” had long devastated the country. No pestilence had ever been so fatal, or so hideous. Blood was its Avatar and its seal—the redness and the horror of blood. There were sharp pains, and sudden dizziness, and then profuse bleeding at the pores, […]

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