The Annotated Edgar Poe and His Critics
Sarah Helen Whitman -The Annotated Edgar Poe and His Critics.
Sarah Helen Whitman (1803-1878), poet and critic, is best known for her brief engagement to Edgar Allan Poe in 1848, and for her role as Poe’s posthumous defender in her 1860 book, Edgar Poe and His Critics. As critic, she was a ground-breaking American defender of Poe, Shelley, Byron, Goethe, Alcott, and Emerson. She and her friend Margaret Fuller are credited with being the first American women literary critics.
The complete text of Edgar Poe and His Critics presented here, from the author’s final corrected version, includes the opposing texts by Rufus Griswold, whose libels provoked her landmark defense of Poe’s writing and character. This annotated version identifies all the contemporary press reviews and books Whitman read and critiqued, making it indispensable for students of Edgar Allan Poe.
Brett Rutherford's introduction provides a social and literary history of Sarah Helen Whitman and her home city, Providence, Rhode Island. Although she had been active in Boston literary circles in her early years, her difficult life in Rhode Island made it impossible to publish her ardent defense of Poe until eleven years after his death, by which time Poe's detractors had seemingly prevailed.
With more than 100 detailed footnotes and an exhaustive bibliography, this edition demonstrates Whitman’s depth of reading across American, British, German, and classical sources, and her ability to make a stand for the Romantic and Gothic sensibilities.
This is the 422nd publication of Yogh and Thorn Books / The Poet’s Press. Published October 2026.
