Edgar Allan Poe was poet, critic, and inventor of the mystery tale. Visions of Darkness offers a selection of this unusual American author's best writings, including poems, criticism, and several of his most electrifying tales of terror. "The Tell-Tale Heart" is here, and "The Cask of Amontillado," as well as such favorite poems as "The Raven" and "To Helen."

A master craftsman with his pen, Poe was able to transform the most grotesque details of human experience into startling objects of art. M/ ith unusual subtlety, he explored the hidden and shadowy recesses of thought, the regions of the mind where forbidden dreams find expression and where withering hopes cling to life. H. L. Mencken said that Poe "inhabited a universe of his own, with red glares lighting it, implacable clouds hedging it round, and preposterous fauna roll- ing its evil groves." The editor of Visions of Dark- ness, Dr. C. Merton Babcock, is professor of American Thought and Language at Michigan State University. In his introduction to this new anthology, he writes: "Poe's cardinal virtues were a rare faculty for logical analysis, a masterful employment of images and symbols, and an unparalleled gift of verbal sorcery, for which he has been widely acclaimed. "

Young and old have thrilled—and sometimes shuddered—to Poe's work. Whether its subject is unfulfilled love or the urge to murder, that work always projects a quality of strangeness which is at once Poe's unique distinction and the clue to his continuing popularity. After a hundred years, his works still read as freshly and directly as when they were first published. There is no more certain test of genius. Visions of Darkness is an outstanding gift for friends, students, and family.
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