Poe haunts the upper mind as an exalted and radiant justification of logic; and the unconscious as an obsession. Jeffrey Meyers shows us how, why, and where these things go, and are going. God help us. But for Poe, we never would have known.

- James Dickey, Poet and Author of <i>Deliverance<i>,

Vivid and haunting: a great success.

Kirkus

Admirably executed. Meyers, untempted by psychoanalytic theories, conveys Poe's acrimonious, often absurd literary travails and canvasses his reputation and influence. Meyers' book pitches Poe as the 'prototypical self-destructive American writer.' Meyers insists on reading Poe as more than the sum of his bereavements.

Times Literary Supplement