“Edgar Allan Poe.”

In 1974, Dameron and Cauthen, in their Edgar Allan Poe: A Bibliography of Criticism (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press) listed over 2,700 items written in English about Edgar Allan Poe and published during the range of 1827–1967. Even at that time, now nearly four decades ago, the list was not complete and scholars have been very busy publishing new items year after year. How can a student not look at such a ponderous mass of scholarship, arguably of highly variable quality and relevance, and feel anything other than overwhelmed? Where can one possibly start? How does one begin to wade through material that could easily consume a lifetime? Essentially attempting to address this issue, Richard Kopley has contributed a chapter on Edgar Allan Poe for the Oxford Bibliographies, part of an extensive online resource produced by the Oxford University Press. The general statement for the website defines its purpose...