We are dedicating this issue to Richard Wilbur who, when given the opportunity to write an introduction to any poet's work for the Laurel Poetry Series, chose Poe. Here is what Wilbur had to say about this choice when I interviewed him fifteen years ago:
There were various other poets I could have chosen to edit, but I did feel that, in the case of Poe, I had had a kind of personal experience of him, and I felt—it's hard to put this without seeming to brag—but I felt that I had had a special experience of him and seen into him to a degree that the critics I had encountered had not done. I'm really not in favor of the kind of critical pride that makes one claim to be the elected interpreter of somebody—but the way Poe's suggested themes initially came at me in a foxhole at Cassino...
