New-York tribune., 1902-12-04
AMERICAN CLASSICS
NEW EDITIONS FOR THE HoLIDAYs-AND
AFTER

FSiTion In seventeen volumes Duooeclino-
Thomas Y. Crowen & Co
THE WRITINGS OF BRET HA6TE 66svo R1zers5fe Hong6
Ton, Mif1in & Co.
TIE COMPLETE WORKS. Git,o5 OF SATHhhiFts1 ID thirteen
HAWTHORNE maysige oiebtou, EbissO Mifiin & Co.
THE FABLE AEToGREkTp TE poRE e EH 5EE BkEAkEHSTE
FARkE; FAEkkFAsr THF TABfE: fE2fto oVER THE TEA
CUPS BY Oliver wendell Wen so,lnes neae Duodecimo
Heughton- Mifiin & Co
Man Issued under the EditoTial SupsTysl,on sI,I,pe
2f Rce his 15e1ay 4eay NefqaGTd E HaPned and
Traubel- With Addtional b1DIl0e b Gs5ar f,veii
Triggs. Rh; D. Camden 1ofs IaIl04 n III. " and
Y @. P. PuJnams Sons.
The PLEASURE of opening q new book is pleas
,,-. INV itself. The faint crackle Of fresh pages
snreaa anart for the first time is SOUND 10
which no true lover of letters can remain IN
sensitive Disillusionment may lie before hill
He may find trash where he hopeo 10 ilAu
literature But in any case ne has solIelni"s
cf the sensation Of discovery to ENJOY a Piea0-
,,ra No less keen for all that the element OF sus-
rense and surprise are pFactlcallS ehGlu0eo
s-ora IL IS that which is derived from a huinoeI
of new editions of old friends. 1t is one WHICH Is
,,eine afforded more and more frequently TO the
reader, ana especially dl liilS AlliiS VA ~N-'
new edition is now one of the salient features OF
the holiday publishing season. 1t means To-
day IS If has meant in past years. the repro
d,,c+ion of some English European classic.
f,rf II means also more than ever before, the
reproduction of classics of our own we re-
ioice In the adoption of this policy, whlch we
are sure must win wide public approval the
rift hook pure and simple has been developed
with so much taste of late years that no one
can Erudge 1t the success it has achieved; YET
We cannot doubt that equal popularity awaits
s11ch editions of recognized authors as the half
dozen which have provoked the foregoing re
marks
The existence of one good edition Of a classic
need never preclude the publication OF another
The edition of Poe, for example, produced sew
eral years ago by Mr.. Stedman and Mr. "oou-
berry is definitve; it is authoritative In us 'eA
and in its editorial apparatus; 1t is well Illus
trated and most admirable in form NeTerthe-
less there is undoubtedly place for the new
~Arnheirn'' edition. five Of the ten volumes or
which are now before us The special merits Of
this edition consist of luxurious manufacture
and rich illustration. It is also reinforced by a
critical introduction from the pen Of professor
Charles F. Richardson, of Dartmouth College
The uoiut he desires TO emphasize is that Poe's
fame is now firmly abiished wherever litera-
1l1re is honored. His argument IS unimpeach-
sble but we question the taste Of spreading at
large upon the first page of the introduction,
and at the top of all the succeeding pages in this
part of the book. the legend. Edgar Allan Poe,
world-Author.'' This savors a little Of the de-
fiant Snowman who is not, at bottom, quite sure
of his case. 1t would have been more dignihed
IF Professor Richardson had confined the phrase
'>7zorid-author" awkward enough at the best, to
his text alone But he makes UP for this In
discretion by giving us a sympathetic and very
Interesting essay Mr.. Frederick Simpson Co
burn the illustrator, has acquitted himself with
remarkable feeling and ability. Indeed he is
one Of the best illustrators of Poe we have ever
encountered and the list of artists who have
attempted TO express the poets strange ideas is
long
He has. to begin with, sufficient technique,
and style of his own which is distinctly at
tractive. Furthermore, while he has responded
20 the appeal Of that romantic and mysterious
atmosphere which envelops the bulk Of Poe's
work his fine feeling for nature has served TO
correct any impulse toward the merely ex-
travagant which the theme provided by his
author might well have excused. He is not
wanting in imagination, far from il, but he is
careful never cross the line that divides
imaginative daring from reckless obscurity- In
one or two of his plates We discern vaguely, an
alien influence Something in the conception OF
40 Of the first volume, inclines us to wonder if
Mr. Coburn has not taken leaf out of the book
of the German Secessionists, and make the
same reflection when we come TO the illustration
for ''Berenice" at page Is, in the second vol
,lrne But in most of this work We recognize a
strain OF powerful originality. Nothing could
he more apt more absolutely in the spirit of
Poe and at the same time more individual, than
the illustration accompanying Shadow: a Par
able in the second volume, wherein the artist
has painted. as the author has expressed, an
idea rather than a thing-something vague
and formless and indefinite"-and there are
many other pictures in which Mr.. Coourn has
been equally successful, equally eloquent, in the
Interpretation of an eerie motive He is, more
over. as versatile as he is Imaginative He can
be fantastic as in his plates for 'Metzenger-
stein' or king Pest or Never Bet the Devil
Your Head; he can be solemnly impressive, as
IN the plate for Silence: a Fable; or he can
strike when he is dealing with The Mystery
of Marie Roget the note of tragedy, as he can;
when occasion requires il, strike that Of do
-11estic sentiment or that Of quaintness, or that
Of sylvan romance The publishers have done
complete Justice all these illustrations, print
srg them in delicately tinted photographers on
Japanese vellum and in every other detail OF
the enterprise they have shown the same care
In addition to the seventy-two illustrations and
the twenty-five portraits they have embellished
she edition with charming head and tail pieces,
some pictorial and some conventional; they have
used handsome type fine paper, and the
books are artistically bound in gray boards,
with backs of vellum stamped in gold This is,
in short a sumptuous library edition Of the poet
and romancer-
professor James A Harrison's Virginia edi-
tion of Poe is the first to appear in a series of