“This is thrilling criticism, done with a wizardly gusto. The swoops and swirls of the antic style by no means vitiate the wonderful grasp Hoffman demonstrates upon these almost ungraspable poems.”—John Updike

“A very exciting reading of Poe, truly serious and liberated from many traditional critical and scholarly solemnities. . . . A rather nutty and completely necessary book.”—John Hollander, New York Times Book Review

“The most refreshing and original volume of literary study to appear for a long time. . . . It will set a new style in literary criticism.”—R.W.B. Lewis, The American Scholar

“The vitality of tone, the pressure of insight and the compassionate truth-telling are astonishing.”—Richard Howard 

Former poet laureate, Daniel Hoffman (1923—2013) published fourteen books of poetry, including The Whole Nine Yards, Beyond Silence, and Brotherly Love, a finalist for both the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award. His honors include the Arthur Anse prize for “a distinctive poet” from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and, from the Sewanee Review, the Aiken-Taylor Award for Contemporary American Poetry. He was the author of many critical studies, including Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe, also a National Book Award finalist. He taught at Swarthmore College and at the University of Pennsylvania, where he was the Felix Schelling Professor of English Emeritus.