John P. Muller is a clinical psychologist at the Austen Riggs Center in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. William J. Richardson is professor of philosophy at Boston College. They are coauthors of Lacan and Language: A Reader's Guide to Ecrits.

In the story of the interpretations, reinterpretations, displacements, and replacements that have accreted around Poe's 'The Purloined Letter,' this collection, The Purloined Poe, comes like an answer to a... riddle. -- Hana Charney Psychoanalytic Books A valuable, critical text. Year's Work in English Studies A fascinating volume for both the fledgling and the besotted amateurs of contemporary criticism. Library Journal

• PrefacePart I. Poe and LacanChapter 1. Text of "The Purloined Letter," with NotesChapter 2. Seminar of "The Purloined Letter"Chapter 3. Lacan's Seminar of "The Purloined Letter" OverviewChapter 4. Lacan's Seminar of "The Purloined Letter": Map of the TextChapter 5. Lacan's Seminar of "The Purloined Letter": Notes to the TextPart II. On Psychoanalytic ReadingChapter 6. Selections from The Life and Works of Edgar Allan Poe: A Psycho-analytic InterpretationChapter 7. On Reading Poetry: Reflections on the Limits and Possibilities of Psychoanalytic ApproachesPart III. Derrida and ResponsesChapter 8. The Challenge of DeconstructionsChapter 9. The Purveyor of Truth, translated by Alan BassChapter 10. The Frame of Reference: Poe, Lacan, DerridaChapter 11. Structures of exemplarity in Poe, Freud, Lacan, and DerridaChapter 12. The American otherPart IV. Other ReadingsChapter 13. Narratorial Authority and "The Purloined Letter"Chapter 14. Re-covering "The Purloined Latter": Reading as a Personal TransactionChapter 15. The Shadow's Shadow: The Motif of the Double in Edgar Allan Poe's "The Purloined Letter"Chapter 16. A Notes on Time in "The Purloined Letter"Chapter 17. Negation in "The Purloined Letter": Hegel, Poe, and LacanReferencesContributorsIndex