Edd Winfield Parks – författare

An important figure in the literature of the antebellum South, Henry Timrod was a member of the literary group of Charleston, South Carolina. This book is a variorum edition of Timrod's major poetry, arranged as nearly as possible in chronological order. A "Notes and Variants" section provides detailed information in a set pattern: the record of publication of each poem, explanatory comments, variant readings, and occasionally a commentary by an earlier critic. The editors have included a biographical and critical Introduction.

This book contains all of Timrod's essays and editorials that deal with literature. It includes William J. Grayson's neoclassical essay on poetry, since Timrod answered that attack on romanticism. A long introduction treats Timrod's work as critic, with a consideration of his reading and of the ideas that influenced his poetry.

Edgar Allan Poe was one of the first major critics to develop and refine his critical theories through magazine articles and book reviews. Edgar Allan Poe as Literary Critic focuses on his interest in establishing an aesthetic for magazine literature, and Parks has examined Poe’s criticism at length. Poe’s efforts in the field of literary criticism have often been condemned as a rationalization of his own personal limitations as a writer, but this study contends that his critical theories far surpass such a narrow interpretation. Rather, Poe was “essentially a magazinist,” and therefore emphasized brevity, unity, and totality of effect and placed the highest value on literary types best suited to periodical literature.