POE THE DETECTIVE
The Curious Circumstances Behind
The Mystery of Marie Roget
by John Walsh
Introduction by Thomas Ollive Mabbott
"I had never quite understood . . . what a superb job Poe did of
diddling a century of readers until I read John Walsh's
Poe the
Detective.
. . .
This is a short book, highly attractive in format and
illustrations, devoted largely to recapping the killing of Miss Rogers
and the creation of Mlle. Roget.... This book is itself a detective
story. . . . I find Mr. Walsh's evidence overwhelming and his
hypotheses persuasive, and that this book is a noble tribute to what
it rightly calls 'a classic performance in the annals of literary hugger–
mugger.' "
-ANTHONY BOUCHER,
N ew York Times BO'O/i; Review $7.50
ON THE DECAY OF HUMANISM
Essays
by W. M. Spackman
Six essays in literary criticism-original in content, sardonically
humorous, and epigrammatic in style-which demonstrate how and
how not to judge a literary work. Mr. Spackman tackles, both pro
and con, such heroes of Academe and Canon as Aristotle, Ovid, Henry
James, and Edmund Wilson, exhibiting on the way a wide knowledge
of modern and ancient European literature. "Two [of the essays] are
indignant defenses of two scandalously slighted reputations-that of
Edmund Wilson as a novelist, and that of Ovid as a love poet..••
No doubt there will be a ruckus about this book, not only among the
academics. Meanwhile, it offers the most beautifully civilized reading
that has come my way in a long while."
-DONALD SUTHERLAND,
The New Leader $7.50
RUTGERS UNIVERSITY PRESS
New Brunswick, New Jersey 08903
