A binding by Walter Crane for Poe’s ‘Poetical Works’ (original) (raw)

Binding

Walter Crane

[1866]

Laminated paper on card

7 x 4½ inches

This is a good example of Crane’s early work designing ‘yellow backs’ for Edmund Evans. The cover’s lurid imagery is a good match with the febrile excess of Poe’s verse. Crane probably produced some dozens of others in a similar vein, but their fragility has consigned them to oblivion.

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Photograph and text by Simon Cooke

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