The Raven Illustrations of James Carling

Book excerpt: The fascinating story behind the nineteenth-century artist who illustrated Poe’s classic poem—and the rediscovery of the drawings decades later. One of the most popular poems in the English language, Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven” has thrilled generations of readers. In 1882, the Anglo-American artist James Carling decided to produce the definitive series of illustrations for the poem. Carling’s bizarre images explore the darkest recesses of Poe’s masterpiece, its hidden symbolism, and its strange beauty. Although the series remained unpublished at the time of the artist’s early death in 1887, the drawings reemerged fifty years later, when they entered the collection of the Edgar Allan Poe Museum in Richmond. There they lined the blood-red walls of a Raven Room dedicated to their display. For the first time, Poe historian Christopher P. Semtner reproduces the entire series—and tells the story behind these haunting works.