Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Maelzel’s Chess-Player | TBD | Edgar Allan Poe | Buy |
| 2 | The Philosophy of Furniture | TBD | Edgar Allan Poe | Buy |
| 3 | Morning on the Wissahiccon | TBD | Edgar Allan Poe | Buy |
| 4 | Anastatic Printing | TBD | Edgar Allan Poe | Buy |
| 5 | The Philosophy of Composition | TBD | Edgar Allan Poe | Buy |
| 6 | Letters Until Now Unpublished | 1973 | Edgar Allan Poe | Buy |
| 7 | The Poetic Principle | 2000 | Edgar Allan Poe | Buy |
| 8 | The Rationale of Verse | 2013 | Edgar Allan Poe | Buy |
| 9 | A Few Words on Secret Writing | 2014 | Edgar Allan Poe | Buy |
Poe was a working literary critic and editor for much of his career, and his nonfiction reflects that. The Philosophy of Composition (1846) explains how he wrote The Raven step by step, making it one of the most famous essays on the writing process. The Poetic Principle lays out his theory of what poetry should do.
His nonfiction also includes curiosities like Maelzel’s Chess-Player, an analysis of a famous chess-playing automaton, and A Few Words on Secret Writing, an essay on cryptography. The nine works listed here range from pieces published during his lifetime to posthumous collections of his letters.