Although this exhibition is largely limited to the English, no Gothic exhibition at the University of Virginia would be complete without an homage to Edgar Allan Poe. Briefly a student at the University of Virginia in 1826, Poe was forced to leave as he had run up huge gambling debts attempting to supplement the small allowance his guardian John Allan allotted him. The Raven Society at the University of Virginia maintains both his room on the West Range and the ravens that live underneath the portico eaves of the Rotunda. The University is home to the Ingram-Poe collection, an unparalleled collection assembled by John Henry Ingram, Poe's protector. Ingram was spurred to action by the smear campaign of Rufus Griswold, Poe's literary executor. Griswold exaggerated Poe's eccentricities, poverty, and inability to handle alcohol into a biography of Poe as madman, sadist, and hopeless drug addict. Under Griswold's pen, Poe indeed becomes a monster. In his life, however, Poe was an outsider by virtue of his extreme poverty, the lack of recognition of his genius while he was alive, and his obsession with death, preferably that of a beautiful woman. 

The Raven. By Edgar Allan Poe. Illustrations by Ferdinand H. Horvath. New York: Dodd, Mead, and Company, 1930.

The Raven. By Edgar Allan Poe. Illustrations by Ferdinand H. Horvath. New York: Dodd, Mead, and Company, 1930. Special Collections Department.

The Raven. By Edgar Allan Poe. New York: W. Jennings Demorest, 1870.

The Raven. By Edgar Allan Poe. New York: W. Jennings Demorest, 1870. The Special Collections Department.

The Raven. By Edgar Allan Poe. Illustrated by Gustave Dore, with commentary by Edmund C. Stedman. New York: Harper Brothers, 1884.

The Raven. By Edgar Allan Poe. Illustrated by Gustave Dore, with commentary by Edmund C. Stedman. New York: Harper Brothers, 1884. Special Collections Department.

Vincent Price life mask.

Vincent Price life mask. Lent by Forrest Ackerman, Hollywood, CA. Price starred in countless films based on Poe tales, among them Premature Burial, The Oblong Box, and The Pit and the Pendulum.

The Raven and Other Poems. By Edgar Allan Poe. New York: Wiley and Putnam, 1845.

The Raven and Other Poems. By Edgar Allan Poe. New York: Wiley and Putnam, 1845. First edition. The McGregor Collection.

Le Corbeau, The Raven, Poeme par Edgar Allan Poe. Traduction Francaise de Stephane Mallarme, avec Illustrations par Edouard Manet. Paris: R. Lescerde, 1875.

Le Corbeau, The Raven, Poeme par Edgar Allan Poe. Traduction Francaise de Stephane Mallarme, avec Illustrations par Edouard Manet. Paris: R. Lescerde, 1875. First edition. The Special Collections Department.

Proof of Edouard Manet's original drawing of Poe.

This is the proof of Edouard Manet's original drawing of Poe. He gave it to Stephane Mallarme, who in turn gave it to Ingram.