Poe (Edgar Allan) The Works...with Notices of his Life and Genius, 4 vol., vol. 1, 2 & 3 second printings, vol. 1 & 4 with half-title (as issued), vol. 1 with engraved portrait frontispiece & 4pp. advertisements at end, vol. 4 with 8pp. advertisements at end, all but vol. 2 with bookplate of Robert R. Dearden, vol. 1 & 4 with ownership inscription to endpapers, vol. 1 title with couple very short tears to fore-margin and frontispiece lightly offset, the odd marginal nick or very short tear elsewhere, vol. 1 & 2 with some light marginal water-staining near start, vol. 3 gutter cracked at points with some gatherings loose, occasional staining or light foxing, light browning, mainly to vol. 1 & 2, original blind-stamped cloth, all but vol. 3 rebacked preserving original backstrips to varying degrees (vol. 4 with loss to some letters), vol. 3 worn at extremities and little stained, with backstrip peeled away from upper joint and nearly loose, other vol. with some wear to extremities, fading to some spines, vol. 2 rear free endpapers renewed, [BAL 16158, 16159 & 16161], 8vo, New York, J.S. Redfield, 1850-56.

⁂ The first collected edition of Poe's works. The third volume was published separately and comprises the first edition of The Literati, and includes Griswold's sketch of the author. The first three volumes were published in 1850, just a year after Poe's death; the fourth volume was not published until 1856. It became the standard edition of Poe's works for 25 years, and served as the model for nearly another quarter of a century.

There are various cloth variants. In this set, vol. 1 & 4 are in purple (spines faded to brown, vol. 4 spine gilt-stamped with bust of Athene and raven), vol. 2 in blue-green, and vol. 3 dark brown.