With an unconventional new perspective, Anderson identifies Edgar Allan Poe's texts as a journey and explores the ways Poe both encounters and transcends the realm of the material. Beginning with Poe's earliest short stories through his last fragment of imaginative prose, this book shows the path that Poe traveled as he came to understand how to transform "rudimentary" into "ultimate" life. Anderson skillfully argues that Poe's response to the existential predicament of life lies at the heart of his achievement.