Read throughout the world, admired by Dostoyevsky and translated by Baudelaire, Edgar Allan Poe has become a legendary figure, representing the artist as obsessed outcast and romantic failure. His nightmarish visions, shaped by cool artistic calculation, reveal some of the dark possibilities of human experience. His enormous popularity and his continuing influence of literature depend less on legend or vision than on his stylistic and formal accomplishments as a writer of fiction and a great lyric poet. In this complete and uniquely authoritative Library of America collection, well-known...

The Illinois River flows through the heart of Illinois, beginning in the northeast of the state at the confluence of the Kankakee River and the Des Plaines River in Will County and extending 270 miles to the southwest, where it joins the Mississippi River at Grafton in Jersey County. A major colonial trade route and home to a diverse range of wildlife, the Illinois River still serves a vital role in shipping and fishing. Many people depend on this river for their livelihoods, and many more are drawn to its waters as an escape for recreation, sport, and reflection. This collection of...