SOURCE: "Toward Standards," in Poe: Journalist and Critic, Louisiana State University Press, 1969, pp. 159-90.

Jacobs traces the development of Poe's general literary standards through the book reviews that Poe wrote during his last eight months as editor of the Southern Literary Messenger in 1836.

A professional book reviewer for an American monthly magazine had little opportunity to practice philosophical criticism, for he had to hammer out notices of the subliterary material that piled up on his desk. Poe did attempt to examine this material by literary standards, however. In May of 1836 he reviewed a travel book, Spain Revisited, by a Lieutenant Slidell, and revealed his dislike for fulsome dedications and bad grammar. Poe considered himself an expert in matters of syntax and usage; and of all grammarians, he was one of the most prescriptive. The slightest ambiguity of reference or deviation into colloquialism provoked him into rewriting the passage...