Since Edgar Allan Poe’s stories of suspense and horror were first compiled as Tales of Mystery and Imagination in 1902, many gifted artists have tried their hand at illustrating these haunting worlds, notably Arthur Rackham, Edmund Dulac, and Gustave Doré. But perhaps it is the Irishman Harry Clarke who has come closest to evoking the delirious claustrophobia and frightening inventiveness of “Poe-land”. For the 1919 edition of the Tales, Clarke created the twenty-four monochrome images featured below. Their nightmarish, hallucinatory quality may make you worry for their artist’s mind, until you remember the stories they illustrate.
