Abstract
As male and female God created mankind, according to Genesis. Without that division, and its implicit cooperativeness, the human race would lose its meaning, Nor is the biological continuum an all-inclusive purpose. Because of the variations in masculine and feminine natures, there are of necessity other mutual self-realizings. For example, artistic creation, being a part of the Divine Scheme, requires interplay of subtle masculine and feminine aptitudes. Thus history abounds in cases of great artists whose fruitful self-expression, through this or that medium, depended upon spiritual relation with woman, be she mother, sister, wife, daughter, sweetheart. This phenomenon is singularly conspicuous in the life and achievement of Edgar Allan Poe, for which reason the following evidence offers an elucidation of his peculiar career in American literature.