Volume 1-35, works. Volume 36-37, letters. Volume 38 provides an extensive bibliography of Ruskin's writings and a catalogue of his drawings, with corrections to earlier volumes in George Allen's Library Edition of the Works of John Ruskin. Volume 39, general index.

Writing poetry and inspecting artillery bombs for the army do not seem like compatible endeavors, which is perhaps why many biographers and critics have overlooked Edgar Allan Poe's stint in the military, dismissing it as an odd aberration in his literary career. William F. Hecker, however, is in a unique position to appreciate the influence that military culture and training had on the young poet. A professional artilleryman and a Poe scholar, Hecker offers a lively, nuanced account of Poe's experience as an enlisted soldier and West Point cadet and relates it to his writing, especially his Poems (1831), presented here in facsimile for the first time since 1936. Military service appealed to Poe's romantic sense of adventure, and in 1827 he joined the army under the name Edgar A. Perry. He rose quickly through the ranks -- most notably learning cannon drill -- but suffered as a social misfit in the field and at West Point, where legends about a brilliantly defiant jester still abound. Shortly after being dismissed from the Military Academy for neglecting his duties, Poe published his third book of verse, Poems (1831), which he dedicated to his fellow West Point cadets and funded through subscriptions to them. Hecker explores these events, filling in biographical gaps and drawing connections to Poe's poetic vision. Poe's desire that his poems act as aesthetic bombs -- deranging the senses, striving for Beauty but failing explosively -- emerges as a key theme. With a foreword by poet and Poe critic Daniel Hoffman and an afterword by Gerard A. McGowan addressing the martial element in the poems "Tamerlane" and "To Helen," among others, Private Perry and Mister Poe offers the definitive statement about Poe's military experience while making the early versions of many of his most famous poems widely available.

"The Adventures of Jimmie Dale" – Jimmie Dale is a wealthy playboy by day, but at night he puts on a costume and becomes The Gray Seal, who enters businesses or homes and cracks safes, always leaving a diamond shaped, gray paper "seal" behind to mark his conquest, but never taking anything and just doing it for "the sheer deviltry of it". But he gets caught by a mysterious woman he calls The Tocsin, and she blackmails him to help her in the war with certain crime organizations. "The Further Adventures of Jimmie Dale" – Jimmie Dale wanted to settle with the love of his life, but when she disappears, he is pulled back into the New York's underworld of crooks and crime. "Jimmie Dale and the Phantom Clue" – Jimmie Dale is back in the underworld of New York, and he is destined to find the criminal known as the Phantom, in order to save the woman he loves. "Jimmie Dale and Blue Envelope Murder" – Jimmie Dale tries to protect his friend who received a threat in the form of a mysterious blue envelope, but when the friend is found dead, Jimmie is accused of the murder. To clear himself, Jimmie must resolve the envelope's mystery and find out who stands behind the murder, and he must do it while avoiding the police and his old enemies from the underworld. Frank Lucius Packard (1877-1942) was a Canadian novelist best known for his Jimmie Dale mystery series. The character Jimmie Dale is a wealthy playboy by day and a fearless crime fighter by night. Jimmie Dale novels brought the idea of a costume and mask for hero's secret identity, and also established the concept of a hero's secret hideout or lair.