Eureka: A Prose Poem. An Essay On The Material And Spiritual Universe. (with An Introduction By Glenn Todd). With Eight Prints By Arakawa. Signed Limited Ed by Poe, Edgar Allan - 1991

San Francisco California.: : Arion Press. Fine with no dust jacket. 1991. 1st Thus. Cloth. Red and black; quarto; . ix, 107, [1] pages; POE, EDGAR ALLAN-ARION PRESS Eureka: A Prose Poem ... With eight prints by Arakawa. San Francisco: Arion Press, 1991. Number 17 of 250 copies signed by the illustrator Arakawa. Original cloth lettered in silver and red. 13 1/2 x 9 3/4 inches; with eight decorated leaves by Arakawa. Quite slight offset to gutter of endpapers, otherwise fine and fresh. Provenance The Julius and Theodore Cohn Library. "Adapted from a lecture he had presented, Eureka describes Poe's intuitive conception of the nature of the universe with no antecedent scientific work done to reach his conclusions. He also discusses man's relationship with God, whom he compares to an author. It is dedicated to the German naturalist and explorer Alexander von Humboldt...Though it is generally considered a literary work, some of Poe's ideas anticipate 20th-century scientific discoveries and theories. [3] Indeed, a critical analysis of the scientific content of Eureka reveals a non-causal correspondence with modern cosmology due to the assumption of an evolving Universe, but excludes the anachronistic anticipation of relativistic concepts such as black holes. [4][5]Eureka was received poorly in Poe's day and generally described as absurd, even by friends. Modern critics continue to debate the significance of Eureka and some doubt its seriousness, in part because of Poe's many incorrect assumptions and his comedic descriptions of well-known historical minds. It is presented as a poem, and many compare it with his fiction work, especially science fiction stories..." courtesy of Wkipedia. Poe considered it his greatest work and claimed it was more important than the discovery of gravity. First edition with Arakawa's art, originally published in 1848 when it was laughed at. .