Edgar Allan Poe's "The Philosophy of Composition" is a literary essay (1809-1849). It is about the secrets of creative production and was first published in 1846. "Most authors, especially poets, wish it to be recognized that they produce via a beautiful frenzy—an ecstatic intuition..." In addition, this edition includes a lengthy essay on Poe's life and career written in 1852 by French poet Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867). Henry Curwen (1845-1892) translated the essay into English in 1873.
For centuries, no man, in verse has ever done, or ever seemed to think of doing, an original thing. The fact is that originality (unless in minds of very unusual force) is by no means a matter, as some suppose, of impulse or intuition. In general, to be found, it must be elaborately sought and, although a positive merit of the highest class, demands in its attainment less of invention than negation.
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