The Works of Edgar Allan Poe by Joel Nieman

Artist StatementI designed a book cover that represents Poe as a human and an author. I wanted to create a cover that was as abstract as the workings of Poe's brain. In following that theme came the dynamic angle that Poe himself is on as well as an excerpt from The Fall of the House of Usher that lies beneath the skull that underlays the portrait of Poe. The font used for the excerpt is American Typewriter. The skull that has a transparency to represents the deaths that plagued Poe's life and the sinister stories/poems he wrote. Erupting from Poe's shoulder is a raven, from his poem The Raven and the raven is spewing blood from its mouth. This was a symptom of Tuberculosis, from which all of his dearest relationships had passed away from. There a 5 red blood splats in this book cover, three coming from Poe's hair, one on his chest, the spew from the raven...symbolizing the five deaths in his family from Tuberculosis. The negative space in his shirt creates an outline of the Washingto