Tales of Mystery and Imagination by Edgar Allan Poe 1923

Harry Clarke made this book illustration for Edgar Allan Poe’s *Tales of Mystery and Imagination* with ink and a whole lotta imagination. What strikes me is how Clarke uses such finite marks to render the infinite possibilities of the psyche. The figure, standing on a checkerboard planet, isn’t just standing, but commanding a psychic space. The density of the blacks gives way to pure white highlights in the figure’s cape, creating a striking contrast. I love the way Clarke suggests texture and depth through intricate crosshatching and stippling; look closely at the nightmarish ground the figure is standing on and you’ll see what I mean. Thinking about Aubrey Beardsley, I wonder if Clarke and Beardsley both had a similar preoccupation with the dark side of beauty. Art’s so neat in that it can hold multiple meanings, like the figure in Clarke’s illustration, forever frozen in a moment of sinister ambiguity.