The Raven

An Edgar Allan Poe and Lou Reed mash-up, illustrated with paintings by Mattotti: now in paperback.

Back in 2003, Lou Reed paid tribute to poet Edgar Allan Poe with his sprawling album, The Raven. This gorgeous book of art and poetry, made in collaboration with Italian illustrator Lorenzo Mattotti, shares its title with that album and further explores Reed’s fascination with Poe’s work. Reed’s poetically streetwise sensibility and style works in surprising harmony with Poe’s dark chronicles of terror and despair, just as Mattotti’s vivid, abstracted and enigmatic paintings perfectly complement Reed’s haunting, contemporary interpretation of Poe’s vision. An instant sellout when published in hardcover in 2011, this new softcover edition should leap off the shelves as well. 188