Citation for Paul Lewis (Honorary Membership)

Paul Lewis has long had a particular interest in the relationship between fear and humor. We may see it not only in his inventing the word “frankenfood” and writing A Is for Asteroids, Z Is for Zombies, but also in his writing a range of fine scholarly Poe studies, from the 1989 “Poe’s Humor: A Psychological Analysis” to the 2021 “‘The Raven’: Imitated, Admired, and Sometimes Mocked.” And he is expanding this last piece for book publication. Paul has also written insightfully on a variety of other Poe subjects, including Poe and complicated grief, Poe and ambition in Tamerlane, Poe and the Boston Lyceum lecture, and Poe and Longfellow. His treatment of this last subject won him the James W. Gargano Award for the best Poe article of 2012.Paul was an acclaimed English professor at Boston College, and he involved his students in research, including work on his important 2009–2010 exhibition at the Boston Public Library, The Raven in the Frog Pond: Edgar Allan Poe and the City of Boston. And he has been an effective leader of the scholarly Poe community, serving as president of the Poe Studies Association in 2016 to 2018 and as co-organizer of Poe Takes Boston: The Fifth International Edgar Allan Poe Conference in 2022.Remarkably, Paul has taken a leading role as a Poe expert not only in the scholarly world but also in the public sphere. He participated in the Great Poe Debate in 2009. He effectively defended Poe in the New Yorker and the Poe Review in 2009 and 2010. He supported the naming of the area at the corner of Boylston and Charles Streets in Boston “Edgar Allan Poe Square” in 2010. And, as chair of the Edgar Allan Poe Foundation of Boston, he led the effort to secure a statue of Poe there. Stefanie Rocknak’s dynamic statue Poe Returning to Boston was dedicated in 2014.Paul’s accomplishment in investigating Poe and in advocating for him has been virtuosic. I am very glad to call him my friend. And the Poe Studies Association is very grateful for his valuable contribution and very proud to award Paul Lewis Honorary Membership.Congratulations, Paul!