"Tamerlane & Other Poems" is the first volume of poems that Edgar Allan Poe had ever published. A mere 50 copies were printed and the collection was not credit with the author's real name, but with "A Bostonian."
The epic poem in the collection recounts the life of the Turkic conqueror, Tamerlane (a Latinized version of "Timur Lenk," the 14th-century warlord." In the poem, Tamerlane ignores the young love he has for a peasant in order to achieve power. On his deathbed, he regrets this decision to create "a kingdom [in exchange] for a broken-heart."
The poet originally published the book at age 18 and there is said to be only several original extant copies today, all of which have sold at auction for tens of thousands of dollars.
