SOURCE: "The Origin of 'The Cask of Amontillado'," in American Literature, Vol. 6, No. 1, March, 1934, pp. 18-21.

In the following essay, Schick traces incidental similarities between Poe's tale and Joel Tyler Headley 's Letters from Italy (1845).

Although many questions of literary indebtedness are open to discussion, still we can be reasonably certain that the origin of Poe's tale, "The Cask of Amontillado," was not wholly inspirational. Professor Killis Campbell has suggested that portions of the work may possibly be traced to certain incidents in The Last Days of Pompeii and in Balzac's "La Grande Brétèche."¹ It is true that Montresor's method of tricking Fortunato into the underground chambers is not unlike that of Bulwer-Lytton's Arbaces in leading a priest to imprisonment. But in the immurement which marks the climax of "The Cask of Amontillado" and which Poe again used in the tale of "The Black Cat," both...