Edgar Allan Poe: The Fever Called Living (Icons)

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Edgar Allan Poe: The Fever Called Living (Icons) Page 12

by Paul Collins


  5. Nevermore (1848–1875)

  Both Poe’s lecture advertising and a sense of his competition can be gathered from the New York Herald for February 2, 3, and 4, 1848; the Evening Express of February 4, 1848, and the New York Tribune of February 3 and 8, 1848, also contain useful information.

  The weather on the weekend of Poe’s discovery is from the Baltimore Sun of October 4, 1849. While a number of newspapers wondered about Poe’s remains in the years after his death, the example cited in this chapter is from Trenton State Gazette of September 12, 1854, and Dr. Snodgrass’s complaints were reprinted in the Weekly Wisconsin Patriot of June 28, 1856.

  The cause of Poe’s death remains famously disputed, though at the time it was universally (and quite reasonably) attributed to alcohol. “Why not acknowledge the truth?” asked the New York Weekly Herald on October 20, 1849. “Hard drinking is the besetting sin of our fine poets and romancers.”

  Details of the Raven Club can be gleaned from the City Intelligence sections of The Constitution (Washington, D.C.) of February 4, 1860, and December 8, 1860.

  Among the various calls for a monument to Poe, the earliest appearance of the campaign by Baltimore schoolteachers is in the Baltimore Sun of November 7, 1865; its unveiling is covered a decade later in a lengthy front-page story in that same paper, on November 18, 1875. This account includes such details as the attendance of one thousand spectators, as well as the declaration of a school holiday. The ceremony is also covered in Edgar A. Poe: A Memorial Volume (1877), which is reproduced at the eapoe.org website.

  Although it would take years to finish the task, the notion of moving his wife Virginia’s remains was already being mulled by the time of the ceremony, as is shown by articles in the Baltimore Sun on October 8, 1875, and October 11, 1875.

  Doyle’s remark on the debt that detective writers owe to Poe was published in the New York Times article “Honor Poe in London” on March 2, 1909; it remains just as true today.

  Selected Further Reading

  Primary Documents

  The Poe Log, ed. Dwight Thomas and David K. Jackson (G. K. Hall & Co., 1987).

  Clearly a labor of love, this chronological montage of letters, journal entries, and newspaper clippings models itself to great effect after Jay Leyda’s The Melville Log (1951). Although necessarily selective, this documentary approach conveys the breadth of Poe’s life and interest better than most erstwhile biographies—it is a reference work that doubles as a very illuminating narrative on Poe. The entire text has been helpfully included on the eapoe.org website.

  The Collected Letters of Edgar Allan Poe (3rd edition), ed. John Ward Ostrom et al. (Gordian Press, 2008).

  A key resource in Poe scholarship, this is the most recent expansion and revision of previous 1948 and 1966 editions of Poe’s collected letters. Earlier collections of Poe’s correspondence are not as trustworthy, particularly given the baleful influence of Griswold’s forgeries.

  Collected Editions of Poe

  UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS PRESS EDITIONS

  Complete Poems. Ed. Thomas Mabbott (2000).

  Tales & Sketches, Vol. 1: 1831–1842. Ed. Thomas Mabbott (2000).

  Tales & Sketches, Vol. 2: 1843–1849. Ed. Thomas Mabbott (2000).

  Eureka. Ed. Stuart Levine and Susan F. Levine (2004).

  Critical Theory: The Major Documents. Ed. Stuart Levine and Susan F. Levine (2008).

  Though the reprinted Mabbott volumes call out for a modern update, these annotated editions are the best scholarly editions for the close study of Poe.

  Edgar Allan Poe: Poetry and Tales (The Library of America, 1984).

  Edgar Allan Poe: Essays and Reviews (The Library of America, 1984).

  Sturdy editions that capture the full range of Poe’s works, the ready availability of these volumes makes them useful for graduate-level work.

  Edgar Allan Poe: Complete Tales and Poems (Vintage Books, 1975).

  Cramped, cheap, and nearly complete: its art-nouveau cover has been a campus icon for generations, and with good reason. This edition remains the classic undergrad text to this day.

  The Portable Edgar Allan Poe, ed. Gerald Kennedy. (Penguin Books, 2006).

  A thematically arranged selection of Poe’s best-known works. While it can’t quite convey his range and idiosyncrasies, it’s a handy annotated edition of his classics.

  Biographies

  Edgar Allan Poe: A Critical Biography. Arthur Hobson Quinn (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1941, 1998 rpt.).

  Seven decades on, this remains the greatest and most complete of Poe biographies. Quinn is unafraid to quote—and to quote often—from documents for pages at a time, sometimes acting less as an interpreter than as a well-informed guide through a Poe archive. While correcting Griswold’s depredations loomed larger in 1941 than it needs to today, Quinn’s work remains largely unsurpassed.

  Edgar A. Poe: Mournful and Never-ending Remembrance. Kenneth Silverman (HarperCollins, 1991).

  The best modern biography on Poe, despite its insistence on pathologizing his life. Silverman’s contextual detail is excellent; he takes pains, for instance, to dig up just what Poe’s daily routine in the Army would have been. When the psychoanalysis is given a rest, Silverman can be a fine and subtle interpreter of Poe’s work.

  Edgar Allan Poe: His Life and Legacy. Jeffrey Meyers (Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1992).

  Meyer’s mid-length biography is well-rounded and approachable. Some of his assertions are stated with more certainty than the sources warrant; still, for readers looking to deepen their interest in Poe, his work is a good next step.

  Acknowledgments

  My books could not happen without the inspiration of my sons, Bramwell and Morgan, or without the love of my wife, Jennifer, who is the first reader of all that I write.

  Marc Thomas valiantly held down the fort while I was off contemplating 1840s newspapers. My many thanks also go to my agent, Michelle Tessler, and my editor, James Atlas—and a tip of the stovepipe hat to Ed Park for getting me started.

  I remain as indebted as ever to many libraries, including Portland State University, the New York Public Library, and the Library of Congress. My particular thanks also go to the Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore (eapoe.org), whose devotion to placing Poe scholarship online makes its website an invaluable resource for readers.

  Photo © Kenneth Ulappa

  PAUL COLLINS is the author of eight books, including The Book of William: How Shakespeare’s First Folio Conquered the World and Duel with the Devil: The True Story of How Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr Teamed Up to Take on America’s First Sensational Murder Mystery, a finalist for the Edgar Award. He appears on NPR’s Weekend Edition as its “literary detective” on odd and forgotten books, and is the founder of the Collins Library imprint of McSweeney’s Books. Collins lives in Portland, Oregon, where he is an associate professor of English at Portland State University.

  Index

  Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane, and Minor Poems (Poe), 22

  “Al Aaraaf” (Poe), 22, 72

  acting, 2–3, 9

  Adams, Richard Locke, 64

  Ainsworth, Harrison, 63

  alcoholism

  breaks from, 36, 62, 96

  relapses into, 52, 54–55, 69–70, 74–75, 89, 97–98

  start of, 30

  Alexander’s Weekly Messenger, 44–46

  aliases. See identity

  Allan, Frances, 3–5, 21, 97

  Allan, John

  career of, 3–4, 9

  death of, 26

  Poe’s adoption by, 3–5, 14

  Poe’s clash with, 9, 13–14

  Poe’s reconciliation with, 21–22, 24

  American Monthly, 21

  American Review, 67, 73

  “Annabel Lee” (Poe), 100, 107

  anonymity, 15–16. See also identity

  Antarctic, 26, 37–38, 88

  anthology, 99–102

  archetypes, detective genre, 59

  Army,
US, 20–23

  Arnold Poe, Eliza, 2, 3

  backward storytelling, 49, 59, 103

  balloon hoax, 29, 63–64, 106

  Baltimore

  memorial in, 105–6

  parents’ life in, 2

  Poe in, 21, 24–29, 97–98

  Barrett, Elizabeth, 65, 66

  Barrett, Sam, 42

  Baudelaire, Charles, 103–4

  “The Bells” (Poe), 100

  “Berenice” (Poe), 27–28

  Bird, Robert, 33

  birth, Poe’s, E. A., 2

  “The Black Cat” (Poe), 57

  Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, 25, 43, 52–53

  “Bon-Bon” (Poe), 24–25

  books. See novels; short stories

  Bookseller’s Dinner, first, 35–36

  Boston, 2, 14–15, 71–72

  Boston Miscellany, 53

  Bostonian, 79

  Bransby, John, 6, 109

  Briggs, Charles, 68, 77

  Broadway Journal, 68–71, 72, 73

  Broza, Gil, 110

  burial site, 1, 99, 104–7. See also death

  Burton, William, 41–43, 46–47

  Burton’s Gentleman’s Magazine, 42–43, 46–47

  bylines. See identity

  Byron, Lord, 10

  Caleb Williams (Godwin), 49

  Captain Kidd, 56–57, 62–63, 112

  Carey, Henry, 27

  “The Cask of Amontillado” (Poe), 78

  cats, 44

  ciphers, 45–46, 48, 56–57, 110

  Clarke, Joseph, 8

  Clemm, Maria

  anthology views of, 101–2

  caretaking by, 24, 55, 80, 81, 83

  death of, 105

  property loss of, 75

  Clemm, Virginia. See Poe, Virginia Clemm

  collected works, 70, 99–100

  The Conchologist’s First Book (Poe), 41, 43

  contests, 24–25, 56

  copyright laws, 64

  crank literature, 88

  crime solving. See detective genre

  cryptograms, 45–46, 48, 56–57, 110

  Daniel, J. M., 102

  death

  of Allan, Frances, 21

  of Allan, John, 26

  of Clemm, Maria, 105

  metaphysics of, 89–90

  of Poe, 98–99, 104–5, 112–13

  of Poe, David, Jr., 3

  of Poe, Henry, 24

  of Poe, Virginia Clemm, 80

  Poe’s desire for, 90, 95, 98

  as theme, 23, 41, 43, 66, 81–82, 98

  toasting tradition for, 1

  debts, 12–14, 19, 22, 32, 52

  “A Decided Loss” (Poe), 25

  delirium tremens, 94, 98

  depression, 29–30, 52–55, 80–83

  detective genre

  creation of, 48–51

  development of, 58–60, 104

  Dickens, Charles, 49, 64

  The Dollar Newspaper, 56–57

  “The Domain of Arnheim” (Poe), 82

  Dostoevsky, Fyodor, 104

  Dow, Jesse, 55

  Doyle, Arthur Conan, 104

  drinking. See alcoholism

  Dupin, Auguste (fictional), 48–49, 59–60

  Duyckinck, Evert, 38, 70, 81, 85

  editorial work, 26, 28–35, 42–46, 64–65

  education

  in London, 5–6

  in Richmond, 7–9

  at University of Virginia, 10–13

  at West Point, 22–23

  Ellet, Elizabeth, 74–75

  Ellis, Charles, 7

  Ellis, Thomas, 7

  Ellis & Allan, 4, 9, 109

  England, 5–6

  English, Thomas Dunn, 75, 77–78

  The English Spelling Book, 5–6

  Eureka: A Prose Poem (Poe), 83, 86–90

  “The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar” (Poe), 73

  “Fairy-Land” (Poe), 21

  “The Fall of the House of Usher” (Poe), 42–43

  fame, 56–57, 67–70, 81, 103–4

  Fay, Theodore, 34

  “Field Sports and Manly Pastimes” (Poe), 42

  The Flag of the Union, 92–93

  Fordham, 75–76

  “A Fragment” (Poe as W.H.P.), 20–21, 110

  France, 48–49, 81, 103–4

  Fuller, Margaret, 70

  Gaffy nickname, 11

  gambling, 12–14

  Gentleman’s Magazine. See Burton’s Gentleman’s Magazine; Graham’s Magazine

  Germanism, 44

  The Gift, 43, 67

  girlfriends, 10, 95–96. See also love

  Godey’s Magazine, 77–78

  Godwin, William, 49

  “The Gold-Bug” (Poe), 56–57, 62–63

  Gothicism, 41, 43, 78, 93

  Gowans, William, 36

  Graham, George, 47, 52, 101

  Graham’s Magazine, 47, 52, 57, 67

  Great Britain, 5–6

  Greely, Horace, 92

  Greenwich Village, 61–62

  Grey, Edward S. T. (alias), 91

  grief, 81–83. See also depression

  Griswold, Rufus, 81, 92, 99–102

  hallucinations, 94–95, 98

  “Hans Pfaall” (Poe), 29, 106

  “The Happiest Day” (Poe), 16

  Harper, James, 36

  Harper & Brothers, 35, 36, 41

  Harrison, Gabriel, 64–65

  Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 35

  Hecla (ship), 19

  Higginson, Thomas Wentworth, 71–72

  hoaxes, 29, 63–64, 73

  hollow-earth theory, 37, 38, 88, 98

  “Hop-Frog” (Poe), 93

  Horace, 7

  Horne, Richard, 66

  horror satire, 24–25, 27–28

  identity

  anonymity and, 15–16

  Gaffy nickname, 11

  Grey alias, 91

  as Harrison, 64–65

  Outis alias, 68

  Perley alias, 65

  Perry alias, 19–21

  Le Rennet alias, 14–18

  as theme, 41, 89

  as W.H.P., 20, 110

  as Wyatt, 41

  illness

  of Poe, Edgar Allan, 79–81, 94–95, 97–98

  of Poe, Virginia Clemm, 51–52, 62, 74, 80

  “The Imp of the Perverse” (Poe), 71

  insanity

  of Poe, 94–95, 98

  as theme, 53, 66, 71, 78

  Irving, Washington, 43

  Jefferson, Thomas, 10

  jobs

  boarding house, 32

  critique, 33–34, 68–69, 71, 77–79

  departures and firings from, 35, 46, 52

  desk, 54–55

  lecturing, 58, 69, 71, 84–86, 96

  magazine editor, 26, 28–35, 42–46, 64–65

  warehouse, 13, 14–15

  The Journal of Julius Rodman (Poe), 46

  Kennedy, John Pendleton, 26, 27, 31

  Kidd, Captain, 56–57, 62–63, 112

  The Knickerbocker, 46

  language skills, 7–8, 12

  Latrobe, John, 26, 106

  laudanum, 90

  Lea & Blanchard, 44

  lecturing, 58, 69, 71, 84–86, 96

  libel suit, 77–78, 81

  “Ligeia” (Poe), 40–41

  Lincoln, Abraham, 103

  Lippard, George, 94–95

  Literary America (Poe), 79, 80

  “The Literati of New York City” (Poe), 77

  Locke, Richard Adams, 29

  logic skills, 41, 46, 76

  London, 5–6

  Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth, 68–69, 102

  love

  for Clemm, Virginia, 24, 31–33, 51, 74

  lost, theme of, 16–18, 30–31, 66, 81–82

  Poe’s first, 8

  for Royster, Elmira, 10, 95–96, 97

  for Whitman, Sarah Helen, 91–92

  Lowell, James Russell, 53, 57, 67, 70–71

  Ma
dison, James, 12

  “Maezel’s Chess Player” (Poe), 46

  magazines

  Alexander’s Weekly Messenger, 44–46

  Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, 25, 43, 52–53

  Broadway Journal, 68–71, 72, 73

  Burton’s Gentleman’s Magazine, 42–43, 46–47

  Graham’s Magazine, 47, 52, 57, 67

  industry, 27, 35

  Penn Magazine, 46–47

  Poe’s jobs in, 26, 28–35, 42–46, 64–65

  Poe’s ownership of, 46–47, 54, 55, 72, 73, 93–94

  Poe’s works published in, 20–22, 24–31, 42–48, 73, 76–79

  Southern Literary Messenger, 27–35, 36, 89

  The Stylus, 54, 55, 89, 93–94

  “The Man of the Crowd” (Poe), 47

  Manual of Conchology (Wyatt), 41, 43

  “Marmaduke Hammerhead” (English), 78

  marriage

  to Clemm, Virginia, 31–33

  to Royster, 97

  to Whitman, Sarah Helen, 91–92

  Mason, Monck, 63

  “The Masque of the Red Death” (Poe), 51–52

  “Mellonta Tauta” (Poe), 85–86

  Memoirs (Vidocq), 49

  memorial monument, 105–6, 113

  metaphysics, 83, 84–90

  “Metzengerstein” (Poe), 24

  military, 19–24

  “Ms. Found in a Bottle” (Poe), 25–26

  Monroe, James, 12

  “Moon Hoax” (Adams), 64

  Moran, John, 98

  “Morella” (Poe), 28

  Morning Express, 79

  multiple universes, 87

  “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” (Poe), 48–49, 50, 51, 81

  “The Mystery of Marie Roget” (Poe), 50–51, 59

  The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket (Poe), 36–38, 98, 104

  Neal, John, 21–22

  New York

  Bookseller’s Dinner in, 35–36

  Fordham, 75–76

  Greenwich Village, 61–62

  lecturing in, 84–86

  Poe family in, 3

  Poe’s move back to, 61–62, 70, 75–76

  West Point, 22–23

  New York Herald, 99

  New York Mirror, 64, 67

  newspapers

  Poe’s obituary in, 99

  Poe’s works published in, 56–57, 63–64, 92–93

  Nicholls, Mary Gove, 75–76

  Norman Leslie (Fay), 34

  North American (magazine), 20, 110

  North Pole, 19–20

  Notes from Underground (Dostoevsky), 104

  novels

  Pym, 36–38, 98, 104

 

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