High Plains Chautauqua

High Plains Chautauqua
August 3-7, 2010
American Voices: Breaking the Mold

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EDGAR ALLAN POE (1809-1849)
by Brian “Fox” Ellis

Father of the macabre and creator of the modern short story, Edgar Allan Poe not only broke the mold as one of the first truly American Voices, he threw off the fashions of the European traditions, becoming a critic of American writers who did not follow suit. Almost every modern writer since has paid homage to Poe.

Poe invented the murder mystery. From his idea for “ratiocination,” the process of using logic and evidence to solve crimes, and his cerebral, unorthodox detective, Dupin, Poe gave rise to the most popular form of fiction. His “Murders of the Rue Morgue” created the mold for countless fictional detectives from Sherlock Holmes to TV’s Monk. Sir Author Conan Doyle wrote, “If every man who receives a cheque for a story which owes its springs to Poe were to pay a tithe to a monument for the master, he would have a pyramid as big as that of Cheops.”

Poe is also the father of modern science fiction. His stories “Hans Pfaal” and “The Balloon Hoax” were two of the first short stories to use scientific inquiry blended with imagination to explore what lies beyond. His prose poem “Eureka” anticipates ideas later found in the Big Bang Theory. Some say it was Jules Verne who created science fiction, but many of Verne’s early stories were derived directly from Poe: The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket inspired Verne to write a sequal, An Antarctic Mystery. You also read echoes of Poe in Around the World in 80 Days and 20,000 Leagues under the Sea. Verne acknowledges his debt to Poe in a literary tribute, Edgar Allan Poe and his Works.

Most of what we think we know about Poe is actually wrong, based on a scathing biography written by his nemesis Rufus Griswold. Griswold was the drunken, drug-addled womanizer who was an assistant to Poe. Poe once gave a tepid review to a book by Griswold, so Griswold took his revenge by writing a scathing post-mortem biography superimposing his predilections on Poe, who could no longer defend himself.

Poe considered himself first and foremost a poet. Though some of his poetry is dated, “The Raven” is still one of the most popular and parodied poems ever written. It was even recited by Homer on a Halloween episode of “The Simpsons.” Poe’s essays on “The Philosophy of Composition” and “The Rationale of Verse,” which should be required reading for every student of poetry, have impacted directly and indirectly every poet to follow.

The most startling fact is this: Edgar Allan Poe was the first American writer to make his living solely from his work as a writer and critic. Most writers then (and now) have had a day job as an educator, or any of a myriad of professions. Poe edited several literary journals, published stories and poems in other journals, and was one of the first American literary critics (who chastised his peers if he thought they were overly influenced by European Romantics). Poe’s critical essays of his contemporaries are an insightful study of the creation of an American Voice in world literature.

But Poe is most famous for the macabre. From “The Fall of the House of Usher” to “The Tell-Tale Heart” everyone agrees that he is the unparalleled master of the genre, the grandfather of America’s modern fascination with horror and fantasy. From Harry Potter to the Twilight series, it is hard to envision the modern literary landscape without the imagination of Edgar Allan Poe.

RECOMMENDED READING

Poe, Edgar Allan. Poe Essays and Reviews. Library of Congress Literary Classics of the United States, 1984. (Distributed by Penguin Putnam)

Poe, Edgar Allan. Selected Poems and Tales. Fall Rivers Press, 2004.

Quinn, Arthur Hobson. Edgar Allan Poe, A Critical Biography. Johns Hopkins University Press, 1941, reprinted 1998.

BRIAN ELLIS

Author, storyteller, playwright, and educator, Brian “Fox” Ellis has been touring the world, collecting and telling stories, since 1980. His one-man shows as Charles Darwin, Walt Whitman, and John James Audubon have received rave reviews from the countless audiences who have been immersed in the lives of these transformative figures. Fox is the author of more than a dozen books including the award-winning children’s picture book, The Web at Dragonfly Pond (Dawn Publications 2006). His most recent book, Content Area Reading, Writing, and Storytelling (Teacher Ideas Press 2008), is a dynamic collection of stories and lesson plans with the aim of improving literacy across the curriculum.

EDGAR ALLAN POE

Poe was the first American author to make a living solely from his craft.
Poe forged several important firsts in American literature.
According to Sir Author Conan Doyle, Poe created the first modern mystery.
Jules Verne credits him with the first science fiction story.
Most literary scholars agree that Poe is the father of the modern short story.

QUOTES BY EDGAR ALLAN POE

“The death of a beautiful woman is unquestionably the most poetical topic in the world.”

“Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night.” – “Eleonora”

“Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before.” – “The Raven”

“I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity.”

“I wish I could write as mysterious as a cat.”

”I would define, in brief, the poetry of words as the rhythmical creation of Beauty.”

“If you wish to forget anything on the spot, make a note that this thing is to be remembered.”

TIMELINE

January 19, 1809	Edgar Poe is born in Boston to two out-of-work actors.
1810	Poe’s father abandons the family.
December 8, 1811	Poe’s mother dies in Richmond. A friend and fan of his mother’s work, Francis Allan, with her husband John, takes in young Edgar, although he is never formally adopted.
1815	Business takes the Allan family to England, where Poe attends school for five years.
1821	Poe resumes his education in a private school in Richmond, Virginia and shows proficiently in Latin, poetry and athletics.
1826	Poe attends newly founded University of Virginia, a pet project of Thomas Jefferson, who often dines with students. Poe shows aptitude in modern and classic languages, but is forced to drop out when John Allan refuses to pay his bills.
1827	Poe enlists in the military as Edgar Perry and publishes his first collection of poetry with financial assistance from his friends; Tamerlane and Other Poems receives mixed reviews.
1829	Poe attains the rank of Sergeant Major, but then pays for another man to serve out his term when Francis Allan dies. He returns to Richmond to make amends with John Allan, who sponsors his application to West Point.
1831	Poe deliberately gets expelled from West Point when John Allan refuses to support him. For the next several years he works as an assistant editor in several literary journals, moving from Baltimore to Richmond to New York and to Philadelphia. Every journal he edits doubles its subscription base and revenue, but Poe never sees financial success because the publisher takes the profits.
1833	Poe is disappointed to win second place in a poetry contest, even though his short story, “Message Found in a Bottle,” wins first place, a cash prize and some acclaim.
1836	Poe, age 27, marries his 13-year-old first cousin Virginia Clemm. Her mother, Poe’s Aunt Maria, becomes his caretaker for the rest of his life. She runs a boarding house with financial support from another relative.
1839	With his growing reputation for the macabre, Poe publishes his first collection of short stories, Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque. He also publishes his only scientific textbook, The Conchologist’s First Book, his only financial success.
1840's	Throughout the decade Poe publishes a series of critically acclaimed short stories: 1841 “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” the first murder mystery. 1842 “The Pit and the Pendulum” and “The Masque of Red Death” 1843 “The Tell-Tale Heart” and “The Gold Bug” 1844 “The Balloon Hoax” and “The Purloined Letter” 1846 “The Cask of Amontillado”
1842	Virginia bursts a blood vessel while playing the piano and spends the next five years in a roller-coaster of recovery and relapse before dying of tuberculosis in 1847. Of this time Poe writes, “Each time I felt all the agonies of death – and at each accession of the disorder I loved her more dearly and clung to her life with more desperate pertinacity. I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity.”
1845	“The Raven” cements Poe’s international reputation, though he receives virtually no income from the poem. Poe met with Charles Dickens in 1842 to reform international copyright laws; both authors had trouble with trans-Atlantic piracy.
October 7, 1849	Poe dies. The end is unclear. He travels from Richmond to Philadelphia, but ends up on the streets of Baltimore. He was found in another man’s clothes, semi-conscious, and died at the hospital four days later.