Category: The Poe Museum Blog

Did Poe Really Say That?

There are many popular Poe quotes circulating the Internet, quotes that are even printed on merchandise. Unfortunately, a majority of Poe quotes are falsely attributed to the literary genius. Some quotes are so bad Poe would be rolling in his grave! Take a look at our list and see which quotes you recognize as being falsely attributed to Poe.

1) “I wish I could write as mysterious as a cat.” This is, frustratingly, one of the most misattributed quotes. If you look at the context, the grammar, the style of the quote, it most definitely is not “Poe-esque.”

2) “Believe only half of what you see and nothing that you hear.” This quote is a Poe quote, just not as he stated it. Found in his short story “The System of Dr. Tarr and Prof. Fether,” in the November 1845 issue of Graham’s Magazine, the statement is, “Believe nothing you hear, and only one half that you see.” It is surprising the quote needed to be simplified to the form it is in today, when it was already quite simple to begin with. One definitely should pay attention to what Poe is saying. And it is probably best when reading supposed “Poe” quotes, to believe only half of what you see.

3) “Sometimes I’m terrified of my heart; of its constant hunger for whatever it is it wants. The way it stops and starts.” This came from a song written by the singer Poe. Confusing, yes; however, they are two distinctly different people. You can hear the song here.

4) “Sleep, those little slices of death—how I loathe them.” I have not been able to trace the origin of this quote, however the quote was attributed to Poe in Nightmare On Elm Street III. Another resource, the World of Poe, suggests it may have been derived from a line from the 1959 film, “Journey to the Center of the Earth,” which states, “I don’t sleep. I hate those little slices of death.” Regardless of where it came from, this most definitely is not a Poe quote.

5) “All religion, my friend, is simply evolved out of fraud, fear, greed, imagination, and poetry.” According to the World of Poe, this quote derived from a Poe biographer, John Alexander Joyce, who also came up with such fallacies as “The Raven” being a copied work of an 1809 poem, “The Parrot.”

6) “The best things in life make you sweaty.” I found this little gem on Goodreads, while scanning through the list of misattributed quotes. I am not sure what to say about this, except that it quite obviously is not a Poe statement. You can see an article regarding why this isn’t here.

7) “I do not suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it.” After heavy research, I sourced this quote to a few books—first making its debut in 1996. This quote is often attributed to Poe, however I could only source this quote to the following books:
Leon Schuster’s Lekker, Thick South African Joke Book
He’s gonna toot and I’m gonna scoot: waiting for Gabriel’s horn
Uncle John’s Big Great Big Bathroom Reader
Crackers for Your Soup!
Roots
OnTheInternet
Toward Healthy Living: A Wellness Journal
More Modems for Dummies
Forbes

There is no evidence of its appearing before the later half of the twentieth century.

8 ) “The past is a pebble in my shoe.” According to the World of Poe blog, this quote derives from one of the singer Poe’s songs, “Today.”

9) “I remained too much inside my head and ended up losing my mind.” There is not sufficient evidence to say Poe did not say this, however there is not sufficient evidence to say he did.

10) For some reason, the words in the “Come Little Children” song from Hocus Pocus have been attributed to Poe. The words do not match his style, and the lyrics are simplistic compared to his writing. The lyrics were written for the 1993 Halloween film, Hocus Pocus, by Brock Walsh, with James Horner composing the music. Sarah Jessica Parker, a star of the film, only wishes she were singing Poe’s words!

11) “If you run out of ideas follow the road; you’ll get there.” A search for this only brought me to Goodreads and Flickr. Either it is not well sourced, or he did not say it. Hint: He did not say it.

12) “Fill with mingled cream and amber,
I will drain that glass again.
Such hilarious visions clamber
Through the chamber of my brain —
Quaintest thoughts — queerest fancies
Come to life and fade away;
What care I how time advances?
I am drinking ale today.”

Although this poem, “Lines on Ale,” has been attributed to Poe for a long, long while, recently it has been debated whether it actually is his or not. You can follow this link for the controversy.

13) “No one should brave the underworld alone.” This line is from the singer Poe’s song, “Hello.”

14) “Every poem should remind the reader they are going to die.” I found this quote on Goodreads, which is the only website/source where I have been able to properly find it. I am going to have a hunch and say Poe did not make this statement.

15) “Art is to look at not criticize.” The only place I have found this quote is in online links back to Goodreads. I am going to guess this, like the former, is not a Poe quote.

16) “If you are ever drowned or hung, be sure and make a note of your sensations.” Once again, while Goodreads proves to be a fantastic source of information regarding book titles, suggestions, and endless lists of quotes, sometimes quotes such as this one slip past the editors and are falsely attributed. Edit: According to an outside source, this is a paraphrased quote of, “Should you ever be drowned or hung, be sure and make a note of your sensations — they will be worth to you ten guineas a sheet,” as seen in Poe’s “How to Write a Blackwood Article.”

17) “The idea of God, infinity, or spirit stands for the possible attempt at an impossible conception.” According to the World of Poe, this is a paraphrased quote from a passage out of Poe’s “Eureka.” Better watch out for those paraphrases.

18) “The pioneers and missionaries of religion have been the real cause of more trouble and war than all other classes of mankind.” According to World of Poe, this is another fabricated quote attributed to Poe by John Alexander Joyce.

21) “I don’t believe in ghosts but they have been chasing me my whole life.” This was only sourced back to a Wikipedia article, which even questioned the authenticity of it.

22) “If a poem hasn’t ripped apart your soul, you haven’t experienced poetry.” Just because it appears on popular media sites like Tumblr and Pinterest doesn’t mean it is an authentic quote. I am firmly putting my foot down when I say Poe did not say this.

And there you have it. By the way, while we’re at it, “Allan” is not spelled with an “e.”

After reading through these, which falsely attributed Poe quote is your favorite? Which correctly attributed Poe quote is your favorite? Personally, my favorite Poe quote is, “And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all,” from Poe’s “The Masque of the Red Death.”

If you have any questions whether a quote is truly a Poe quote, feel free to comment and I will try my best to prove, correct or debunk it.

Tags literature, Poe's life, Poe's Works, poetry, short story

The Poe Museum Blog

Edgar Allan Poe in Science # 2—September 2014 by Murray Ellison

Post author By zakyoung
Post date September 5, 2014

Illustration courtesy of an M.S Office Royalty Free Clip

Perhaps Edgar Allan Poe’s most overlooked contribution to English literature is that he is one of the earliest American writers who commented on many of the ways that the emerging technological trends of the nineteenth-century effected everyday citizens. Poe’s science writing reveals the relationships between a writer who was looking for an audience interested in expressing his attitudes about science writing, and an audience that was looking for a writer who could explain the emerging developments of nineteenth-century science to them. Thus, there was an important relationship between Poe’s science writing and the public: The topics that Poe chose to write about were often influenced by the public’s interests in science, and his writing inspired their continued interest in science. His works, then, not only reflect the range of scientific topics that the public was most enthusiastic about, but they also document their concerns about the ways that technology was changing their lifestyles. Although Poe’s science narratives show that he was excited about many of the new developments of nineteenth-century science, they also express an uncertain attitude about the value he placed in technology. He was also warned readers about the ways that some writers misrepresented the ‘facts of science.’ Interestingly, later in his career he became known as the king of scientific hoax writing. Despite his concerns and ambivalent attitudes, Poe became a significant nineteenth-century professional journalist who had immediate access to the most popular science news stories of the day, and wrote about science in each of his major writing styles, i.e., poetry, non-fiction, and fiction. Despite the existence of these factors, Poe’s importance as a nineteenth-century science writers has not been acknowledged even by his present-day followers, or by many scholars of literature or science history. Therefore, the present blog will examine the themes and attitudes of Poe’s science narratives in each of his major styles of writing. My hope is that this series will provide both interested readers and scholars of Poe’s work, a clearer understanding of the complex ways that technology effected the lifestyles and culture of the nineteenth-century public.

I will consider a science narrative to be a work of Poe’s poetry, non-fiction, or fiction in which Poe provides an account of scientific inventions or issues, or where he tells a story that highlights popular scientific themes which he presented in journals or newspapers. For example, in his earliest published work of fiction, “MS Found in a Bottle,” Poe recounts a narrator’s experiences during a sea expedition. His vessel is dramatically propelled to the then unexplored waters of Antarctica and the South Pole. He records the scientific details of this story in the realistic style of a technical journalist assigned to the voyage, and at the same time explores issues of the uncertainties of this voyage and of the unexplored spaces between reality and imagination. Poe also added a touch of suspense and Gothic-style horror in his story, which likely helped help to generate additional strong public interest in this already popular topic. “M.S. Found in a Bottle” was first published in 1833 by the Baltimore Saturday Visitor Newspaper. This story first thrust Poe into national notoriety after it won the paper’s first place prize for fiction writing. This recognition undoubtedly encouraged him to write many other science narratives in each of his major styles of writing. In this Blog, I will explore Poe’s themes and attitudes about science as he expressed them in each of these styles, i.e., poetry, non-fiction, and fictional works. In addition, I plan explore: Poe’s educational background; his little-known experiences in the United States Army related to science; the scientific and literary contexts which were in place at the beginning of his writing career; his experiences as a journalist in Richmond, New York, Philadelphia, and Boston; and the extraordinary culminating and enigmatic science book he wrote at the end of his career and life—entitled, Eureka A Prose Poem. Poe believed that Eureka was the most important work of his career, and considered it “the culmination of his life’s work” (Broussard 52). He boasted that “Newton’s discovery of gravity was a mere incident compared to the discoveries revealed in this book” (Thomas and Jackson 731). He also wrote a letter to his aunt and mother-in-law, Maria Clemm, on July 7, 1848 stating, “I have no desire to live. Since I have done Eureka, I could accomplish nothing more” (Ostram 820). Ironically, Eureka also turned out to be the last work he published under his own supervision. There have been several attempts to evaluate the complex language and puzzles posed in Eureka, but most have come up short because the work is written in a complex, and almost cryptic language. When I get around to discussing Eureka, I plan to use some of the “code-keys” provided in several of Poe’s other writings to help unravel some of its mysteries. Please send comments and suggestions to me about this blog through murray@poemuseum.org or at ellisonms2@vcu.edu

Works Cited:
Broussard, Louis. The Measure of Poe. Norman: The University of Oklahoma Press, 1969.
Poe, Edgar A. The Letters of Edgar Allan Poe. Ed. John Ward Ostram. Cambridge: Harvard University, 1948.
Thomas, Dwight, and David Jackson, Eds. The Poe Log- A Documentary Life of Edgar Allan Poe 1809-1849. Boston: G.B. Hall and Company, 1987.

Tags education, history, literature, Poe's Works, science, science fiction, short story

The Poe Museum Blog

Unique Evening Presented at the Poe Museum

Post author By zakyoung
Post date September 3, 2014

On the anniversary of Poe’s final departure from Richmond (just ten days before his death), September 27, 2014 at 7P.M., the Edgar Allan Poe Museum in Richmond, Virginia will honor this grim anniversary with unique dramatization of Poe’s works by historic interpreter Anne Louise Williams. An Evening of Edgar Allan Poe features dramatic recitations from memory of several writings of Edgar Allan Poe. Selections will include “The Black Cat,” “The Tell-Tale Heart,” “The Oval Portrait,” “The Cask of Amontillado,” “Morella,” “The Raven,” “Annabel Lee,” “The Bells,” “For Annie,” “A Dream within a Dream,” “Eldorado,” and “The Fall of the House of Usher.” The recitations are framed in the context of the author’s life, interspersed with readings of excerpts from newspapers, letters, and observations of contemporaries. Admission is $5. Poe Museum members will be admitted free.

Anne Williams

About the Presenter:

Anne Louise Williams is a historic interpreter certified with the National Association of Interpreters. Anne is a volunteer with the National Park Service at Whitehaven (Grant Home) and the Old Court House for special events (since 2009) and a volunteer with the historic Daniel Boone Home (since 1996) in St. Louis, Missouri. Anne integrates her passion for history, literature, and drama to perform literature in the context of the author’s life. She is experienced in first person interpretation as well. She has portrayed Virginia Minor, recreating her testimony on Suffrage before the US Senate Committee. In 2011, Anne researched and reconstructed the testimonies in the infamous Lemp Divorce which were re-enacted at the Old Court House where the trial occurred in 1909, with a Lemp descendant portraying William Lemp and the audiences taking the roles of witnesses. Anne performed at the Poe Visitor Center in Fordham (Bronx) in January 2014. Anne will be performing at several venues in September and October, including the Poe Museum in Richmond, the Free Library of Philadelphia, the Poe Visitor Center in Fordham, and the Lyndhurst Castle in Tarrytown, the Daniel Boone Home in Defiance MO, and the Lemp Mansion in St. Louis MO.

Tags education, events, history

The Poe Museum Blog

Rufus Wilmot Griswold-Poe’s Literary Executor

Post author By zakyoung
Post date August 27, 2014
5 Comments on Rufus Wilmot Griswold-Poe’s Literary Executor

Many may be familiar with the recent Drunk History episode featuring Edgar Allan Poe and a “Mr. Griswold.” But how many actually know who Griswold is? Yes, Drunk History, the popular Comedy Central show, portrayed him, but was he accurately portrayed?

It is true that many of the popular misconceptions about Poe derive directly from Griswold, the “defamer” of the poet. This editor and enemy of Poe was the source of many fallacies about Edgar’s alcohol and drug addictions, among other things. But why did Griswold go to such great lengths to destroy Edgar’s reputation? Who was this man and what did he have against Poe?

Rufus W. Griswold

Born February 13, 1815, in Benson, Vermont, Rufus Wilmot Griswold was one of the youngest siblings of fourteen children, son of Deborah Griswold and Rufus Griswold. After briefly moving out at the age of fifteen, and then at seventeen once more, he left for Syracuse, where he started The Porcupine, a newspaper. Under the pseudonym Toby Trinculo, he attacked the local citizenry. He then left for New York City in 1836, where he met, and later married in 1837, his first wife Caroline. Later that year, Griswold became a reverend.

Griswold and Caroline had three children, but he lost Caroline just three days after the death of their third child, a son, in the fall of 1842. Widowed at twenty-seven, the heartbroken Griswold occupied his time by creating numerous anthologies. He eventually married Charlotte Meyers but divorced her and remarried a woman named Harriet McCrillis.

It was in 1839, before the death of his beloved Caroline, that he first crossed paths with Edgar Poe. One of the first—if not the first—time Griswold mentioned Poe was when he ridiculed him in his July 19 issue of The Tattler, which stated,

Edgar A. Poe, Esq., Editor of the Baltimore Chronicle, and Brantz Mayer, Esq., of the same city, have been for several days exhibiting premonitory symptoms of blood-letting. The friends of the parties have brought about a settlement, however, and both gentlemen have concluded to live as long as the Lord will let them (Bayless 30).

It is said, however, that Griswold and Park Benjamin, who was coeditor of the paper with Griswold, should have aimed their attack at Neilson Poe, and the statement was corrected (30). Not too long after, Poe, who was working as an editor for Lady’s and Gentleman’s Magazine in Philadelphia, heard of Griswold when an announcement was made that Griswold was working on publishing an anthology of poetry by American writers. The budding poet, Poe, was interested and requested to see Griswold. The two men met and spoke for several hours discussing literature. It is said the “interview was mutually agreeable,” and Poe, shortly after, sent several poems and a memoir for Rufus’ book (35-36).

On April 18, 1842, the anthology, The Poets and Poetry of America, was published—Edgar was not pleased. Rufus had only included three of Poe’s poems, with comments that were described as “lukewarm praise of his poetry,” and an inaccurate memorandum (45). This was the first strike between Griswold and Poe.

Earlier that month, on the first, Poe had resigned from his position as Graham’s Magazine’s editor, and was replaced by the twenty-seven year old Rufus Griswold by the middle of May. This was the second strike (49-50). Not only was Griswold now being paid more than Edgar was paid, with his $800 yearly salary, but according to Joy Bayless,

There was a softness, a suavity, in the manner of the new editor which would ingratiate him with the writers whom Graham wanted to enlist. There was a pronounced contrast between this helper [Griswold] and the proud, scornful Edgar Poe, who had contributed the products of his creative mind to the magazine but who had been unable and unwilling to bend the knee to popular contributors. Griswold would be a better henchman. He was not obsessed with literary ideals; he was able to make friends easily; and he was eager to widen his acquaintance with writers (55).

Despite the warm regards first given to the exciting new editor, Griswold eventually burned important bridges, which would bite him in the end. By 1843, his mistakes included talking about Graham’s assistant, Ann Stephens, who already held great disdain for Rufus. It is said, “Years later when she had an opportunity to avenge herself of the real or fancied injury she took full advantage of it” (69).

Having been hurt by Griswold, Poe resented the editor and in June circulated the following after asking Dr. J. Evans Snodgrass, “Have you seen Griswold’s Book of Poetry? It is a most outrageous humbug, and I sincerely wish you would ‘use it up’” (69). It is said Poe hid his resentment for Griswold behind a friendly façade (70)

During the summer of 1842, Poe was paid to write a review of Griswold’s anthology. Despite his anger against Griswold, he wrote a rather complimentary review, regarding the book as, “…the most important addition which our literature has for many years received” (71). However, he objected to about two-dozen authors included in the anthology. Both men were at a standstill.

By the end of June, the two men were on friendly terms again, and Poe wrote to Griswold,

Dear Griswold: –Can you not send me $5. I am sick, and Virginia is almost gone. Come and see me. Peterson says you suspect me of a curious anonymous letter. I did not write it, but bring it along with you when you make the visit you promised to Mrs. Clemm. I will try to fix that matter soon. Could you do anything with my note? (74).*

Griswold’s “natural generosity” allowed him to accept Poe’s invitation to visit his house, and Griswold called on him. Mrs. Clemm brought the two enemies together as friends in summer of 1843, and Griswold wrote about Poe later,

It was while he resided in Philadelphia that I became acquainted with him. His manner, except during his fits of intoxication, was very quiet and gentlemanly; he was usually dressed with simplicity and elegance; and when once he sent for me to visit him, during a period of illness caused by protracted and anxious watching at the side of his sick wife, I was impressed by the singular neatness and the air of refinement of his home. It was in a small house, in one of the pleasant and silent neighborhoods far from the centre [sic] of the town, and though slightly and cheaply furnished, everything in it was so tasteful and so fitly disposed that it seemed altogether suitable for a man of genius. For this and for most of the comforts he enjoyed in his brightest as in his darkest years, he was chiefly indebted to his mother-in-law, who loved him with more than maternal devotion and constancy (75).

That fall, however, Edgar would scorn Griswold once more during a lecture tour of America in which he openly attacked the renewed enemy. Griswold retaliated and resigned from Graham’s Magazine in October 1843. He continued to assist Graham, however, and contributed to the magazine as late as 1848 (76).

In the fall of 1845, Poe had written a complimentary piece about Griswold in the Broadway Journal, which prompted Griswold to reconcile with the older poet. The following January marked a renewal of friendship, which would last for several months (96-97). In fact, Griswold even loaned Poe twenty-five dollars, in answer to Poe’s request for fifty dollars to support the Broadway Journal that he had taken over temporarily (99). Things seemed to be going well for the two. In the Prose Writers of America, Griswold exhibited his well-mannered feelings and had only positive things to say about Poe (120).

October 7, 1849 marked a shocking day for Griswold, when word reached him in New York that Edgar Poe was dead. Almost immediately, he started to write Poe’s obituary for the next morning’s Tribune, and signed it with his pen name, “Ludwig.” Horace Greeley, a fellow editor, admittedly would not have let the obituary run in the Tribune if he had known the trouble it would bring Edgar in the end (161).

By this time, Griswold, it is said, respected Poe’s literary genius, but the poet had scorned the editor, and Griswold would not forgive him—it was time to take revenge. Griswold’s memoir, which you can read here, is full of fabricated lies, and was largely pieced together using his previously written memoirs and a passage taken from Bulwer’s, The Caxtons, which he used because, “Francis Vivian [the character]…[seemed] to resemble Poe so closely that instead of spending time himself to characterize Poe he took Bulwer’s descriptions of his fictional character and used them in the sketch” (162-163).

Not too long after, Edgar’s mother-in-law and aunt, Maria Clemm, approached Griswold asking him to produce an edition of Poe’s works. It is unclear whether Clemm knew Griswold had written the infamous “Ludwig” obituary, but regardless, six days after Poe’s death, she had chosen him for the job. The works, which included memoirs written by N.P. Willis and James Russell Lowell, was, according to an announcement for the book printed in The New York Tribune on October 17, “among the last requests of Mr. Poe that Dr. Griswold should be his Editor…” (166). There is no evidence that proves whether or not this is the case, and the editor even went back and forth between stating he was indeed chosen by Poe for the job and that he took the opportunity only because of his revengeful plans.

In Griswold’s production of the books, N.P. Willis’ memoir opposes Griswold’s view, including Willis ultimately drawing the conclusion that Edgar actually had goodness in him. Henry Hirst, a friend of Poe, refuted Griswold in the Saturday Courier on October 20, saying that Poe did have many friends, in response to Griswold’s statement that Poe did not.

Griswold even confessed in a letter written to Sarah Helen Whitman, Poe’s ex-fiancée and a Rhode Island poetess, “I wrote—as you suppose—the notice of P. [Poe] in the Tribune—but very hastily. I was not his friend, nor was he mine, as I remember to have told you; but I endeavored always to do him justice; and though the sketch has deemed harsh, I did not mean that it should be so” (173). Whether this was truly the case, we do not know. Interestingly enough, Griswold also admitted he had seen little of Poe during the last years of Poe’s life; therefore it is debatable whether Griswold should have let the matter go and spare Poe’s reputation (173).

The first volumes of Poe’s writings were published about January 10, 1850, according to Joy Bayless, and contained many memoirs, articles about Poe, and a majority of Poe’s short stories and poems (175-176) You can view the editions here. Griswold soon published a third volume in September, 1850 (180).

After the third volume was published, Griswold made plans for a fourth volume, which was published in 1856. During the process of collecting information for this fourth book, however, Charles Godfrey Leland, a close friend of Griswold’s, threw out all of Griswold’s original material “to Poe’s discredit,” and then scolded the Reverend. According to Joy Bayless, Griswold then lost interest in Poe until his fourth book release. By 1858, the book had become the standard anthology of Poe’s works and had undergone seventeen editions (196-197). Griswold admitted, according to Bayless, that he “…attempted to prepare several volumes which would attract buyers and do justice to Poe’s reputation” (197).

The last criticism Griswold gave regarding Poe was in the sixteenth edition of The Poets and Poetry of America, which states,

Unquestionably he was a man of genius, and those who are familiar with his melancholy history will not doubt that his genius was in a singular degree wasted or misapplied. His rank as a poet is with the first class of his times. “The Raven,” “Ulalume,” “The Bells,” and several of his other pieces, will be remembered as among the finest monuments of the capacities of the English language (200).

With Poe deceased and after successfully defaming the poet (or so he thought), Griswold continued to work on anthologies until his death by tuberculosis on August 27, 1857.

During his life, Griswold published numerous poems and anthologies, as well as provided sermons and editorial pieces. Some of his most notable works include The Poets and Poetry of America, The Poets and Poetry of England, and an important poem, “Five Days,” which can be viewed here, written for his first wife, Caroline, after her death.

It is ironic that Griswold made such great attempts to defame Poe, because his attacking memoirs and obituary only brought Edgar more fame and recognition, making him a notable literary figure for all time; whereas Griswold now is often forgotten or unknown. Perhaps if Griswold had not defamed the poet after his death, Griswold would now have a greater legacy in the literary world.

Today the Poe Museum owns several of Poe’s letters and manuscripts once owned by Griswold and given to the Museum by his grandchildren. The Museum also owns two letters written by Griswold, which you can see here and here.

*There is speculation as to whether this was actually written by Poe. Griswold was notorious for forging letters after Poe’s death, and this particular piece was challenged by John Ward Ostrom in his book, The Letters of Edgar Allan Poe – Vol. II: 1846-1849, which you can view here.

Tags death, Poe's life

The Poe Museum Blog

Mathew Brady Photograph of Poe’s Mother-in-Law Discovered

Post author By zakyoung
Post date August 26, 2014
7 Comments on Mathew Brady Photograph of Poe’s Mother-in-Law Discovered

Mathew Brady was perhaps the leading American photographer of the nineteenth century. Among the prominent figures who sat for his studio are eighteen United States Presidents including Abraham Lincoln. It has long been known that the Mathew Brady Studio sold copies of a “Brady Photo” of Poe in the early 1860s, but now a previously unpublished Brady photo of Poe’s mother-in-law Maria Clemm has been found and will soon be on public display for the first time.

From September 25 until November 30, 2014, the Edgar Allan Poe Museum in Richmond, Virginia will exhibit a newly discovered photograph of Edgar Allan Poe’s mother-in-law from the studio of famed nineteenth century photographer Mathew Brady (1822-1896), best known for his iconic photographs of Abraham Lincoln and his documentation of Civil War battlefields. This is only the third image of Poe’s aunt/mother-in-law Maria Poe Clemm to come to light. Although Edgar Allan Poe’s face is well-known through photographs and paintings made during his lifetime, there are very few surviving images of the two people closest to him—his wife and mother-in-law. Maria Clemm helped support Poe by helping sell his poems and by taking on sewing work for extra money. Poe paid tribute to her in his poem “To My Mother.” After Poe’s death, Clemm depended upon the charity of Poe’s many admirers. Charles Dickens is among those who contributed to her care.

Newly Discovered Image

Stephen Montgomery, the owner of the photograph, an albumen print carte de visite, found the previously unpublished image in an album of nineteenth century photographs and contacted the Poe Museum to help him verify the discovery. The logo of the Mathew Brady studio is printed on the back of the photo with the words “Maria Clemm/ Edgar Allen [sic] Poe Aunt” written in pencil above it. Although the image was previously unknown to scholars, it bears a remarkable resemblance to the two other known photographs of Maria Clemm, one of which is in the collection of the Poe Museum. The newly identified image will be displayed alongside the Poe Museum’s fully authenticated photograph for comparison.

Authentic Images of Maria Clemm and the Newly Discovered Image

Face of 1868 Photo Superimposed Over Face of Montgomery Photo

For this exhibition, Montgomery has also loaned the Poe Museum two other photographs—Matthew Brady’s photograph of Poe (a retouched version of an 1848 photograph taken by another photographer sold from Brady’s studio in the early 1860s) and an albumen print photograph of the daguerreotype taken of Poe in Richmond a few weeks before his death.

Brady Photo of Poe

Tags collections, exhibits

The Poe Museum Blog

Mary Allan’s 1920s Debut

Post author By zakyoung
Post date August 20, 2014

The portrait of Mary Allan, which currently hangs in the Old Stone House, is a significant work of art purchased by the Poe Museum in 1928. The following recounts the history of this portrait, as well as its subject and the artist.

Mary Allan

Mary Allan was the older sister of Edgar Poe’s foster father, John Allan, and the eldest daughter of William and Elizabeth Galt Allan. Mary lived in the Allan Bridgegate home until her death in 1850 (Phillips 99).

Although Mary’s childhood and adulthood remain mysteries, we do have an interesting correspondence between a descendent of hers and the Poe Museum. On October 12, 1927, the museum was approached by a relative of the Allan family, who mentioned that her distant cousin was interested in selling a portrait of Mary Allan. This cousin was Sophie E. D. (whose name is not fully disclosed to protect her prvacy), of Fertshire, Scotland. Mary Allan, who Miss D. referred to as “Aunt Mary,” was Miss D’s great aunt. Upon contacting the museum, Sophie and the Poe Museum began what would be a year long process of organizing the painting’s shipment, payment, and display.

According to the April 26, 1928, “Board of Directors Minutes of the Annual Meeting”, there was a statement explaining that the same artist who painted John Allan’s portrait, also painted Mary’s, which hung on the wall of the Allan home in Ayrshire when the young Poe visited there.

This painter was James Tannock, a native of Kilmarnock. According to the Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Tannock was a distinguished artist who had success at Glasgow and Greenock as a painter of portraits and miniatures. He then moved to London and is notable for contributing forty-four portraits to the Royal Academy exhibitions between 1813 and 1841 (Armstrong). Tannock’s rich oil painting style can be seen in the Mary Allan painting.

On June 2, 1928, the portrait was purchased for seventy-five pounds, stirling [sic]. At that time, this would have been equal to $125.98. Today, the purchase price is estimated to be $1,755.93. On August 2, the portrait of Mary arrived. Martha R. Ford, the secretary of the Poe Museum at the time, stated in an August 10 letter,

I think she is lovely [Aunt Mary]. She must have been a very interesting person to know. She is very like her brother in feature; but oh so different in expression! I am no artist, and my opinion as to the merits of the portrait form an artistic point of view would be worthless. But from my plain human standpoint, I find the picture beautiful and interesting. Everybody who has seen it seems much pleased.

According to a September 14 letter, the Museum buildings were being renovated and “Aunt Mary” was waiting to be hung. Martha R. Ford relates, “’Aunt Mary’ is to come into the new building as soon as the workmen shall have provided for her adequate support.” The next day, everything was in place, and the sale was official. The Consular Invoice was produced, the official charge papers were found to be in order, the transaction was duly closed, and “Aunt Mary” was warmly welcomed into her new home.

Mary Allan

Now, thanks to the Poe Museum’s past employees and the gracious willingness of Sophie D. to sell her “Aunt Mary” to the museum, you can view the lovely painting, which gives insight into John Allan’s Scottish family, and, ultimately, into Poe’s world in Scotland.

To view the painting, please visit the following link: https://www.poemuseum.org/collection-details.php?id=105

Tags collections, exhibits

The Poe Museum Blog

Poe Museum’s Object of the Month is “A **** Cheat”

Post author By zakyoung
Post date August 19, 2014

Now one of the most valuable books in American literature, this humble volume could have easily ended up in a trash heap or floating down the Hudson River along with several other copies. Ben Hardin, Jr. (1784-1852), the first owner of this first edition of Poe’s third book Poems, scrawled abusive language on the end pages. Ben Hardin, Jr. was a Kentucky lawyer who had likely received the book from his son John Pendleton Hardin (1810-1842, Class of 1832, resigned 1832), one of Poe’s fellow cadets at the United States Military Academy at West Point. John Hardin would have been one of the 131 out of the 232 cadets who contributed $1.25 toward the work’s publication in April 1831. Fewer than 1,000 copies were printed, and, judging by the cadets’ response to the book, it is not surprising that only about twenty survive. (Some of those cadets are said to have thrown their copies into the river in disgust.)

Dedication Page of Poems

One of the cadets, Allan B. Magruder, later recalled, “[The book] was a miserable production mechanically, bound in green boards and printed on inferior paper, evidently gotten up on the cheapest scale. The subscription was not fully paid until the book was delivered, and I remember a general expression of indignation at the inferior quality and condition of the book.”
Another cadet, Thomas W. Gibson, added, “The book was received with a general expression of disgust. It was a puny volume, of about fifty pages, bound in boards and badly printed on coarse paper, and worse than all, it contained not one of the squibs and satires upon which his reputation at the Academy had been built up.”
Ben Hardin, Jr., the owner of the Poe Museum’s copy, wrote on the front page, “This book is a damn cheat. All that fills 124 pages could have been compiled in 36.” Beneath this, someone wrote “lie.” Below that is written, “Calliope [the Greek muse of epic poetry] is a cheat/ any how–.”

Inscription

What little critical notice the book attracted was not overwhelmingly favorable, either. In the May 7, 1831 issue of the New-York Mirror, the reviewer (probably George P. Morris), complains that Poe’s poetry is incomprehensible:

The poetry of this little volume has a plausible air of imagination, inconsistent with the general indefinitiveness of the ideas. Every think in the language betokens poetic inspiration, but it rather resembles the leaves of the sybil when scattered by the wind. The annexed lines, which close a short poem, entitled the “Doomed City,” are less incomprehensible than most in the book, although the meaning is by no means perfectly clear…It sometimes happens that poetry, at first sight unintelligible, is discovered, upon a repeated and more careful examination, to be fraught with the treasure of thought and fancy. The “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” belongs to this class; but we cannot flatter Mr. Poe with any similar hopes respecting his own composition, although it occasionally sparkles with a true poetic expression, and sometimes a conflict of ¬beauty and nonsense takes place, in which the latter seems to have the best of it. It is indeed encumbered by numerous obscurities, which we should be pleased to see either very much brightened or entirely expunged. What is the meaning of this?

In anticipation that the meaning of his poetry would confound some critics, Poe wrote in the volume’s introduction,

Poetry, above all things, is a beautiful painting whose tints, to minute inspection, are confusion worse confounded, but start boldly out to the cursory glance of the connoisseur…A poem, in my opinion, is opposed to a work of science by having, for its immediate object, pleasure, not truth; to romance, by having for its object an indefinite instead of a definite pleasure, being a poem only so far as this object is attained; romance presenting perceptible images with definite, poetry with indefinite sensations, to which end music is an essential, since the comprehension of sweet sound is our most indefinite conception. Music, when combined with a pleasurable idea, is poetry; music without the idea is simply music; the idea without the music is prose from its very definitiveness.

By the time Poems was released in April 1831, Poe was living in New York after having been expelled from West Point in February. Even though Poe was no longer at the academy, he remained the subject of the cadets’ scorn and ridicule for some time after his departure. As Gibson recalled, “For months afterward quotations from Poe formed the standing material for jests in the corps, and his reputation for genius went down at once to zero. I doubt if even the ‘Raven’ of his after-years ever entirely effaced from the minds of his class the impression received from that volume.”
After the commercial failure of Poems, Poe still considered himself primarily a poet and continued to write poetry, but he would not publish another volume of his poetry for fourteen years when he issued The Raven and Other Poems in 1845.

Listing from Chamberlain Catalog

The Poe Museum’s copy of Poems eventually entered the collection of scientist Jacob Chester Chamberlain (1860-1905) who worked in Thomas Edison’s laboratory during the early 1880s and contributed to Edison’s pioneering work with electric lighting. The book was #706 in the auction of Chamberlain’s collection on February 16, 1909 at the Anderson Auction Company in New York when the formerly $1.25 book sold for $315. The piece next entered the library of book collector Walter Thomas Wallace of South Orange, New Jersey. He sold his collection at auction on March 22-24, 1920 at the American Art Galleries in New York. This time, the book sold for only $140. The next owner was the California psychologist John Wooster Robertson, whose special interest in Poe led him to compile a bibliography of Poe first printings and to write the book Edgar A. Poe: A Psychopathic Study. Robertson donated Poems, along with the rest of his large collection of Poe first editions, to the Poe Museum in 1927.

Listing from Wallace Catalog

Although some readers in the author’s time could not appreciate it, Poems is now considered one of Poe’s most important collections. Among the soon-to-be classic poems first printed in this volume are early versions of Poe’s classics “To Helen,” “Lenore” (under its original title “A Paean”) and “Israfel.” Poe’s biographer Arthur Hobson Quinn summed up the significance of the book as follows:

If the volume of 1829 [Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane, and Minor Poems] contained poetry unlike any that had as yet appeared in the United States, the volume of 1831 gave us in “To Helen,” “Israfel,” “The Doomed City,” “The Valley Nis” and “Irene,” poetry of a kind that had not yet been written in the English language.

The Poe Museum is fortunate Ben Hardin, Jr. decided not to discard his copy of Poems. Thanks to collectors like Robertson, Wallace, and Chamberlain, the book has been preserved for future generations to study and enjoy. That is why this first edition of Poems is the Poe Museum’s Object of the Month.

Walter Wallace Bookplate in Poems

Tags collections, education, exhibits, history, poetry

The Poe Museum Blog

Vincent Price and Edgar Allan Poe Reunite for Halloween

Post author By zakyoung
Post date August 18, 2014
2 Comments on Vincent Price and Edgar Allan Poe Reunite for Halloween

During “Vincent Price at the Poe Museum,” legendary horror actor Vincent Price and iconic author Edgar Allan Poe reunite this Halloween Weekend (October 31-November 1, 2014) at the Edgar Allan Poe Museum in Richmond, Virginia.

Victoria Price

The weekend kicks off Halloween night, October 31, from 6-10 P.M. with Poe Goes to the Movies, a costume contest and film screening hosted by Vincent Price’s daughter, Victoria Price. Ms. Price and a panel of special guests will help judge the costume contest and Poe Look-Alike Contest. Then Victoria Price will introduce the movie Tales of Terror starring Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, and Basil Rathbone. The evening will also include the opening of the Poe Museum’s newest gallery, The Raven Room, featuring James Carling’s original ca.1882 illustrations for Poe’s poem “The Raven.” Poe Goes to the Movies will be a fun, frightening evening with games, tricks, and treats for the whole family. Admission for the evening is $20, and proceeds benefit the Edgar Allan Poe Museum’s education programming.

The following evening, November 1 from 6-10 P.M., the Poe Museum will host The Author’s Appetite, featuring the new Vincent Price Signature Collection wines in addition to Vincent Price’s foods prepared from recipes in his own cookbook. Victoria Price will share some her memories of her famous father. The evening will also feature performances of Poe’s works by Anne Williams, a book signing by Victoria Price, curator talks in the new Raven Room. Admission for the evening is $50 and will benefit the Edgar Allan Poe Museum’s educational programming.

For more information, contact the Poe Museum at 804-648-5523.

Tags events, Richmond

The Poe Museum Blog

Poe and Science by Murray Ellison

Post author By zakyoung
Post date August 8, 2014

Edgar Allan Poe lived at the perfect time in history to be able to observe and to write about many of the most dramatic technological changes that had taken place in world history. Scientist Sir Alfred Russell Wallace called the nineteenth century “The Wonderful Century” because of its “marvelous inventions and discoveries,” which he regarded as immensely superior to anything which had been developed up until that time by “our comparatively ignorant forefathers”(1). Suddenly, within the span of a few decades, the introduction of new Industrial Age technologies such as electricity, telegraphic communications, cross-country railroads, photography, astronomy, and high- speed printing presses dramatically altered the culture and lifestyle of the American public in ways in which few people who lived at the time could ever have expected. In 1903, Sir Norman Lockyer, the then President of the British Association echoed Wallace’s remarks, stating that, “The nineteenth century will ever be known as the one which the influence of science was first fully realized in western countries; the scientific progress was so gigantic that it seems rash to predict that any of its successors can be more important in the life of a nation” (Nature). By the time that Poe started writing professionally (in the early 1830s), the literacy rate was higher than it had previously ever been in America, and the average person could read and understand most articles written in the newspaper. A person could travel to distant parts of the country by rail, and communicate almost instantly via the telegraph to almost anyone in the United States. Through the development of the daguerreotype (an early prototype of photography), people could obtain realistic and long lasting images of their family members to remember for generations. Many of those taken at that time may still be clearly visible today. The introduction of a new class of highly powerful telescopes and microscopes also demonstrated that the Universe of space and the unseen space within objects are much more expansive than anyone had previously imagined.

Peter Swirski argues that it is essential for our present understanding of nineteenth century culture to explore popular writers like Edgar Allan Poe because his “writing may be a suitable barometer of the role that science and philosophy had on nineteenth century society. Poe’s science narratives are perhaps most important because he was the first American authors who was able to distill the important information and ideas that were developed by professional scientists and publish them to a national and international audience in the form imaginative poems, non-fiction essays and journalistic stories, fiction, and science fiction stories.

The next entry of the “Poe and Science” blog will discuss how a studying the stories of the non-professional science writer helps us to have a better understanding of nineteenth-century society. Please send comments or questions to murray@poemuseum.org or ellisonms2@vcu.edu
Sources Used
Lockyer, Sir Norman. “Inaugural Address as President of the British Association.” Nature. 10 September 1903: 439.
Swirski, Peter. Between Literature and Science: Poe, Lem, and Explorations in Aesthetics, Cognitive Science, and Literary Knowledge. Montreal: McGill-Queens University Press, 2000.
Wallace, Alfred Russell. The Wonderful Century: Its Successes and Failures. Toronto: George N. Morang, 1898 (digital reproduction).

Tags education, history, science, science fiction

The Poe Museum Blog

Edgar’s Scottish Roots

Post author By zakyoung
Post date August 8, 2014

Not only does the Edgar Poe’s family history contain an abundance of interesting details and accounts, but also does his foster father’s family, the Allan family. A family history enriched with a Scottish background, John Allan and family influenced young Edgar, as well as the Poe Museum, in many ways. In the following post, we will follow accounts of Edgar Poe and his foster family in Europe, visiting with Allan’s Scottish family members, learn about an uncovered Allan family gravestone in Scotland found in the late 1990s, and learn about the family’s descendants’ correspondences with the Poe Museum in the early twentieth century (in part two, soon to follow).

Edgar Poe traveled to many places during his life, between Baltimore, Philadelphia, Richmond, New York, and Boston. However, in his childhood, he lived in Europe for about five years. This is the account of the Allan family’s move to England and their life there with a brief biographical account of their time in Europe, and a year-by-year, nearly month-by-month account of their stay.
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John Allan, born in Ayrshire in 1780, would not see his native land until two decades after leaving Scotland when he was fifteen years old.

John Allan

After working for his uncle for five years while living in the States, Allan started a firm, Ellis & Allan, which dealt mainly in tobacco that was immensely profitable and grew increasingly popular (Celtic Life). In 1815, the Allan family embarked for Europe potentially to better help John Allan and Charles Ellis’ business. Arriving in Irvine, Scotland, where, according to Ayrshire Roots Online, most of the Allan relatives lived, including the Galts, Allans, and Fowlds. The family was spread throughout Irvine, Kilmarnock, and other nearby areas around Ayrshire. John and his family traveled to Glasgow, Edinburgh, Greenock, and London later that Fall of 1815. Young Edgar attended school in Irvine, at the Kailyard Grammar School at Kirkgatehead. He did not remain there very long, however, because the school was closed and replaced by a new academy that next July.

While in Irvine, young Edgar stayed with John’s sister, Mary, in a two-story house owned by the Allan Family. It is said Edgar shared a room with James Galt, a cousin, who also attended the Grammar School. James, approximately nine years older than Edgar, was said to have watched over Edgar because he had made threats to run back to America. Edgar, however, was back in London with his foster-family in 1816.

John Allan, his foster father, was trying to build a branch of his Richmond firm there, trading tobacco and other general merchandise. Young Edgar was sent to a boarding school, where he remained until the summer of 1817. This school, at 146 Sloane Street, in Chelsea was ran by the Misses Dubourgs. In the fall of 1817, Edgar was admitted to the Manor House School of the Rev. Mr. John Bransby, at Stoke Newington. He remained there until his withdrawal and then departure back to the United States in the spring of 1820 (Ayrshire Roots). The family returned to Richmond due to the fall of Ellis & Allan’s business, to which Allan was required to pay back debt and loans he had accumulated.

Let it be noted that just beside the river of Irvine remains the parish church and graveyard, in which the Allan ancestors are buried. According to The Edgar Allan Poe Review, Vol. 1, No. 1 (Spring 2000), p. 80, Mark Strachan, Senior Museum Assistant at the North Ayrshire Museum in Saltcoats, Ayrshire, Scotland, in August 1999, added the Poe-Allan headstone, originally from the church parish grounds-turned-museum, to their collection. The headstone reads as follows, copied from the article exactly as formatted:

In memory of
David Poe late Carrier in Saltcoats
Who died 21^st Augt 1799 aged 47 years
And of Ann Allan his wife
Who died 18^th July 1828 aged 72 years
And of James their son
Who died abroad in the year 1800
Aged 18 years
And also of three of their children
Who died in infancy
Also
Mary Poe died May 25^th 1853
Aged 63 years
And of Janet Poe who died 27^th May 1861
Aged 62 years

(And on the reverse-)

David Poe
In memory of his daughter
Mary Ann
Who died on the 24^th Feby 1846 aged 15 years
Also
Ann & Thomas
Who died in infancy
And his wife
Margaret Orr
Who died on the 30^th Octr 1854 aged 65 years
The above David Poe
Died on the 7^th Decr 1878 aged 91 years

~
1815 marks the year of the Allan family’s plan to move, and their official move to Scotland. On June 15, they left for Norfolk, Virginia, where they “[would] board the Lothair, bound for Liverpool, under Captain Stone, ‘to sail next week.’” They sold a large majority, if not all, of their possessions before the move, and then set sail on the Atlantic Ocean on June 23 (Thomas 24-25). Captain Stone was described as being “penurious,” and John Allan further complained “that his wife and sister-in-law [Ann Valentine, Frances’ sister] [were] ‘denied the privileges of Fire to broil a slice of Bacon’.” John Allan also slept on the floor of the ship, and it was said Frances had terrible seasickness. Despite the rough journey, the family, comprising of Edgar, John Allan, Frances Allan, and Ann Valentine, successfully disembarked on July 28in Liverpool. The next day, John Allan wrote to Charles Ellis, his business partner from Richmond, “I am now on English ground after an absence of more than 20 years. After a pssage [sic] of 34 days all [is] well—Frances and Nancey very [sic] sick but are now perfectly Hearty. Edgar was a little sick but soon recovered. Capt. good seaman but too close….We got here yesterday at 5 P.M. I took our abode at Mr. Lillymans Hotel today” (Thomas 25).

Presumably, after days of settling down in the new land, the family visited John Allan’s sisters, Mary Allan and Jane Johnston, in Irvine, Scotland on August 11. According to Dwight Thomas of the Poe Log, “Perhaps for a few days Poe attends the Old Grammar School. Here Poe probably sees archers shooting the popinjay on the cathedral. Poe’s playmates are James Anderson and a lad named Gregory.” (Please note that Poe referred to the popinjay in “Romance” and “The Bargain Lost.”) Before August 22, the family also visited John Allan’s younger sister, Mrs. Allan Fowlds (née Agnes Nancy Allan) on Nelson street (25). On the 21^st of September, from Greenock, Scotland, John Allan wrote to Charles Ellis,

I arrived here about a half an hour ago . . . finding some American Vessels on the eve of sailing I avail myself of the chance to write a few lines, though I cannot say much about our business. . . . I flatter myself from the small quantity [of tobacco?] in London & the Posture of affairs on the Continent that our sales will be profitable. It would appear that France and the Allies have concluded a Treaty but it has not been promulgated — the Allies will hold the strong posts for a while until the refractory spirit of some of the old adherents of Bonaparte has subsided. . . . Frances says she would like the Land o cakes better if it was warmer and less rain, she bids me say she will write Margaret [Ellis] as soon as she is settled but at present she is so bewildered with wonders that she canna write. Her best Love to Margaret & a thousand kisses to Thos [Ellis]. Nancy says give my love to them all — Edgar says Pa say something for me, say I was not afraid coming across the Sea. Kiss Thos. for him We all unite in best Love to my Uncle Galt & all our old Friends. Edgars love to Rosa & Mrs. Mackenzie (26).

Later on October 7, the family arrived in London, however only three days later Frances felt ill with a bad cold and sore throat. John Allan wrote to Charles Ellis from the Blake’s Hotel they were staying at, “I arrived here on the evening of the 7th, from Kilmarnock by way of Greenock, Glasgow, Edinburg, New Castle [and] Sheffield…” (26). October 30, He wrote,

. . . by a snug fire in a nice little sitting parlour in No. 47 Southampton Row, Russell Square where I have procured Lodgings for the present with Frances and Nancy Sewing and Edgar reading a little Story Book. I feel quite in a comfortable mood for writing. I have no acquaintances that call upon me and none whom as yet I call on. 6 Guineas a week furnished lodgings is what I have agreed to for 6 months until I can find a more convenient and cheaper situation. I have no compting room yet of course. I cannot copy the Letters which I am obliged to write — everything is high it alarms Frances she has become a complete economist and has a most lively appetite. I begin to think London will agree with her (26-27).

That November, John Allan once more wrote that he and his family were sick with colds. These persistent illnesses would occur periodically throughout their five year stay, with Frances being the sickest of all. It is implied by many letters written by John Allan that Frances was quite possibly a hypochondriac. She was ill multiple times; for instance, in 1819, as the family was preparing to return to the States, Frances pleaded not to go back as she thought she would never be able to cross the Atlantic (41).

By November 20, however, Allan decided he and his family would stay two more years than the planned three. He thought this would profit his business with Ellis (27). The next year, in 1816, the family continued to have a miserable time. John Allan’s Aunt, his father’s sister, Jeannie Bone died, and in early April, young Edgar was sent to the boarding school of the Misses Dubourg (29).

A charming account of John Allan’s correspondence with his family includes giving advice to young William Galt, Jr., before his anticipated departure for America,

Now my good Boy you will soon be ushered into the World where your own exertions and good Sense will be put to the test, never fail to do your Duty to your Creator first, to your Employer next & by all means keep clear of bad company. Mixing with improper characters tends only to make you the slave of vicious Habits which you will avoid as you shun the coiled Serpent (31).

In 1817, John Allan’s business seemingly was thriving. He wrote to William Galt that their property assets would be worth $140,000. Midsummer in London, he rented No. 39 Southampton Row, but did not take possession of the house until September or October. During this time, young Edgar was in school (33-34). That August, John Allan explained to George Dubourg how Frances desired a parrot. According to the Poe Log, as presented on EAPoe online, Frances’ parrot, which was lodged with the Dubourgs, spoke French and,

Whitty (1935), pp. 188-90, thought the following lines from “Romance” were autobiographical: “To me a painted paroquet / Hath been — a most familiar bird — / Taught me my alphabet to say — / To lisp my very earliest word.” Mabbott (1969), 1:128-29, linked “Romance” with the popinjay in Scotland and also called attention to the paroquet in “The Bargain Lost.” In his “Philosophy of Composition” Poe stated that in planning “The Raven” he first considered a parrot, then an owl, and settled for a raven (33-34).

The next year, 1818, proved to be an impressionable year for young Edgar. He was reading Latin pretty well, according to John Allan in late June. According to EAPoe online’s transcription of The Poe Log,

In “William Wilson” (1839), Poe’s fictional account of his experiences at the Manor House School, the schoolmaster was part Bransby and part George Gaskin, rector of St. Mary’s Church. Poe perhaps knew three men named William Wilson: two conducted business with John Allan and a third taught school in Richmond (see Jackson, 1983, p. 13). “I [William Elijah Hunter] spoke to Dr. Bransby about him [Poe] two or three times during my school days. . . . Dr. Bransby seemed rather to shun the topic, I suppose from some feeling with regard to his name being used distastefully in the story of ‘William Wilson.’ In answer to my questions on one occasion, he said, ‘Edgar Allan’ (the name he was known by at school) ‘was a quick and clever boy and would have been a very good boy if he had not been spoilt by his parents,’ meaning the Allans; ‘but they spoilt him, and allowed him an extravagant amount of pocket-money, which enabled him to get into all manner of mischief — still I liked the boy — poor fellow, his parents spoilt him!’ ” (Hunter, p. 497) (36).

Manor House School, Stoke Newington

Mid-August, John Allan planned a trip to Isle of Wight to see if the sea air would help poor Frances’ health. She visited Devonshire not too long after this (37-38). Later that October, Frances visited Tydemouth with, it is believed, Jane Gault, and then rejoined her family in London on, or before, November 28 (39-40).

That next year, 1819, the Allan & Ellis firm began suffering financial difficulties. John Allan began considering returning home. In June of that year, the family attended the wedding of his sister Elizabeth to John Miller in Irvine, Scotland. Edgar was left in Irvine until September (41). Although the family had been planning to return to the States for a while, the family was unable to return to America until they had enough money. Along with the alleged hypochondriac Frances, lack of finances posed problems in returning home. Frances was assuaged, however, because John Allan wrote that December to Ellis that Frances has, “the greatest aversion to the sea and nothing but dire necessity and the prospect of a reunion with her old and dear Friends could induce her to attempt it. Ann [Frances’ sister] submits her wonted good nature and patience” (42).

In the final year of their stay, February was a hard month for the family. Frances appeared to be in a terrible state, and the assassination of Duke Charles Ferdinand of Berry, on February 13, appeared to have an impact on John Allan because he wrote about the troubling incident (43). After making one last trip to Irvine, Scotland to visit his sisters in June, the family departed and arrived in New York on July 21. They returned to Richmond August 2 (44-46).

Despite the hardships that had occurred during their five-year stay, and the crash of Allan and Ellis’ firm, the trip to Europe appeared to have a great impact on Edgar and later influenced his stories. The boarding school experiences inspired certain aspects of later short stories, and it is said, had he stayed in Scotland, he would have made a fine addition to Europe.
~
Now that we have learned about Poe’s journey in Europe, and the influence of the Scottish Allan family on Edgar, what is the story behind this portrait? Find out here!

Tags Poe's life

The Poe Museum Blog

Edgar’s Bitterest Enemy

Post author By zakyoung
Post date July 16, 2014

Edgar Allan Poe had many enemies during his life–there is no questioning this—but only one man held the significant title of being Poe’s “bitterest enemy.” Was it Rufus Griswold, Poe’s literary executor, you may ask? No. Maybe, John Allan, Edgar’s foster father who butted heads with the poet until Allan’s death? Not quite. Who, you may inquire, was named Edgar Poe’s bitterest enemy? His own cousin, Neilson Poe.

Neilson Poe

Born with his twin sister, Amelia, to Jacob and Bridget Poe, in Baltimore on August 11, 1809, Neilson (pronounced “Nelson”) was grandson of George Poe Sr.(Frank 278, 281; Silverman 82; Thomas xxxviii, 6). Although there are no significant accounts of Neilson’s childhood, we know that at age eighteen he joined the staff of William Gwynn’s Baltimore Gazette and Daily Advertiser, beginning a three year apprenticeship as a journalist (Thomas xxxviii). Two years later, in 1829, made acquaintances with his second cousin, Edgar.
Later Neilson became the owner and editor of the Frederick Examiner, a semiweekly newspaper in Frederick, Maryland, where Edgar applied for a job in 1831 after Neilson had left. In 1834, Neilson acquired the Baltimore Chronicle, an influential Whig daily. The next year marked the beginning of the Neilson and Edgar rivalry (Thomas xxxviii).

Jacob Poe

In 1835, Edgar received word that Virginia Clemm, his future wife, was to be taken in by her cousin, Neilson and his wife, her half-sister, Josephine. This struck a deep chord in Edgar’s heart and he frantically pleaded with his Aunt, Maria Clemm, to not send Virginia to his second cousin’s residence, regarded Neilson as a rival for Virginia’s affection. He allegedly thought the plan was “cruel” and a betrayal that “wound[ed him] to the soul” (Frank 280, 281; World of Poe). Edgar went on to explain to Maria in his letter,

Oh think for me for I am incapable of thinking. Al[l of my] thoughts are occupied with the supposition that both you & she will prefer to go with N. [Neilson] Poe. I do sincerely believe that your comforts will for the present be secured — I cannot speak as regards your peace — your happiness. You have both tender hearts — and you will always have the reflection that my agony is more than I can bear — that you have driven me to the grave — for love like mine can never be gotten over. It is useless to disguise the truth that when Virginia goes with N. P. that I shall never behold her again — that is absolutely sure. Pity me, my dear Aunty, pity me. I have no one now to fly to. I am among strangers, and my wretchedness is more than I can bear. It is useless to expect advice from me — what can I say? Can I, in honour & in truth say — Virginia! do not go! — do not go where you can be comfortable & perhaps happy — and on the other hand can I calmly resign my — life itself. If she had truly loved me would she not have rejected the offer with scorn? Oh God have mercy on me! If she goes with N. P. what are you to do, my own Aunty? (You can read the rest of the letter here.)

Edgar won the dispute and successfully “saved” Virginia from their cousin Neilson. It is said Neilson had not known why Virginia and Maria turned down his offer until years later when he was shown, by Maria, the letter Edgar had written (World of Poe). Also, according to Kenneth Silverman in Edgar A. Poe: A Biography, Mournful and Never-Ending Remembrance, “…Neilson meant to rescue Muddy from her poverty, but he also reportedly hoped to prevent Virginia from marrying at so young an age, keeping open the possibility of her marriage to Edgar a few years later, if they both still desired it.” For some reason, Edgar believed he would never see Virginia again had she gone to stay with Neilson and Josephine (104).

Josephine Poe

The cousins did not keep in close contact after this. In 1833, Neilson’s daughter, Amelia Fitzgerald, was born. This particular Poe child, out of seven siblings, was significant in relaying information to Poe scholars later on in her life, giving information about Edgar to biographers, John Ingram and George Woodberry (Frank 278).

In the summer of 1838, Edgar contacted his cousin, imploring for financial assistance, to which Neilson declined. He, too, was having monetary issues during this time. He sold his Chronicle on December 2 of that next year, due to financial debt. In 1840, he left the business he had been practicing since eighteen and commenced the practice of law, where he remained the rest of his life (Thomas xxxviii). It is said Neilson corresponded with Edgar in August 1845 in one surviving letter, which, according to “The World of Poe” online,

…is very civil, but decidedly cool. He [Edgar] responded to his cousin’s evident friendly overtures with a bland courtesy, assenting that it was indeed a pity that their two families were estranged, but he showed no sincere desire to amend that situation. The letter also indicated that Neilson and his family were unaware that for the past three years, Virginia had been battling a hopeless illness (which Poe always mysteriously called “the accident”)–a striking sign of just how alienated they were from her life. (You can read this letter here.)

Edgar’s death four years later would come as a shock and blow to Neilson who, despite not being on the best of terms with his cousin throughout their lives, still maintained concern for Edgar during his dying days. When word reached him that his cousin was in the hospital, Neilson visited Edgar and, despite being considered “the little dog” by his writer cousin, sent a change of linens and called again the next day to check on Edgar (Silverman 434). Despite the efforts to help Edgar, Poe died and Neilson began preparing for the funeral. He attended Edgar’s funeral on October 8, 1849, and provided the hack and hearse (Thomas 848).

After his cousin’s death, and despite their rivalry (which, may have been more on Edgar’s part than Neilson’s) Neilson spoke well of his cousin with supportive comments. Going back to just after the release of Edgar’s 1829 volume, Neilson predicted that “Our name will be a great one yet,” because of Edgar’s writings (World of Poe; Silverman 82). Despite their quarreling at times, Neilson never seemed to hold such hatred against his cousin as one may perceive. In fact, Neilson attended Poe’s November 17, 1875 memorial tribute and eulogized him. He also paid for an Italian marble headstone; however, this was destroyed in an accident transporting it to the cemetery (Frank 281; Thomas xxxviii; Find A Grave). He also intended to write a memoir of his cousin in 1860, but it is said,

…[he] made some collection of facts, but never wrote anything. He belongs, so his friends say, to the class of dilatory men, who plan and never do…He talks very freely about his cousin. I have not found him reticent; but I do not think the Poes [sic] fully appreciate the genius of Edgar (Miller 52).

Despite this “unappreciative” nature, it seems Neilson did genuinely hold some reverence for his cousin.

The rest of Neilson’s life seems straightforward regarding his family and career. In 1878, he was appointed Chief Judge of the Orphans’ Court of Baltimore, a position he held until two months before his death, January 3, 1884. He had seven children living at the time of his death; two daughters and five sons (Thomas xxxviii). He also was, notably, the grandfather of the six Poe brothers who played football at Princeton University between 1882 and 1903 (Find A Grave). Neilson’s other notable achievements include being director of Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, as well as director of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad for a short time (Find A Grave). He was associated with the Baltimore Chronicle, and had accomplished being a journalist, publisher, editor and lawyer (Frank 281).

Whether now you see Neilson as Poe’s “bitterest enemy”, or believe that he was a misunderstood journalist and lawyer, Neilson Poe goes down as being one of the most curious Poe relatives. What made Edgar despise his cousin? Was it jealousy, greed, or a great misunderstanding leaving a stubborn Eddy loathing his cousin until his death? You decide!

Tags history, Poe's life

The Poe Museum Blog

One Woman’s Determination Brought the Poe Museum Its July Object of the Month

Post author By zakyoung
Post date July 8, 2014
1 Comment on One Woman’s Determination Brought the Poe Museum Its July Object of the Month

Every object in the Poe Museum tells a story. Each artifact or piece of ephemera helps us interpret the story of Edgar Allan Poe’s life and influence. The July Object of the Month is no exception. The Cornwell Daguerreotype is a distinctly arresting image of Poe taken at a low point in the author’s life, four days after a suicide attempt. His fiancée Sarah Helen Whitman, who owned the original, which she named the “Ultima Thule” Daguerreotype, pronounced it “wonderful” and told Poe’s biographer John H. Ingram that it had been taken “after a wild distracted night . . . and all the stormy grandeur of that via Dolorosa had left its sullen shadow on his brow.” One of four copies made directly from the original plate, this tiny daguerreotype (an early type of photograph made on a light-sensitive silver-plated piece of copper) has long been one of the most important artifacts in the museum’s collection. The image serves as an especially poignant document of Poe’s brief and troubled life. (Click here to learn more about the circumstances under which it was taken.) But this is only the beginning of the daguerreotype’s story. If it had not been for one woman’s determination, the piece might never have entered the collection.

Our account begins in 1933, when the world was still mired in the Great Depression. Early that year, the United States unemployment rate peaked at 25%, a drought plagued the heartland, over 5,000 banks had failed, and hundreds of thousands of Americans were homeless, struggling for survival in makeshift shanty towns. The Poe Museum (then known as the Poe Shrine) was not immune to this global crisis. To conserve energy, the Museum closed all but one of its four buildings and turned off its oil burner. Instead it heated one room in the Old Stone House with a wood stove. Before a December board meeting, the Poe Shrine’s secretary Mary Gavin Traylor wrote the museum’s president, Richmond News Leader Editor and Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Dr. Douglas Southall Freeman, for permission to at least use the oil burner during the meeting. If not, she added, “we will rock along with the fourth of a cord of oak and pine blocks and the small load of kindling donated to us…”

To save money, Dr. Freeman instructed the museum’s hostesses to take off one month for every three months of work. His note ended “If things are not better in spring, we will have to reduce the force by one.”

A notation in the financial records reads, “Personnel has been reduced to one lady for five hours in the morning and one lady for five hours in the afternoon at very small wage but positively all that could be paid…There was a loss in the ‘nest egg’ for the endowment at the time of the bank failures. Have not had heat or a phone since the depression…”

In early 1933, just when the museum’s situation was at its bleakest, Christine Smith Rawson of Bradford, New Hampshire contacted Ms. Traylor at the Poe Museum. Rawson was in need of money and owned a rare daguerreotype she knew would be of interest to the museum. Though she admitted she had no idea how much the piece was worth, she offered it to the museum for $500. This is the equivalent of $8,895 in today’s dollars. At a time of bank failures and staggering unemployment, this seemed like an impossible sum, but Traylor believed the Poe Museum needed this artifact. Before she attempted to acquire it, however, she would need to learn more about the piece. In order to learn something about the provenance (or history) of the piece, she quizzed Rawson about what she knew of the plate’s origin. Rawson had received it from her uncle John Clarke Turner, who had been given it by a Dr. Cornwell of New London, Connecticut. More research revealed that Dr. Cornwell had been a poet who had published a number of poems in the Poet’s Corner of the New London Telegram, and that Turner was editor of the Poet’s Corner. Through this connection, the two writers became friends, so, shortly before his death, Cornwell gave his cherished daguerreotype to his friend.

That the daguerreotype had once been owned by Cornwell was also recorded by Edmund C. Stedman, who had borrowed it from him in 1880 to have it reproduced as a wood engraving by Timothy Cole. The engraving appeared as an illustration for an article about Poe in the May 20, 1880 issue of Scribner’s Monthly. A footnote in the article notes,

The frontispiece-portrait in the present number of SCRIBNER is reproduced, on an enlarged scale, from what is thought to be the last daguerreotype obtained of the poet. The editor is indebted to the kindness of Dr. H. S. Cornwell, of New London, for the use of this picture, and for the facts establishing its authenticity. It was taken by the late Mr. Masury, of Providence, R. I., and Mr. Cornwell makes it probable that Poe sat for it within a year or two of his death in 1849. The lines of the neck and chin are not so heavy as in the Bendann daguerreotype, but my comments on the latter otherwise apply to this picture. The unusual development of Poe’s forehead in the regions where the analytic and imaginative faculties are thought to hold their seat, is here shown as in no other likeness of the poet. Mr. Cornwell writes of it:
“The aspect is one of mental misery, bordering on wildness, disdain of human sympathy, and scornful intellectual superiority. There is also in it, I think, dread of imminent calamity, coupled with despair and defiance, as of a hunted soul at bay.”

Timothy Cole’s woodcut reproduction of the daguerreotype can be seen below.

During Traylor’s investigation, she learned that a biography of Cornwell, John Sylvester Cornwell, A Memoir by Ellen Morgan Frisbie, had been published in 1906. She was able to find a copy in the Library of Congress and took notes on any information relevant to her search. She found that Cornwell was born in 1831 and died on 1886. A passage on page two reads, “Our poet numbered among his friends, Sarah Helen Whitman, the brilliant woman who at one time was the fiancée of Poe and they frequently exchanged poems in the course of their correspondence.”

Sarah Helen Whitman

On page sixteen, she learned, “From 1873 to 1880, The New London Telegram enjoyed a reputation for printing very good poetry. The Poet’s Corner was under the supervision of John C. Turner and was frequently graced by Dr. Cornwell’s compositions.”

On the same page, she found another passage: “One of the Doctor’s most cherished possessions was an old daguerreotype of Edgar Allan Poe whom he so much admired. It is now the property of Mr. Turner, to whom it was presented by the poet some little time previous to his death.”

Once she had traced the ownership of the plate to Dr. Cornwell, she could only speculate on how he had acquired it. The fact that he had corresponded with Sarah Helen Whitman was an important clue because she had been the owner of the original plate from which this copy had been made. From Stedman’s footnote, she knew that Cornwell had acquired his daguerreotype in Providence, the city in which Whitman lived. It had even been made in the same studio that had taken the original. Because daguerreotypes were made directly on a light-sensitive plate without the use of a negative, copies were made by carefully photographing the original. Since Mrs. Whitman owned the original, she probably authorized the making of this copy. She is thought to have made the copy in the Pierpont Morgan library for her friend Caleb Fiske Harris and that she had the copy now in the Fales Library for one of her correspondents Sarah E. Robbins.

Given the exceptional quality and clarity of the image in Lawson’s daguerreotype, it was believed the plate was the original, but this was easily dismissed by comparing it with the other copies. Aside from the Robbins daguerreotype, they all have Poe’s part on the same side. At the time of production of the plate, the images in daguerreotypes were reversed. If Lawson’s plate had been the original, it would be a mirror image of the other copies.

Later investigations revealed that the pattern on the daguerreotype case was produced in limited quantities around 1853. If the case is original to the plate, this would support the plate being dated to before 1860, the year Sarah Helen Whitman’s daguerreotype, from which it was copied, disappeared from her home.

Having established the provenance of the piece as well as she could, Traylor decided to find out if $500 was a reasonable price to pay for it. She wrote to Brown University, the Pierpont Morgan Library, and other owners of Poe daguerreotypes to ask what they had paid for their pieces. When these institutions were unable to provide any useful information, she wrote University of Virginia professor and Poe authority Dr. James Southall Wilson for his opinion. He answered, “I would not pay more than three hundred dollars for the picture offered you and…I believe…such an offer would be accepted.”

Armed with this information, Traylor brought the matter to the Poe Museum’s board but was told that the museum simply did not have any money for the purchase. Seeing how passionate she was about not letting the institution miss the chance to acquire what she believed to be the most important of the very few daguerreotypes made of Poe, the board eventually authorized her to try to raise the $500 on her own.

Traylor started contacting her wealthy friends for donations. One of her typical fundraising letters expresses her passion about acquiring the plate:

Some time ago, a rare find was brought to the Shrine in the hope that we would buy it, the Board met and regretfully had to say “no fund,” much as they felt it was a splendid thing for us to acquire. I was so filled with the realization of its importance and determined that it should not escape the Shrine that I asked permission to try to get a number of subscribers to a fund, so that they as a group might present it to the Shrine…”

Within a few months, Traylor was able to get commitments totaling $290. Among the twenty donors were Granville Valentine with $25, John Stewart Bryan with $25, Ambassador Alexander Weddell with $50, Dr. Douglas Freeman with $15, and James Rindfleisch with $50. Among the many who found themselves unable to contribute was novelist Ellen Glasgow, who wrote, “It would be splendid if the Poe Shrine could buy this daguerreotype, and I regret that I am unable to contribute toward the purchase.”

When she wrote back to Lawson that she could not possibly pay more than $300 for the daguerreotype. Lawson responded by suggesting Traylor pay $300 up front and the final $200 in one year.

On May 15, 1933, Traylor answered,

The Shrine cannot, for the board on such things, distinctly said, as much as they would like to have it, they could not with financial circumstances such as they are, purchase it. The financial circumstances are worse than they were, for as I told you we lost heavily in the American Bank not opening its doors. The Shrine cannot take on any obligation. Then there is no one left to make you a note but me, and the Heavens in their high sky are not further away than such a possibility is far from me. Who could make a note, the group of people I have approached, have contributed $5 and $10 dollars each, each doing in doing that, all that he or she could feel able to do, there would be no chance of asking them to make a note. No one of them, at a time, when to eat and live is of so much more importance than a Poe Daguerreotype, would dream of being responsible for any $200 that might be collected, no individual is taking on responsibilities at this date either. To have a note made out to you is utterly out of the question. To carry on here at the Shrine with what we have is much more important, vital necessity and not in any manner to endanger that, is more important than to endanger that, is more important than to enhance the collection at this moment with no matter how interesting a Poe item, be it a manuscript, daguerreotype or piece of furniture. This is the situation as it exists today. Everybody has marveled that I have been able to get the promise of $300 to be given me…

After pointing out that the daguerreotype is a copy and, therefore, not as valuable as an original, Traylor continues,

I am anxious to have it, you should be able to readily see that. But $300 cash is the extent of my ability…You will not be able to get more elsewhere…Do please just let the group have it for the $300 I have the promise of and let it be presented to the Shrine. I feel you will never regret it, dear Mrs. Rawson…

On May 26, Rawson replied,

I have succumbed to your pleadings and enthusiasm and your unbounded interest in the Poe Shrine. I am going to let you have the picture for $300…Feeling happy that the picture is going to the Poe Shrine and thanking you for your great interest and help…

Now Traylor found herself faced with the task of collecting all the money that had been pledged. She rushed to collect the donation from Ambassador Weddell, who was about the leave the country. His donation alone amounted to one sixth of the total, so missing him before he left would have been the end of her effort. With Weddell and most of the other donors still able to fulfill their pledges, Traylor was able to purchase the plate in time it to go on display at the Poe Museum on October 7, the anniversary of Poe’s death. Thanks to Traylor’s vision and determination, the museum’s guests still able to see this important artifact at the Poe Museum.

The next time you visit the Poe Museum’s Enchanted Garden you might come upon this small plaque placed in memory of Mary Gavin Traylor.

Tags collections, education, exhibits, history, Poe's life

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