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Edgar Allan Poe Museum

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Richmond, VA

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science

Mellonta Tauta: An Imaginary Journey

April 24, 2019

Extracted from Dr. Murray Ellison’s MA Thesis on Poe and 19th-Century Science from Virginia Commonwealth University, 2015© In Poe’s Imaginary Journey, “Mellonta Tauta” (1849), the narrator, Pundit, embarks on a balloon trip to outer space in the year of 2848 and writes a letter narrating the details of his journey. The name that Poe gives his narrator suggests that he is a pundit, a knower of sublime truth. However, Poe may have selected his character’s name because he delivers puns or a satiric presentation of science fiction. Pundit records his adventures in a journal that is presumed to ...

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Filed Under: The Poe Museum Blog Tagged With: education, literature, science, science fiction

Edgar Allan Poe: Conchologist?

July 4, 2018

An excerpt from Murray Ellison’s Master of Arts Thesis © 2015 The Conchologist's First Book was first published in April 1839, with its author being listed as Edgar Allan Poe. However, Poe was a consulting editor of the book and only wrote the Preface and Introduction. According to Poe documentarians Dwight Thomas and David Jackson, Poe credited much of the work to scientist Thomas Wyatt for “his late excellent Manual of Conchology.” The book was originally meant to be an accessible and inexpensive abridgment of Wyatt’s original textbook (259). The work was published under Poe’s name due to ...

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Filed Under: The Poe Museum Blog Tagged With: science

The Poe & Science Series

January 8, 2018

Was Poe Convinced that Phrenology is a Science? Murray Ellison | Jan. 8, 2018 Excerpts from Murray’s VCU Master of Arts Thesis on Poe and Science © 2015 Poe continued his interest in spectacular news stories that blurred the lines between fact and fiction in an 1836 review on this topic: “A Review of Phrenology and the Moral Influences of Phrenology.” During the nineteenth century, there had been many debates among scientists whether Phrenology was a legitimate science or a pseudo-science. Advocates of this belief often used emotional appeals and anecdotal testimonials in order to “prove” ...

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Filed Under: The Poe Museum Blog Tagged With: education, Poe's Works, science

The Poe & Science Series

December 11, 2017

Poe Exposes Maelzel's Automated Chess Player, Part II Murray Ellison | Dec. 2nd, 2017 In 1836, Poe asks readers of the Richmond-based Southern Literary Messenger to ponder the implications for the future if a machine could calculate without human input. He writes, “There is no analogy, whatever, between the operations of the chess-player and those of the calculating machine of Mr. Babbage,” Poe argues.  If we chose to call the former a pure machine, we must be prepared to admit that it is, beyond comparison, the most wonderful invention of mankind,” referring to the prototypes of the ...

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Filed Under: The Poe Museum Blog Tagged With: history, science

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