Products relative to Poe's Bicentennial - Poe International: The International Edgar A Poe Society

Midnightdreary · Senior Member

Products relative to Poe's Bicentennial

monday love · Veteran Member

Midnight,

"Objective" is old hat to contemporary Letters anyway, and those who have reviled Poe so diligently for so many years certainly cannot be called "objective," so no need to apologize for that.

Anyway, I am enjoying the Poe-a-day calendar as only a "subjective" fool could...

Monday

Midnightdreary · Senior Member

You're too kind, Monday. I have heard it said that when a scholar is working on something, he assumes his subject is the single most important subject in history. But, with Poe, it's more than "importance" - and I think I'm not the only one. Poe still grabs the imagination in ways that no one else can and abolishes all attempts at being objective.

-- Edited by Midnightdreary at 13:22, 2009-02-11

monday love · Veteran Member

Midnight,

You are a Poe scholar--as good as any alive today.

Monday

Midnightdreary · Senior Member

Monday, interestingly enough, there was a handwriting expert who recently did a lecture on Poe. I'm not sure what his analysis was, but I heard about it while at a David Keltz performance. I really thought it was a fantastic idea!

Incidentally, I only recently held in my hand for the first time a couple of Poe's letters. I've handled dozens of letters, written by people like Rufus Griswold, E. P. Whipple, Washington Irving, George Bancroft, Henry Longfellow, even Daniel Webster. But, yes, even after all that, I still got more than a little excited holding Poe's letters. Not behind glass. Not a facsimile. The real deal.

Sometimes I think the giddiness that I feel over Poe prevents me from being a true Poe scholar, like my objectivity is completely shot. But, really, I'm not remotely ashamed!

monday love · Veteran Member

Doug,

I once had the pleasure to see a facsimile of "Murders in the Rue Morgue" in Poe's hand and a friend of mine and I both agreed this couldn't have been written by a drunk or a drug addict--the handwriting was too steady and beautiful. My friend's word was more important than mine, because he took a special pleasure in denigrating Poe. I've studied handwriting analysis and though I'm not an expert it does seem to 'say' a lot about a person--more than horoscopes at least!

Doug Hill · Member

monday love wrote:

Doug,

I purchased the Poe desk calendar on-line from our own Midnight Dreary (I only discovered them when I came to this site) and I'm enjoying it very much. Poe lived very much in the center of American life despite being a sober scribbler for most of his days. I love the calendar.

I was given the biography of Poe by Henry Lee Poe as a Christmas gift and I've found it a colorful and sympathetic portrait, a great book.

I read the book by Henry Lee Poe over Thanksgiving week-end, and it is wonderful. I highly recommend it. It is well-documented and has authentic recreations as inserts (i.e. letters Poe wrote in his own handwriting printed on similar paper, newspaper reprints, photos, etc.) This is a great book if you can find it somewhere (like Barnes and Noble). It goes a long way towards redeeming Poe's trashed reputation, and presenting a more balanced portrait of him as an ordinary human being.

monday love · Veteran Member

Thanks, Midnight. I wonder if Pearl had any source? I know Poe was not necessarily on good terms with all his relatives. I do think closer scrutiny of the characters around Poe at the end is warranted.

Midnightdreary · Senior Member

monday love wrote:
I had never read this detail before: "when two of them coincidentally arrived." Interesting "coincidence."

You have to look into Ackroyd's sources. For this particular detail, the "coincidental" timing, he used Matthew Pearls' historical fiction novel The Poe Shadow. Yes, Ackroyd drew from fiction. I was chatting with a Brit who was a frequent reader of Ackroyd's many, many biographies (sometimes two a year! What dedicated research!) that Ackroyd once admitted in an interview that he occasionally made stuff up to continue his story. In other words, take anything he writes with a grain of salt or two. Or seven.

monday love · Veteran Member

I'm sure Ackroyd's just trying to make a buck.

Amazon has excerpted some of Ackroyd's Poe bio and this passage on Poe's last days caught my attention:

"Snodgrass did not approach him, but ordered a room for him in the same tavern. He was about to send word to Poe's relatives in Baltimore, when two of them coincidentally arrived. One was Poe's cousin Henry Herring, who had come to the tavern on electoral business. He was related to a local politician. Snodgrass recalled that "they declined to take private care of him" on the grounds that he had in the past been abusive in this state of intoxication; instead they advised that Poe be removed to a local hospital. They managed to get him into a carriage, carrying him "as if a corpse," and he was admitted to Washington College Hospital." --'POE, A Life Cut Short

I had never read this detail before: "when two of them coincidentally arrived." Interesting "coincidence." Remember Poe isn't even supposed to be in Baltimore, and no one on the scene claims they had any idea he was in Baltimore. But he is found by a type-setter for the Baltimore Sun near the house of Snodgrass, an editor for the Baltimore Sun, who is then greeted by two of Poe's relatives, who, according to Snodgrass, do not show themselves to be 'good' relatives at all, complaining that their dying cousin had been 'abusive' to them in the past.

Was Poe in good hands during those last days?

It has always been assumed--I have NEVER read it otherwise--that Poe was surrounded by "friends and family" after he was found in Baltimore--where he wasn't suppposed to be.

Was Snodgrass really a "friend?" Were Poe's relatives really looking after him in a kindly manner?

I really have my doubts.

Dave at Read Street · Member

Here's a review that ran in the Baltimore Sun yesterday: http://www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/booksmags/bal-al.bk.review01feb01,0,6390647.story

Midnightdreary · Senior Member

Two books I'm interested that were purposely released in time for the bicentennial are the book of photos emphasizing "Poe's Richmond".

I'm mostly curious about this "Poe: A Life Cut Short" by Peter Ackroyd. Just based on early reviews (from its release in England) that essentially show Ackroyd's lack of interest in pursuing any scholarship on Poe whatsoever. Has anyone out there grabbed a copy? Monday love in particular, I think this is one of the bios of Poe that would have you losing sleep.

monday love · Veteran Member

Doug,

I purchased the Poe desk calendar on-line from our own Midnight Dreary (I only discovered them when I came to this site) and I'm enjoying it very much. Poe lived very much in the center of American life despite being a sober scribbler for most of his days. I love the calendar.

I was given the biography of Poe by Henry Lee Poe as a Christmas gift and I've found it a colorful and sympathetic portrait, a great book.

Doug Hill · Member

Have you purchased any products that were released in connection to Poe's 200'th birthday? Can you provide feedback for other Poe fans?
For example, I recently purchased a DVD that was a silent movie called The Raven that is a biopic of EAP. It is no cinematic masterpiece, but if you like Poe or if you like silent movies, you might like it. I don't regret spending 15 dollars on it. It has a few basic facts accurately enough; a lot of the movie includes a lot of fanciful elaboration, but a surreal rendition of Poe composing The Raven was very entertaining.
I've seen other books and DVDs that were obviously released in connection to Poe's 200th birthday. Can you provide feedback on any others?