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Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe Kevin J. Hayes Edgar Allan Poe Titles in the series Critical Lives present the work of leading cultural figures of the modern period. Each book explores the life of the artist, writer, philosopher or architect in question and relates it to their major works. Jean Genet Erik Satie Stephen Barber Mary E. Davis Michel Foucault Georges Bataille David Macey Stuart Kendall Pablo Picasso Ludwig Wittgenstein Mary Ann Caws Edward Kanterian Franz Kafka Octavio Paz Sander L. Gilman Nick Caistor Guy Debord Walter Benjamin Andy Merrifield Esther Leslie Marcel Duchamp Charles Baudelaire Caroline Cros Rosemary Lloyd James Joyce Jean Cocteau Andrew Gibson James S. Williams Frank Lloyd Wright Sergei Eisenstein Robert McCarter Mike O’Mahony Jean-Paul Sartre Salvador Dalí Andrew Leak Mary Ann Caws Noam Chomsky Simone de Beauvoir Wolfgang B. Sperlich Ursula Tidd Jorge Luis Borges Gertrude Stein Jason Wilson Lucy Daniel Edgar Allan Poe Kevin J. Hayes reaktion books For Hyun-woo and Ji-eun Published by Reaktion Books Ltd 33 Great Sutton Street London ec1v 0dx, uk www.reaktionbooks.co.uk First published 2009 Copyright © Kevin J. Hayes 2009 All rights reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy- ing, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers. Printed and bound in Great Britain by cpi Antony Rowe, Chippenham, Wiltshire British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Hayes, Kevin J. Edgar Allan Poe. – (Critical lives) 1. Poe, Edgar Allan, 1809–1849 2. Authors, American – 19th century – Biography I. Title II. Series 818.3’09-dc22 isbn: 978 1 86189 515 8 Contents Introduction 7 1 The Contest 15 2 The Birth of a Poet 34 3 The Gothic Woman 53 4 Making a Name 72 5 From Peeping Tom to Detective 90 6 The Tourist’s Gaze 106 7 The Narrow House 127 8 The Most Noble of Professions 147 References 167 Select Bibliography 181 Acknowledgements 185 Photo Acknowledgements 187 W. S. Hartshorn and C. T. Tatman, Edgar Allan Poe, 1904. Introduction No American author has influenced the history of literature and the arts more than Edgar Allan Poe. But at the time of his death in 1849, the profound influence of his writings – verse, fiction, and criticism – was by no means assured. In his last few years Poe was known in the us primarily as the author of ‘The Raven’. A handful of his short stories were translated into French and Russian in the late 1840s, but not until the following decade would Europe discover his work and recognize his genius. More than anyone, Charles Baudelaire was responsible for celebrating Poe’s greatness and disseminating his work. Baudelaire saw Poe as a kindred spirit, someone who had crystallized into prose many ideas he had imagined himself but had yet to articulate. It was Poe’s fortune that one of France’s greatest poets became his greatest champion. Baudelaire’s translations not only helped Poe achieve a level of status in France akin to that of a major national author, they also circulated throughout Europe for decades to come. Overall, Poe’s critical reputation took two separate directions after his death. Whereas readers in English-speaking nations hesitated to recognize his genius, European readers accepted him and his works wholeheartedly. The obituary Rufus Wilmot Griswold published in the New York Tribune largely shaped Poe’s reputation after his death. Griswold harshly criticized Poe’s personal habits, depicting him as a misan- thrope, a mad and melancholy loner, someone who wandered the 7 city streets night and day, alternately mumbling curses or prayers and not much caring which was which. According to Griswold, Poe was devoid of honour, devoid of morality, devoid of any and all elevating personal qualities. Griswold further asserted that Poe’s imaginative writings, especially the poems and stories of his final years, were based on personal events. The assertion gave readers licence to understand Poe’s stories through his life, his life through his stories. This dual impulse still affects the popular understanding of Poe’s life and works. Even now, many readers see his mentally unbalanced narrators as reflections of a disturbed mind, not as products of a rich imagination. Many contemporary readers were shocked by Griswold’s obituary, but few doubted its details. His portrayal became the accepted image of Poe in both the us and uk. Perhaps the strangest aspect of Griswold’s scathing obituary is the fact that Poe had chosen him as his literary executor, the one to carry out his final wishes in regard to his writings. Why would Poe choose such a mean-spirited man as his literary executor? Poe’s for- ward-thinking fiction anticipates the future in so many ways: could he not foresee what Griswold would do after his death? Surely Poe must have had some inkling of Griswold’s intentions. After all, he had publicly attacked Griswold’s popular anthology The Poets and Poetry of America numerous times. He had to expect some sort of posthumous payback. But there are reasons to explain why Poe chose Griswold as his literary executor. In the time Poe spent as author and editor, he had learned much about the publishing world. Here’s one thing he learned: controversy sells books. And in his dealings with Griswold, he had learned something important about him: Griswold got things done. Poe could be reasonably sure Griswold would edit and publish a posthumous collected edition of his writings. And he did. The first two volumes, which consisted of Poe’s short fiction and poetry, appeared together the year after Poe’s death. Griswold subsequently edited and published two 8 additional volumes of Poe’s miscellaneous writings. To reiterate his opinion of Poe, Griswold republished his obituary as part of the collection’s first volume, further disseminating his negative portrayal of Poe’s character. The most substantial review of Griswold’s edition appeared in the Southern Literary Messenger, the magazine Poe made famous. The article, which appeared anonymously, was written by John M. Daniel.1 Following Griswold’s lead, Daniel reinforced Poe’s negative qualities. Though Daniel praised Poe’s literary originality, he did so only after depicting him as an immoral, inconsiderate brute. Oblivious to what passes for proper behaviour in polite society, Poe, according to Daniel, said whatever he wished and did what - ever he wanted. Poe was someone who could control neither his drinking nor his critical opinions. He took in drink and spewed out criticism without regard to what others thought. He was a cast-off of society, an Ishmaelite, a deviant who went one way when everyone else went the other. This attitude toward Poe’s character presented a barrier to appreciation for American and British readers. Committed to the increasingly antiquated notion that literature should perform a moral function, Anglo-American readers questioned the ultimate value of Poe’s work. How can the writings of someone so apparently devoid of morality exert a positive, elevating effect on readers? Robert Louis Stevenson’s reaction is typical. In an 1875 essay, Stevenson admitted that Poe had ‘the true story-teller’s instinct’ and appreciated ‘The Cask of Amontillado’ and ‘The Masque of the Red Death’, but derided other tales as he critiqued Poe’s per - sonality. Stevenson observed: ‘I cannot find it in my heart to like either his portrait or his character; and though it is possible that we see him more or less refracted through the strange medium of his works, yet I do fancy that we can direct, alike in these, in his portrait, and the facts of his life . a certain jarring note, a taint of something that we do not care to dwell upon or find a name for.’2 9 Clearly, Stevenson let his understanding of Poe’s character hinder the enjoyment of his work. In the English-speaking world, Poe’s idealistic verse was accepted earlier and more easily than his weird tales. Continental readers developed a very different attitude toward Poe, though theirs largely stemmed from the same basic informa- tion. The scattered stories Baudelaire encountered in the late 1840s first attracted him to Poe, but when he read Daniel’s article, he found the figure of Poe enormously appealing. The way Daniel portrayed Poe closely resembled how Baudelaire saw himself. In Baudelaire’s eyes, Daniel’s depiction of Poe’s character was praise, not criticism. He fitted the mould of the poète maudit perfectly. Edgar Allan Poe is the bad boy of American literature. In 1852 Baudelaire published a major biographical and critical essay on Poe. Though he did not admit it, nearly two-thirds of the essay is an almost word-for-word translation from Daniel’s article in the Southern Literary Messenger.3 Baudelaire went on to translate many of Poe’s short stories as well as his most renowned critical essays. Before his death in 1867, he published five volumes of Poe translations. Oddly, he translated few poems, leaving that task to another major French poet. In 1889 Stéphane Mallarmé issued a substantial collection of Poe’s verse in French. The translation would foster the development of Symbolist poetry throughout Europe. Baudelaire’s translation of the short fiction had a profound impact on Poe’s reception across France and throughout Europe. Guy de Maupassant used what he learned from reading Poe to perfect his own tales and, in doing so, developed a reputation as the greatest writer of short stories in French. Poe’s pioneering tales of science fiction significantly influenced Jules Verne, who also enjoyed Poe’s imaginative journeys.
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