EDGAR ALLAN POE
Edgar Allan Poe, the child of poor travelling actors, was born in Boston, January 19, 1809. Left an orphan in his third year, he was taken into the family of Mr. John Allan of Richmond, who gave him his name. Soon he became a great pet of his foster-parents, who rather spoiled him. In 1815 the Allans went to England, where the boy was in school at Stoke Newington, a suburb of London, till June, 1820, when the family returned to Richmond. His education was continued in private schools and by the aid of tutors till he entered the University of Virginia, February 14, 1826. At the University he developed a passion for drink and gambling, which led Mr. Allan to place him in his own counting-room at the end of the session in December, though he had done extremely well in some of his studies. Not liking the irksomeness of this occupation, Poe left to make his own way.
He first went to Boston, where he succeeded in having some of his verses published. His resources failing, he enlisted in the United States Army, being assigned to the artillery and serving in different stations, among them Fort Moultrie at Charleston, South Carolina. His conduct being excellent, he was appointed Sergeant-major in 1829. Shortly afterward he was reconciled to Mr. Allan, who secured him an appointment to West Point. At the Academy he neglected his duty, was court-martialled, and was dismissed March 7, 1831.
Poe now settled in Baltimore, where he devoted himself to writing, winning a prize of one hundred dollars for his tale, "A MS. Found in a Bottle." He lived with his aunt, Mrs. Clemm, to whose daughter he became engaged and whom he married in 1836 in Richmond, where he had gone to become an assistant on The Southern Literary Messenger.
His habits and unfortunate disposition made it impossible for him to remain long in one position. After some drifting, he settled in Philadelphia in 1838, where he did hack work until he became associate editor of Burton's Gentleman's Magazine and American Monthly Review in July, 1839. In 1840 appeared a volume of his tales which attracted favorable notice. In 1841 he became editor of Graham's Magazine, but in this year, too, his wife became a hopeless invalid. Anxiety about her had doubtless much to do with the subsequent condition of Poe's mind. In the next year again he lost his position. At this time he fell into wretched poverty. Then, as always, his aunt gave him the devotion of a mother. The fortunate gaining of another hundred-dollar prize, this time for "The Gold Bug," helped along together with some work on Graham's in a minor capacity.
New York was his next location, where he was on The Evening Mirror. In 1845 his "Raven" was published and at once sprang into phenomenal favor. Lecturing, magazine work, and the editing of The Broadway Journal occupied the next year. In 1846 he moved to Fordham. There ill-health and poverty so oppressed him that money had to be raised to take care of the family. In 1847 Mrs. Poe died. From this time till his own death, October 7, 1849, his mind, long clouded and affected by his habits, became hopelessly diseased.
Poe was a genius of great analytical power and imagination, but unstable and morbid. His ability has always received great recognition in Europe, particularly in France, where a translation of his tales appeared in his lifetime.
REFERENCES
Biography
Woodberry: Edgar Allan Poe.
Harrison: The Life and Letters of Edgar Allan Poe.
Criticism
Stedman: Poets of America.
Gates: Studies and Appreciations.
Brownell: American Prose Masters.
NOTES TO "THE GOLD BUG"
This story, which is classed in the group entitled "Stories of Ratiocination" (see Introduction), was first published in The Dollar Newspaper of Philadelphia in June, 1843, winning a prize of one hundred dollars.
Page [23]. Tarantula: the bite of this spider was once supposed to cause a form of madness which made the victim dance. Compare the musical term "tarantelle." Huguenot: French Protestant. Many fled to South Carolina from persecutions in France. Sullivan's Island: Poe has been criticised for his inaccuracies concerning this island. He should have known it well, as he was stationed at Fort Moultrie in 1828 when a private in the United States Artillery.
[24]. Swammerdamm: Jan Swammerdam—one final m according to the Century Dictionary—(1637-1680). A distinguished Dutch naturalist.
[27]. scarabæus caput hominis: (Latin) a man's head beetle. There is no such species known.
[29]. syphon: Negro dialect for ciphering, a colloquial word for "reckoning in figures." Poe hardly seems successful in representing the sounds of the speech of Negroes. Not much attention had been paid to the subject in literature at that time. To-day, since the work of Joel Chandler Harris in "Uncle Remus" and of Thomas Nelson Page in "In Ole Virginia," we rather look down on these early crude attempts. noovers: Negro dialect for manœuvres in the sense of movements.
[32]. empressement: (French) eagerness.
[44]. curvets and caracoles: the prancing and turning of a horse.
[45]. violent howlings of the dog: it is popularly supposed that a dog, through its extraordinary sense of smell, can indicate the presence of parts of a human body, though buried.
[48]. counter: obsolete term for pieces of money.
[49]. solution of this most extraordinary riddle: this story exemplifies Poe's power in such work. He specialized on it in magazines.
[52]. long boat: "The largest and strongest boat belonging to a sailing ship."—Century Dictionary.
[54]. aqua regia: (Latin) royal water. A chemical compound so called from its power of dissolving gold. regulus of cobalt: early chemical term referring to the metallic mass of an ore.
[55]. Captain Kidd: William Kidd, about whose early life nothing is positively known, was commissioned by the Governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1695 to put down piracy. With a good ship under him, however, he himself turned pirate. On his return he was arrested, sent to England, tried, and executed in London in 1701. Some of his buried treasure was recovered by the colonial authorities in 1699.
[58]. Golconda: a place near Hyderabad, India, noted for its diamonds. cryptographs: from two Greek words meaning hidden and write. The commoner term is "cryptogram."
[59]. Spanish main: the ocean near the coast of South America and the adjacent parts of the Caribbean Sea over which the Spaniards exercised power.
[67]. insignium: (Latin) a sign.
NOTES TO "THE PURLOINED LETTER"
This detective story was published in "The Gift" for 1845.
Page [69]. Nil sapientiæ, etc.: (Latin) Nothing is more hateful to wisdom than too great acuteness. C. Auguste Dupin: clever amateur who solves the mysteries which baffle the police. Most writers of detective stories follow this example set by Poe. au troisième: (French) on the third floor. Faubourg: (French) section of a city. Saint Germain: a section of Paris on the south bank of the Seine, once the abode of the French nobility. affair of the Rue Morgue: a reference to the detective story, "The Murders in the Rue Morgue." the murder of Marie Rogêt: a reference to another detective story, "The Mystery of Marie Rogêt." The writer is playing the same part as does Dr. Watson in the various Sherlock Holmes stories by Conan Doyle. Prefect: (French) chief.
[71]. cant of diplomacy: set phrases used in intercourse between representatives of governments by which they hint at their meaning.
[73]. hôtel: (French) residence. au fait: (French) expert.
[76]. microscope: since Poe's time the microscope is, in stories, almost an invariable part of a detective's outfit.
[79]. Abernethy: John Abernethy (1764-1831). A celebrated London physician.
[80]. escritoire: "A piece of furniture with conveniences for writing, as an opening top or falling front panel, places for inkstand, pens, and stationery, etc."—Century Dictionary. Procrustean bed: In Greek mythology, Procrustes (derivatively "the stretcher") was a giant who tied those whom he caught on a bed, making them fit by stretching them out if too short, and by cutting off their limbs if too long.
[82]. Rochefoucauld: François La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680). A French moralist known for his "Maxims" published in 1665. La Bougive: In the edition of Poe's works prepared by Edmund Clarence Stedman and Professor George Edward Woodberry, this name is given as La Bruyère. Jean de La Bruyère (1645-1696) was a French moralist. Machiavelli: Nicolo Machiavelli (1469-1527). A celebrated statesman and writer of Florence, Italy, whose book "The Prince" is based on unscrupulous principles. Campanella: Tomaso Campanella (1568-1639). An Italian writer.
[83]. recherché: (French) far-fetched. policial: a rare word, meaning "pertaining to the police."
[84]. non distributio medii: (Latin) a non-distribution of the middle, or the undistributed middle. This is a mistake in reasoning. When the Prefect reasons that all fools are poets, therefore all poets are fools, he has no middle term at all; that is, no class of which poets and fools are both members. Correct reasoning is represented by this: all men are mortal; John is a man; therefore John is mortal. Between mortal and John, two terms, there is a middle term, men, of which both are members. Differential Calculus: a higher form of mathematics. par excellence: (French) above all. Il y a, etc.: (French). The odds are that every public idea, every accepted convention, is a foolish trick, for it is suitable for the greatest number. Chamfort: Sebastian Roch Nicolas Chamfort (1741-1794). A French writer of maxims. ambitus: (Latin) a going around. Poe means by this example and by those that follow that mere similarity of two words does not make them of the same meaning.
[85]. Bryant: Jacob Bryant (1715-1804). An English writer on mythology.
[86]. intrigant: (French) intriger.
[87]. vis inertiæ: (Latin) the force of inertia, the same as inertia, a term of physics which denotes the tendency of a body to remain at rest or in motion.
[88]. ministerial hôtel: house of the minister or cabinet officer.
[92]. facilis descensus Averni: a misquotation from Vergil's "Aeneid," Book VI, line 126. It should be "facilis descensus Averno," easy is the descent to Avernus. Catalani: Angelica Catalani (1779-1849). An Italian singer. monstrum horrendum: (Latin) a horrible monster, the epithet applied to the one-eyed giant, Polyphemus, in Vergil's "Aeneid," Book III, line 658. Un dessein, etc.: (French). A design so fatal, if it is not worthy of Atrée, it is worthy of Thyeste. Crébillon's "Atrée": Prosper Jolyot de Crébillon (1674-1762). A French tragic poet. His play, "Atrée et Thyeste," bears the date 1707.