His Life And Legacy

Sam AndresApril 23rd, 2007

Mr. MooneyIDEA English II Acc.

Period 3

“[He was] Considered a strange, melancholy loner who

concentrated on his poetry” (Meyers 49).

Yet his literary works are so inspiring that we are somehow

able to look past his insanity and focus on his brilliance.

His Life…• Boston, MA

– January 19th, 1809

• Baltimore, VA– October 7th, 1849

• Family– Elizabeth and David

Poe– William and Rosalie– Francis and John

Allan

*Edgar Allan Poe*

• School– Scotland & London– 17- University of Virginia

• Did very well academically

• Gambling Debts

• 1827 – Went back to Boston– Published 1st book @ 18

• Baltimore– Married 13 yr. old cousin @

26

Duty Calls

• 1827- 18 yrs. • He enlisted in the

US Army as

Edgar A. Perry

– Private– Sergeant Major– Discharged 1829

(Published 2nd book)

• 1830- 21 yrs. • John Allan made it possible

for him to enter into the United States Military Academy at West Point

– Got himself dismissed for disobedience and neglect of duty

“Many of Poe’s weird stories reflect his own experience” (Meyers 11).

…and Legacy“With me poetry has been not a purpose, but a

passion.” - Edgar Allan Poe

• 70 poems • Novels • Political satires • Philosophical colloquies• Critical essays• Over three hundred reviews on

many types of literature– Irving, Hawthorne, Dickens, Longfellow

• Perfection– Mystery– Horror Tale

Dear Mr. Editor:• 26 years old• 1835-1836

– Southern Literary Messenger Richmond, VA

• 1839-1840 – Burton's Gentleman's

MagazinePhiladelphia

• 1841-1842– Graham's Magazine

• 1844-1845– The New York Evening

Mirror• 1845-1846

– The Broadway Journal

• Alcohol– Quarreling with employers

over editorial decisions and salary

– Numerous job changes

• Periods of Drinking & Sobriety– Amazingly very successful

I became insane, with

long intervals of

horrible sanity.

Writing Under The Influence…

• Despite his fluctuating insanity, Poe was always consistent in his writing and was a strong influence on many famous

and successful authors.

• T.S. Eliot• Wallace Stevens• Mark Twain • Ray Bradbury• Robert Louis Stevenson• Arthur Conan Doyle• Lemony Snicket

“The true genius shudders at incompleteness - and usually prefers silence to saying something which is not

everything it should be.” – Edgar Allan Poe

"To me his prose is unreadable—like

Jane Austen’s“ (Comeau).

POEtry…and stuff…

• Published over half of his poems by 1831 (Age 22)

• Interest in cryptography– Wrote essays which

proved useful in deciphering the German codes during WWI.

• Ladies Man

“I have great faith in fools; self-confidence my friends call it.”

- Poe

Habit or Hereditary?

• Father abandoned him when he was 1• Mother died when he was 2

• These two events are thought to have had

considerable emotional impact on the rest of his life.

…self destructive compulsion that would recur throughout his life…(Meyers 50).

Alcoholism at InfancyFrom the time he was one, “she freely administered to them

gin and other…liquors…[opium dissolved in alcohol], ‘to make them strong and healthy’, or to put them to sleep when

restless” (Meyers 5).

“There is nothing more beautiful than the death of a beautiful woman.” – Edgar Allan Poe

• Easier to drink than to work

• “Poe explained that his desperate need for stimulants was a compensatory attempt to recover essential things that had been lost – love, wealth, social status and literary reputation” (Meyers 89).

“He was an adventurer into vaults and cellars and horrible

underground passages of the human soul. He sounded the horror

and the warning of his own doom...Doomed he was. He died

wanting more love, and love killed him. A ghastly disease, love”

(Lawrence 75).

Death

• Mother, stepmother, and Brother died of TB

• Attempted suicide in 1848• The cause of his death is

undetermined. • Attributed to:

– Alcohol– Drugs– Rabies– Suicide– Tuberculosis– Heart disease– Brain Congestion– Voting?

• Seen in Philadelphia, Baltimore, New York

• Found in distress 4 days before

• Outside of a tavern– In a gutter

• Not wearing his own clothes

• Taken to a hospital, but was not coherent

“ ‘Biography is not merely a sketch of the poet’s life…It is a gradual development of his heart and mind, of his nature as a poet and a man, that endears him more to us, while it enable us more thoroughly to comprehend him’” (Meyers xii). - Edgar Allan Poe

Ironic, isn’t it?

Poe states that the legacy a man leaves behind is to be used

to get a grasp of who he truly was throughout his lifetime. Yet this

same man spent the majority of his life hiding behind his enigmatic

writing, only to have this life be mysteriously

ended a short 40 years after it began. Leaving us with the fact that

Edgar Allan Poe is anything but thoroughly

comprehended.

Questions?

Works CitedComeau, Robert. “Reading Poe in salary: Mark Twain’s use

of ‘The Raven’.” Southern Literary Journal. 1996. Issue 1, p26.

Freeland, Natalka. “’One of an infinite series of mistakes': Mystery, Influence, and Edgar Allan Poe.” American Transcendental Quarterly. June 1996. Vol. 10, Issue 2, p123.

Hoffman, Daniel. “The Artist of the Beautiful.” American Poetry Review. Nov 1995. Vol. 24 Issue 6, p11.

Lawrence, D.H. Studies In Classic American Literature. USA: Thomas Seltzer Inc, 1923.

Meyers, Jeffrey. Edgar Allan Poe: His Life and Legacy. New York: Cooper Square Press, 1992.

“Mysterious Death of Edgar Allan Poe, The”. 21 April 2006. <http://www.eapoe.org/geninfo/poedeath.htm>.

Poe, Edgar Allan. The Raven and Other Favorite Poems. New York: Dover Publications Inc, 1991.

Comeau, Robert. “Reading Poe in salary: Mark Twain’s use of ‘The Raven’.” Southern Literary Journal. 1996. Issue 1, p26.

Freeland, Natalka. “’One of an infinite series of mistakes': Mystery, Influence, and Edgar Allan Poe.” American Transcendental Quarterly. June 1996. Vol. 10, Issue 2, p123.

Hoffman, Daniel. “The Artist of the Beautiful.” American Poetry Review. Nov 1995. Vol. 24 Issue 6, p11.

Lawrence, D.H. Studies In Classic American Literature. USA: Thomas Seltzer Inc, 1923.

Meyers, Jeffrey. Edgar Allan Poe: His Life and Legacy. New York: Cooper Square Press, 1992.

“Mysterious Death of Edgar Allan Poe, The”. 21 April 2006. <http://www.eapoe.org/geninfo/poedeath.htm>.

Poe, Edgar Allan. The Raven and Other Favorite Poems. New York: Dover Publications Inc, 1991.