h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: The Unusual Life and Mysterious Death of Edgar Allan Poe - A87935179
Author: Dmitri Gheorgheni - U1590784

SashaQ: Your wish is my command. Here's the totally condensed Edgar Allan Poe bio. I could have gone on and on - I am a big fan - but I exercised moderation.

Feature: See if you can spot the magic word in here.

Thank you very much - this is perfect to fill the gap in the Edited Guide

Rich with detail, but doesn't tread on the toes of bibliographies and other information that is already 'out there' - spot on

Very good and interesting Entry!

Thanks, you two!

Poe's life certainly sounds strange and rather troubled. You can understand why he was drawn to stories about death and disease.

I've read a few of his works - I remember 'The Raven', 'The Pit and the Pendulum' and 'The Masque of the Red Death'.


You've given us a condensed version here, but with enough links to enable us to read further.

I hope people will, MVP. Not all of Poe's stuff is deadly nightshade. A lot of that had to do with the fact that he was writing during the Gothic boom.

Of course, his poetry is amazing. May I also recommend 'The Man Who Was Used Up'? He had a wicked sense of humour, and was way ahead of the curve when it came to science fiction.

http://www.eapoe.org/works/mabbott/tom2t032.htm

A favourite of mine too, one of a rare few excelling in both prose and poetry.
I think you’re stretching things a bit to categorically state that he wasn’t an alcoholic. Isn’t it more a case of his champions making a plausible case that he might not have been anything more than a binge drinker?
And the American Byron? He aspired to be, sure, but I think you should maybe be more circumspect about whether he deserves that label too. He certainly wasn’t as well-connected, or ultimately as heroic. Did he exhibit quite the same panache when it came to self-destructive behaviour? (On the other side of the account, Byron wasn’t much good at ghost stories, only at sponsoring them).
I think Poe certainly made his mark as a writer, but not so much as a person. Byron would still have been a memorable character even if his writing had been less exceptional (say if Childe Harold was never written), though dying young ultimately did more for Byron’s reputation than it did for Poe’s. To be honest, I hadn’t realised that Poe was quite that young when he passed, or that there was uncertainty about the cause of his death. I had Poe drinking himself to death until a few minutes ago. It’s a silly thing to say, but for me that de-romanticises him further in the Byron Stakes.
Good Entry though. Don’t go changing stuff just because I’m rambling.

Aha, but you rambled so purposefully, thank you! Every time somebody protests about something in a guide entry, I go back and ask myself if that wasn't overstated, or doesn't need to be reworded. This was supposed to be short and sweet, but not misleading.

Done and done: I changed the wording about the alcohol issue and added a footnote. If anybody cares to follow the link, the EA Poe Society of Bal'mer will go on at length about Poe's substance problems. For somebody of his day, he didn't drink all that much, but he absolutely could not hold his liquor. At least one North Carolina professor of English believed this might have been a factor in his death - after all, it was election day when they found him, free drinks all round from candidates back then...

The reason I want to keep that discussion short is that I wanted to keep the myths from swamping the man.

Now, about Byron. I realise we're up against two national icons here. No disrespect to the British figure - I used to live in Athens, where the drunken expats hung around an alley called Byron Street, that they called 'Dirty Corner'. Byron wasn't only a writer. He was an international figure. Poe was only a writer - but what a writer...

I meant Poe ended up fitting into the Byronic 'niche' in the American imagination. This was partly his fault for going around reading 'The Raven' in a floppy tie (he needed the money), and partly Griswold's fault with all that malicious gossip.

Well, there’s another American writer’s biography in the EG that proposes a Byron connection.
This one: A25953212
Just sayin’.
Not a perfect replica either, but Bierce was definitely more than a writer, and arguably ran Poe close at spooky tales.

That's a good entry. And a good point - Bierce was quite the adventurer.

Back with Poe, I looked up his Baltimore connection (ie beyond being a place to go to die). If the locals have a Poe Society, there surely must be more than that?
Based on what I’ve read so far, I’m confused. Did Poe really have Baltimore connections, or is this just an example of the strange American proclivity for claiming parts of other people’s history?

Poe lived in Baltimore at one time, in this house (which is now a museum):

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:PoeHouse-Baltimore.jpg

You're right about everybody scraping acquaintance: there's a Poe house museum in Philadelphia, too, because the Poes also lived there. It would have inspired gloomy thoughts, I've been in it. (He only lived in a part of the structure.)

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Edal_359.jpg

You might enjoy the fact that there is a Baltimore Ravens (American) football team. At least, this time they left the Native Americans alone...

I just reread this and see it has been well updated, thank you

Thanks, Sasha.

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