#30 The legacy of America's madman

On discovering Edgar Allan Poe's brilliantly deranged mind.

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“It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
By the name of Annabel Lee;
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me.”
– Edgar Allan Poe, “Annabel Lee”

I must have been 11 or 12 when my English teacher came one day to class to introduce us to Edgar Allan Poe. Back then, I used to think the worst of her; all kinds of mean things. Miss L was a short woman, in her ffifties, but looking so much older because of a hump on her back, with yellow teeth from too much smoking, and a high-pitched voice. It wasn’t her appearance that had bothered me the most – although, admittedly, she could have put some more effort into it – but her unrealistic expectation to be fluent in a foreign language without her teaching us the basic grammar and vocabulary. So when she brought us a volume of Poe’s poetry and started reading “Annabel Lee”, I instantly rejected her and decided not to care about English anymore. (That was the most rebellious I could have been back then. Spoiler alert: my personal protest didn’t last long. I just love words and grammar too much). Most of us in class were barely capable of reading and understanding basic sentences in English, and then this teacher had the audacity to introduce us to one of the foremost figures of American literature, just like that, on a whim?! Outrageous! How could she have even pretended anyone would be able to wrap their minds around Poe’s literary genius?

It took me a while (read: some years) to accept that I might have judged my English teacher a bit too hard. I was jealous that kids from other class groups knew more – and better – English than me and I was afraid I would fall behind (yes, I did take school seriously). I even went home and begged my parents to pay for a private tutor which they refused until years later, when indeed, I knew words such as “pejorative” or “surreptitious” but was constantly failing the subject-verb agreement.

Miss L had the best intentions, but maybe not always executed them well. I don’t think she ever expected us to even attempt to like or understand Poe – or poetry, as a matter of fact. But she went beyond what’s in the curriculum to teach us about people who were masters of words. And, after all, aren’t words what a language is all about?

As much as I would disagree with Miss L’s teaching method, I would always do my homework like the conscientious girl I needed to be. I started reading more about “Annabel Lee” and Edgar Allan Poe; I was curious whether there’s more behind the story of a young love which ended up with a tragedy. Poe’s life was short, and largely unhappy. He was sent off to a foster home when he was just two years old and his parents died. At age 27, he would marry his first cousin Virginia … who was 13. This union was possibly the most celebrated, tragic, and controversial ever chronicled. Historians are, of course, divided on the appropriateness of the relationship, even considering the social context of the 19th century. The marriage would last only 11 years, cut short by Virginia’s death (tuberculosis), aged 24 – coincidently the same age at which Poe’s mother and brother also died.  

“She was a child and I was a child,  
In this kingdom by the sea,
But we loved with a love that was more than
love —
I and my Annabel Lee.”

The death of a young, beautiful woman is a common subject in Poe’s writings and it is not wrong to assume it was his love for Virginia that made Poe want to immortalize her in his work. Like many of his short stories and poems, “Annabel Lee” concerns itself with the issue of having to move forward and make sense of the world after the permanent disruption that death causes.

“Annabel Lee” was Poe’s last poem, written in 1849, and published not long after the author’s controversial death in the same year. Poe’s official record listed phrenitis, or swelling of the brain, as cause of death, although speculation and many alternative theories have emerged since then. He was a notorious drunk, so alcoholism was a wildly accepted, plausible death. Cooping was also an accepted explanation for Poe’s strange, fragile state before his death. This is a method of voter fraud where “an unsuspecting victim would be kidnapped, disguised and forced to vote for a specific candidate multiple times under multiple disguised identities.”

A number of diseases have been proposed as well, including diabetes, heart disease, epilepsy, and tuberculosis. One doctor has hypothesised that rabies was to blame. Apparently, Poe’s hospital records indicated that Poe had difficulty drinking water. (One of rabies’ characteristic symptoms is fear of water.)

“But our love it was stronger by far than the love
Of those who were older than we—
Of many far wiser than we—
And neither the angels in Heaven above
Nor the demons down under the sea
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee.”

One of the first Poe’s obituaries was written by an enemy, the fellow poet, editor, and critic, Rufus Griswold. To make matters worse, it is said that only seven people attended Poe’s funeral. 160 years after his death, he got a proper funeral.

Whilst Edgar Allan Poe’s death remains a mystery, his legacy is certain. He is regarded as the architect of the modern short story and creator of the detective story. His contribution to the world of literature is monumental: He penned eternal classics like “The Pit and the Pendulum”, “The Raven”, and “The Tell-tale Heart”, and he delighted and disturbed us at the same time with his gripping, yet macabre literary style.

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Thanks for making it until here. With Halloween around the corner, this is a perfect occasion to revisit some of Poe’s writings.

Coming up: news on Shakespeare’s first folio, Tom Hanks’ obsession with typewriters, Austria’s $3.5 go-anywhere train tickets, redefining “friends with benefits,” and more.

Until next Friday…

Happy reading, happy learning,

Teodora x

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🥁 📚 The latest in the literary world

• The 2021 winners of The Forward Prizes for Poetry, the most influential awards for new poetry in the UK and Ireland, have been announced! 👏 Among this year’s winners is the Nigerian filmmaker, photographer, and poet, Caleb Femi, who won the Best First Collection category with “Poor.” Femi was also London’s first Young People’s Laureate.

• The search for the brightest and best new talent in women’s fiction is almost at an end as Stylist magazine has announced the shortlist for its inaugural Prize for Feminist Fiction. 🙌 The winner will receive £1,000 plus a guaranteed offer of representation from Rachel Mills Literary. 👏

• An “exceedingly rare” fragment from Shakespeare’s first folio, comprising the whole of the play Henry IV Part One, will be auctioned today (October, 29). 🗓️The fragment is estimated to be worth up to $100,000, although the pages “of the first copy ever printed by the most important figure in literary history” are “of inestimable value,” said the auction house Holabird Western Americana Collections. 💰 💸

• Tom Hanks typed a letter to a bookshop owner in Edinburgh to show his appreciation for “keeping typewriters alive.” ✉️ The “Forrest Gump” actor is known for being a vintage typewriter enthusiast. In an interview with the New York Times, Hanks shares that he got his first typewriter when he was 19, and now owns about 120, down from the 250+ he once had. 😱 All in perfect working order, of course.

• President Macron wants to protect the book industry against big online retailers like Amazon. 🙌 During lockdown(s), bookshops in France were deemed “essential businesses”(as they should be), but have seen a decline in sales. 😔 No wonder when Amazon delivers books for one centime in the country! 🤯The new legislation, not yet enacted, would impose a minimum price for book deliveries. Unsurprisingly, Amazon lobbied hard against the legislation, arguing online sales of books had enabled consumers to have equal access, regardless of where they lived. 😶

• BONUS: For your viewing pleasure, here are some of William Makepeace Thackeray’s sketches featuring witches 🧙‍♀️, black cats 🐈‍⬛ , owls 🦉, corpses ⚰️, or the devil 👹. Enjoy?! 🎃

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🎧 📰 👀 My media diet this week

• A social media platform to disrupt the publishing industry: Would that work? 🤔 Why read this? In an interview with Forbes, author Allison Trowbridge shares her plans behind creating the soon-to-be-launched “LinkedIn of the book world.” It is called Copper and, frankly, it looks like Goodreads but with Marie Kondo “sparking joy”. 📚 ✨

• A conversation with the cookbook author and TV show host Nigella Lawson. Why listen to this? I love Nigella (I can’t call her Lawson, I simply cannot) since she she’s taught me how to make my favourite cupcakes: the red velvet flavoured ones. 🧁 In this interview with food and drink writer Alicia Kennedy, Nigella talks about her background in journalism, being the deputy literary editor at The Sunday Times when she was 26, not owning a car, and writing cookery books. Also, as much as I admire her, she sounds like a real nightmare on set. 😬 “I am very controlling. I have an opinion about everything. So I wouldn't even let a bowl on set without my say so.” 🥣 🙅‍♀️

• From NPR’s Invisibilia podcast, an episode about friends with benefits. 💕 Why listen to this? You’ll learn about why people draw such stark lines between sex and friendship, and how to repair things when the line-crossing gets messy. You’ll hear insights from people in queer communities, from other cultures and nationalities, and people in porn.🤭

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📌 Random news in brief

• Adobe brings Photoshop to the web, and I’m excited. Maybe this way my laptop won’t crash every time I open the Creative Cloud. 🖥️ 🎉

• Austrian Railways are fighting climate change with $3.5 day tickets across the country. What a bargain! Maybe this initiative will put pressure on other countries to meet their carbon reduction targets, too. #COP26 🚆 ✅

• Spanx CEO, Sara Blakely, gifts all employees with first-class plane tickets and $10,000. Best boss ever or what? (See what female leadership does!) ✈️ 💰

• One contestant on the Tipping Point show confuses Homer, the ancient Greek poet, with Homer Simpson. His answer went viral. 🍩 What a time to be alive!

  Sam Huxley @samhuxley

  This is 27 seconds of remarkable television. Tipping Point, the gift that keeps on giving.

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