Edgar Allan Poe, ever the romantic

Poe fans could say October is Edgar Allan’s month, in more ways than one. Yes, Halloween evokes his raven and black cat, his mysterious heartbeat thumping beneath the floorboards, the creepy House of Usher. A plethora of material for Vincent Price fans.

October also marks the 167th anniversary of his death, itself an unsolved mystery. Was he drinking or not? His physician didn’t think so. His body was moved — why? Did he really dictate more stories from the Great Beyond to author Lizzie Doten?

But the Scotch-Irish author and poet was far greater than the sum of his macabre works. Long before Sherlock Holmes, Poe is credited with inventing the modern detective story. He was a leader in the romantic movement. Yes, romantic — a sad-eyed man with a tell-tale tenderness of heart few remember.

Romance, who loves to nod and sing,

With drowsy head and folded wing,

Among the green leaves as they shake

Far down within some shadowy lake…

While in the wild wood I did lie,

A child - with a most knowing eye. (from “Romance,” 1843)

Poe was also a scientific theorist. Decades before it was officially suggested, Poe’s intuitive essays connecting astronomy with spiritualism, “Eureka,” contemplated a sort of big bang origin of the universe, including the notion of black holes. This Poe considered to be his greatest masterpiece, not his works in the horror genre.

He called “Eureka: An essay on the material and spiritual universe” a work of art, yet explicitly insisted on its truth, despite vehement censure when it was published.

“The assumption of absolute Unity in the primordial Particle includes that of infinite divisibility. Let us conceive the Particle, then, to be only not totally exhausted by diffusion into Space. From the one Particle, as a centre, let us suppose to be irradiated spherically — in all directions — to immeasurable but still to definite distances in the previously vacant space — a certain inexpressibly great yet limited number of unimaginably yet not infinitely minute atoms.” (From “Eureka,” 1848)

Born in Boston, raised in Scotland and England, his middle name comes from the Allan family who adopted him at age 2 following his mother’s death (dad had run off). Poe later returned to the U.S., was widowed, had several more failed relationships and a brief stint in the U.S. Army when destitute (Allan left him out of his will, yet provided for an illegitimate son Poe had never met). Poe’s dress was described as always genteel but rather shabby. He had a messy life and a brilliant mind, perhaps before its time. His words, eternal.

Fly,

Quoth the Raven,

Nevermore.

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Sholeh Patrick is a columnist for the Hagadone News Network. Contact her at [email protected].