The Edgar Allen Poe Theory

It seems appropriate to begin with the life of Pym author [or rather, "author" - R.V.B.] Edgar Allan Poe. Just as he routinely mixed fact and fiction to achieve novel and innovative effects in his stories, so we combine the cold, hard facts of his bleak biography with every bizarre random insane [but most likely true! - R.V.B.] rumor which has ever been spouted about this literary giant. As you can already see, in order to appease the more rational members of the party while maintaining stylistic integrity, Rachel's interjections of unverifiable claptrap will be set aside in brackets [although please remember that "unverifiable" does not necessarily mean "false".] All bracketed information is taken from other sources - sadly, neither I nor Rachel has to make any of this up.

Edgar Allan Poe [or, possibly, his "Earth" twin, identical to all outward appearances with the being who also later used that name] was born in Boston on January 19, 1809 to Elizabeth "Betty" Arnold Hopkins, an English actress, and David Poe, an Irish actor. The had two other children - William Henry and Rosalie. David Poe deserted the family when Edgar was an infant, and his mother died when he was three [ - rather convenient for those who wanted them "disposed" of for knowing too much about the child's true origins and destiny, don't you think?] The children were adopted by John Allan, a wealthy tobacco exporter in Richmond, Virginia and raised by his wife, Frances, aided by her elderly servant Nancy.

Poe was educated at a boarding school in London, at a private school, and an academy in Richmond [and, possibly, at one of these, he was switched with his slightly nonhuman identical "other", from an alien world similar too, but not identical with, Earth.] Afterwards, he attended the University of Virginia. However, Poe was dismissed from the University after just a year - though in good scholastic standing, including distinction in French and Latin - due to drinking and gambling. The drinking was the first sign of the alcoholism which would plague him lifelong, an especial problem as he got extremely drunk on only very small amounts of liquor [ - signs of his slightly alien physiology.] By gambling, he ran up a debt of $2,000, which was a small fortune in those days. His foster father, with whom he never got along - Poe adopted the last name but only used it as an initial - refused to support Poe or help him pay his debts [Perhaps Allan had suspicion's of Poe's unnaturalness.] Back in Richmond, Poe wrote his first serious poem, "Tamerlane" (later his first published work) out of heartbreak over the marriage of a woman he loved.

Poe tried his luck in Boston but could not find work and enlisted in the Army under an assumed name [in order to confuse those who sought to stop his hidden agenda.] He was athletic and had set a school record with an impressive mark in the long jump (21' 6") [thanks to his inhuman skill.] He sometimes claimed to have gone to Greece and St. Petersburg during this time, although most biographers discount this as false [not understanding that he later deliberately obscured his travels, since they were made to obtain heretical mystical knowledge.] In military training, he continued writing poetry and soon decided army life was not to his taste. [Although he could use what he learned there in his schemes, disseminating the hidden truth through writing struck him as a better way to serve his masters than outright military takeover.] He revealed his true name but was only granted a discharge on the condition he reconcile with Allan. The latter refused, sending Poe into his first nervous breakdown [his power-mad lunatic psyche unable to cope with his plans being thwarted, once again, by Allan.] Soon, however, Frances Allan died, and John Allan fulfilled her request to mend relations with Poe, who obtained his discharge. [And wasn't that just too . . . conveniently timed a death for words?]

Poe began writing seriously [and, through his writings, revealed the truth to those who were in the know - that he was a member of the ages old demon-worshipping drug cult whose later members included Ambrose Bierce, Algernon Blackwood, Lord Dunsany, Arthur Machen, Clark Ashton Smith, Tennessee Williams, and, of course, H. P. Lovecraft. Their goal was to publish the hideous truth thinly disguised under the veil of "fiction" and thereby gain converts to the cause among those who were smart enough to figure this out and brave enough to investigate.] Poe's first small books of verse, Tamerlane and Other Poems (1827) and Al Aaraaf (1829) were published and met with critical acclaim [thereby proving that human minds were fertile grounds for his perverse notions.] He again broke with Allan [who suspected too much] and moved in with his aunt Maria Clemm and her [all too innocent] prepubescent daughter Virginia. For some reason, Poe again tried a military career, entering West Point in mid-1830, but immediately regretted it. [Possibly this was the failed beginning at another long-term attempt at world domination.] He renewed his drinking and gambling and was court-martialed in early 1831.

In 1832, Poe published his first short story, the occult [what else?] "Metzengerstein," in The Philadelphia Saturday Courier, followed by four others. In the following year, Poe submitted six short stories, collectively entitled Tales of the Folio Club, to a contest sponsored by the Baltimore Saturday Visitor; one of these, "MS. Found in a Bottle," considered one of the first science fiction stories, won both the $50 first prize and acclaim for its 24-year-old author. At this time, also, Poe began experimenting with opium, following the lead of Coleridge and Elizabeth Barrett [ - earlier cult members, most likely. Was opium a more powerful mystic agent to contact the dark gods than alcohol?] Poe now published regularly and in 1835 became editor of the Southern Literary Messenger in Richmond, to which he returned. Love and loneliness [or perhaps the need for a virgin] led Poe, in 1836, to marry Virginia [note the mystically relevant name], though she was only aged thirteen and his cousin.

Poe's drinking and womanizing led to his dismissal from the Messenger, though it continued to publish his work, including the serialized Narrative of A. Gordon Pym of Nantucket - a tale of adventure to the Antarctic which would inspire sequels by Jules Verne and H.P. Lovecraft. [Of course, we know that the tale of Pym, as with most of Poe's works of "fiction", was the actual truth, although perhaps it was a tale of his home world or thickly disguised so that only a knowledgeable reader could tell the truth from the lies. And was Verne also a member of the cult?] After a fruitless year in New York the Poes moved (in August, 1838) to Philadelphia, where they remained for six years. To survive Poe did hack work including a text book on shells. At this time Virginia's health began to fail [for reasons perhaps natural and perhaps otherwise.] Poe found a position on Burton's Gentlemen's Magazine and saw publication of "The Fall of the House of Usher," one of his masterpieces. Toward the end of 1839, Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque was published, collecting in two volumes 25 of his best stories - the "grotesque" tales were his humorous pieces, often satires on Gothic works, while the "arabesques" were the better known [grimly true] horror stories.

Poe was occupied with critical and editorial work during most of 1840. He long dreamed of editing his own magazine, and at the beginning of 1841 he began The Penn Magazine. It was [fortunately for humanity] a failure. He went to work for Graham's Magazine and in April published "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" - called "the world's first detective story." The following month, "A Descent into the Maelstrom" was finally published in 1841 (it was written at least nine years before); Verne's Captain Nemo would revisit the Norwegian phenomenon in Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea [and the case against Verne grows . . .]

Now Poe was drawing a handsome salary of $800 a year, but in January of 1842 disaster struck - Virginia began hemmorhaging while singing; it was her first tubercular attack. Poe went to drinking and lost yet another promising editorial position, though he produced the now-classic "The Masque of the Red Death" and "The Pit and the Pendulum." The following year saw the publication of additional horror classics "The Tell-Tale Heart" and "The Black Cat," and the mysteries "The Gold Bug" and "The Mystery of Marie Roget."

In 1844, after finishing "The Raven" [evidence of his growing madness], the Poes went again to New York, where Poe perpetuated his famous "Balloon-Hoax" in the pages of the Sun [believe this tale of flight technology too advanced for its time really was a hoax, if that makes you more comfortable . . .] Free-lance work followed, and by the end of the year Poe was on the staff of another newspaper, the Mirror - where, in January of '45, "The Raven" was published. Success came overnight and the poet's reputation was established. [At last, the forum he sought he had achieved.] He joined the Broadway Journal. That summer Wiley and Putnam published a volume of Tales and Poe's success was such that by October he acquired ownership of the Journal. In November, The Raven and Other Poems was brought out by Wiley & Putnam. Unfortunately, Virginia's health had taken another bad turn, Poe resumed drinking, and his paper folded after only four months. [Another thwarted attempt? Or a spell gone horribly wrong?]

Previously, in 1843, Poe had published "The Rationale of Verse;" and now "The Philosophy of Composition" (1846) appeared. In these essays Poe set forth his theory of writing, which emphasized economy of words, tightness of construction, the supreme importance of effect. These formulations put into words what he had long practiced as author of numerous reviews in addition to his own creative work.

In January of 1847, Poe's beloved Virginia died of tuberculosis [or so it seemed.] He was demolished [or had lost the source from which he drew his power.] He wrote little, apart from the mournful "Ulalume," until the appearance, the following spring, of Eureka - A Prose Poem, published in two small editions totalling 750 copies by George Putnam. Despite its subtitle, it was a philosophical manifesto with far-ranging implications. [Fear it, those who long to keep humanity safe.] Poe considered it to be his masterpiece, though others considered it lunacy and it has been largely ignored. [Thank heavens.] Poe continued his project of publishing his own magazine, now to be titled The Stylus, but failed to obtain the needed support. At last a sponsor appeared from nowhere [or was sent by his dark lords], one Edward Patterson, who dispatched Poe on a lecture tour in the summer of 1849 to promote the venture. Not surprisingly, this ended in disaster, another breakdown, and even attempts at suicide. [Most likely, a life of drugs and vile magics had taken their toll on his already insane nonhuman mind.] A final recovery led to a brilliant lecture in Richmond, in August, on "The Poetic Principle." On a couple occasions he was close to remarrying - both women of means [as a final attempt to repeat the success he had draining the soul of young Virginia, perhaps.] One prospect was ruined by rumors of the other prospect and by Poe's inevitable drinking. The second ended tragically in Baltimore, where he had travelled to make wedding arrangements. While some contend Poe simply drank himself to death, others believe he was encouraged to drink and then used as a "repeat voter." Whatever the truth, one of America's greatest writers died in delirium, at the age of forty, of "acute congestion of the brain." [Hmmmm . . . is that a human illness?]

Edgar Allan Poe has cast a long shadow; he has probably had a greater influence than any other American writer. Poe's creative writing transformed and extended Romanticism and Gothicism, while his critical theory presaged Symbolism. Translated by Baudelaire, he was much admired by the French, strongly influencing the aesthetic schools of the Decadents and Symbolists, and was also revered by the Surrealists. Poe is considered the inventer of the detective story and murder mystery - his detective, Dupin, is the identifiable ancestor of A. Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes, Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot, Erle Stanley Gardner's Perry Mason, and all those who followed. Poe is considered by some the inventor and by some an early experimentor in science fiction [although, of course, we know this supposed fiction was actually true], and is a progenitor of writers from Jules Verne to Isaac Asimov. He has also noted for creating notable specimens of the "code" story, which contain some sort of puzzle which must be unlocked. Poe was extremely fond of puzzles and codes, and some of his ciphers have yet to be cracked even to the present day [no doubt the ones containing hidden knowledge meant only for a select few.] But of all his accompishments, it is for his [alas, true] tales of terror, and the mesmerizing poem, "The Raven", that Poe is best remembered. H.P. Lovecraft [!], granting Poe the singular honor of his own chapter in his landmark Supernatural Horror in Literature (1927, 1933), acknowledged his master as the "deity and fountain-head of all modern diabolic fiction." [Um . . . I don't think I need to add anything to that one.]