Edgar Allan Poe: Tragic Life and Literary Legacy

1. Sorry…no independent reading today (short period). • Need to have your book read by next week. • Monday (1/18) last day of in-class reading for the semester. • Take-home assignment on your book will be given Wednesday (1/20) and due the following Monday (1/25) consisting of discussion questions about the content of your book. • Please take out your Edgar Allan Poe film notes to complete. • Turn in two full pages at end of class. • HOMEWORK: Finish vocabulary for “The Raven” by Poe.

2. EDGAR ALLAN POE A&E BIOGRAPHY FILM VOCAB • tuberculosis • kindred

3. EDGAR ALLAN POE A&E BIOGRAPHY FILM NOTES • Born in 1809. Grew up mostly in Virginia (a Southern Gentleman). • Both his parents were actors. • Father abandoned the family when Poe was a baby. • Mother somewhat famous and well-respected actress; died of consumption (tuberculosis) when Poe was three. • Orphaned young; mother’s death - FIRST TRAGIC LOSS OF A BELOVED WOMAN IN HIS LIFE. • Taken in by foster parents Francis and John Allan; never formally adopted him.

4. Francis Allan loved and cared for him. • John Allan (foster father) did not really like Edgar; thought Edgar an odd, unlovable and (later) ungrateful. Still, John and Francis Allan provided him a good home and a quality education. • Poe was a sensitive, artistic, precocious, athletic young man. • John Allan carried on affairs with other women in his own home where his wife was deathly ill. • Francis Allan died of consumption (tuberculosis) – SECOND TRAGIC LOSS OF A BELOVED WOMAN IN HIS LIFE

5. John Allan sends Edgar to the University of Virginia and pays his tuition, but does not provide any other financial support. • While in college Edgar captivated his classmates with his artistic and literary talents—could have been a writer or an artist. • Poe determined to make his living only “by the pen”—as a writer, editor, and literary critic. • Wrote for and edited MAGAZINES. Was a very good editor. • Worked as a LITERARY CRITIC (for which he was best known): wrote book and poetry reviews; was BRUTAL in many of his reviews, even of popular and beloved writers (Longfellow). Called “The tomahawk man” because he so brutally criticized writers.

6. Often unemployed (couldn’t hold a job)—drank too much; “prickly” personality; classic outsider. • Goes to live in Baltimore with his Aunt Maria (“Muddy”) Clem and her daughter, Virginia. • At age 26 he marries his 13-year-old cousin Virginia; called her “sissy” and the relationship was probably more brother/sister than husband/wife at the beginning (“the intimate details of their relationship remain a mystery”). • Poe lived with Virginia and Maria; they take care of each other—he supports them financially; they give him a warm and loving home life, which he had not had before that. They were happy, despite being poor.

7. 1845 wrote and published “The Raven” which was his only critical success; “wildly popular,” especially with women and children; gave popular lectures/public readings of his poems. Made almost NO money from “The Raven” ($14). • WROTE MORE THAN 70 STORIES AND POEMS IN ALL. • Invented the DETECTIVE STORY as a genre (Sherlock Holmes stories modeled after Poe’s detective tales) • The Murders in the Rue Morgue • Virginia dies of “consumption” (TB) after 15 years of marriage - THIRD TRAGIC LOSS OF A BELOVED WOMAN IN HIS LIFE. • Virginia’s death leaves Poe distraught and alone; wrote “Annabell Lee” for her.

8. Broke, brokenhearted, he wandered Europe, then returned to the US and tried to marry several different (rich) women at the same time. • Drinking problem worsens; suffered bouts of mental instability. • Takes a trip to see his mother-in-law; disappeared for a few days; turned up ill/drunk in the street, taken to a bar, and at first refuses help; eventually taken to a hospital. • Died four days later at age 40 in 1849. • FAMOUS, BUT NOT BELOVED.

9. THEMES IN POE’S WORK (according to film): • uncertainty of life and mysteries of death • connections to the afterlife • sanity/insanity • rationality/irrationality • guilt driving behavior • PSYCHOLOGICAL INTROSPECTION • Poe often used “tortured” first person narrators in his stories and poems.