Vincent Starrett, “In Which an Author and His Character
Are Well Met,” from his book Seaports in the Moon (Dou-
bleday, 1928). The last days of Edgar Allan Poe provide the
basis of a beautifully told fantasy.
Manly Wade Wellman, highly regarded as a writer of
mystery, science fiction, and the supernatural, appropri-
ately combines all three elements in “When It Was Moon-
light” to conjecture on how at least three of Poe’s stories
came to be written.
The influence of Poe upon the reader is the subject of
“The Man Who Thought He Was Poe,” a murder mystery
with an Alfred Hitchcock-like twist by the talented creator
of the Ed Noon private-eye series, Michael Avallone.
The name most frequently linked with Poe in this gen-
eration is that of H. P. Lovecraft. “The Dark Brotherhood”
is based on one of his dreams, set to fiction by August W.
THE M AN WHO CALLED HIMSELF POE
XV
Derleth. Quite typically of Lovecraft, multiple Poes are
linked to a menace from outer space.
Two stories involving Poe make their first appearance in
print in this anthology. “Manuscript Found in a Drawer” by
the distinguished biographer and mystery story writer
Charles Norman sets out to tell a story in the Poe tradition
and in so doing also shows the impact of its happenings on
the life of Poe. “Castaway” was commissioned especially
for this volume and deals with the brief period during Poe’s
life when he was publisher of his own magazine. Its author,
Edmond Hamilton, as one of the leading science fiction
writers, has cast it in the format most natural to him.
Regarded as the modem master of psychological terror
is Robert Bloch, who wrote the book upon which the film
Psycho was based. Many have brooded upon what Poe
might have written had he lived a little longer, and Bloch
seeks to answer that question, incorporating actual passages
from Poe’s work in “The Man Who Collected Poe” to
heighten the realism.
How can there be a book of Poe without something by
Poe?
Before he died, Poe wrote a 600-word fragment of a tale
he planned to call “ The Lighthouse.” This fragment is not
included in his collected works and appears here finished by
Robert Bloch as a truly effective terror tale that does Poe
no dishonor.
Among those things which Poe authorities have seriously
considered as possibly his under a pen name is the Utopian
satire “ The Atlantis,” a novel-length work originally pub-
lished in 1838-39. A five-thousand-word segment, with the
most Poe-esque flavor, is reprinted for the first time since
its original appearance so that the Poe specialists can form
their own opinion.
Were this book about anyone but Poe, verse might be
considered an affectation. To omit it, considering Poe was
one of the greatest stylists ever to rhyme a fine, would be
x v i
THE M AN WHO CALLED HIM SELF POE
an affront. The poetry selections are not only highly un-
usual but are in keeping with the motif of the volume.
Three sonnets by three poets, H. P. Lovecraft, R. H. Barlow,
and Adolphe de Castro, written in a Providence graveyard
where once Poe walked, are presented as a trinity. They in-
spired an extraordinarily appropriate narrative in verse in
which the shades of H. P. Lovecraft and Edgar Allan Poe
meet in that very graveyard, penned by August W. Der-
leth.
A rarely seen and unusual item, a valentine poem written
to her husband by Poe's dying wife Virginia, is also in-
eluded.
The book is appropriately closed by a narrative poem of
Poes last days composed especially for this volume by Rob-
ert A. W. Lowndes, editor of The Magazine of Horror, a
publication for which Poe would have felt an affinity.
Every piece in the book is prefaced by introductory notes
spective for reader understanding and enjoyment.
The Mystery Writers of America annually award coveted
busts of Edgar Allan Poe, called ״ Edgars,״ for the best
mystery stories of the year, and have a special award appro-
priately known as ״ The Raven." With that impetus the great
danger of this book is that it will start a cult calling them-
selves ״ The Ravens," who will meet in a loft called ״ The
House of Usher" and publish as their official organ ״ The
Stylus."
T H E M A N W H O C A L L E D H I M S E L F PO
EDGAR ALLAN POE: A BIOGRAPHY IN BRIEF
Before his death, Thomas Ollive Mabbott had completed the summ;
tion of his life’s work: a definitive compilation of the writings <
Edgar Allan Poe, with approximately 20 per cent more wordaç
than had ever previously been collected or published. The early vo
umes have been ready for publication since 19 6 2 and Harvard is 1
undertake the project.
F e w books on the life of Poe have appeared in the last 40 yea
without some reference, if not direct acknowledgment, to the r!
searches of Professor Mabbott. His books on Poe include P o es Polito
( 1 9 2 3 ) , Selected Poems of Poe ( 1 9 2 8 ) , P o es Doings of Gotha
( 1 9 2 9 ) , Poe’s Tamerlane ( 1 9 4 1 ) , and Selections From Poe ( 1 9 5 1
among others. W hen Mabbott’s definitive edition of Poe appears,
will not only incorporate a very substantial amount of previously ui
collected criticism but also some newly discovered poems.
Poe was by no means Mabbott’s only literary interest. He had wri
ten works on W alt Whitman and William Cullen Bryant, actively co
lected H. P. Lovecraft, and had admitted to an unrepentant fondne
for the sword and sorcery sagas of Robert E . Howard.
No fiction based on the life of Poe could be adequately enjoye
without a ready reference to the key events in which that auth(
was involved. The following essay, a little under five thousand word
is perhaps the most excellent brief condensation of the life an
criticism of the works of Edgar Allan Poe ever set down on pape
prepared by a ranking scholar who utilized primary sources in gathe
ing and verifying the bulk of his information.
Edgar Allan Poe: A Biography in Brief
By Thomas Ollive Mabbott
Born: Boston, January 19, 1809
Died: October 7, 184
Edgar Allan Poe was born the son of a talented actres
Elizabeth Arnold, and her second husband, David Poe, J1
2
THE M A N WHO CALLED HIM SELF POE
an actor and the son of a prominent officer in the Revolu-
tion. Orphaned in Richmond late in 18 11, Poe was taken
into the home of John Allan, a wealthy merchant. Allan, who
regarded the boy as a genius, apparently became his god-
father but did not formally adopt him.
The Allan family visited Scotland, and went to England
in 18 15, where Poe attended the classical academy of Dr.
John Bransby at Stoke Newington. In the su
mmer of 1820
the family returned to Richmond, where the boy entered
the school of Joseph H. Clarke, and composed a number
of verses in honor of local schoolgirls. These are lost, but a
satire, written when Poe was enrolled at the school of Wil-
Ham Burke in 1823 and 1824 has survived.
Poe fell in love with Elmira Royster and was secretly
engaged when he went to the University of Virginia in Feb-
ruary 1826; however, the engagement came to nothing,
for Miss Royster s family intercepted the letters of the pair,
and shortly thereafter arranged for her engagement to
Alexander Barret Shelton of Richmond. At the university Poe
stood high in Greek, Latin, French, ItaHan, and Spanish,
but remained only one term; apparently Allan had refused
Poe spending money, and the young man gambled in hopes
of raising funds. When he acquired only debts, Allan with-
drew his godson from the university. Tales of Poe's heavy
drinking at that time are probably exaggerated; however,
Poe was constitutionally unable to tolerate Hquor, and even
small amounts often had disastrous effects upon him.
On his return to Richmond Poe quarreled with his god-
father and ran away to Baltimore and then to Boston, where
he arranged for his first volume, Tamerlane and Other
Poems (1827), to be published anonymously. Some of the
poems concerned his unhappy love affair with Miss Royster;
the best one, “The Lake,” is about the legends told of
the Lake of the Dismal Swamp, near Norfolk. Poe was un-
able to find employment, and, in desperate financial straits,
enlisted in the army under the name of “Edgar A. Perry” ;
THE M AN WHO CALLED HIMSELF POE
3
lie was sent to Fort Moultrie on Sullivan's Island, the scene
of his later story, “The Gold Bug.״ He wrote to Allan, asking
him to help secure his release from the army, but Allan re-
fused until the death of his wife, who pleaded Poe's cause
on her deathbed. Allan sent for Poe on the condition that
Poe would enter West Point, and the two were at least
temporarily reconciled.
Poe published another volume, Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane, and
Minor Poems, in Baltimore in 1829. Included is “Fairyland,"
an archly humorous poem owing something to A Midsum-
mer Night’s Dream and entirely unlike anything else Poe
wrote. He returned to Richmond and quarreled again with
John Allan before entering West Point in the summer of
1830. When Allan remarried in October of that year, it was
apparent to Poe that he could expect little further aid from
that quarter; shortly thereafter Allan disowned him because
of a disparaging remark made by Poe in a letter that reached
Allan's hands. With no immediate financial resources and
no hope of any from the Allan family, Poe set about getting
himself expelled from West Point.
Poe came to New York, where he published Poems ( 1 8 3 1 ).
The preface to this volume shows he took an interest in
Coleridge's critical theories, by which some critics feel Poe
was influenced. Others find in Poe a kinship to Byron,
Moore, and Shelley alone among the great romantics. The in-
fluence of the Baltimore lyrist, Edward Coote Pinckney,
also seems sure. But Poe was already very much his own
man, as is evidenced in the great brief lyric “To Helen,"
in “Israfel," and in “The Sleeper,” a macabre poem of which
its author was curiously fond. The two strange landscapes,
“The City in the Sea," which describes the ruins of Gomor-
rah, and “The Valley of Unrest," about the Hebrides, show
great originality.
Poe went to Baltimore and began to write short stories.
Some of these, submitted in a prize contest, were published
in the Philadelphia Saturday Courier in 1832. In 1833 the
4
THE M AN WHO CALLED HIM SELF POE
“Ms. Found in a Bottle” won a fifty-dollar prize from the
Baltimore Saturday 1Visiter and brought Poe some na-
tional recognition. He went to work on a play, Politan,
which he never finished. Through the novelist John P.
Kennedy he established a connection with the Southern
Literary Messenger of Richmond; he became its assistant
editor and then, in December 1835, its editor. He urged high
literary standards, and during his editorship the Messengers
subscription list increased from 500 to over 3500. However,
his castigations of unimportant books led to literary quarrels
from which he was never to be free thereafter. Meanwhile
Poe's aunt, Mrs. Maria Poe Clemm, with whom he had
resided in Baltimore, arranged a marriage there in Septem-
ber between Poe and her daughter Virginia, who was then
only thirteen years old. The couple lived for two years as
brother and sister, but the marriage led to some social dis-
approval. Virginia was a devoted and sometimes a tolerant
wife, but “never read h alf' of her husband's poetry. During
her life Poe addressed no poems to her. He was apparently
very much attached to Mrs. Clemm, who was the mainstay
of the family during their long bouts of poverty and Vir-
ginia’s illness; Poe wrote for her his charming sonnet “To
M y Mother” (1849).
For the Messenger Poe wrote “Berenice” and “ Morelia,”
as well as Hans Pfaal, a comic tale of a voyage to the moon.
Two poems, “Bridal Ballad” and “To Zante,” may have re-
lated to a meeting with his first love, Elmira Royster, now
Mrs. Shelton. Poe also began a serial, “Arthur Gordon Pym,”
installments of which appeared in January and February of
1837; however, he then resigned from the Messenger and
came to New York, where he published the complete serial
as a book in 1838. An account of sea adventures based on
fact, The Narrative is a grotesque and imaginative tale that
ends in wildly incredible scenes near the South Pole. It was
greatly admired by Charles Baudelaire, though Poe him-
self called it a silly book.
THE M AN WHO CALLED HIM SELF POE
5
In the summer of 1838 Poe was in Philadelphia, helping a
Professor Thomas Wyatt bring out two books on natural
history. Finally he became an editor of Burtons Gentlemans
Magazine in May 1839. The magazine was owned by the
comedian William E. Burton, with whom Poe remained until
they quarreled in June of 1840. Poe had plans for a maga-
zine of his own to be called, punningly, The Penn, and later
The Stylus. Beyond several prospectuses, the last in 1848,
nothing came of it. He also solved ciphers in a paper called
Alexander s Weekly Messenger, and wrote miscellaneous
papers, including a few news articles. In The Saturday
Evening Post for May 1, 1841, Poe predicted the ending
of Dickens’ Barnaby Rudge from the first chapters.
George R. Graham bought Burton out and established
Grahams Magazine in December of 1840. Poe became an
editor in charge of reviews with the April issue, and re-
&nb
sp; mained until May 1842. As had been the case with the
Southern Literary Messenger, the circulation of the maga-
zine increased dramatically while Poe was associated with
it.
Although Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque (1840),
containing twenty-five pieces, sold badly, Poe was busy with
short stories, and produced some of his masterpieces. “The
Murders in the Rue Morgue” was in Grahams for April
1841; if not the first detective story, it was certainly that
which set the form. Poe was also to invent almost all the
species of the genus; he made an attempt (not wholly sue-
cessful) to solve a real crime in “The Mystery of Marie
Rogêt” in 1842; he dismissed the crime itself as of no interest
in “The Purloined Letter” ( 1844) ; and in the same year he
wrote “ Thou Art the Man,” the first story in which the crim-
inal is at first undetected because he looks like a wholly re-
spectable person. Other notable stories written between
1838 and 1843 include “Ligeia,” “The Fall of the House of
Usher,” “William Wilson,” the enigmatic “Eleonora,” “The
Masque of the Red Death,” “The Tell-Tale Heart,” “The
6
THE M AN WHO CALLED HIM SELF POE
Black Cat,” "The Premature Burial,” and the most popular
of all, "The Gold Bug,” perhaps the greatest of all tales of
buried treasure.
Misfortune struck the Poe household in January of 1842
when Virginia broke a blood vessel in singing. Her life was
despaired of, and although she recovered somewhat, her
health continued to be poor until her death from tuber-
culosis five years later.
Poe met Charles Dickens in Philadelphia in 1842 and
hoped, vainly, to form some connections in England
through him. Poe was also in correspondence with James
Russell Lowell; they met in 1845, and did not like each
other.
In April of 1844 Poe, with Virginia, Mrs. Clemm, and the
celebrated pet, Cat-erina, came to New York. He sold his
"Balloon-Hoax” to the New York Sun, and went to work on
the genial Major Mordecai M. Noah’s paper, the Sunday
Times. In October he joined N. P. Willis and General
George P. Morris on the new "paper for the upper ten thou-
sand,” the Evening Mirror. He lived for a time "in the