"New stamp honors Edgar Allan Poe"
Every year at meetings weary, experts ponder fame and theory, over many a quaint and curious request for honor on a stamp.
Who should they pick for honored postage: arts or science, famed youth or great age?
The answer's here. The coming year will feature a man of mystery.
Writer Edgar Allan Poe will be featured on a U.S. postage stamp early in 2009, the U.S. Postal Service said Thursday.
The 42-cent stamp will mark the 200th anniversary of the birth of poet and mystery writer Poe and will be issued Jan. 16 in Richmond, Va.
AP story via Google
Saturday, October 25, 2008
New stamp honors Edgar Allan Poe
Friday, October 24, 2008
Poe Revealed (Virginia)
www.poe200th.com is a newly launched site devoted to the bicentennial of Edgar Allan Poe in Virginia. Features include a blog, listing of events, trip planner, and materials for teachers and students. Updates on bicentennial events in Virginia can also be received via email by using the form on the site's front page.
Monday, October 20, 2008
New and forthcoming books
A survey of Amazon shows a number of books by or about Poe coming out over the next few months. Some of these are new, some reissues. I'll start with the most recent and work forward.
Edgar Allan Poe and the Dupin Mysteries, by Richard Kopley: Hardcover, 272 pp., available for pre-order at $70.13. According to reviews, it analyzes the three Dupin stories.
Club del Mistrio: Edgar Allan Poe, by Edgar Allan Poe. Paperback, 368 pp., $13.95. An edition of Poe in Spanish. Nov. 15, 2008.
The Essential Poe. An audiobook collection, 6 disks, $34.98. Dec. 2, 2008.
Then there are several anthologies:
In the Shadow of the Master, edited by Michael Connelly. Hardcover, $17.13. Dec. 23, 2008.
On a Raven's Wing, edited by Stuart Kaminsky. Paperback, $10.17. Jan. 6, 2009.
Poe, edited by Ellen Datlow. Paperback, $10.20. Jan. 6, 2009.
Edgar Allan Poe in Richmond (Images of America), by Keshia A. Case and Christopher P. Semtner. Paperback, 128 pp., $14.95. Published by Arcadia Publishing, which handles books of local interest; their website features a map dotted with "pins", each of which links to the relevant book(s). Jan. 19, 2009
Poe: A Life Cut Short, by Peter Acroyd. Hardcover, 224 pp., $14.93. A biography mentioned elsewhere on the blog with links to many reviews of the British edition. Jan. 20, 2009
Nevermore: A Photobiography of Edgar Allan Poe, by Karen Lange. National Geographic Children's Books, ages 9-12. Hardcover, 64 pp., $28.90. Feb. 24, 2009.
The Tell-Tale Heart and Other Stories: Bloom's Modern Critical Interpretations. Hardcover, $33.03. March, 2009.
The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, by Edgar Allan Poe. Audiobook (CD), $34.98. March, 2009.
The Raven, by Edgar Allan Poe, illustrated by Gustave Dore. Hardcover, no price given. March, 2009.
The Dupin Mysteries, by Edgar Allan Poe and Bill Nighy. Paperback, no price given. March, 2009.
A Dream within a Dream: The Life of Edgar Allan Poe, by Nigel Barnes. Paperback, 272 pp., $29.95. March 28, 2009. December, 2008 in the UK.
Edgar Allan Poe and the Dupin Mysteries, by Richard Kopley: Hardcover, 272 pp., available for pre-order at $70.13. According to reviews, it analyzes the three Dupin stories.
Club del Mistrio: Edgar Allan Poe, by Edgar Allan Poe. Paperback, 368 pp., $13.95. An edition of Poe in Spanish. Nov. 15, 2008.
The Essential Poe. An audiobook collection, 6 disks, $34.98. Dec. 2, 2008.
Then there are several anthologies:
In the Shadow of the Master, edited by Michael Connelly. Hardcover, $17.13. Dec. 23, 2008.
On a Raven's Wing, edited by Stuart Kaminsky. Paperback, $10.17. Jan. 6, 2009.
Poe, edited by Ellen Datlow. Paperback, $10.20. Jan. 6, 2009.
Edgar Allan Poe in Richmond (Images of America), by Keshia A. Case and Christopher P. Semtner. Paperback, 128 pp., $14.95. Published by Arcadia Publishing, which handles books of local interest; their website features a map dotted with "pins", each of which links to the relevant book(s). Jan. 19, 2009
Poe: A Life Cut Short, by Peter Acroyd. Hardcover, 224 pp., $14.93. A biography mentioned elsewhere on the blog with links to many reviews of the British edition. Jan. 20, 2009
Nevermore: A Photobiography of Edgar Allan Poe, by Karen Lange. National Geographic Children's Books, ages 9-12. Hardcover, 64 pp., $28.90. Feb. 24, 2009.
The Tell-Tale Heart and Other Stories: Bloom's Modern Critical Interpretations. Hardcover, $33.03. March, 2009.
The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, by Edgar Allan Poe. Audiobook (CD), $34.98. March, 2009.
The Raven, by Edgar Allan Poe, illustrated by Gustave Dore. Hardcover, no price given. March, 2009.
The Dupin Mysteries, by Edgar Allan Poe and Bill Nighy. Paperback, no price given. March, 2009.
A Dream within a Dream: The Life of Edgar Allan Poe, by Nigel Barnes. Paperback, 272 pp., $29.95. March 28, 2009. December, 2008 in the UK.
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Epimanes / Four Beasts in One (1836)
[read it]
"Four Beasts in One" ("Epimanes" was an earlier title) tells of a procession of King Antiochus IV through the streets of his city, in the form of a cameleopard--the four beasts in one of the title: Man, camel, lion and pard (panther).
It is not one of Poe's better stories but it is an interesting exception in technique. The narrator speaks to an equally anonymous and undescribed companion, both of whom observe events as visitors from the future (from the present of Poe's day). The king's procession outrages the propriety of real wild beasts and they attack the procession. The king barely escapes with his life and is awarded an Olympic medal for his acrobatics in doing so.
This forms the first instance in Poe's tales of a monarch who dresses as a beast. When it happens again in "Hop-Frog", the king is not so fortunate.
"Four Beasts in One" ("Epimanes" was an earlier title) tells of a procession of King Antiochus IV through the streets of his city, in the form of a cameleopard--the four beasts in one of the title: Man, camel, lion and pard (panther).
It is not one of Poe's better stories but it is an interesting exception in technique. The narrator speaks to an equally anonymous and undescribed companion, both of whom observe events as visitors from the future (from the present of Poe's day). The king's procession outrages the propriety of real wild beasts and they attack the procession. The king barely escapes with his life and is awarded an Olympic medal for his acrobatics in doing so.
This forms the first instance in Poe's tales of a monarch who dresses as a beast. When it happens again in "Hop-Frog", the king is not so fortunate.
Friday, October 17, 2008
A Bargain Lost (1832) / Bon-Bon (1835)
Read A Bargain Lost / Bon-Bon
Here, as with "A Decided Loss"/"Loss of Breath", we have two versions of a single story. Here, as with the former, I have the temerity or misfortune to disagree with Prof. Mabbott, since I like these somewhat less than "A Decided Loss".
They tell of a philosopher visited by Satan, who intends to bargain for the pleasure of eating his host's soul. The gentlemanly devil is put off and defeated in this project by the ungentlemanly drunkenness of the philosopher, who by story's end has oiled the wheels of conversation so well that he cannot get traction to utter a complete sentence.
But the stories have two particular points of interest. In both, Poe satirizes the novelist's minute and mechanical description by detailing his hero's jacket, pants and shoes--to the effect that the reader should know what jacket, pants and shoes the philosopher is drunk in. And in the latter version, there is a passage oddly suggestive of H.P. Lovecraft's "The Colour out of Space":
Here, as with "A Decided Loss"/"Loss of Breath", we have two versions of a single story. Here, as with the former, I have the temerity or misfortune to disagree with Prof. Mabbott, since I like these somewhat less than "A Decided Loss".
They tell of a philosopher visited by Satan, who intends to bargain for the pleasure of eating his host's soul. The gentlemanly devil is put off and defeated in this project by the ungentlemanly drunkenness of the philosopher, who by story's end has oiled the wheels of conversation so well that he cannot get traction to utter a complete sentence.
But the stories have two particular points of interest. In both, Poe satirizes the novelist's minute and mechanical description by detailing his hero's jacket, pants and shoes--to the effect that the reader should know what jacket, pants and shoes the philosopher is drunk in. And in the latter version, there is a passage oddly suggestive of H.P. Lovecraft's "The Colour out of Space":
In raising his eyes, with a strange feeling of curiosity to ascertain the color of his guest's, he found them by no means black, as he had anticipated--nor gray, as might have been imagined--nor yet hazel nor blue--nor indeed yellow nor red--nor purple--nor white--nor green--nor any other color in the heavens above, or in the earth beneath, or in the water under the earth.Finally, "The Bargain Lost" happens also to contain a duplication of Bulwer-Lytton's infamous opening line, "It was a dark and stormy night."
[As it happens, Poe's devil has no eyes.]
Thursday, October 16, 2008
A Decided Loss (1832) / Loss of Breath (1835)
Read A Decided Loss / Loss of Breath
These are two versions of a single story. The plot of the first runs thus: The narrator is berating his wife when he loses his breath. He searches the house but cannot find it and cannot, as a consequence, speak in any but gutteral tones.
But he is able to save face before his wife by pretending to have an enthusiasm for tragic theater. He grimaces and leers at his wife in perfect imitation of an actor for the popular stage and croaks out his explanation. Having thus "put his house in order", he boards a coach with the design of fleeing the country--but a fellow passenger applies a mirror to his lips and, thinking him a corpse, throws him out. He is then taken by an innkeeper and prepared for burial. Once prepared and left alone, two cats approach and fight one another for the privilege of devouring his nose. He escapes the cats (less a few ounces of flesh) by leaping out a window.
Unfortunately, he leaps into a hangman's cart carrying a robber who bears an exact resemblance to him. The robber leaps from the cart, the guards awake, the hero is flogged and hanged. He dances very well on the rope but, aside from chafing, suffers no inconvenience. But--again, unfortunately--he is delivered to a doctor as a specimen for dissection. His struggles to free himself are taken for the interesting influence of a galvanic battery and, after the doctor has removed his viscera, he dies. To which I need only add that the story is told in the past tense and first person.
"Loss of Breath" expands the story slightly, by the addition of a few incidents at the end. It is the longer and inferior of the two. T.O. Mabbott did not care for either version, but I think "A Decided Loss" an amusing story for those who enjoy a concerted absurdity.
These are two versions of a single story. The plot of the first runs thus: The narrator is berating his wife when he loses his breath. He searches the house but cannot find it and cannot, as a consequence, speak in any but gutteral tones.
But he is able to save face before his wife by pretending to have an enthusiasm for tragic theater. He grimaces and leers at his wife in perfect imitation of an actor for the popular stage and croaks out his explanation. Having thus "put his house in order", he boards a coach with the design of fleeing the country--but a fellow passenger applies a mirror to his lips and, thinking him a corpse, throws him out. He is then taken by an innkeeper and prepared for burial. Once prepared and left alone, two cats approach and fight one another for the privilege of devouring his nose. He escapes the cats (less a few ounces of flesh) by leaping out a window.
Unfortunately, he leaps into a hangman's cart carrying a robber who bears an exact resemblance to him. The robber leaps from the cart, the guards awake, the hero is flogged and hanged. He dances very well on the rope but, aside from chafing, suffers no inconvenience. But--again, unfortunately--he is delivered to a doctor as a specimen for dissection. His struggles to free himself are taken for the interesting influence of a galvanic battery and, after the doctor has removed his viscera, he dies. To which I need only add that the story is told in the past tense and first person.
"Loss of Breath" expands the story slightly, by the addition of a few incidents at the end. It is the longer and inferior of the two. T.O. Mabbott did not care for either version, but I think "A Decided Loss" an amusing story for those who enjoy a concerted absurdity.
The Everything Guide to Poe, by Shelley Costa Bloomfield
I'm afraid I didn't produce the review of this book that I meant to when I mentioned it before. But I should say that it is a very good book on Poe's life and work, better than many of a more scholarly manner and design. It contains all that is central, more than a few things that are little-known and infrequently mentioned even in full-dress biographies and avoids the speculative excesses common to biographies and criticisms, especially those of Poe.
In spite of having read the biographies by Meyers, Silverman and others, I prefer this one to all but Quinn's. It is an exceedingly efficient book; packs into a few words what has required much greater length from others; is accurate, temperate and entertaining. For an introduction or ready reference, I know of nothing better and highly recommend it.
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Rhetoric and Style
I've just discovered Brett Zimmerman's Edgar Allan Poe: Rhetoric and Style, which appears to be an enlightening and entertaining book. I'll try to go into this further later, but for now, a word from the introduction:
More remains to be done to convince the world that Poe's prose deserves more critical attention and that the hostility it has engendered is largely misguided. Proceeding from a position of sympathy, then, I thought it high time that someone devoted a book-length study, a stylistic approach, to Poe's prose.
Regarding another matter of style, here are a few of Poe's remarks on simplicity:
Its general character, as indeed the general character of all that we have seen from the same pen, is a certain unpretending simplicity, nervous, forcible, and altogether devoid of affectation. This is a style of writing above all others to be desired, and above all others difficult of attainment. Nor is it to be supposed that by simplicity we imply a rejection of ornament, or of a proper use of those advantages afforded by metaphorical illustration. A style professing to disclaim such advantages would be anything but simple -- if indeed we might not be tempted to think it very silly. We have called the style of Mr. K. a style simple and forcible, and we have no hesitation in calling it, at the same time, richly figurative and poetical. We have opened the pages at random for an illustration of our meaning, and have no difficulty in finding one precisely suited to our purpose. Let us turn to vol. i. page 112. --" The path of invasion is ever a difficult road when it leads against a united people. You mistake both the disposition and the means of these republicans. They have bold partizans in the field, and eloquent leaders in their senates. The nature of the strife sorts well with their quick and earnest tempers; and by this man's play of war we breed up soldiers who delight in the game. Rebellion has long since marched beyond the middle ground, and has no thought of retreat. What was at first the mere overflow of popular passion has been hardened into principle -- like a fiery stream of lava which first rolls in a flood, and then turns into stone."
--Review of Horse-Shoe Robinson, by John Pendleton Kennedy, from the Southern Literary Messenger
More remains to be done to convince the world that Poe's prose deserves more critical attention and that the hostility it has engendered is largely misguided. Proceeding from a position of sympathy, then, I thought it high time that someone devoted a book-length study, a stylistic approach, to Poe's prose.
Regarding another matter of style, here are a few of Poe's remarks on simplicity:
Its general character, as indeed the general character of all that we have seen from the same pen, is a certain unpretending simplicity, nervous, forcible, and altogether devoid of affectation. This is a style of writing above all others to be desired, and above all others difficult of attainment. Nor is it to be supposed that by simplicity we imply a rejection of ornament, or of a proper use of those advantages afforded by metaphorical illustration. A style professing to disclaim such advantages would be anything but simple -- if indeed we might not be tempted to think it very silly. We have called the style of Mr. K. a style simple and forcible, and we have no hesitation in calling it, at the same time, richly figurative and poetical. We have opened the pages at random for an illustration of our meaning, and have no difficulty in finding one precisely suited to our purpose. Let us turn to vol. i. page 112. --" The path of invasion is ever a difficult road when it leads against a united people. You mistake both the disposition and the means of these republicans. They have bold partizans in the field, and eloquent leaders in their senates. The nature of the strife sorts well with their quick and earnest tempers; and by this man's play of war we breed up soldiers who delight in the game. Rebellion has long since marched beyond the middle ground, and has no thought of retreat. What was at first the mere overflow of popular passion has been hardened into principle -- like a fiery stream of lava which first rolls in a flood, and then turns into stone."
--Review of Horse-Shoe Robinson, by John Pendleton Kennedy, from the Southern Literary Messenger
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