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An outcast once more, Poe moved to New York just as an economic panic portended a long national depression. For more than a year he floundered in Manhattan without employment, writing little and publishing less, toiling mainly on the novel that Harper & Brothers agreed to print but postponed because the book market had collapsed. Desperate for work, Poe relocated to Philadelphia in early 1838, appealing unsuccessfully to Paulding (then secretary of the navy) for a clerkship. When
The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym
finally appeared that summer, it probably brought scant remuneration, and reviews were mixed. Poe called it “a silly book” and concluded that the only narratives worth writing were those readable at one sitting. Soon after the novel appeared, Poe earned ten dollars for his most brilliant tale to date, “Ligeia,” composed for the Baltimore
American Museum
. That journal subsequently carried the twin parody now known as “How to Write a Blackwood Article” and “A Predicament,” in which a mordant Poe satirized literary sensationalism and the palpable hazards of authorship.
Desperation alone explains Poe’s willingness in 1839 to allow his name to be used in connection with
A Conchologist’s First Book,
a plagiarized textbook on seashells. That spring he composed for
The Gift
another extraordinary tale, “William Wilson,” about a remorseless cardsharp whose adversary proves at last to be his own conscience. About then Poe also sought work with William E. Burton, a Philadelphia actor and theater manager who had just purchased a journal. The crassly ambitious Burton welcomed Poe’s collaboration in publishing
Burton’s Gentleman’s Magazine
and paid him ten dollars per week. Although Burton suppressed a few stinging reviews, Poe again indulged in the occasional “using up” of mediocre writers, a tactic that attracted publicity. But he also contributed original tales, including his satire of an American Indian fighter, “The Man That Was Used Up,” and his incomparable “The Fall of the House of Usher.” Praised by critics and fellow writers (such as Washington Irving), the latter tale confirmed Poe’s emerging importance as a writer of fiction, and perhaps convinced Lea and Blanchard of Philadelphia to publish a two-volume edition in 1840 called
Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque
. A reviewer in
Alexander’s Weekly Messenger
declared that Poe had “placed himself in the foremost rank of American writers” with his
Tales
. Poe reciprocated by contributing short articles to the Philadelphia newspaper and by promising, as an intellectual exhibition, to solve any cryptograms sent to him. He simultaneously prepared for
Burton’s
a serialized (and heavily plagiarized) narrative about Western exploration called
The Journal of Julius Rodman
. As a writer enamored of “the foreign subject” Poe must have resented Burton’s announcement of a $1000 literary contest that included $250 for five tales illustrating different eras in American history or portraying U.S. regional differences. His contempt for Burton prompted him to tell a friend: “As soon as Fate allows I will have a magazine of my own—and will endeavor to kick up a dust.”
That idea became increasingly irresistible. In 1840, as Rodman’s apocryphal journal was unfolding in monthly installments and as Poe unscrambled cryptograms for
Alexander’s,
he also devised a plan to start his own periodical. In
Burton’s
he decided to play the literary sleuth by accusing Harvard professor Henry Wadsworth Longfellow of plagiarizing from Tennyson. Poe also published a fine new poem of his own, “Sonnet—To Silence,” as well as “Peter Pendulum, the Business Man,” a biting satire perhaps aimed obliquely at Burton but more obviously targeting American commercial greed. In March, Burton lamely reneged on the announced premiums for original works, and two months later, intent on building a new theater, he prepared to sell his journal. Poe seized the moment to print a prospectus for his own periodical, to be called the
Penn Magazine,
but when Burton saw the circular, he accused Poe of disloyalty, fired him, and demanded repayment of money already advanced. The dismissal provoked a blazing reply in which Poe warned Burton, “If by accident you have taken it into your head that I am to be insulted with impunity I can only assume that you are an ass.”
Out of work, Poe enlisted contributors and subscribers for his proposed journal, which he envisioned as having a “lasting effect upon the growing literature of the country.” He found a new ally in Frederick W. Thomas, a Cincinnati novelist and Whig partisan who campaigned in Philadelphia for presidential candidate William Henry Harrison. Another sympathetic figure was George Graham, who edited the
Saturday Evening Post,
owned
The Casket,
and in October acquired
Burton’s
. Graham generously lauded Poe’s plans for the
Penn,
and when illness forced Poe to postpone the project, Graham solicited his work for his amalgamated monthly,
Graham’s Magazine
. In the first issue, Poe’s “The Man of the Crowd” signaled the beginning of an important connection with Graham, for when a bank crisis in early 1841 forced another delay in the
Penn,
Poe gratefully assumed responsibility for book reviews in
Graham’s
at an annual salary of eight hundred dollars. But the monthly also provided a venue for new tales: developing the city mysteries premise of “The Man of the Crowd,” he invented the modern detective story in “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” in April, and the following month published “A Descent into the Maelström.” Poe also contributed a series on cryptography, “A Few Words on Secret Writing,” that grew from his writing for
Alexander’s
.
Convincing Graham that they could together create a prestigious, high-quality monthly featuring American writers exclusively, Poe began in June 1841 to solicit contributions from notable authors—Irving, Kennedy, the poet Fitz-Greene Halleck, and even the much abused Longfellow. But privately he admitted to Thomas his growing irritation with Graham, and for the next two years pursued a clerkship in the administration of President John Tyler, successor to Harrison (who died soon after his inauguration). Poe was disillusioned by the absence of an international copyright law to protect the work of American authors and to prevent U.S. publishers from selling “pirated” English works. He was also appalled by the “namby-pamby” character of
Graham’s,
which added fashion plates and—at the end of 1841—two female editors to a staff that already included Charles Peterson. Poe nevertheless claimed responsibility for the journal’s commercial success and continued to write reviews, read proofs, and contribute tales (such as “Never Bet the Devil Your Head”) as well as a new series on handwriting called “Autography.” He also wrote an “Exordium to Critical Notices” questioning the campaign for “national literature” while warning of America’s “degrading imitation” of British culture. But in January 1842, a devastating event destroyed Poe’s tranquil home life: His young wife (then only nineteen) suffered a massive pulmonary hemorrhage while singing at the piano. “Dangerously ill” for weeks, she seemed to recover, yet relapses confirmed that Virginia, like Poe’s mother, had been stricken with consumption.
Vacillating between denial and anger, Poe sought forgetfulness in drink; sometimes absent from work, he quarreled with Graham about money. He still pursued the dream of a magazine of his own, urging Thomas to propose to President Tyler a journal edited by Poe that might “play an important part in the politics of the day.” When not overwrought, he carried out assignments for
Graham’s,
interviewing Charles Dickens in Philadelphia in March and producing for the May issue the famous review of Hawthorne that enunciated Poe’s theory of the tale based on unity of effect. He also published two stories betraying domestic anxieties: “The Oval Portrait,” which depicts an artist too busy to notice that his wife is dying, and “The Masque of the Red Death,” which represents fatal contagion as an unexpected intruder.
But another interloper, a fifth editorial associate added by Graham—Reverend Rufus W. Griswold—apparently precipitated Poe’s departure from the magazine staff. Griswold had included Poe’s work in his
Poets and Poetry of America,
the first comprehensive anthology of its kind, and Poe and Griswold expressed mutual cordiality but privately despised each other. At Griswold’s hiring, Poe abruptly resigned, claiming that the magazine’s feminized content—“the contemptible pictures, fashion-plates, music and love tales”—had motivated his departure, but he plainly refused to work with Griswold and saw his arrival as a threat to his own editorial influence.
Without steady income, Poe resumed old quests and cultivated new connections. Thomas spoke of an impending appointment at the Philadelphia Custom House, but Poe nevertheless visited New York seeking an editorial position—though inebriation undermined his efforts there. To Georgia planter and poet Thomas Holley Chivers, he proposed a lucrative partnership, still hoping to launch the
Penn Magazine
. Poe’s focus on the journal intensified in November, when hopes for a government position faded. Hearing that James Russell Lowell was founding a Boston magazine, Poe offered to become a contributor, forwarding a new poem, “Lenore,” and an essay, “Notes Upon English Verse.” Lowell also published “The Tell-Tale Heart” in his short-lived
Pioneer,
and upon its demise Poe announced to Lowell his own plan to create “the best journal in America.” He was soon contracting with a Philadelphia publisher of “ample capital” named Thomas Clarke to produce a high-quality magazine now titled
The Stylus
. In response to the “great question of International Copy-Right,” it would feature American writers exclusively, resisting “the dictation of Foreign Reviews.” Poe seemed once more on the verge of realizing his great dream, but again he destroyed his prospects for success.
An administrative change at the Custom House persuaded Poe that he could secure a government job by appealing directly to the president in Washington. He had expected Thomas to arrange the necessary interview with Tyler, but Thomas was ill, and upon reaching Washington, Poe began drinking heavily. His boorish behavior offended his friends, the president’s son, and a visiting Philadelphia writer named Thomas Dunn English. In desperation, Poe’s ally Jesse Dow implored Clarke, a temperance man, to rescue Poe from humiliation. Poe returned to Philadelphia on his own steam, however, making an immediate, conciliatory visit to the publisher. But Clarke had seen enough and soon retracted his offer to publish
The Stylus
. In the wake of this misadventure, English included a derisive portrait of Poe in his temperance novel,
The Doom of the Drinker,
a work commissioned by Clarke.
But Poe’s situation was not altogether hopeless. His tale “The Gold-Bug” won a hundred-dollar prize offered by the
Dollar Newspaper
. Reprinted in many papers, the story garnered more recognition for Poe than any previous publication; one Philadelphia theater immediately staged a dramatic adaptation. In August the author resumed a loose affiliation with
Graham’s,
his sporadic reviews serving to repay loans from the publisher. That same month the
Saturday Evening Post
published “The Black Cat,” Poe’s own temperance tale about the perverse compulsions incited by drink. As
The Doom of the Drinker
appeared in serial form, Poe found a new source of income: He became a public lecturer, speaking on American poetry to large crowds in Philadelphia, Wilmington, Newark (Delaware), Baltimore, and Reading. In early 1844 his staunch support of the copyright issue drew a letter from Cornelius Mathews of New York, who sent his pamphlet on that subject and perhaps an invitation to join the American Copyright Club. Having imposed too often on too many people in Philadelphia, Poe moved in April to New York.
The author created an instant sensation in Manhattan when his “Balloon Hoax” appeared as a dispatch in an extra edition of the
Sun
. The public clamored for news about the transatlantic flight, but James Gordon Bennett of the rival
Herald
detected a ruse and forced a retraction. The uproar, however, only confirmed Poe’s talent for what he called “mystification” and excited his creativity. That summer he told Lowell of the “mania for composition” that sometimes seized him; since December 1843 he had composed “A Tale of the Ragged Mountains,” “The Spectacles,” “Mesmeric Revelation,” “The Premature Burial,” “The Oblong Box,” “The Purloined Letter,” “ ‘Thou Art the Man,’ ” and “The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether,” as well as “The Balloon Hoax” and several shorter pieces. Like “The Gold-Bug,” most of the new tales portrayed American scenes, and Poe declared that he was writing a “Critical History of Am. Literature.” For a small Pennsylvania newspaper he was also writing a chatty column called “Doings of Gotham.” Once indifferent to American subjects, he manifested a pragmatic shift in focus. That spring Poe again proposed to Lowell coeditorship of a “well-founded Monthly journal” featuring American authors; he reminded Chivers of a similar offer, and in late October he cajoled Lowell a third time while sending proposals for both the magazine and a new, multivolume collection of tales to Charles Anthon, an influential New York professor.
Disillusioned by Whig partisanship and cheered by the copyright campaign of Young America, a group of rabid Democrats, Poe lent token support to the Democratic Party in 1844, befriending the head of a political club and writing the lyrics to a campaign song. He commented wryly on the contest between Whig Henry Clay and Democrat James K. Polk in his metropolitan gossip column, and in November began contributing “Marginalia” to the partisan
Democratic Review
. But he privately mistrusted the expansionist agenda of Polk, and in a tale partly inspired by the election of 1844 satirized the chief rationale for U.S. imperialism—belief in Anglo-Saxon cultural superiority—in “Some Words With a Mummy.”
Even as he was caricaturing the predicament of the American magazinist in “The Literary Life of Thingum Bob,” Poe accepted a position in October with N. P. Willis’s
Evening Journal,
where his celebrated poem “The Raven” first appeared in January 1845. Widely discussed, reprinted, and parodied, the poem made Poe a celebrity, yet its evocation of unending melancholy also marked a rehearsal of his impending bereavement. He distracted himself from constant worry about Virginia by playing the literary lion in New York salons and by plunging into daily journalism. But his squibs for the
Mirror
and subsequent contributions to a new newspaper, the
Broadway Journal,
curbed his productivity in fiction, which in 1845 amounted to only four new tales, including “The Imp of the Perverse” and “The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar.” But his newfound fame, partly excited by Lowell’s biographical sketch of Poe in
Graham’s,
gave him greater editorial freedom, which he used to renew his attacks on Longfellow. He extended his assault on the professor poet in a well-attended February lecture on American poetry, but he also remained adamant about copyright, and that month published “Some Secrets of the Magazine Prison-House,” his most searing analysis of literary property and the economic thralldom of American authors. Evert Duyckinck, leader of Young America, rewarded Poe’s advocacy of copyright by publishing first
Tales
and then
The Raven and Other Poems
in his Library of American Books.
BOOK: The Portable Edgar Allan Poe
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