Accounting for the Mass Appeal of Edgar Allan Poe

A Thesis

Presented to

The Division of Literature and Languages

Reed College

In Partial Fulfillment

of the Requirements for the Degree

Bachelor of Arts

Patrick Leo McQuestion

May 2012

Introduction: Mass Appeal and Poe

Edgar Allan Poe’s reputation today is generally mischaracterized. Poe’s artistic

talent is obscured by the “adolescent” appeal of his poetry or the gruesome and maniacal

content in his fictive prose, and his visionary perspectives are damaged by accounts of his

irresponsible, eccentric behavior. Even the disheveled appearance of his daguerreotypes

is misleading. Poe’s mass appeal today rests upon abstraction: he seen as a token of

literature or a representative of adolescence, as Jonathan Elmer points out (Elmer, 4).

What fascinates me is not so much the fact that Poe was overlooked for most of

his career, or that posthumously he occupies a somewhat peripheral position as an

American literary representative, but that his aura yet lives in film, fiction, and even in

cities’ folkloric and cultural traditions. It’s as if he was made for t-shirts and caricatures. I

am less curious about the popular images of death in his stories or his life’s spiraling

demise as I am about the ongoing vitality and volatility of his reputation. Much of Poe’s

power is traceable to his intelligence and interpretations of society. I am tempted to

believe Poe was a pioneer in popular mass culture, an early literary celebrity, whose

career in the 1830s and 40s stands at once inside and outside a commercial atmosphere

and capitalist dialectic.

Some of the images of Poe that have circulated since his death have become

iconic. In the famous Ultima Thule daguerreotype—the Latin phrase appearing in the

Oxford English Dictionary as, “a distant unknown region; the extreme limit of travel and

discovery”—he appears disturbed and far from happiness (see Figure 1). Indeed, in this

case he most certainly was. This image was captured in November of 1848, less than a

week after he attempted suicide by the consumption of laudanum, and a year before he

died of mysterious causes. As to be expected, he looks unordinary, disheveled, yet

gentlemanly: the drooping bags under his eyes, the somber glare; the depressed

expression on his face, his head adorned with a thick, protruding mess of dark hair; the

curt mustache and half-buttoned suit is complete with a plain, twisted cravat. Again, as

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Figure 1. Ultima Thule Daguerreotype (1848)

This photo was taken four days after Poe had tried to commit suicide. “Ultima Thule” is a

Latin phrase denoting extreme limits of discovery. As Michael J. Deas points out, the title

is reminiscent of Poe’s poem “Dream-Land”: “I have reached these lands but newly/

From an ultimate dim Thule – /From a wild weird clime that lieth, sublime/ Out of Space

– out of Time.” (Deas, 36) (Image courtesy of EAPoe.org)

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Elmer has pointed out, Poe can have the image of adolescence and serious, high

literature. But this photograph reveals the gravity of his situation in later life. His

daguerreotypes and the images that have appeared as modifications of the original

portraits are used in popular culture today because Poe has a complex, socially dynamic

identity.

As contemporary artist Michael J. Deas points out, if viewed chronologically,

Poe’s daguerreotypes can “provide a striking visual narrative to the final decade of Poe’s

life” (Deas, 1). But it’s just that: in 1840, Poe already had a reputation as an opinionated

and stubborn magazine personality. While Poe’s relationship to the social limit, as Elmer

calls it, grew increasingly intimate, so did his reputation proportionally become distorted.

His later portraits and descriptions contrast with earlier sketches, paintings, and

depictions of Poe revealing that he was an athletic, attractive, and graceful individual. As

Deas remarks, contrary to common conceptions of him as a dejected or feeble adult,

“Descriptions of Poe in adult life vary enormously, but most agree that his features were

finely chiseled, that he retained his youthful thinness” (4). Our tendency to view Poe in

the midst of a suicide chronicle hints at both his and our sardonic, perhaps sadistic,

obsession with public image and popular culture.

Just as easily as his photographs, Poe’s writing is taken out of context. Neither in

Poe’s works nor his public image do we see appreciation for the mind of “a more

insistent idealist, repeatedly returning to absolute identity and unconscious production,” a

writer whose philosophy is constantly being refined by the greater evolving American

society (Lee, 49). Rather, we see an abstracted or simplified form of Poe. And this

simplified figure of Poe appears in popular culture in conventional and unconventional

manifestations. For example, in downtown Baltimore, large groups continue to gather at

Poe’s grave for his birthday, January 19th, to commemorate his life. But it is generally

understood among Baltimoreans that people also congregate at midnight in order to catch

a glimpse of a mysterious figure called the Poe Toaster that has consistently left a half-

empty bottle of cognac and three red roses on his grave for decades, up until recently.

The identity of the mysterious Poe Toaster has never been revealed, and his appearances

are a source of modern lore that solidifies the socially marginalized, mysterious figure of

Poe. By the same token, however, this modern adaptation of Poe confuses the writer’s

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public and private identity, and Poe becomes a person that signifies superstition and

paranormality.

There are plenty of unconventional manifestations of Poe in Baltimore too. The

city’s National Football League franchise has claimed his aura for their team, the Ravens.

Poe’s famous poem is employed as an ominous and intimidating force. Perhaps not many

football fans have read the poem, but they are familiar with the supernatural, death-driven

effect of “The Raven.” In this case, Poe exists on a commercially saturated, mainstream

level at which his work as a writer is alluded to yet his legitimate artistic existence is

trivialized. He is used as an omen to intimidate opponents. In another example of

unconventional Poe imagery, a local artist has created “Natty Poe” by adapting Poe’s

likeness to the iconic one-eyed, mustachioed gentleman of Baltimore’s National

Bohemian beer (Mr. Boh of, in local dialect, “Natty Boh” beer; see Figures 2 and 3). In

the artist’s depiction, Poe’s public aesthetic is linked to a popular symbol that signifies

debauchery, and more subtly, the end to prohibition (National). Natty Poe, to build upon

the last point, abstractly links Poe to the end of prohibition in 1933, a momentous

reinstatement of the right to legally consume alcohol in America. At Baltimore’s sub-

cultural level, this symbol combines two famous icons: Mr. Boh for his important history

in the Chesapeake Bay area and his high-profile individuality. In this case, Poe’s

perceived artistic demeanor and independent, even rebellious intellectualism is an object

of pride for the citizens of Baltimore.

In these manifestations of Poe in Baltimore, the literary figure has an objectified

volatility. As we will see in a brief sketch of his life, Edgar Allan Poe indeed had

historical ties to the city, and it boasts to be the location where he began his career as a

short story writer in 1831. But, more importantly, these examples reflect the heteroglossic

effect of Poe, the ability to read him and use him for different purposes. How complicit

was he in allowing for this level of interpretation? Compared to other historical

antebellum writers like Herman Melville, or even a public figure like Frederick Douglass,

Poe is both much more adaptable to commoditization, and he is much less stable and

misunderstood. In some cases he is remembered as a restless soul, in others, he becomes

an intimidating force, and yet in others, he is a symbol of independence and alcohol

indulgence. These faces of Poe result from his large span of work, his idiosyncratic, at

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times radical approach to American literature, and his marginalized yet enigmatic public

image.

The pulp of Poe, besides his playful satires or poetic melodies, which are in and

of themselves crucial to his career, is his horror. Horror indeed complements his

identification with the South, which at the time was being disenfranchised economically

by Northern industry. Socio-politically, the South was being displaced by

industrialization and beginning to distance itself as a region that carried ideals aligned

with those of English society, such as hierarchization, chivalry, and reputation. Poe’s

Figures 2 and 3. Natty Poe and Mr. Boh

A comparison of the Natty Poe and Natty Boh icons. This is an example of the sarcastic

play on Edgar Allan Poe in today’s popular culture. The rendition of Natty Poe is

modeled after the famous Ultima Thule daguerreotype. Mr. Boh was introduced after

prohibition as a marketing campaign and has become a popular figure in the city of

Baltimore (National). (Images courtesy of NattyPoe.com and

<http://nyarlathotim.blogspot.com>)

influential stories reflect the anxieties of the South and cultural discussions pertinent at

that time in America. Poe’s protagonists speak to the social stresses of what David

Leverenz calls “entrepreneurial manhood” during the early American Renaissance, a

period described as a nationalist movement, “a collective fiction, transforming insecurity

into strength” (Leverenz, 74, 11). Poe expresses an early Southern voice in this

“collective fiction” through his horror: his protagonists are often driven by the fears of

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downward mobility—a process the author himself endured—with a cynical critique of

entrepreneurial class ideals. Entrepreneurial ideals, in Poe’s eyes, were no different from

any other capitalist country: built on Western Enlightenment thought, liberty and

democracy were not rights but priveleges. Class stratification still occurred, and the

emerging middle class only obscured nepotism. Paradoxically, argues David Leverenz,

any case of upward mobility relied on an emerging middle class that collectively affirmed

“individuality” through ideological notions of “hard work, self-control, and material

rewards” (75). As a Southerner, Poe’s ideals were quite different.

Despite personally experiencing downward mobility, Poe flourished in the public

sphere with the development of print culture. In this environment, he found only intervals

of material success, but he laid out visions of the “development of art under the present

conditions of production,” addressing implicitly a political struggle through the creation

of his art rather than explicitly addressing political issues in the art itself (Benjamin, 252).

By means of keeping his political opinions hidden from the public and by promoting

Gothic Romanticism, or European approaches and modes of storytelling, Poe presented

an alternative if not “revolutionary” demand in what Walter Benjamin calls the politics of

art (252). By means of identifying with the Old World, accepting their ideal and cultural

influences in America, Poe set New World standards of artistry that would allow the

country to converse with other forms of Western literature. While some American critics

were celebrating stories of the uncharted West by James Fenimore Cooper or envisioning

transcendence alongside Walt Whitman’s poetry, for example, Poe sought to explore

what differentiated the uncivilized and civilized world, questioning the reliability of

human nature itself. Poe’s horror, although read by many for its chilling effects, can be

considered a serious political project that reflects a divergent vision in the “collective

fiction” of citizenship and manhood in the New World. Sadistic obsession with irony and

false ideals make Poe’s highly accessible works revolutionary, and his horror hints at an

alien, capitalist fascism that can only come from pseudo-democratic ideals in America.

To consider further his reputation’s viability and profitability in recent times is a method

of proving or disproving his peripheral views of a capitalist system.

Edgar Allan Poe was one of the first American writers who explicitly preferred

European literary traditions and concepts in the New World environment, writing fiction,

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criticism, or theory that was published in magazines but that ultimately marginalized him

from mainstream American artists. Poe’s overt desire for European folk traditions like

Germanism, psychological first-person Romantic narratives and Gothicism, and his

general distaste for moral didacticism or themes of nationalism in literature signify his

Southern affiliations. His themes of mystery and heritage, or poetic ethereality and aural

melody, make Poe’s writing resemble the Virginia colony as an “Old Dominion,” an

idyllic retreat planned and laid out by British royalty. In Poe’s criticism, additionally, we

can clearly see that the writer was complicit in the project to preserve and proffer

Southern literature while he was working for the Southern Literary Messenger and

thereafter. As a political voice, Poe sought to rid American literature of its conflated

notions of liberty, conceptions of independence from the Old World, and illusions of

egalitarian democracy thereby laying down groundwork for future dialogues of American

culture and regionalism.

In this thesis, I argue that there is no doubt that throughout his career, Poe

identified with the South, and his writing lays down many traits that have come to define

Southern literature. Southern writers from Henry Timrod and Mark Twain to Willa

Cather and William Falkner, have been in one way or another influenced by Poe’s use of

violent and grotesque imagery and realist descriptions of the soul, his frustration with

critics, his poetic sensibilities, and his use of blood and irony over evasive idealism: as

Southern novelist Ellen Glasgow once put it, “these qualities are Southern” (Carlson

“Poe,” 654-55). It follows that the antebellum author who lived much of his life in

Virginia, despite hazy ideas of regionalism at the time, considered Southern ideas of

liberty more practical or desirable than those of the North. As historian David H. Fischer

writes about the antebellum period, “In place of New England’s distinctive idea of

ordered liberty, the Virginians thought of liberty as a hegemonic condition of dominion

over others and—equally important—dominion over oneself” (Fischer, 411). Many of

Poe’s stories address the power and powerlessness of the individual, obliquely calling

attention to societal order. Today, Poe’s Southern identity is a matter of contention, but in

this study, I plan to lay down the obvious influence of the South in his writing. If my

hypothesis is correct, that Poe harbored anti-nationalist views consistent and sympathetic

with Southern readers and intellectuals, felt distrust towards the future, and was

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adamantly attracted to gaining a reputation in America, I mean to show his identification

with the South remained throughout his immersion in the national magazine industry.

My project is to reassess the imaginative universe, as Clifford Geertz would call

it, that Poe lived and thrived in so as to likewise demystify Poe and argue for his cultural

and social legitimacy as a citizen and artist (Geertz, 11). Whether we acknowledge Poe as

an early beacon or an unjustified, despondent detractor to the American literary project,

we must look at his environment in order to characterize his presence today. The truth of

the matter is that since his death, whether he has been characterized as an ominous

symbol or a drug-addled artiste, he has not been considered seriously in the public world

as an American visionary. I choose to look at Poe’s environment and surrounding power

structures or influences for more insight into this estranged relationship he has to

legitimacy. Following this method, I hope to characterize Poe as Geertz or an

ethnographer might. In my thesis, I hopefully expose an individual’s “normalness without

reducing their particularity,” and make an argument that “renders them accessible: setting

them in the frame of their own banalities, it dissolves their opacity” (14).

Considering that Poe lived at a level close to poverty most of his independent life,

we can argue that Poe’s resilience was a matter of pride that he developed from an early

age. We can reconcile his marginalization and brilliance as a product of Southern dissent

in the early stages of the emergence of industry-oriented, entrepreneurial manhood.

However, despite perhaps an antebellum antipathy towards an economy dominated by the

North, what can we learn about American culture in light of Poe’s distrust of Jeffersonian

democracy and New World aims? How does his Gothic writing and personal suffering

speak to present day conditions—the complete absorption and sovereignty of free market

capitalism and consumerism, the extremely large wealth disparities, broad notions of

freedom, self-governance, and meritocracy—indeed, the entire state of American culture

and the superstructure today?

It is unfortunate albeit significant that Poe was not given much credit for most of

his career. Years of poverty, stress, and suffering inhibited his reception of notoriety later

in life. He was a highly intelligent writer for his grotesque horror, burlesque satire, and

affective, musical poetry. Notably indicative of his immediate global presence, French

writers offered heartfelt and serious commemoration of his aesthetics and relationship to

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American literature as soon as 1857. Charles Baudelaire wrote that Poe “was never a

dupe!” but in fact was very important for his vision of the “perversity of man” in a

“nation more infatuated with itself than any other” (Carlson Critical, 65-66). Clearly,

Poe’s writing helped define American Gothicism or Dark Romanticism, which is

characterized today partly by intense personal narration, internal psychological reflection,

and images of a mysterious natural world in decline. He advanced the project of

American literature in general through criticism by refusing to accept just any piece of

literature simply because it was formed in the New World.

As mentioned earlier, I’ve chosen to approach Poe with a regard for his early life

and upbringing. In order to legitimate him as a participant in the American landscape

between 1830 and 1850, I think it is crucial to introduce Poe by identifying existing

structures of power that surrounded the young writer and then show how Poe interpreted

and confronted these structures in his career and expressions. I want to provide a context

for his interaction with and involvement in capitalism and future commoditization.

Poe’s Early Life

In order to speak of Poe as a Southerner, I find it helpful to introduce Poe’s early

experiences primarily in Virginia. Nonetheless, for the sake of addressing my larger

argument concerning the role of Southern identity in Poe’s career in short stories and

magazining, I’ve delineated three periods in the man’s life that are representative of

fundamental shifts in his perspective (See Table 1). However, the first period of his life,

from 1809 to 1832, is the longest and the most crucial to understanding Poe’s ideals and

socio-political perspectives. Poe was an orphan who received financial and prestigious

support from his foster father, John Allan, an industrialist and merchant based out of

Richmond, Virginia, who inherited a large estate from his uncle William Galt in 1825,

when Poe was sixteen. As he grew into adolescence, Poe’s lofty—or to Allan, completely

unrealistic—hopes of becoming a writer became very serious when the rift between Poe

and Allan expanded. Poe distinguished himself as a rugged individual, which speaks to

what historian Anthony Rotundo sees as emerging conceptions of the self-made man