Happy Birthday Edgar Allan Poe

Celebrating the life and the legacy of 

an American literary genius,

whose bone-chilling tales of terror and suspense

still manage to captivate and creep out, as well as inspire,

the minds of readers and aspiring writers of today.

"His was a wild spirit of rebellious brilliance"

-William Rose Benet

Edgar Allan Poe

1809-1849


He spent much of his brief life
Brooding...an acid-tongued critic,
Yet, the torment in his eyes
revealed the pain in his soul,
and the Raven's true heart,
a lonely and misunderstood cynic...
He did have one great love in his life,
Sweet Sissy was her name,
After she became his blushing bride
Edgar's life was never the same.
"The Man With The Sad Eyes"
Pamela D. Brida


"I see no one among the living as
beautiful as my little wife."
-Edgar Allan Poe



"You have ravished my heart and given me courage,
my sister, my promised bride, you have ravished my heart
and given me courage with one look from your eyes...."
Song of Solomon 4:9

The Love of Edgar's Life
Virginia "Sissy" Clemm Poe

1822-1847

Poe's posthumously published poem, "Annabel Lee" is believed
to have been written for his beloved wife, who tragically died from
complications of tuberculosis in 1847 at the age of 24.


It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
By the name of Annabel Lee;
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me."
"Annabel Lee"
Edgar Allan Poe

Annabel Lee
Edmund Dulac
(1911)


"The boundaries which divide Life from Death
are at best shadowy and vague. Who shall say
where the one ends, and where the other begins?"

"The Premature Burial"

Edgar Allan Poe

I have long believed that Edgar Allan Poe's morbid
fascination with dying and death, reflected in so much of
his work was not uncommon in the mid-Victorian era, 
a time when many Americans were fascinated by
the supernatural and regularly delved into 
occult practices.  Spiritualism, or the ability to
contact the dead through seances and spirit-tapping
served as exciting forms of entertainment at
social gatherings and many occult societies were formed
in order to study supernatural phenomena.
However, when it came to the subjects of death and dying,
there was a very real fear shared by many people of this era
 of being mistaken for dead and subsequently buried alive.

This horrible possibility haunted the mind of Edgar Allan Poe
as it did many other people in mid-Victorian times, when
autopsies and embalming  were not routinely
performed as they are today.

One of the well known burial practices of the Victorian era was to attach a
small bell to the headstone of the deceased with a piece of sturdy string, 
 which was then carefully threaded down through the earth and through 
a small hole bored into the wooden coffin lid, the idea being that if
the person thought to be dead woke up they could ring the bell,
in hopes that someone would hear it and come to investigate
and dig them back up before it was too late!

That is about as terrifying a thought as anything Mr. Poe wrote
about, yet unfortunately, this did happen back in those times.



Moving on now from the macabre to the mundane...
for my fellow stamp collectors out there,

Marking the 200th anniversary of Poe's birth,
the United States Post Office in 2009 issued the above
commemorative postage stamp to honor the master of
supernatural terror and suspense, which included a
40 page booklet featuring Poe's most famous poem, "The Raven".

An earlier stamp was issued by the USPS in 1949,
which marked the anniversary of Poe's death one hundred years before.

Edgar and Virginia Poe once resided in the Spring Garden 
 section of the city of Philadelphia in the early 1840's
 along with Sissy's mother, Maria Clemm. 
 At the time, Poe was working as an editor for Graham's Magazine.
 During this time, he also wrote and published his famous detective novel,
"The Murders In The Rue Morgue" in 1841.

The Poe Residence
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

The murderous orangutan on a rampage
from "The Murders In The Rue Morgue"
By Edgar Allan Poe.
Illustration By Arthur Rackham


 
Also while living in Philadelphia, Poe penned the 
chilling tale of "The Black Cat".  The house where he and
Sissy lived is today the Edgar Allan Poe National Historic Site and Museum.

One of Philadelphia's many names is the "City of Brotherly Love".
Another is the "City of Murals" and this of course includes the red brick
wall mural below immortalizing the illustrious Mr. Poe!

Edgar Allan Poe Mural
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania




Out of the folds of shadowy night
a lone stranger will alight with stealthy step,
to raise high a glass in the cold dark air,
a salute to Poe with measured flair...
from where he comes or where he goes,
no one really seems to know...
"Ode To The Poe Toaster"
Pamela D. Brida



The Poe Toaster of Baltimore

Every year for many years, in the predawn hours of Edgar Allan Poe's
birthday on January 19th, a mysterious figure dressed in black
wearing a wide-brimmed black hat and white scarf, would appear
at the author's original burial place in Baltimore, Maryland 
and pour himself a glass of cognac to toast Poe's memory. 
 He ( or could it be a she?)  would leave the bottle, along with a bouquet of
 long-stemmed blood red roses, before vanishing again into the darkness.
No one is really sure how or when this tradition began, or the identity
of the designated, "Poe Toaster" from year to year, but one thing is certain:
An aura of mystery and romance lives on in this old southern city.

Edgar Allan Poe Original Grave and Memorial Site
Baltimore, Maryland



Here is something a little less mysterious to
celebrate the birthday of Edgar Allan Poe which will 
 leave your family and friends ravenous for more!

An old-fashioned birthday day cake made from scratch!

1-2-3-4 Cake

1 cup butter
2 cups sugar
3 cups flour
4 eggs
3 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup milk

Cream together butter and sugar.
  Add the eggs, one at a time,
 to butter and sugar mixture,
mixing well after each edition.
  Sift together dry ingredients
 and add to batter alternatively with milk.
 Add vanilla.
Spoon cake batter into a
 greased and floured 9 x 13 inch cake pan
and bake at 325 degrees
 for one hour  or until butter knife
 inserted in center of cake
 comes out clean.

Buttercream Frosting

1 stick butter
4 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1-2 T milk

In a mixing bowl beat together
butter and sugar, one cup at a time,
beating well after each addition.
Add vanilla and
 1 to 2 tablespoons milk
 mixing until desired consistency. 

You may also like to add
1 cup of shredded coconut to
the frosting, or the zest
from a lemon or an orange
instead of vanilla extract.

"Love endures long and is patient and kind..."

1 Corinthians 13:4

"Yes or No?"
Charles West Cope
(1872)

There has always been much discussion and debate among Poe devotees 

 regarding the ill-fated romance and marriage between Edgar Allan Poe 

 and his first cousin, Virginia "Sissy" Clemm.

Some believe that their relationship was strictly platonic in nature,

more like an affectionate big brother taking care of his younger sister 

 instead of a traditional husband and wife relationship.  

 Some think that Edgar Allan Poe, being the southern gentleman that he was,
 married his young fatherless cousin out of a sense of family honor and duty,

 thus providing her and her mother not only with a roof over their heads

 and food on the table, but, with a manly presence in the house for protection.

And then, there are romantics such as myself, who tend to think that

despite the thirteen year age difference between them, Edgar and Sissy were

true soul mates and very much in love with each other.  It seems to me that 
they had a deep understanding of one another beyond the spoken word.

Although barely in her teens when she wed her cousin,
Virginia Poe often seemed wise beyond her years.  She was even
tolerate of her husband's dark and unpredictable mood swings,
exacerbated by excessive drinking, which would eventually 
 lead to Edgar Allan Poe's undoing.

I think Sissy sensed that much of her husband's inner turmoil
came from unpleasant memories of his childhood and early youth,
and the later rejection he suffered from his foster father, John Allan.

Edgar Allan Poe was born on January 19, 1809 in the city
of Boston Massachusetts.  Both of his parents were actors.

His father abandoned the family when Edgar was only

 a year old, and his mother died not long afterwards.

At the age of six, Edgar was taken in as a foster child
by a couple named John and Francis Allan, who
took him with them when they went to Europe and put
him in school near London.  Five years later, he returned with
them to Richmond, Virginia.  Edgar was a precocious child,
bright at school and noted for his athletic abilities.
In 1826, he entered the University of Virginia, however,
spent most of his time drinking and gambling. John Allan
tried to start him in business but Edgar ran away to Boston,
and later enlisted in the army in 1827.

He was already writing and publishing his
poems anonymously, however, in the summer of that year,  
 Poe published his well-known "Tamerlane and Other Poems".
Although Edgar considered himself a Virginian,
he wrote his prose under the by-line,
"By A Bostonian"

Two years later, "Al Araaaf  Tamerlane and Minor Poems"
appeared under his own name Edgar A. Poe. He entered West Point
in 1830, but was expelled the following year, and at the same time
published another volume of poems.

He also parted ways with his foster father, John Allan, with whom
his relationship had become contentious over the years, especially 
after his foster mother, Francis Allan died, and John Allan remarried
a second time.  Apparently, his foster father's new marriage, not to
mention Allan's favoritism towards a brood of illegitimate children
born to him through a series of affairs while outright rejecting Edgar
fueled the bitterness between them.  Allan would later "disown" Poe.

After his break with Allan, Edgar went to live with his Aunt Maria Clemm
in Baltimore.  It was in that city in 1833 that he won the Saturday Visitor's 
$100.00 prize for his story, "M.S. Found In A Bottle". Two years later
at age 26, he gained employment with The Southern Literary Messenger,
and married his 13 year old cousin, Virginia.

Although Edgar Allan Poe was the first well-known writer to make
a living solely from writing stories and poems, due to his love of excess
in the matter of drink, this otherwise brilliant and talented man would
suffer financially for much of his life.

Meanwhile, as a young child, Sissy too, had felt the sting of rejection,
especially from her father's family, which had strongly opposed his marriage
to her mother, and which refused to help them financially or otherwise after his death.
Sissy found a kindred spirit in her handsome and charismatic older cousin,
"Eddie" as she and her mother fondly called him.

Sissy was not only Poe's muse of inspiration, but she was given the
singular honor of reading and critiquing many a rough draft of a soon-to-be
published novel or poem he was working on.  Her criticisms of her husband's 
work were rare, for she greatly admired Edgar's genius.  She only chastised him
when he would lash out at himself for what he perceived to be sloppy work.

As far as the rumors concerning Edgar Allan Poe's scandalous romancing with 
other women while he was married to Sissy, these alleged dalliances can only
be left to speculation.  Poe would certainly not be the first celebrated
writer of his day to have received fan letters, poems, and even outright
proposals from ardent female admirers of his prose.  Perhaps he might
have even encouraged these literary flirtations and flattery just a bit, 
 having a strong need for attention as well as appreciation for his work.

Yet, it seems to me that after watching his young wife 
succumb to such a cruel and untimely death from tuberculosis,  
  in his inconsolable grief, Edgar simply gave up the will to live.

Although after Sissy's death,  he revisited Richmond, where 
he gave quite a few successful lectures, in September 1849 he
returned to Baltimore, where he spent much of his time
walking the streets alone, lost in a haze of too much 
drink, struggling with debt, his sorrowful mind perhaps
 filled with memories of his beloved Sissy and the happy times
they shared together while living there.

There continues to this day much speculation about how
Edgar Poe met his end in October, 1849.  The long-standing
account was that not long after his return to Baltimore he was
taken to Washington Hospital and died "after a long delirium".
One of the more disturbing accounts that I read in a newspaper
article not too long ago was that he died as a result of 
contracting rabies.  Another report widely circulated was
that he was found lying in the street "in great distress and
need of assistance" by a man named Joseph W. Walker.
Apparently, Poe was also wearing someone else's coat
at the time.  The writer was taken to Washington Hospital
where he died the next day.

Another, somewhat bizarre story of Poe's demise was
 that he had been a victim of "cooping" and kidnapped off the
street by a gang of thugs working for a crooked politician or 
political party resorting to massive voting fraud to win at the polls.
The victim of the "cooping" would be forced to drink large amounts
of alcohol by the gang and then sent out to polling places to vote
numerous times, often swapping clothes with other victims or
wearing a disguise in order not to be recognized.
Although this story first surfaced in 1872, there has not been
any further credible evidence that Edgar Poe was the victim
of a "cooping" prior to his death.

I have often thought that the writer could have succumbed
 to an advanced case of cirrhosis of the liver due to his alcoholism.
However, the true cause of Poe's death, like most of his short,
troubled life, will remain a mystery.  Both the medical records of
his time spent in the hospital as well as his death certificate 
have unfortunately been lost to history.
 However, an eye witness to Poe's death claimed that his
very last words were, "Lord, help my poor soul."

This leads me to believe that the enigmatic man with
the sad eyes, who has left us some of the most hauntingly
beautiful poems ever written, and who seems to stand apart
from all other American poets of his generation, in what
William Rose Benet called, "a sort of midnight magnificence,
jewelled with strange stars" died from a broken heart.



"Deep in earth my love is lying
And I must weep alone."
-Edgar Allan Poe

"And Ruth said, "Urge me not to leave you or turn back from
following you; for where you go I will go, and where you lodge
I will lodge. Your people shall be my people and your God, my God.
Where you die I will die and there will I be buried.
The Lord do so to me, and more also, if anything 
but death parts me from you."
Ruth 1:16-17