Edgar Allan Poe: Inventing Detective Fiction
Edgar Allan Poe is one the most recognizable names of the early American authors for his macabre works such as “The Raven” and “The Tell-Tale Heart.” Though he received little recognition in his lifetime and was destitute for most of his life, posthumously he has endured. Poe was a Dark Romantic – a subgenre of Romanticism – during a time of the Transcendentalist movement and was a harsh critic of the movements founder, Ralph Waldo Emerson. While the transcendentalist belief was that of the wonderous, elevating and enlightening benefits of the immersion of nature, the dark romantics believed the immersion of oneself in nature would bring about disturbing and dangerous truths in both physical and human nature. Nevertheless, they still sought out immersion in nature, exploring the conflicts between good and evil and exploring the psychiatric effects of insanity, guilt, and sin. Unlike Romantic writers who explored heroism in their stories, Dark Romantics explored the flaws in humans and human nature. Poe’s rough upbringing could be the catalyst that led him down the path of dark romanticism.
Edgar Allen Poe was born Edgar Poe on 19 January 1809 in Boston, Massachusetts to actor David Poe, Jr., and actress Elizabeth “Eliza” Arnold Poe. In the summer of 1809 the family, which included his parents and older brother, William Henry, moved from Boston to New York City. Shortly after this move David Poe, Jr. deserted his family, leaving Eliza to care for her two sons. She moved the family to Richmond, Virginia with the goal of finding work as a stage actor. In December 1810 Eliza gave birth to her daughter, Rosalie, and a short year later in December 1811 Elizabeth Poe died of consumption during a theatrical tour. In a strange turn of events, some days after the death of Eliza, Poe’s father also passed. His older brother William Henry went to live with grandparents 2-year-old Edgar and infant Rosalie the two were sent to live with different foster families. Edgar went to live with Francis and John Allan and while they changed his name to Edgar Allan, the couple never formally adopted him.
John Allan was an affluent Scottish merchant and though he was successful, his money came from inheritance. In 1815 John moved his family to Great Britain where they lived for the next five years and Poe attended boarding school. When they returned to America in 1820 the family settled in Richmond, Virginia. He attended private schools. The relationship between Edgar and his foster father had greatly diminished by the time Poe had left to attend the University of Virginia in 1826. Allen had only given Poe enough money to pay for his tuition and housing. During this time Poe was also secretly engaged to Elmira Royster. With Poe in desperate need of money to buy books and food he turned to gambling. This did not go in his favor and he amassed a large amount of debt. His creditors turned to his foster father to pay the debts and when Allen refused to pay, Poe was forced to leave school in the middle of his second semester. A detrimental fight between Allan and Poe in March of 1827 broke the relationship and Allan kicked Poe out.
In 1827 Poe moved to Baltimore and then to Boston with the intent of making it as a writer and poet. Running out of money and options he joined the army under an assumed name, Edgar A. Perry, to avoid detection from his creditors. Despite joining the army out of sheer desperation, Poe did well in the military and rose to the rank of Sergeant Major. He eventually self-published “Tamerlane and Other Poems.” “Tamerlane” was about a Turkish conqueror at the end of his life reflecting on regrets of losing love in favor of ambition. This collection of poems’ byline was “by A Bostonian” as Poe was still concerned about creditors finding him. This collection was not well received. Only fifty copies were released, only about twelve are believed to exist today, and the collection of poetry went virtually unread. These poems show influence from the English Dark Romantic, Lord Byron, who influenced Poe a great deal. Poe eventually came clean of his deception to his commanding officer and told him of his goal to go to West Point. His commanding officer, Lieutenant Howard would only agree to discharge Poe if he agreed to reconcile with his foster father. Only after the death of his foster mother did the two reconcile and with the help of Allan, Poe was admitted to West Point. Before heading to West Point, he goes to visit his paternal biological aunt, Maria Clemm, and his cousin Virginia, in Baltimore. While there he publishes another collection of poems called “Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane, and Minor Poems.” “Al Aaraaf is a poem based on the Quran and afterlife. In 1830 Poe started West Point. That, however, did not last long, after a falling out with Allan over his remarriage, Poe spiraled and deliberately got himself court martialed for dereliction of duty and was expelled from West Point. That was the final falling out for the two men. Allan even on his death bed in 1834 refused to see Poe and had no mention of Poe in his will.
Poe, in 1831, with the financial help of his fellow West Point cadets, publishes another collection called “Poems.” This, also, was not well received, and Poe went back to Baltimore and moved in with his aunt, Maria, his grandmother, Elizabeth, his brother, Henry, and his cousin Virginia – who would later become his wife in 1836 when she was thirteen. In 1831 both his grandmother and brother died and that is where Poe began to focus all his efforts on his literary career, which his aunt was supportive of. In January of 1832, his first short story “Metzengerstein,” was published in the Philadelphia Saturday Courier. This was a story about a young man, Frederick, who is the last of his family. He is suspected of starting a fire that kills the patriarch of the Berlifitzing family, who the Metzengerstein’s had a feud with. He bonds with a previously unowned horse and this horse is the one who is the downfall of Fredrick. When a fire starts in Fredricks home, this horse carries him into the flame. Poe would continue to be published in that paper and in the Baltimore Saturday Visiter. Most of his early works were satires of Gothic fiction. Poe entered a contest held by the Baltimore Saturday Visiter and won the contest with his story “MS. Found in a Bottle” and this was his first real recognition for his writing. Eventually, the editor who had been reading Poe’s submissions to the Baltimore Saturday Visiter, John P. Kennedy, introduced Poe to Thomas W. White, who was the publisher of the Southern Literary Messenger. White offered Poe a job as an editor in 1835 and he moved with his aunt and cousin from Baltimore to Richmond, where the publication was based. He was quickly released from his position due to alcoholism and being drunk at work. Even after being fired as an editor the Southern Literary Messenger continued to publish Poe’s writing through 1837. He had been rehired for a stint on the contingency of Poe’s sobriety, which did not last. During his tenure there, he wrote many literary critiques that were quite harsh. Due to this fact he earned himself the nickname “Tomahawk.” He has a set of rules for the short stories he read that became known as the “Unity of Effect.” The first, the story must be short enough to read in one sitting and the second that every single word must contribute to the story.
In 1838 Poe moved his family to Philadelphia and published his first and only novel “The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket” a story following adventures and misadventures of a man who stows away aboard a whaling ship. This had originally been published in two parts in the Southern Literary Messenger. Over the next few years Poe bounced around to different publications, and even had plans to start his own, and published many short stories, poems, and literary critiques. He released works such as “Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque,” “The Fall of the House of Usher” which were horror pieces. He would write in many different genres. He wrote satires like “A Predicament” and “How to Write a Blackwood Article.” He wrote science fiction like “Hans Pfaal.” Poe is credited with being the inventor of the literary genre detective-fiction with his three short stories “The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” “The Mystery of Marie Roget,” and “The Purloined Letter.”
He eventually landed in the Bronx, New York, and his claim to fame happened in 1845 when “The Raven'' was published. It was a poem following the narrator who, while mourning the loss of his love, fell asleep. He was awakened by tapping sounds and discovered it was a raven. He is amused by this at first by slowly the narrator goes mad over the bird and his repetition of a single phrase, “Nevermore.” Poe’s narrator was relatable in his melancholy over the loss of his love. “The Raven'' was his most acclaimed piece while he was alive. Records report that he only profited somewhere between $9 and $15 for the poem. Even though he gained fame outside of literary circles he still was destitute, and Poe had a rough remainder of his life. Virginia died in their home in 1847 of consumption and Poe was terribly ill as well. In 1848 he published “Eureka'' and “The Bells.” Also, in 1848 Poe pursued marriage to fellow poet Sarah Helen Whitman. After many months of asking for her hand, she finally agreed to marry him, but the relationship fizzled before they reached the altar. He reconnected with his first fiancée Elmira, who was now widowed, and they quickly became engaged. They would never make it to the altar. On 3 October 1849 in Baltimore, Poe was found delirious and wearing someone else’s clothes. He was taken to a hospital and while his cause of death is still a debate to this day since Poe never became coherent again to explain what happened to him, the official record states he died of, “congestion of the brain.” The irony is not lost that the man who created a mystery genre would die under such strange and mysterious conditions.
As stated earlier, Poe has been credited as being the “Father” of the literary genre, detective-fiction, which are the works included in this anthology. While those works, while he was alive, never garnered much attention they greatly influenced future detective- fiction writers such as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie. Poe’s detective, C. Auguste Dupin even makes an appearance in one of Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes novels in the form of a character comparing Holmes to Dupin. Holmes responds explaining how the character is actually inferior to him. Doyle received criticism of this and in truth he was just following the path that Poe had laid out. In “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” Poe’s character, Dupin, also criticized his literary predecessor, Eugène-François Vidocq, who was based on a real French criminal turned detective.
His contribution to the literary world is deeply important. His invention of the analytically thinking detective, the blundering and incompetent law enforcement, the sidekick that is in no way special, the “impossible crime” or “locked-room mystery,” the “armchair” detective made detective fiction what it is today. He also introduced the reoccurring character. Poe was also the first early American author to pursue writing as a sole form of income. His contribution to the literary world is deeply important. While Poe is mostly known for his horror fiction and was made famous in his day with horror fiction, the mystery genre would not be what it is today without Poe.
The Murders in La Rue Morgue
The Mystery of Marie Rogêt
The Purloined Letter
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