Dameron, J Lasley

English

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Studies in English, New Series Volume 11 Volumes 11-12 Article 39 1993 More Analogues and Resources for Poe’s Fiction and Poems: A Supplement J Lasley Dameron University of Memphis Follow this and additional works at: https://egrove.olemiss.edu/studies_eng_new  Part of the American Literature Commons Recommended Citation Dameron, J Lasley (1993) "More Analogues and Resources for Poe’s Fiction and Poems: A Supplement," Studies in English, New Series: Vol. 11 , Article 39. Available at: https://egrove.olemiss.edu/studies_eng_new/vol11/iss1/39 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Studies in English at eGrove. It has been accepted for inclusion in Studies in English, New Series by an authorized editor of eGrove. For more information, please contact egrove@olemiss.edu. MORE ANALOGUES AND RESOURCES FOR POE’S FICTION AND POEMS: A SUPPLEMENTJ. Lasley DameronUniversity of MemphisPerhaps no major American writer was more engrossed in the profession of journalism than Edgar Allan Poe. Some of his best tales and poems first appeared in minor journals or newspapers. His criticisms and reviews, however, were often printed in periodicals that enjoyed wide circulation in particular regions along the Atlantic seaboard. As journalist and critic, Poe spent many hours perusing contemporary periodicals and newspapers, some of which were ephemeral; others were major publications that included quarterly reviews, monthly magazines and big-city newspapers. Most notably, Margeret Alterton, Killis Campbell, Ruth Lee Hudson, and, more recently, Thomas O. Mabbott, Burton R. Pollin, and Benjamin Franklin Fisher IV have established Poe’s dependence upon a variety of journalistic publications.1My purpose in listing the items below is to supplement my previous study appearing in The University of Mississippi Studies in English, 9 n.s. (1991), 154-66. In an effort to continue my search for additional hints and evidences of Poe’s use of nineteenth-century journals, reviews, and newspapers in composing his fiction and poems, I have again (as I did in my previous study) concentrated my examination on American magazines, newspapers, annuals, and gift­books.2 Among others comprising this search are the Democratic Review, the Knickerbocker, the American Monthly Magazine [New York], the New-York Mirror, the American Magazine of Useful and Entertaining Knowledge, the North American Review, Alexander's Weekly Messenger, the Atlantic Souvenir, and Godey’s Lady's Book. British publications receiving special attention are the New Monthly Magazine, Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, the Westminster Review, and the Metropolitan Magazine. I have also included one entry from Rees’s Cyclopaedia and two from Isaac D’Israeli’s Curiosities of Literature, two non-serial texts Poe likely used.The annotated entries below are presented as an initial step in locating possible new sources for Poe, thereby adding to the vast resources available to him in current literature, journalistic and otherwise. I intend to provide possible evidence of additional borrowings and to specify additional background material that helps to place Poe in his cultural milieu. How Poe made use of current popular1Dameron: More Analogues and Resources for Poe’s Fiction and Poems: A SupplPublished by eGrove, 1995J. Lasley Dameron 461themes in his own tales and poems bespeaks, to a degree, his methods and traits as a literary artist. Or, what he drew from news items concerned with travel or with science, not to mention from a host of other journalistic miscellanies, could be a start in understanding how Poe wrought “the singular...into the strange and mystical.”To my knowledge, none of the possible parallels or echoes has been previously cited. The immensity of Poe’s scholarship, however, is obviously an acknowledged hurdle for any researcher; then my repeating a likely analogue or Poe borrowing already noted is a lurking possibility. Also, one must remember that early and mid-nineteenth­century periodicals frequently borrowed from each other, often representing an item verbatim. For example, Irving’s essay “An Unwritten Drama by Lord Byron,” Poe’s acknowledged source of his tale “William Wilson,” was printed in three contemporary publications, including The Gift, where Poe reports reading it.3NOTES1 Alterton, Origins of Poe's Critical Theory (1925; rpt. New York, 1965); Campbell, ed. The Poems of Edgar Allan Poe (1917; rpt. New York, 1962) and Campbell’s The Mind of Poe and Other Studies (1933; rpt. New York, 1962); Hudson, “Edgar Allan Poe’s Craftsmanship in the Short Story,” diss., U. of Virginia, 1935; Mabbott, Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe, 3 vols. (Cambridge, Mass., 1969-1978); Pollin, Discoveries in Poe (Notre Dame, 1970); Fisher, “To the ‘Assignation’ from ‘The Visionary’ and Poe’s Decade of Revising,” Library Chronicle, 39 (1973), 89- 105; 40 (1976), 221-251; and “More Pieces in the Puzzle of Poe’s ‘The Assignation,’ ” Myths and Reality: The Mysterious Mr. Poe (Baltimore, 1987), pp. 59-88.2I am indebted to Elizabeth Sayle Ruleman for her aid in my search of nineteenth-century journals and annuals.3John Ward Ostrom, “Supplement to the Letters of Poe,” AL, 24 (1952), 360-361. Identifying contributors to the early and mid-nineteenth-century American magazines and serials is a very time-consuming challenge at this point. Something comparable to five volumes of the Wellesley Index to Victorian Periodicals 1824-1900, ed. Walter Houghton et al. (Toronto, 1966-1989) is sorely needed. The following study, however, was helpful in compiling this checklist: Herman E. Spivey, “The Knickerbocker Magazine 1833-1865. A Study of Its History, Contents and Significance,” diss. U. of North Carolina, 1936.“The Balloon-Hoax” (1844)“Fatal Balloon Adventure.” Knickerbocker, 10 (Oct. 1837), 342- 347.2Studies in English, New Series, Vol. 11 [1995], Art. 39https://egrove.olemiss.edu/studies_eng_new/vol11/iss1/39462 ANALOGUES AND RESOURCESAn account of a balloon ascent from Vauxhall Gardens, during which an aeronaut was killed due to a faulty parachute.“The Bells” (1849)A. J. D. “Bells.” New-York Mirror, 13 (March 1936), 300.Bells signal a variety of life’s activities and conditions, from birth to death. A poem.Lanman, Charles. “Bells, and Their Associations.” Knickerbocker, 15 (Feb. 1840), 152-154.Bells announce significant events: calls to worship, fires, public celebrations, and funerals. A prose essay.“The Domain of Arnheim” (1847)[Clark, Lewis Gaylord.] “Editor’s Table.” Knickerbocker, 8 (Aug. 1836), 242-243.A brief commentary on Landscape Gardening [by Andrew Jackson Downing?] signed G. H., arguing for a careful and studious embellishment of nature. See Mabbott, 3:1273-274. Poe’s “Domain” expands his earlier story “The Landscape Garden” (1842).“Eleonora” (1841)“Natural Magic.” American Magazine of Useful and Entertaining Knowledge, I (April 1835), 340-342.A woman troubled by sickness hears the voice of her husband who was present elsewhere. See page 341. See Mabbott, 2: 645.“The Fall of the House of Usher” (1839)“Account of a Singular Atrabilarian or Hypochondria,” Curiosities of Literature by I[saac] D’Israeli. 2 of 2 vols. 1793. New York: Garland Publishing, 1972, pp. 502-507.Describes the “dreadful agitation” of the hypochondriac who divorces himself from reality and becomes “alarmed at everything.” See Benjamin Franklin Fisher IV’s “To ‘The Assignation’ from ‘The Visionary’ (Part Two): The Revisions and Related Matters,” Library Chronicle (U. of Pa.), 40 (1976), 231, for more evidence of Poe’s borrowings from the Curiosities.“The Arch-Devil, Belfegor. From the Italian of Machiavelli.” New-York Mirror, 14 (July 16, 1836), 1.A summary of Machiavelli’s novella “Belfegor: The Devil Who Married.” Poe refers to “the Belphegor of Machiavelli” in “Usher,” Mabbott, 2: 408. [I am indebted to Mr. David Irvin, a former student, for this item.]3Dameron: More Analogues and Resources for Poe’s Fiction and Poems: A SupplPublished by eGrove, 1995J. Lasley Dameron 463Rees, Abraham. “Hypochondriasis.” The Cyclopaedia: or a New Universal Dictionary of Arts and Science. 18 of 39 vols. London: Longman, Hurst, Brown, 1819.Roderick Usher’s condition (a “hypochondriac”) may be defined as “hypochondriasis,” symptoms of which include “a deranged state of the bodily health in general” and “with respect to all future events, a dread and apprehension of the world.” Poe’s frequent use of Rees’s Cyclopaedia has been demonstrated. See, for example, volumes II and III of the Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe, ed. Thomas Ollive Mabbott (Cambridge, Mass., 1978), passim.“Hans Pfaall” (1835)D. “Leaves from an Aeronaut.” Knickerbocker, 5 (Jan. 1835), 57- 67.See pages 65-67 for a detailed description of an aeronaut flying alone in a balloon.“The Man of the Crowd” (1840)“From Our London Correspondent.” New-York Mirror, 10 (June 1833), 404-405.The author, walking through the poverty-ridden sections of London, is dismayed by the degradation he observes.“Mellonta Tauta” (1849)“A Conversation.” Knickerbocker, 2 (July 1833), 1-13.See pages 11-13 presenting a vision of a future culture in New York City—an “unfathomable plunge into futurity” created by the “old sage”—Diedrich Knickerbocker.“The Murders in the Rue Morgue” (1841)[Clark, Lewis Gaylord?] “Literary Notices.” Knickerbocker, 4 (Nov. 1834, [396]-397.A review of Memoirs of Vidocq. Agent of the French Police Until 1827. Spurious memoirs that may have influenced Poe’s characterization of Dupin, Poe’s detective.The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket (1837-38) [Clark, Lewis Gaylord?] “Literary Notices.” Knickerbocker, 4 (July 1834), 67-72.A review of Joseph C. Hart’s Miriam Coffin, or theWhale- Fisherman: A Tale. 2 vols. See page 69 for a reference to the Grampus and a captain’s son [Isaac Coffin] who becomes a stowaway on his father’s voyage from Nantucket.4Studies in English, New Series, Vol. 11 [1995], Art. 39https://egrove.olemiss.edu/studies_eng_new/vol11/iss1/39464 ANALOGUES AND RESOURCES“Polar Ice, and a North-West Passage.” Edinburgh Review, 30 (July 1818), 1-59.In a detailed review of five books (all published in 1818) devoted to the Arctic Sea, reviewer points out how the Arctic seas, through a process of congelation, become warmer to the point of boiling (pages 12-13). See Pollin’s edition of Pym, pp. 203-204, in Collected Writings of Edgar Allan Poe. The Imaginary Voyages. Boston: Twayne, 1981.“Some Words with a Mummy" (1845)Brooks, C. T. “The Awakener in the Wilderness.” From the German of Freiligrath. Diadem (1845), 95-96.A talking mummy, awakened by the roar of a lion, describes his burial and subsequent presence in a pyramid. A poem.“Sonnet—Silence” (1839-1845)“Saint Ambrose,” Curiosities of Literature by I[saac] D’Israeli. 2 of 2 vols. 1793. New York: Garland Publishing, 1972, pp. 178-181.Distinguishes three sorts of death: (1) “the death which occasions sin, and murders the soul,” (2) the death of sin (mystic death) and (3) separation of soul from body (natural death). The first “is the most evil”; see lines 11-15 of “Sonnet—Silence,” Mabbott, 1:322. See Benjamin Franklin Fisher IV’s ‘To ‘The Assignation’ from ‘The Visionary’ (Part Two): The Revisions and Related Matters,” Library Chronicle (U. of Pa.), 40 (1976), 231, for more evidence of Poe’s borrowings from the Curiosities.“Von Kempelen and His Discovery” (1849)A. “Alchemy.” Knickerbocker, 6 (Dec. 1835), 521-526.An essay on the history of Alchemy—“the power of transmuting the imperfect metals into gold.” The author, however, argues that alchemy is a fake science.5Dameron: More Analogues and Resources for Poe’s Fiction and Poems: A SupplPublished by eGrove, 1995

More Analogues and Resources for Poe’s Fiction and Poems: A Supplement

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More Analogues and Resources for Poe’s Fiction and Poems: A Supplement

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