June 18, 2024 • 39 mins
Join us as we delve into the tragic and mysterious world of Edgar Allan Poe, one of literature's most intriguing figures. Discover his legacy and unravel the secrets of his life at the Edgar Allan Poe House and Museum in Baltimore, Maryland.
🕯️ Melancholy and Masterpieces 🎭
Explore how Poe's tumultuous adolescence, marked by loss and upheaval, fostered a sense of melancholy that permeated his future works, including "The Masque of the Red Death," "The Raven," and my personal favorite, "The Tell-Tale Heart." Discover often overlooked aspects of Poe's life, such as his career as a book critic, his role as the inventor of the detective story, and his fascination with the cosmos.
🔍 Unveiling Poe's Life, Death, and Legacy ⚰️
Even in death, Poe remains shrouded in intrigue, with his body being reburied no less than three times in the same cemetery. We'll also examine the legend of the Poe Toaster, a mysterious cloaked figure who sneaked into the cemetery and left a tribute for Poe on his birthday until 2009.
🔗 Episode Links
- Edgar Allan Poe House & Museum: https://www.poeinbaltimore.org/
- Complete Works of Poe: https://poemuseum.org/poes-complete-works/
Curator's Choice - A podcast for history nerds and museum lovers
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Enrica Jang (00:00):
My name is Enrika Jang.
I'm the executive director ofPoe Baltimore and the Edgar
Allan Poe House and Museum inBaltimore.
Maryland Poe House in Baltimoreis the last surviving home in
the city where Edgar Allan Poeand his family were known to
have lived.
This is a city pretty famousfor Poe and he lives here now
(00:21):
because he, you know, is buriedhere.
We have the body.
Ayla Sparks (00:24):
Through quite a journey, actually, indeed,
indeed.
Enrica Jang (00:28):
Poe in his lifetime never owned property, but now
that he's dead you can visitthree of the houses he lived in.
There's one in Philadelphia runby the National Park Service.
There's the Poe Cottage in theBronx, new York, and then
there's the Poe House inBaltimore.
There's a wonderful museum toPoe in Richmond, virginia.
They don't have.
They've got a lot of Poe stuffbut they're not a Poe house.
(00:49):
It's really one of the onlyadvantages we have over them.
It's a fantastic museum andabsolutely wonderful and we love
those folks down there too.
But Poe in Baltimore again, thecity is known for Poe and his
father's family from Baltimore.
His grandparents served in theRevolution as well as the War of
1812.
So the Poe family prettyimportant to Baltimore history.
Ayla Sparks (01:09):
I didn't know that Poe himself had actually been in
the Army before as well.
That was kind of shocking to me.
Enrica Jang (01:15):
Yeah, when he was enlisted he did pretty well in
the Army and he was kind ofnoted and exceptional.
And then he was sent to be totrain to be an officer over at
West Point and didn't survivethere very long, so but they
like him now.
West Point did you know, kickhim out when he was
court-martialed.
But they like him now and youcan visit a bust in their
library, their Englishdepartment especially.
Ayla Sparks (01:35):
I was going to say is it because he became famous
that they decided to like him?
That's how it goes, they do.
Enrica Jang (01:41):
They like him now.
Same thing with UVA he had toget kicked out, but they like
him now.
He's their most famous collegedropout, that's fantastic.
Ayla Sparks (01:48):
Whenever you're talking about Poe, I feel like
everyone knows him as kind ofjust like this tragic story and
that's reflected in his writing.
But throughout his life itactually is.
I mean, it seems like almostevery step of the way there's
something tragic that influenceshim later on in life.
We'll start at the beginning ofPoe, where he was born, kind of
following through his life,because it really is just
(02:08):
pockmarked with these littlebits of tragedy.
Enrica Jang (02:09):
Well, poe is the son of traveling actors.
So his father's family fromBaltimore, his mother, a British
actress as young as nine yearsold on the stage when she comes
to the United States.
And Poe's father, david, isliving in Baltimore, young and
being groomed to be somethingboring like a lawyer.
(02:30):
Then instead he attends thetheater, falls in love with the
theater, falls in love with thisbeautiful British actress and
essentially runs away with thecircus.
So Edgar Allan Poe born inBoston because his parents were
performing there at the time.
Later, one of the firstmysteries of Edgar Allan Poe,
born in Boston because hisparents were performing there at
the time Later, one of thefirst mysteries of Edgar Allan
Poe's life is what happens tohis father.
(02:51):
He disappears.
Traveling actor, not really sogreat on the stage.
The reviews that exist of hisperformances are pretty dismal a
little stiff, been forgettinghis lines, maybe a bit of a
drinker and like to get intofights with some of the
reviewers who said nasty thingsabout him on the stage.
So his career didn't match theaspirations and he disappears.
(03:15):
Now the conjecture is maybe heabandons his young family.
He and his wife have a sonnamed Henry Leonard and then
have a little boy named Edgarand a little girl named Rosalie,
but he disappears from thepicture entirely.
We don't have a place of death,we don't have a cause of death,
(03:36):
we don't have a burial place,we don't have anything.
And his parents even never hearhim again.
So even if he'd abandoned hiswife and children, you'd think
mom and dad might have heardsomething.
But he disappears from thepicture.
So he may have died on the roador he may have in fact
abandoned the family.
All we know is that Poe's motheris alone in 1811 when she falls
(03:56):
very, very ill In Richmond.
She'd already been sufferingfrom tuberculosis but she
finally succumbs to her illness.
And Poe's mother is noted forher performances on the stage,
unlike her husband, quite famous, famed is not a good fortune
for any member of the Poe familybut very well known.
Ethereal beautiful played thegreat parts Ophelia and Juliet
(04:17):
and that kind of thing on stage.
So noted for this, a comedianand a singer.
She's so good, in fact, thatthe theater in Richmond actually
appeals to the public on herbehalf, saying this beautiful
light of the stage, desperatelyill, has these children alone.
Again, no mention of what'shappened to the husband, but
she's by herself and so thesociety kind of rallies around
(04:38):
her and it's kind of fashionableto be at this dying actress's
side.
And that's how the Allen familylearns of Poe.
John and Frances Allen are acouple, childless couple, in the
city of Richmond.
Edgar Allen Poe's oh sorry,john Allen is a Scottish
immigrant and kind of upwardlymobile, and his wife no children
(05:00):
of her own, but they arepatrons of the theater and she
is present when Poe's motherpasses away and so she's very
eager to take in little Edgar.
And so kind of cataclysmic forthe children.
They're split up Henry Leonardis taken in by the grandparents
here in Baltimore, edgar istaken in by the Allen family,
which is now how we get the nameEdgar Allen Poe, and Rosalie is
(05:23):
taken in by another family andthe three children, rosalie's
taken in by the McKenzies andRichmond, and the three children
are kept apart, or raised apart, I should say.
But the older boy is old enoughto know what has happened to
his family, so he's asking forhis little brother.
What about Edgar?
So that's how the families kindof stay in loose contact with
one another.
Families kind of stay in loosecontact with one another.
(05:43):
Even though John and FrancesAllen even moved to London for a
brief period of time they arekeeping a correspondence with
the Poes in Baltimore and JohnAllen's even writing some
letters to Edgar's brother,henry.
So that's how they sort of keepin contact.
Later, when Edgar and his fosterfather begin to fall out, poe
was never formally adopted bythe Allen family, but he is.
(06:07):
He's raised to be their son,he's given their name, he is
treated as their son.
But he is always told you'reonly a foster son, don't forget
it.
You need to be grateful.
And so you can imagine the kindof sullen teenager that an
Edgar Allen Poe would have been.
We might have a little bit ofpity for John Allan, but the two
of them really do clash andthey start to just kind of come
(06:30):
apart.
And so Poe Edgar finds a littlebit of refuge with his Baltimore
family and later, when the twomen split irrevocably and Poe's
foster mother has passed away,poe is taken in by his relatives
here in Baltimore and that'skind of how his new Baltimore
chapter begins, moving from therelative wealth of the Allen
(06:51):
family to the almost poverty ofthe Poe family.
And yet they take him in,welcome him in, he is taken into
his aunt's home, becomes closeto the family, so close in fact
that he marries his first cousin, virginia.
That's very, very close.
His aunt becomes hismother-in-law and the three of
them stay a family for the restof their lives.
(07:12):
So incredible sort of surge ofdifferent forces in Poe's life.
We can see just how importantfamily becomes to him.
And sort of a weird part ofPoe's story that he marries his
13-year-old cousin.
But that is, you know, part ofthe story too.
Later, just about five yearsinto their marriage, virginia
(07:32):
starts to exhibit the samesymptoms, the same disease that
takes Poe's mother, and Poe seesthis, he's really no stranger
to this.
Tuberculosis kills his mother,kills his foster mother, kills,
likely had something to do withthe things that killed his
brother.
And so for Virginia to exhibitthese symptoms this is something
(07:52):
he understands very, very wellKills his first love, his first
Poe's first crush.
She also dies of tuberculosis,and so just a vicious, terrible
disease.
But Virginia gets better, itgets worse, gets better, it gets
worse.
And it's this time, when she'skind of going through this
oscillation in her disease, thatPoe begins to develop these
(08:15):
ideas of what makes the mostpoetical subject in the world,
and he very famously says thedeath of a beautiful woman is
the most poetical subject in theworld and he has a beautiful
dying wife at home.
So it's hard not to see that asat least some of the
inspiration in his work.
Eventually Virginia dies andPoe only survives her about two
(08:36):
years.
He is kind of trying to crawlout of his grief after her death
and seems he's courting again,intent on marrying again, maybe
start a magazine, maybe continue, but dies under mysterious
circumstances in Baltimore justtwo years after Virginia.
So that's the Penny tour of hislife.
Lots of different twists andturns in there.
Ayla Sparks (08:58):
And there's definitely a lot more to it.
But you know, in the scope of asingle podcast episode, sure,
sure.
Enrica Jang (09:04):
Poe again, that kind of connection to Baltimore
never really goes away, eventhough he's raised by another
family.
He's a little boy too, but he'saware that he has this other
family and his brother, atdifferent times, comes to visit
him and so they do become quiteclose and that's the connection
for Poe to his Baltimore family.
Some people don't know thatEdgar's older brother is also a
(09:26):
writer, a published writer,writes even a poem based on one
of his brother's failed romances, and so this is something that
they have in common which isreally fascinating.
A very artistic familyaltogether.
Yes, absolutely.
We know that Poe Edgar waswriting poetry even in his teens
, as young as his teens.
We see that he always considershimself a poet, wants to be a
(09:48):
poet, loves Byron, and we seethat.
But it's that connection to hisbrother that we think likely
contributed to his burgeoninginterest in short story, in
tales.
There's a burgeoning magazineindustry at that time and a lot
of different writing contestsand just periodicals popping up
(10:10):
all over the country, this hugesurge and this kind of new kind
of publishing in the UnitedStates.
And so poetry then is now kindof difficult to make your living
.
But Poe sees that his olderbrother is making maybe even a
little bit of money submittingshort stories to the magazine
industry of the day, and so Ifeel that you can kind of see
(10:31):
this sort of timeline start toconverge.
Poe, as you mentioned, was inthe military for a brief time.
After he leaves his fosterfather's home, tries to support
himself, and the way he doesthat is by joining the military
and pursuing that career.
Once he gets to West Point it'sa very austere life, not really
something that he's interestedin continuing.
(10:52):
So the story goes that he getshimself kicked out.
And once he gets himself kickedout of West Point he has
nowhere to go and the connectionto his foster father is over,
over over.
His foster father will notforgive him for squandering that
opportunity as far as he'sconcerned.
So Poe comes to Baltimore andthen his brother dies and Poe
(11:13):
was likely there when hisbrother dies and in a way takes
his brother's place in hisgrandparents' slash aunt's home.
His Aunt Mariah is now takingcare of the family, taking care
of her ailing mother, caring forher own children.
She is a widow herself and it'snice to have a man in the house
and so she welcomes Edgar intotheir home and she becomes a
(11:34):
kind of a surrogate mother in alot of ways, and again that
family becomes quite close.
But Poe, at this time again nomoney, it's not really clear
what he's contributing to thehousehold, but he's writing and
gets him noticed by the literarycommunity and he launches a
(12:07):
career as a writer and an editorand a contributor to the
magazines that employ him.
So that time, in Baltimore,finding a new family, a chosen
family as we say today, and thissort of family unit that will
sustain him at least for therest of his life, and then
launching his professionalwriting career, All of that
happens at Amity Street and whatis today the Edgar Allan Poe
(12:30):
house.
So it's an important, importantpart.
Now, as I said, though, Poenever owned property.
The family was even renting thehome at this time.
So that's why you can go to abunch of different cities and
everybody has a piece of Poe.
He did live in Philadelphia.
He did live in New York, Boston, Even though he was born there.
Not much of a connection there.
Eventually he has a big feudwith the city, Lived in Richmond
(12:51):
, Virginia, and seemed like hemight even have been moving back
there at the end of his lifehad he not died in Baltimore.
That had been his intent toreturn to Richmond.
Ayla Sparks (12:59):
So I feel like it's really similar to Abraham
Lincoln.
It seems like every state yougo to is like oh, this is the
state of Abraham Lincoln andyou're like I thought the last
state I was in one of thosethings where it's everywhere.
But so if someone were to comevisit, what would they expect to
see when they're walkingthrough the house itself?
Enrica Jang (13:16):
Well, what do they expect to see, or what do they
see?
Those are very different things, that's a good point.
Ayla Sparks (13:21):
What should they expect to see?
What should they?
Enrica Jang (13:23):
expect to see.
I joke about it because peoplecome to Baltimore kind of
expecting that they're going tovisit the House of Usher, that
they're going to see the spooky,crazy dark mansion on a hill
somewhere, and that's not thetruth of Poe's life.
We're talking about a veryhumble start and this is a place
where Poe begins hisprofessional writing career and
(13:44):
makes his family.
So it is the remnant of aduplex that originally was built
in 1832.
It was a standalone propertywhen Poe and his family lived
there and it was kind of theedge of town.
The city had not pushed as farwest at this time.
The family actually moves thereto escape a cholera epidemic
that had taken over in the city.
So you move to the edge of townand a little bit healthier and
(14:06):
a little bit more room.
Of course, eventually when thefamily leaves it's a private
home and rental property andeventually the city pushes
further west.
So when you come to Baltimore,poe House is what is left of
that duplex.
In the 1930s the entire blockwhere Poe House is is scheduled
for demolition and to build ahousing project, the first
(14:29):
housing project in the city ofBaltimore.
It was the first of fivehousing projects for Black
families in Baltimore in a timeof segregation.
So this weird sort of piece ofhistory.
But Poe House, as it was knownto have been, a house that Poe
lived in, but that the propertyitself was scheduled to be
demolished.
When the Edgar Allan Poe Societyof Baltimore learns of the
(14:50):
city's plans but also learnsthat the last surviving home
where Poe and his family wereknown to have lived is about to
be lost forever, they step in,beg the city to please save the
house.
And the compromise that theyreach with the city is that they
will chop the duplex in half,save the historic half where Poe
and his family lived.
And then they built the housingproject onto Poe House.
(15:13):
So when you come Amity Streetyou see this sort of weird,
strange configuration of what ishalf the one half of the duplex
, with a housing block from thehousing project built directly
onto it.
And we've been neighbors nowfor 80 years.
Ayla Sparks (15:28):
I feel like that's a perfect compromise, sort of a
strange idea of historicpreservation at that time.
And then also, like you know,expansion of a city and trying
to work with underservedcommunities.
It's kind of just like a reallyinteresting, delicate balance
they had to try to make there.
Enrica Jang (15:44):
Oh, I wish the history was as rosy as that
history of public housing inBaltimore.
It's a bit fraught, but theynamed the housing project the
Edgar Allan Poe Homes inrecognition of the fact that Poe
House was there Initially.
The structure that is Poe Housewas turned into administrative
office, was proposed as a healthcenter for the housing project.
(16:06):
But then the Poe Society stepsin again and about 10 years
later for the anniversary the100-year centenary of Poe's
death they managed to establishthe Edgar Allan Poe House and
Museum.
It is now 2024.
This is our 75th anniversary asa museum, but the housing we've
been neighbors now with thehousing project sharing a
(16:26):
footprint for the last 80 years.
Ayla Sparks (16:28):
Do you guys have any big celebrations coming up
for your 75th?
Oh, we do.
Enrica Jang (16:32):
We do.
Poe House is the home of theInternational Edgar Allan Poe
Festival and Awards.
It's an annual two-day eventthat we throw, always the
weekend closest to Poe's death,obviously for our 75th
anniversary.
So many different thingscoincide with that weekend the
75th anniversary of the museum,it's also the 175th anniversary
(16:53):
of Poe's death in Baltimore andhappens to be the 60th
anniversary of Roger Corman'sMask of the Red Death.
So we're doing some coolVincent Price themed stuff for
the weekend and you know it'sour diamond anniversary.
So an extra day of programming.
It'll be three days this year.
So if there's any for yourlisteners, if there's any time
you want to come to Baltimore tothe festival, october 4th and
(17:14):
4th through the 6th is theweekend to come this year.
Ayla Sparks (17:16):
Especially if you're a Poe fan.
Enrica Jang (17:18):
Especially if you're a Poe fan.
Absolutely Come on out 75thOnce in a generation opportunity
.
Ayla Sparks (17:24):
So whenever you do come and visit the museum.
I know you were mentioning thatthere was a telescope, but
whenever I think of Poe I neverreally think of him looking at
things as cosmically beautiful,as a star, the stars.
I kind of just imagine allabout death, which I know is an
unfair observation from mylimited poetic standpoint.
So why don't you tell us alittle bit about why a telescope
(17:45):
?
Enrica Jang (17:45):
Don't worry, you're not alone.
It's funny.
Poe is famous for these horrorstories and is famous for poetry
, gothic poetry and thataesthetic and everything.
But Poe actually defines a lotof modern genres we have today.
He is the inventor of thedetective story.
It's not that there were nosuch things as mysteries before
there was an Edgar Allan Poe,but Poe was the first in the
(18:06):
English language to create acharacter at the heart of a
story whose job it is to solve amystery by step-by-step process
of observation, deduction,reasoning, ratiocination, as
it's in his stories.
And so Poe is the inventor ofthe detective story.
Mystery Writers of America nametheir awards, the Edgar Bicots,
in honor of Poe.
(18:27):
But Poe is also a sciencefiction writer.
So if you look at some of thestories in Poe's repertoire, at
the very end of his life Poeeven writes his own cosmology,
eureka, sort of hiscontemplation of the universe,
life, the universe andeverything, and his ideas about
the soul.
That it takes light to travel.
(18:55):
When we look at stars we mighteven be looking at the light
from dead stars because of somuch time that it would take for
that light to travel to Earth.
It's very poetic observation,but this is something that we
understand today.
And so Jules Verne talks aboutPoe being inspired by Poe, and
you know other horror writersobviously inspired by Poe.
But Poe was very interested inscience, very interested in,
(19:16):
especially, enlightenment of hisday that's the end of the
Spanish Inquisition and it'slike turning to science and
turning to these modern marvelsin his lifetime.
So it was very much in his mind.
And the telescope that we haveat Poe House was an item that
belonged to the Allen family,not at a time that he was in
Baltimore, but it's mentioned inJohn Allen's papers and it's
(19:38):
known that the little boy hadthis interest in the telescope
and in kind of looking at thesethings.
And so if you can imagine avery young Edgar Allen Poe just
beginning to open his eyes tothe world and these things that
are of interest and arefascinating to him with this
poetical sensibility, it's kindof it's kind of cool to sort of
(19:58):
see an object that may have infact inspired, inspired his work
.
Ayla Sparks (20:02):
Well, and what's really interesting about Poe as
well and I feel like this isn'tvery common is he became quite
famous within his lifetimelifetime.
So it was great in terms ofsome types of preservation, such
as the house and such as itemslike the telescope, because if
you are known to have they'relike, this is going to be
something really special.
We can tell already it's morelikely to be saved, but what
(20:23):
made Poe famous in his lifetime?
What was so special anddifferent about Poe and his
writing that people recognizedeven early on that it was
something that was going to beimportant into the future?
Enrica Jang (20:35):
I love that question Poe throughout his
career.
It's interesting that thenotion that people sometimes
bring to Poe has they expectthat he was not appreciated in
his lifetime or not known evenin his early career because he's
a magazine editor.
So it's a noted position, it'sa position of power and
tastemaking and Poe, early inhis career, makes his bones as a
(20:57):
vicious book critic and awriting critic.
So if you've ever known like amusic reviewer or a movie
reviewer, that's just kind offamous because they're so mean.
Poe was known for this and hewould get kind of personal and
kind of nasty and kind of pettyCritiqu.
So mean.
Poe was known for this and hewould get kind of personal and
kind of nasty and kind of pettycritiquing some of these writers
(21:18):
, not just their writing butalso their person or their
intelligence and all this otherstuff.
He was just known to be sosnarky and mean.
So he's noted for this and heis noted for being sort of a
gothic writer.
One of his early stories that hedid write in Amity Street,
berenice, the story of a man who, the narrator, marries his
(21:39):
cousin and she gets very, veryill and as she gets sicker and
sicker, her face recedes intothis rictus and he becomes
obsessed with her teeth and whenhe thinks she's dead he rips
them out of her face.
This is a shocking story andone of the editors who published
it he's like why do you want towrite about this topic?
And Poe's very flippant answerwas it's going to sell.
(21:59):
This is going to sell magazinesfor you.
So he's known for being aGothic writer.
He's known for being a poet,but he's known for being a
critic and an editor for thesemagazines.
Now he's known to the readingpublic at this time.
He becomes popularly famouswith the publication of the
Raven in 1845.
Even if he didn't know anythingabout poetry not everybody
(22:20):
cares about poetry.
They really really should, butnot everybody does you still
would have heard the Ravenalmost like a pop song.
The Raven is musical and gothicand romantic.
There's this repetition.
It is never more and never more.
These phrases it's easy to sayand to repeat and to read and
(22:40):
very emotive Right, and so itcaptures the imagination of the
nation.
It flies around the world andPoe becomes famous for the raven
, and so this interest in Poe isstill there.
But you know, just like youmight, the reading public might
know the name of a reporter atthe New Yorker or something like
that, but everybody knowsBritney Spears.
(23:02):
I just compared Edgar Allan Poeto Britney Spears.
There you go, but that's whatmakes him super, super famous
and people start really payingattention.
But he only, you know onlylives another four years after
the publication of the Raven.
And a lot happens in that fouryears.
His wife dies, he survives somereally nasty scandals in New
(23:23):
York, a couple of court cases,is grieving, courting, trying to
get married again and trying totake care of his Aunt Mariah,
his mother-in-law, who is takingcare of him and surviving with
him but trying to find a lifefor them as well.
So he does die in Baltimoreunder mysterious circumstances,
just traveling through the city.
(23:43):
As a matter of fact, he wasn'teven living here any longer when
he's passing through.
But he dies here just fouryears after.
It's hard to know where hewould have gone and what might
have happened with his careerhad he lived longer, but it is
good to know that he did achievesomething in his lifetime and
was recognized for it.
Ayla Sparks (24:02):
Because it's so tragic when you learn of someone
who is just incredibly famousand looked at one of the greats
and they didn't even know intheir lifetime.
So it's quite satisfying toknow that he at least got a
glimpse of the popularity of hisown work, which is really
exciting.
Enrica Jang (24:16):
His persona got so much bigger after his death, of
course, and the subject matterof his work and stuff, and so
he's turned into this iconic,iconic persona and figure.
I don't know that even he wouldhave anticipated that.
I think he'd be pleased, but Ithink he'd still be surprised.
Ayla Sparks (24:32):
Do you think that the fact that he did die in the
manner that he did and that hedied so early in his career
added to him becoming morepopular in his afterlife, or do
you think it would have happenedregardless?
Enrica Jang (24:43):
I think you've got a perfect storm of sort of fame
that happens and infamy thatsort of makes him almost like a
rock star in a way, like justlike a young, tumultuous rock
and roller burning out hard andfast.
Poe was 40, so it's not, he's aspring chicken, but he's still.
(25:04):
It is still young and powerfuland the work that he wrote in
his, you know, in his late 20sand 30s like that's the
incredible decade of work.
I think that, because of thesalacious circumstances of his
death and because of the natureof celebrity, a lot of people
who are sort of interested inPoe and, as we sort of noted at
the beginning of this, thatdeath could come and take you at
(25:27):
that time just about any time.
This is pre-Civil War medicine,pre-phenobiotics, and people
died all the time, and so thedeath itself was less the shock
but the strange circumstances ofhis death.
And then, because of the natureof celebrity, you have people at
the end of that person's lifebehaving quite badly.
The most famous example of thisis Rufus Griswold, who likely
(25:50):
was in Lifetime what we wouldcall a frenemy, one of those
colleagues that you tolerate andcan't stand, and he uses the
occasion of Poe's death to kindof benefit himself but also
malign Poe's character and saysome really nasty stuff about
him that to this day has to getkind of raked out of Poe's
history that he was insane, thathe had incestuous relationships
(26:12):
with every female member of hisfamily, that all of this is
sort of nastiness that people,even today we have to kind of
correct them like that he didn'tkill anybody and stuff like
that.
But even something is.
You know, something in his lifeis mundane.
As the doctor the physicianthat was in attendance in Poe's
last days he that was inattendance in Poe's last days he
dines out for the rest of hislife talking about the last days
(26:36):
of Poe and what starts out as asimple death in the hospital
turns into deathbed speeches andextra symptoms.
He goes on tour, he writes abook, he becomes the mayor of a
small town not too far outsideof Baltimore and eventually
convicted of fraud.
That is crazy.
But it's celebrity's celebrityright, and we see this today.
(26:56):
All nothing's new.
We see all of that today whensomeone dies and then that kind
of tabloidy kind of interest andall of that springs up around
Poe and makes it even bigger andeven darker and the persona of
Poe's writing.
Poe is one of the first peopleto write in the first person of
a madman, of a murderer, andit's not so strange today we see
(27:19):
horror writers do this all thetime, where they write in the
first person and you know thatthey're not, you know, killing
anybody, you don't think, butthey're just coming up with
something.
We recognize that an artist cando that.
Poe's one of the first peopleto do that and it's even
considered this morally suspectgift Like who could?
What's wrong with you that youcould do that?
And insanity is taboo andmurder, of course, is this
(27:41):
dreadful sin.
And who could write it?
Ayla Sparks (27:45):
Which, I'm sure, made it a lot easier for
everyday people to believe a lotof these rumors that were
coming up after his death,because they were like well,
clearly he was crazy.
Did you read some of his work,right?
Enrica Jang (27:55):
And it just makes it so much darker and people are
looking for those strains andso I think that's that perfect
storm of fame and circumstancethat lends itself.
But again, I don't think thathe would be displeased about
this.
He kind of encouraged thisenigmatic idea of himself and
(28:17):
when he was asked about his ownbiography would lie often and
kind of be a liar, liar faceabout some of the stuff that he
came from and happened to him.
So it's fascinating and it'sfun and you get to be a
historian at Poe House and tellpeople, well, actually, this
thing that you think you knowthey don't really know.
But yeah, there's all of that.
Ayla Sparks (28:38):
So what ended up happening to his mother-in-law
after his death?
Do we know we?
Enrica Jang (28:42):
do Mariah Clem?
She goes on to kind of livecast upon the kindness of a lot
of her nephew's admirers.
She lives with a number ofdifferent families who take her
in out of their you knowassociation with Edgar and their
admiration of him, and when onefamily gets sick of her she
kind of gets shuffled to anotherone.
(29:04):
Lives in a bunch of differentstates eventually.
Eventually kind of runs out andreturns to Baltimore and is
living in a widow's, wants toget into a widow's home, falls
very, very ill.
What's fascinating about MariahClem?
She does survive everyone, butshe eventually dies in the same
building where Poe died, in theexact same hospital, in the same
(29:26):
building where Poe died, andthat was actually a great
comfort to her and her dyingwish was to be buried next to
her darling eddie, and she gother wish and so, but, uh, she
survives him by at least in, uh,another 20 years.
Like a long time, a long time.
Ayla Sparks (29:44):
so then her daughter by like 22, 24 years.
Yes, wow, virginia dies first.
There's also a lot of we talkedwe briefly went over this in
the beginning but Poe's finalresting place not final for
quite a while so will you tellus a little bit about the chaos
that was his casket situation?
Enrica Jang (30:04):
It's not seeing.
Westminster Hall, where Poe wasburied, is less than a mile
from Poe House and ourunderstanding is that it was a
graveyard first, before thechurch was put there, and so
it's a graveyard that Poehimself in fact visited because
there were members of the Poefamily there.
But Poe was buried no fewerthan three times in the same
cemetery.
When Poe dies, as I said, hewas traveling through the city
(30:27):
of Baltimore.
He wasn't even supposed to behere for very long.
He was going to catch a trainand he's traveling from Richmond
to New York to close hisaffairs in New York and scoop up
his aunt Mariah and move onback to Richmond where he is
engaged to be married andstarting a new magazine and it
seems like he's on the upswing.
But comes to Baltimore andpromptly goes missing and
(30:48):
there's a period of about fouror five days in the city where
we don't know what happened tohim, don't know where he was,
but he turns up again interrible condition in this
tavern, taken to the hospitalwhere he dies.
So he happens to die inBaltimore where he has family,
which means there's a place toput him, and he is buried in his
grandfather's plot over at inthe graveyard with the other
(31:09):
members of the Poe family hisbrother, his grandparents and
his aunts and uncles.
Years later, the one thingthey're not making more of is
land, and there's thisinconvenient graveyard in the
middle of the city, and so theywant to maybe redevelop it,
reclaim some of this land.
Now there's a law in Marylandat the time that says that you
can't reclaim a graveyard well,the cemetery if there's a church
(31:32):
.
That's what makes a graveyard acemetery the church.
So a church is erected in thisgraveyard and a couple of the
stones are sort of like movedaround.
Some people are like putunderneath the church, but the
church is buried over top theexisting graveyard.
So when you do come toWestminster, it's actually kind
of cool to walk along the sideof the building because it
(31:54):
creates these really coolcatacombs.
They're built up on piers overthe existing graveyard and you
can actually take tours andvisit underneath the church to
see some of these really reallycool stones and stuff.
And this graveyard dates allthe way back.
Pre-revolution Got people likeheroes of the Revolution in the
War of 1812 buried there.
Lots of really famous people inBaltimore also buried there.
(32:14):
So it's a big deal, this place,what this effectively does,
though, is Poe is now at theback of the cemetery, and he has
been left in an unmarked grave.
Now, this sounds disrespectful.
When Poe initially dies, though, there's not a ton of money and
none of the other familymembers have stones.
The family eventually says thatthey commissioned a stone to be
(32:37):
put on Poe's grave, but it'sdestroyed in a freak train
accident.
So checks in the mail, and thegrave stone is never placed.
So Poe is in an unmarked grave,and now, with the building of
the church, he's in the back ofthe cemetery, and people who are
coming to Baltimore want to paytheir respects.
They have to be led to the spotby a sexton or a member of the
family, and it's you know.
The city of Baltimore starts toget a little heat for not
(32:57):
properly honoring Poe, and thenthere's some other cities that
wouldn't mind having him NewYork, for instance, where his
wife is buried, or Richmond, oryou know, for instance, where
his wife is buried, or Richmond,or you know, philadelphia,
where he wrote the Raven.
So, eventually, a schoolteacheras they often do, a
schoolteacher comes in, tries tosave the day.
A schoolteacher and herstudents put together a pennies
(33:17):
for Poe campaign to give Poe amore fitting monument and
finally give the man a headstone.
But to give him a monument andwhat they're trying to do is
actually a pretty cool historicthing, because this is the first
monument ever created for anAmerican writer in the United
States.
So that's a really cool thingthat they're trying to do.
Eventually, a committee isformed, money is put together
(33:38):
and they're going to give himthis beautiful stone monument.
Question is where to put it,because the placement of the
church now has put Poe's grave alittle too close to the back
wall of the church.
So they decide to dig him upand move him over 12 feet and
they're going to put the stonethere.
(33:58):
But some people on thecommittee still don't like this
because they've gone throughthis trouble to build this
beautiful, create this beautifulmonument and do the money.
They want it to be a place ofhonor.
They briefly talk aboutreconfiguring, like the stone
wall in the cemetery and movingstuff around and somebody's like
you know, let's just dig him upagain and move him to the front
.
And that's what they do.
They dig him up, move him tothe front and he is placed under
(34:22):
this beautiful monument at thefront corner of the cemetery.
So when you come to WestminsterHall, he's front and center,
right right there at the cornerof Fayette and Green Street, and
so that is how Edgar Allan Poecame to be buried three times in
the same cemetery.
Ayla Sparks (34:37):
And there's also an interesting tale of cognac and
toasting.
Enrica Jang (34:41):
Yes, yes, yes, so urban legend time for years and
years and years.
A mysterious figure, cloakedfigure, would sneak into the
cemetery and people noticed thataround Poe's birthday somebody
was leaving a tribute, it seemed, of a cognac and roses at Poe's
grave.
I won't tell you whether or notI really believe all of the
(35:02):
legend, but we know that it kindof took hold, and certainly
took hold like sort ofimagination legend.
But we know that it kind oftook hold and certainly took
hold like sort of imagination.
And so people started to have avigil every year to wait for
the toaster to appear, leave histribute and disappear into the
night.
To our knowledge, the identityof the toaster has never been
really like unmasked or anythinglike that.
I remember as a high schoolstudent, all the way in Ohio,
(35:24):
remembering seeing a little bitof a hullabaloo because somebody
tried to take a picture orsomething of that.
So the tradition seemed like itwent on for quite a while, but
it kind of it stopped officiallyin 2009, which happens to
coincide with Poe's 200thbirthday.
So if it was going to end inthe bicentennial, that makes a
lot of sense and it would happento be also the advent of really
(35:45):
good cell phones, wheneverybody was taking pictures of
everything.
Try sneaking around now.
They wouldn't have been able toget away with that much longer.
So yeah, but the Poe toastercontinues to be a really cool
Baltimore tradition and we tryto have a little bit of fun with
it.
Our birthday celebration is aPoe toaster murder mystery every
year for Poe's birthday.
And who killed the Poe toaster?
(36:06):
Why'd they kill the Poe toaster?
What's happening here?
Ayla Sparks (36:08):
Oh, that's so fun, we do something fun.
Well, thank you so much forsharing Poe and the House Museum
with us.
Enrica Jang (36:15):
Thank you for this opportunity.
It's lovely.
And, yeah, please come on outto Poe House.
And again, 75th anniversary.
This is a big weekend.
We Victoria Price, daughter ofVincent Price will be coming out
and we'll be doing a screeningof the 60th anniversary of Mask
of the Red Death.
That's going to be a lot of fun.
Our Black Cat Ball is I like toget dressed up dripping with
(36:37):
black diamonds and a lot ofgothic finery.
That's a lot of fun.
Our Bloody Mary Brunch we'vegot some really fun stuff.
But what's really great aboutthe festival?
It's a free event.
You can come on out, hang outwith Poe people, pick up a lot
of Poe stuff.
We've got a stage, music, food,vendors just a lot of fun in
Baltimore.
And, of course, come and seethe man himself over at
(36:59):
Westminster Hall.
Ayla Sparks (37:01):
Great, awesome.
Well, thank you so much.
Enrica Jang (37:03):
Thank you for having me Appreciate it.
My name is Enrika Jang.
I'm the executive director ofPoe Baltimore and the Edgar
Allan Poe House and Museum inBaltimore.
Maryland Poe House in Baltimoreis the last surviving home in
the city where Edgar Allan Poeand his family were known to
have lived.
This is a city pretty famousfor Poe and he lives here now
(00:21):
because he, you know, is buriedhere.
We have the body.
Ayla Sparks (00:24):
Through quite a journey, actually, indeed,
indeed.
Enrica Jang (00:28):
Poe in his lifetime never owned property, but now
that he's dead you can visitthree of the houses he lived in.
There's one in Philadelphia runby the National Park Service.
There's the Poe Cottage in theBronx, new York, and then
there's the Poe House inBaltimore.
There's a wonderful museum toPoe in Richmond, virginia.
They don't have.
They've got a lot of Poe stuffbut they're not a Poe house.
(00:49):
It's really one of the onlyadvantages we have over them.
It's a fantastic museum andabsolutely wonderful and we love
those folks down there too.
But Poe in Baltimore again, thecity is known for Poe and his
father's family from Baltimore.
His grandparents served in theRevolution as well as the War of
1812.
So the Poe family prettyimportant to Baltimore history.
Ayla Sparks (01:09):
I didn't know that Poe himself had actually been in
the Army before as well.
That was kind of shocking to me.
Enrica Jang (01:15):
Yeah, when he was enlisted he did pretty well in
the Army and he was kind ofnoted and exceptional.
And then he was sent to be totrain to be an officer over at
West Point and didn't survivethere very long, so but they
like him now.
West Point did you know, kickhim out when he was
court-martialed.
But they like him now and youcan visit a bust in their
library, their Englishdepartment especially.
Ayla Sparks (01:35):
I was going to say is it because he became famous
that they decided to like him?
That's how it goes, they do.
Enrica Jang (01:41):
They like him now.
Same thing with UVA he had toget kicked out, but they like
him now.
He's their most famous collegedropout, that's fantastic.
Ayla Sparks (01:48):
Whenever you're talking about Poe, I feel like
everyone knows him as kind ofjust like this tragic story and
that's reflected in his writing.
But throughout his life itactually is.
I mean, it seems like almostevery step of the way there's
something tragic that influenceshim later on in life.
We'll start at the beginning ofPoe, where he was born, kind of
following through his life,because it really is just
(02:08):
pockmarked with these littlebits of tragedy.
Enrica Jang (02:09):
Well, poe is the son of traveling actors.
So his father's family fromBaltimore, his mother, a British
actress as young as nine yearsold on the stage when she comes
to the United States.
And Poe's father, david, isliving in Baltimore, young and
being groomed to be somethingboring like a lawyer.
(02:30):
Then instead he attends thetheater, falls in love with the
theater, falls in love with thisbeautiful British actress and
essentially runs away with thecircus.
So Edgar Allan Poe born inBoston because his parents were
performing there at the time.
Later, one of the firstmysteries of Edgar Allan Poe,
born in Boston because hisparents were performing there at
the time Later, one of thefirst mysteries of Edgar Allan
Poe's life is what happens tohis father.
(02:51):
He disappears.
Traveling actor, not really sogreat on the stage.
The reviews that exist of hisperformances are pretty dismal a
little stiff, been forgettinghis lines, maybe a bit of a
drinker and like to get intofights with some of the
reviewers who said nasty thingsabout him on the stage.
So his career didn't match theaspirations and he disappears.
(03:15):
Now the conjecture is maybe heabandons his young family.
He and his wife have a sonnamed Henry Leonard and then
have a little boy named Edgarand a little girl named Rosalie,
but he disappears from thepicture entirely.
We don't have a place of death,we don't have a cause of death,
(03:36):
we don't have a burial place,we don't have anything.
And his parents even never hearhim again.
So even if he'd abandoned hiswife and children, you'd think
mom and dad might have heardsomething.
But he disappears from thepicture.
So he may have died on the roador he may have in fact
abandoned the family.
All we know is that Poe's motheris alone in 1811 when she falls
(03:56):
very, very ill In Richmond.
She'd already been sufferingfrom tuberculosis but she
finally succumbs to her illness.
And Poe's mother is noted forher performances on the stage,
unlike her husband, quite famous, famed is not a good fortune
for any member of the Poe familybut very well known.
Ethereal beautiful played thegreat parts Ophelia and Juliet
(04:17):
and that kind of thing on stage.
So noted for this, a comedianand a singer.
She's so good, in fact, thatthe theater in Richmond actually
appeals to the public on herbehalf, saying this beautiful
light of the stage, desperatelyill, has these children alone.
Again, no mention of what'shappened to the husband, but
she's by herself and so thesociety kind of rallies around
(04:38):
her and it's kind of fashionableto be at this dying actress's
side.
And that's how the Allen familylearns of Poe.
John and Frances Allen are acouple, childless couple, in the
city of Richmond.
Edgar Allen Poe's oh sorry,john Allen is a Scottish
immigrant and kind of upwardlymobile, and his wife no children
(05:00):
of her own, but they arepatrons of the theater and she
is present when Poe's motherpasses away and so she's very
eager to take in little Edgar.
And so kind of cataclysmic forthe children.
They're split up Henry Leonardis taken in by the grandparents
here in Baltimore, edgar istaken in by the Allen family,
which is now how we get the nameEdgar Allen Poe, and Rosalie is
(05:23):
taken in by another family andthe three children, rosalie's
taken in by the McKenzies andRichmond, and the three children
are kept apart, or raised apart, I should say.
But the older boy is old enoughto know what has happened to
his family, so he's asking forhis little brother.
What about Edgar?
So that's how the families kindof stay in loose contact with
one another.
Families kind of stay in loosecontact with one another.
(05:43):
Even though John and FrancesAllen even moved to London for a
brief period of time they arekeeping a correspondence with
the Poes in Baltimore and JohnAllen's even writing some
letters to Edgar's brother,henry.
So that's how they sort of keepin contact.
Later, when Edgar and his fosterfather begin to fall out, poe
was never formally adopted bythe Allen family, but he is.
(06:07):
He's raised to be their son,he's given their name, he is
treated as their son.
But he is always told you'reonly a foster son, don't forget
it.
You need to be grateful.
And so you can imagine the kindof sullen teenager that an
Edgar Allen Poe would have been.
We might have a little bit ofpity for John Allan, but the two
of them really do clash andthey start to just kind of come
(06:30):
apart.
And so Poe Edgar finds a littlebit of refuge with his Baltimore
family and later, when the twomen split irrevocably and Poe's
foster mother has passed away,poe is taken in by his relatives
here in Baltimore and that'skind of how his new Baltimore
chapter begins, moving from therelative wealth of the Allen
(06:51):
family to the almost poverty ofthe Poe family.
And yet they take him in,welcome him in, he is taken into
his aunt's home, becomes closeto the family, so close in fact
that he marries his first cousin, virginia.
That's very, very close.
His aunt becomes hismother-in-law and the three of
them stay a family for the restof their lives.
(07:12):
So incredible sort of surge ofdifferent forces in Poe's life.
We can see just how importantfamily becomes to him.
And sort of a weird part ofPoe's story that he marries his
13-year-old cousin.
But that is, you know, part ofthe story too.
Later, just about five yearsinto their marriage, virginia
(07:32):
starts to exhibit the samesymptoms, the same disease that
takes Poe's mother, and Poe seesthis, he's really no stranger
to this.
Tuberculosis kills his mother,kills his foster mother, kills,
likely had something to do withthe things that killed his
brother.
And so for Virginia to exhibitthese symptoms this is something
(07:52):
he understands very, very wellKills his first love, his first
Poe's first crush.
She also dies of tuberculosis,and so just a vicious, terrible
disease.
But Virginia gets better, itgets worse, gets better, it gets
worse.
And it's this time, when she'skind of going through this
oscillation in her disease, thatPoe begins to develop these
(08:15):
ideas of what makes the mostpoetical subject in the world,
and he very famously says thedeath of a beautiful woman is
the most poetical subject in theworld and he has a beautiful
dying wife at home.
So it's hard not to see that asat least some of the
inspiration in his work.
Eventually Virginia dies andPoe only survives her about two
(08:36):
years.
He is kind of trying to crawlout of his grief after her death
and seems he's courting again,intent on marrying again, maybe
start a magazine, maybe continue, but dies under mysterious
circumstances in Baltimore justtwo years after Virginia.
So that's the Penny tour of hislife.
Lots of different twists andturns in there.
Ayla Sparks (08:58):
And there's definitely a lot more to it.
But you know, in the scope of asingle podcast episode, sure,
sure.
Enrica Jang (09:04):
Poe again, that kind of connection to Baltimore
never really goes away, eventhough he's raised by another
family.
He's a little boy too, but he'saware that he has this other
family and his brother, atdifferent times, comes to visit
him and so they do become quiteclose and that's the connection
for Poe to his Baltimore family.
Some people don't know thatEdgar's older brother is also a
(09:26):
writer, a published writer,writes even a poem based on one
of his brother's failed romances, and so this is something that
they have in common which isreally fascinating.
A very artistic familyaltogether.
Yes, absolutely.
We know that Poe Edgar waswriting poetry even in his teens
, as young as his teens.
We see that he always considershimself a poet, wants to be a
(09:48):
poet, loves Byron, and we seethat.
But it's that connection to hisbrother that we think likely
contributed to his burgeoninginterest in short story, in
tales.
There's a burgeoning magazineindustry at that time and a lot
of different writing contestsand just periodicals popping up
(10:10):
all over the country, this hugesurge and this kind of new kind
of publishing in the UnitedStates.
And so poetry then is now kindof difficult to make your living
.
But Poe sees that his olderbrother is making maybe even a
little bit of money submittingshort stories to the magazine
industry of the day, and so Ifeel that you can kind of see
(10:31):
this sort of timeline start toconverge.
Poe, as you mentioned, was inthe military for a brief time.
After he leaves his fosterfather's home, tries to support
himself, and the way he doesthat is by joining the military
and pursuing that career.
Once he gets to West Point it'sa very austere life, not really
something that he's interestedin continuing.
(10:52):
So the story goes that he getshimself kicked out.
And once he gets himself kickedout of West Point he has
nowhere to go and the connectionto his foster father is over,
over over.
His foster father will notforgive him for squandering that
opportunity as far as he'sconcerned.
So Poe comes to Baltimore andthen his brother dies and Poe
(11:13):
was likely there when hisbrother dies and in a way takes
his brother's place in hisgrandparents' slash aunt's home.
His Aunt Mariah is now takingcare of the family, taking care
of her ailing mother, caring forher own children.
She is a widow herself and it'snice to have a man in the house
and so she welcomes Edgar intotheir home and she becomes a
(11:34):
kind of a surrogate mother in alot of ways, and again that
family becomes quite close.
But Poe, at this time again nomoney, it's not really clear
what he's contributing to thehousehold, but he's writing and
gets him noticed by the literarycommunity and he launches a
(12:07):
career as a writer and an editorand a contributor to the
magazines that employ him.
So that time, in Baltimore,finding a new family, a chosen
family as we say today, and thissort of family unit that will
sustain him at least for therest of his life, and then
launching his professionalwriting career, All of that
happens at Amity Street and whatis today the Edgar Allan Poe
(12:30):
house.
So it's an important, importantpart.
Now, as I said, though, Poenever owned property.
The family was even renting thehome at this time.
So that's why you can go to abunch of different cities and
everybody has a piece of Poe.
He did live in Philadelphia.
He did live in New York, Boston, Even though he was born there.
Not much of a connection there.
Eventually he has a big feudwith the city, Lived in Richmond
(12:51):
, Virginia, and seemed like hemight even have been moving back
there at the end of his lifehad he not died in Baltimore.
That had been his intent toreturn to Richmond.
Ayla Sparks (12:59):
So I feel like it's really similar to Abraham
Lincoln.
It seems like every state yougo to is like oh, this is the
state of Abraham Lincoln andyou're like I thought the last
state I was in one of thosethings where it's everywhere.
But so if someone were to comevisit, what would they expect to
see when they're walkingthrough the house itself?
Enrica Jang (13:16):
Well, what do they expect to see, or what do they
see?
Those are very different things, that's a good point.
Ayla Sparks (13:21):
What should they expect to see?
What should they?
Enrica Jang (13:23):
expect to see.
I joke about it because peoplecome to Baltimore kind of
expecting that they're going tovisit the House of Usher, that
they're going to see the spooky,crazy dark mansion on a hill
somewhere, and that's not thetruth of Poe's life.
We're talking about a veryhumble start and this is a place
where Poe begins hisprofessional writing career and
(13:44):
makes his family.
So it is the remnant of aduplex that originally was built
in 1832.
It was a standalone propertywhen Poe and his family lived
there and it was kind of theedge of town.
The city had not pushed as farwest at this time.
The family actually moves thereto escape a cholera epidemic
that had taken over in the city.
So you move to the edge of townand a little bit healthier and
(14:06):
a little bit more room.
Of course, eventually when thefamily leaves it's a private
home and rental property andeventually the city pushes
further west.
So when you come to Baltimore,poe House is what is left of
that duplex.
In the 1930s the entire blockwhere Poe House is is scheduled
for demolition and to build ahousing project, the first
(14:29):
housing project in the city ofBaltimore.
It was the first of fivehousing projects for Black
families in Baltimore in a timeof segregation.
So this weird sort of piece ofhistory.
But Poe House, as it was knownto have been, a house that Poe
lived in, but that the propertyitself was scheduled to be
demolished.
When the Edgar Allan Poe Societyof Baltimore learns of the
(14:50):
city's plans but also learnsthat the last surviving home
where Poe and his family wereknown to have lived is about to
be lost forever, they step in,beg the city to please save the
house.
And the compromise that theyreach with the city is that they
will chop the duplex in half,save the historic half where Poe
and his family lived.
And then they built the housingproject onto Poe House.
(15:13):
So when you come Amity Streetyou see this sort of weird,
strange configuration of what ishalf the one half of the duplex
, with a housing block from thehousing project built directly
onto it.
And we've been neighbors nowfor 80 years.
Ayla Sparks (15:28):
I feel like that's a perfect compromise, sort of a
strange idea of historicpreservation at that time.
And then also, like you know,expansion of a city and trying
to work with underservedcommunities.
It's kind of just like a reallyinteresting, delicate balance
they had to try to make there.
Enrica Jang (15:44):
Oh, I wish the history was as rosy as that
history of public housing inBaltimore.
It's a bit fraught, but theynamed the housing project the
Edgar Allan Poe Homes inrecognition of the fact that Poe
House was there Initially.
The structure that is Poe Housewas turned into administrative
office, was proposed as a healthcenter for the housing project.
(16:06):
But then the Poe Society stepsin again and about 10 years
later for the anniversary the100-year centenary of Poe's
death they managed to establishthe Edgar Allan Poe House and
Museum.
It is now 2024.
This is our 75th anniversary asa museum, but the housing we've
been neighbors now with thehousing project sharing a
(16:26):
footprint for the last 80 years.
Ayla Sparks (16:28):
Do you guys have any big celebrations coming up
for your 75th?
Oh, we do.
Enrica Jang (16:32):
We do.
Poe House is the home of theInternational Edgar Allan Poe
Festival and Awards.
It's an annual two-day eventthat we throw, always the
weekend closest to Poe's death,obviously for our 75th
anniversary.
So many different thingscoincide with that weekend the
75th anniversary of the museum,it's also the 175th anniversary
(16:53):
of Poe's death in Baltimore andhappens to be the 60th
anniversary of Roger Corman'sMask of the Red Death.
So we're doing some coolVincent Price themed stuff for
the weekend and you know it'sour diamond anniversary.
So an extra day of programming.
It'll be three days this year.
So if there's any for yourlisteners, if there's any time
you want to come to Baltimore tothe festival, october 4th and
(17:14):
4th through the 6th is theweekend to come this year.
Ayla Sparks (17:16):
Especially if you're a Poe fan.
Enrica Jang (17:18):
Especially if you're a Poe fan.
Absolutely Come on out 75thOnce in a generation opportunity
.
Ayla Sparks (17:24):
So whenever you do come and visit the museum.
I know you were mentioning thatthere was a telescope, but
whenever I think of Poe I neverreally think of him looking at
things as cosmically beautiful,as a star, the stars.
I kind of just imagine allabout death, which I know is an
unfair observation from mylimited poetic standpoint.
So why don't you tell us alittle bit about why a telescope
(17:45):
?
Enrica Jang (17:45):
Don't worry, you're not alone.
It's funny.
Poe is famous for these horrorstories and is famous for poetry
, gothic poetry and thataesthetic and everything.
But Poe actually defines a lotof modern genres we have today.
He is the inventor of thedetective story.
It's not that there were nosuch things as mysteries before
there was an Edgar Allan Poe,but Poe was the first in the
(18:06):
English language to create acharacter at the heart of a
story whose job it is to solve amystery by step-by-step process
of observation, deduction,reasoning, ratiocination, as
it's in his stories.
And so Poe is the inventor ofthe detective story.
Mystery Writers of America nametheir awards, the Edgar Bicots,
in honor of Poe.
(18:27):
But Poe is also a sciencefiction writer.
So if you look at some of thestories in Poe's repertoire, at
the very end of his life Poeeven writes his own cosmology,
eureka, sort of hiscontemplation of the universe,
life, the universe andeverything, and his ideas about
the soul.
That it takes light to travel.
(18:55):
When we look at stars we mighteven be looking at the light
from dead stars because of somuch time that it would take for
that light to travel to Earth.
It's very poetic observation,but this is something that we
understand today.
And so Jules Verne talks aboutPoe being inspired by Poe, and
you know other horror writersobviously inspired by Poe.
But Poe was very interested inscience, very interested in,
(19:16):
especially, enlightenment of hisday that's the end of the
Spanish Inquisition and it'slike turning to science and
turning to these modern marvelsin his lifetime.
So it was very much in his mind.
And the telescope that we haveat Poe House was an item that
belonged to the Allen family,not at a time that he was in
Baltimore, but it's mentioned inJohn Allen's papers and it's
(19:38):
known that the little boy hadthis interest in the telescope
and in kind of looking at thesethings.
And so if you can imagine avery young Edgar Allen Poe just
beginning to open his eyes tothe world and these things that
are of interest and arefascinating to him with this
poetical sensibility, it's kindof it's kind of cool to sort of
(19:58):
see an object that may have infact inspired, inspired his work
.
Ayla Sparks (20:02):
Well, and what's really interesting about Poe as
well and I feel like this isn'tvery common is he became quite
famous within his lifetimelifetime.
So it was great in terms ofsome types of preservation, such
as the house and such as itemslike the telescope, because if
you are known to have they'relike, this is going to be
something really special.
We can tell already it's morelikely to be saved, but what
(20:23):
made Poe famous in his lifetime?
What was so special anddifferent about Poe and his
writing that people recognizedeven early on that it was
something that was going to beimportant into the future?
Enrica Jang (20:35):
I love that question Poe throughout his
career.
It's interesting that thenotion that people sometimes
bring to Poe has they expectthat he was not appreciated in
his lifetime or not known evenin his early career because he's
a magazine editor.
So it's a noted position, it'sa position of power and
tastemaking and Poe, early inhis career, makes his bones as a
(20:57):
vicious book critic and awriting critic.
So if you've ever known like amusic reviewer or a movie
reviewer, that's just kind offamous because they're so mean.
Poe was known for this and hewould get kind of personal and
kind of nasty and kind of pettyCritiqu.
So mean.
Poe was known for this and hewould get kind of personal and
kind of nasty and kind of pettycritiquing some of these writers
(21:18):
, not just their writing butalso their person or their
intelligence and all this otherstuff.
He was just known to be sosnarky and mean.
So he's noted for this and heis noted for being sort of a
gothic writer.
One of his early stories that hedid write in Amity Street,
berenice, the story of a man who, the narrator, marries his
(21:39):
cousin and she gets very, veryill and as she gets sicker and
sicker, her face recedes intothis rictus and he becomes
obsessed with her teeth and whenhe thinks she's dead he rips
them out of her face.
This is a shocking story andone of the editors who published
it he's like why do you want towrite about this topic?
And Poe's very flippant answerwas it's going to sell.
(21:59):
This is going to sell magazinesfor you.
So he's known for being aGothic writer.
He's known for being a poet,but he's known for being a
critic and an editor for thesemagazines.
Now he's known to the readingpublic at this time.
He becomes popularly famouswith the publication of the
Raven in 1845.
Even if he didn't know anythingabout poetry not everybody
(22:20):
cares about poetry.
They really really should, butnot everybody does you still
would have heard the Ravenalmost like a pop song.
The Raven is musical and gothicand romantic.
There's this repetition.
It is never more and never more.
These phrases it's easy to sayand to repeat and to read and
(22:40):
very emotive Right, and so itcaptures the imagination of the
nation.
It flies around the world andPoe becomes famous for the raven
, and so this interest in Poe isstill there.
But you know, just like youmight, the reading public might
know the name of a reporter atthe New Yorker or something like
that, but everybody knowsBritney Spears.
(23:02):
I just compared Edgar Allan Poeto Britney Spears.
There you go, but that's whatmakes him super, super famous
and people start really payingattention.
But he only, you know onlylives another four years after
the publication of the Raven.
And a lot happens in that fouryears.
His wife dies, he survives somereally nasty scandals in New
(23:23):
York, a couple of court cases,is grieving, courting, trying to
get married again and trying totake care of his Aunt Mariah,
his mother-in-law, who is takingcare of him and surviving with
him but trying to find a lifefor them as well.
So he does die in Baltimoreunder mysterious circumstances,
just traveling through the city.
(23:43):
As a matter of fact, he wasn'teven living here any longer when
he's passing through.
But he dies here just fouryears after.
It's hard to know where hewould have gone and what might
have happened with his careerhad he lived longer, but it is
good to know that he did achievesomething in his lifetime and
was recognized for it.
Ayla Sparks (24:02):
Because it's so tragic when you learn of someone
who is just incredibly famousand looked at one of the greats
and they didn't even know intheir lifetime.
So it's quite satisfying toknow that he at least got a
glimpse of the popularity of hisown work, which is really
exciting.
Enrica Jang (24:16):
His persona got so much bigger after his death, of
course, and the subject matterof his work and stuff, and so
he's turned into this iconic,iconic persona and figure.
I don't know that even he wouldhave anticipated that.
I think he'd be pleased, but Ithink he'd still be surprised.
Ayla Sparks (24:32):
Do you think that the fact that he did die in the
manner that he did and that hedied so early in his career
added to him becoming morepopular in his afterlife, or do
you think it would have happenedregardless?
Enrica Jang (24:43):
I think you've got a perfect storm of sort of fame
that happens and infamy thatsort of makes him almost like a
rock star in a way, like justlike a young, tumultuous rock
and roller burning out hard andfast.
Poe was 40, so it's not, he's aspring chicken, but he's still.
(25:04):
It is still young and powerfuland the work that he wrote in
his, you know, in his late 20sand 30s like that's the
incredible decade of work.
I think that, because of thesalacious circumstances of his
death and because of the natureof celebrity, a lot of people
who are sort of interested inPoe and, as we sort of noted at
the beginning of this, thatdeath could come and take you at
(25:27):
that time just about any time.
This is pre-Civil War medicine,pre-phenobiotics, and people
died all the time, and so thedeath itself was less the shock
but the strange circumstances ofhis death.
And then, because of the natureof celebrity, you have people at
the end of that person's lifebehaving quite badly.
The most famous example of thisis Rufus Griswold, who likely
(25:50):
was in Lifetime what we wouldcall a frenemy, one of those
colleagues that you tolerate andcan't stand, and he uses the
occasion of Poe's death to kindof benefit himself but also
malign Poe's character and saysome really nasty stuff about
him that to this day has to getkind of raked out of Poe's
history that he was insane, thathe had incestuous relationships
(26:12):
with every female member of hisfamily, that all of this is
sort of nastiness that people,even today we have to kind of
correct them like that he didn'tkill anybody and stuff like
that.
But even something is.
You know, something in his lifeis mundane.
As the doctor the physicianthat was in attendance in Poe's
last days he that was inattendance in Poe's last days he
dines out for the rest of hislife talking about the last days
(26:36):
of Poe and what starts out as asimple death in the hospital
turns into deathbed speeches andextra symptoms.
He goes on tour, he writes abook, he becomes the mayor of a
small town not too far outsideof Baltimore and eventually
convicted of fraud.
That is crazy.
But it's celebrity's celebrityright, and we see this today.
(26:56):
All nothing's new.
We see all of that today whensomeone dies and then that kind
of tabloidy kind of interest andall of that springs up around
Poe and makes it even bigger andeven darker and the persona of
Poe's writing.
Poe is one of the first peopleto write in the first person of
a madman, of a murderer, andit's not so strange today we see
(27:19):
horror writers do this all thetime, where they write in the
first person and you know thatthey're not, you know, killing
anybody, you don't think, butthey're just coming up with
something.
We recognize that an artist cando that.
Poe's one of the first peopleto do that and it's even
considered this morally suspectgift Like who could?
What's wrong with you that youcould do that?
And insanity is taboo andmurder, of course, is this
(27:41):
dreadful sin.
And who could write it?
Ayla Sparks (27:45):
Which, I'm sure, made it a lot easier for
everyday people to believe a lotof these rumors that were
coming up after his death,because they were like well,
clearly he was crazy.
Did you read some of his work,right?
Enrica Jang (27:55):
And it just makes it so much darker and people are
looking for those strains andso I think that's that perfect
storm of fame and circumstancethat lends itself.
But again, I don't think thathe would be displeased about
this.
He kind of encouraged thisenigmatic idea of himself and
(28:17):
when he was asked about his ownbiography would lie often and
kind of be a liar, liar faceabout some of the stuff that he
came from and happened to him.
So it's fascinating and it'sfun and you get to be a
historian at Poe House and tellpeople, well, actually, this
thing that you think you knowthey don't really know.
But yeah, there's all of that.
Ayla Sparks (28:38):
So what ended up happening to his mother-in-law
after his death?
Do we know we?
Enrica Jang (28:42):
do Mariah Clem?
She goes on to kind of livecast upon the kindness of a lot
of her nephew's admirers.
She lives with a number ofdifferent families who take her
in out of their you knowassociation with Edgar and their
admiration of him, and when onefamily gets sick of her she
kind of gets shuffled to anotherone.
(29:04):
Lives in a bunch of differentstates eventually.
Eventually kind of runs out andreturns to Baltimore and is
living in a widow's, wants toget into a widow's home, falls
very, very ill.
What's fascinating about MariahClem?
She does survive everyone, butshe eventually dies in the same
building where Poe died, in theexact same hospital, in the same
(29:26):
building where Poe died, andthat was actually a great
comfort to her and her dyingwish was to be buried next to
her darling eddie, and she gother wish and so, but, uh, she
survives him by at least in, uh,another 20 years.
Like a long time, a long time.
Ayla Sparks (29:44):
so then her daughter by like 22, 24 years.
Yes, wow, virginia dies first.
There's also a lot of we talkedwe briefly went over this in
the beginning but Poe's finalresting place not final for
quite a while so will you tellus a little bit about the chaos
that was his casket situation?
Enrica Jang (30:04):
It's not seeing.
Westminster Hall, where Poe wasburied, is less than a mile
from Poe House and ourunderstanding is that it was a
graveyard first, before thechurch was put there, and so
it's a graveyard that Poehimself in fact visited because
there were members of the Poefamily there.
But Poe was buried no fewerthan three times in the same
cemetery.
When Poe dies, as I said, hewas traveling through the city
(30:27):
of Baltimore.
He wasn't even supposed to behere for very long.
He was going to catch a trainand he's traveling from Richmond
to New York to close hisaffairs in New York and scoop up
his aunt Mariah and move onback to Richmond where he is
engaged to be married andstarting a new magazine and it
seems like he's on the upswing.
But comes to Baltimore andpromptly goes missing and
(30:48):
there's a period of about fouror five days in the city where
we don't know what happened tohim, don't know where he was,
but he turns up again interrible condition in this
tavern, taken to the hospitalwhere he dies.
So he happens to die inBaltimore where he has family,
which means there's a place toput him, and he is buried in his
grandfather's plot over at inthe graveyard with the other
(31:09):
members of the Poe family hisbrother, his grandparents and
his aunts and uncles.
Years later, the one thingthey're not making more of is
land, and there's thisinconvenient graveyard in the
middle of the city, and so theywant to maybe redevelop it,
reclaim some of this land.
Now there's a law in Marylandat the time that says that you
can't reclaim a graveyard well,the cemetery if there's a church
(31:32):
.
That's what makes a graveyard acemetery the church.
So a church is erected in thisgraveyard and a couple of the
stones are sort of like movedaround.
Some people are like putunderneath the church, but the
church is buried over top theexisting graveyard.
So when you do come toWestminster, it's actually kind
of cool to walk along the sideof the building because it
(31:54):
creates these really coolcatacombs.
They're built up on piers overthe existing graveyard and you
can actually take tours andvisit underneath the church to
see some of these really reallycool stones and stuff.
And this graveyard dates allthe way back.
Pre-revolution Got people likeheroes of the Revolution in the
War of 1812 buried there.
Lots of really famous people inBaltimore also buried there.
(32:14):
So it's a big deal, this place,what this effectively does,
though, is Poe is now at theback of the cemetery, and he has
been left in an unmarked grave.
Now, this sounds disrespectful.
When Poe initially dies, though, there's not a ton of money and
none of the other familymembers have stones.
The family eventually says thatthey commissioned a stone to be
(32:37):
put on Poe's grave, but it'sdestroyed in a freak train
accident.
So checks in the mail, and thegrave stone is never placed.
So Poe is in an unmarked grave,and now, with the building of
the church, he's in the back ofthe cemetery, and people who are
coming to Baltimore want to paytheir respects.
They have to be led to the spotby a sexton or a member of the
family, and it's you know.
The city of Baltimore starts toget a little heat for not
(32:57):
properly honoring Poe, and thenthere's some other cities that
wouldn't mind having him NewYork, for instance, where his
wife is buried, or Richmond, oryou know, for instance, where
his wife is buried, or Richmond,or you know, philadelphia,
where he wrote the Raven.
So, eventually, a schoolteacheras they often do, a
schoolteacher comes in, tries tosave the day.
A schoolteacher and herstudents put together a pennies
(33:17):
for Poe campaign to give Poe amore fitting monument and
finally give the man a headstone.
But to give him a monument andwhat they're trying to do is
actually a pretty cool historicthing, because this is the first
monument ever created for anAmerican writer in the United
States.
So that's a really cool thingthat they're trying to do.
Eventually, a committee isformed, money is put together
(33:38):
and they're going to give himthis beautiful stone monument.
Question is where to put it,because the placement of the
church now has put Poe's grave alittle too close to the back
wall of the church.
So they decide to dig him upand move him over 12 feet and
they're going to put the stonethere.
(33:58):
But some people on thecommittee still don't like this
because they've gone throughthis trouble to build this
beautiful, create this beautifulmonument and do the money.
They want it to be a place ofhonor.
They briefly talk aboutreconfiguring, like the stone
wall in the cemetery and movingstuff around and somebody's like
you know, let's just dig him upagain and move him to the front
.
And that's what they do.
They dig him up, move him tothe front and he is placed under
(34:22):
this beautiful monument at thefront corner of the cemetery.
So when you come to WestminsterHall, he's front and center,
right right there at the cornerof Fayette and Green Street, and
so that is how Edgar Allan Poecame to be buried three times in
the same cemetery.
Ayla Sparks (34:37):
And there's also an interesting tale of cognac and
toasting.
Enrica Jang (34:41):
Yes, yes, yes, so urban legend time for years and
years and years.
A mysterious figure, cloakedfigure, would sneak into the
cemetery and people noticed thataround Poe's birthday somebody
was leaving a tribute, it seemed, of a cognac and roses at Poe's
grave.
I won't tell you whether or notI really believe all of the
(35:02):
legend, but we know that it kindof took hold, and certainly
took hold like sort ofimagination legend.
But we know that it kind oftook hold and certainly took
hold like sort of imagination.
And so people started to have avigil every year to wait for
the toaster to appear, leave histribute and disappear into the
night.
To our knowledge, the identityof the toaster has never been
really like unmasked or anythinglike that.
I remember as a high schoolstudent, all the way in Ohio,
(35:24):
remembering seeing a little bitof a hullabaloo because somebody
tried to take a picture orsomething of that.
So the tradition seemed like itwent on for quite a while, but
it kind of it stopped officiallyin 2009, which happens to
coincide with Poe's 200thbirthday.
So if it was going to end inthe bicentennial, that makes a
lot of sense and it would happento be also the advent of really
(35:45):
good cell phones, wheneverybody was taking pictures of
everything.
Try sneaking around now.
They wouldn't have been able toget away with that much longer.
So yeah, but the Poe toastercontinues to be a really cool
Baltimore tradition and we tryto have a little bit of fun with
it.
Our birthday celebration is aPoe toaster murder mystery every
year for Poe's birthday.
And who killed the Poe toaster?
(36:06):
Why'd they kill the Poe toaster?
What's happening here?
Ayla Sparks (36:08):
Oh, that's so fun, we do something fun.
Well, thank you so much forsharing Poe and the House Museum
with us.
Enrica Jang (36:15):
Thank you for this opportunity.
It's lovely.
And, yeah, please come on outto Poe House.
And again, 75th anniversary.
This is a big weekend.
We Victoria Price, daughter ofVincent Price will be coming out
and we'll be doing a screeningof the 60th anniversary of Mask
of the Red Death.
That's going to be a lot of fun.
Our Black Cat Ball is I like toget dressed up dripping with
(36:37):
black diamonds and a lot ofgothic finery.
That's a lot of fun.
Our Bloody Mary Brunch we'vegot some really fun stuff.
But what's really great aboutthe festival?
It's a free event.
You can come on out, hang outwith Poe people, pick up a lot
of Poe stuff.
We've got a stage, music, food,vendors just a lot of fun in
Baltimore.
And, of course, come and seethe man himself over at
(36:59):
Westminster Hall.
Ayla Sparks (37:01):
Great, awesome.
Well, thank you so much.
Enrica Jang (37:03):
Thank you for having me Appreciate it.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!