Tales of a Poe Biographer

I’d like to thank Jerry Kennedy for his very gracious and bracing introduction. I look forward to reading his Poe biography! I’d also like to thank Philip Phillips for his support of my book—and of this talk—and for his bringing the Poe-Hawthorne conference to Paris. I’m eager to see his published book Poe and Space! And I’d like to thank my wife Amy, who has made everything possible. My new book is dedicated to her. I’ll be very happy to read your work on Jacob van Swanenburg when it appears! I want to thank, too, the Poe Studies Association and the Nathaniel Hawthorne Society, the sponsors of this conference. These have been my two scholarly homes, my two scholarly communities, for decades. I want to thank the four Sorbonne institutions for so beautifully hosting this conference. And, finally, I want to thank those of you here in this room; I am honored to be speaking to you this afternoon. A woman once asked me what I do, and I said, “I work on Edgar Allan Poe.” And then she asked, “What do you do to him?”Well, at an earlier venue for this conference—Florence, Italy, in 2012—I spoke about what I had done to him in my career up to that point.1 Today, I’ll speak about what I’ve been doing to him since then. Our presence in Paris prompts me to pay fitting tribute to the full response to Poe of his champion, Charles Baudelaire. Baudelaire found in Poe a secret brother—another literary figure with a sense of his own high destiny, another remarkable writer with faults, but committed to a pursuit of the infinite. Here was a rare fellow martyr, another flawed devotee to Beauty. Poe’s darkness provided Baudelaire with light. Baudelaire reciprocated, providing Poe, through criticism and translation, with international readership and renown.Baudelaire responded to Poe as a reader and an artist; I as a reader and a scholar.I became especially fascinated by Poe, in graduate school in the late 1970s, because of the mysterious final journal entry of his 1838 novel The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym: it offered what seemed to me to be an image of divinity, one with which my imagination fully resonated. And it offered, as well, what I took to be an implied encoding, promising the possibility of decoding. Here, I thought, might be my much-sought literary adventure. Poe was clearly an advocate of close reading, careful study, and thorough analysis (as we see in the Dupin tales, “The Gold-Bug,” and “Exordium,” for instance). I decided to try to decipher the decipherer. And so began my life as a Poe guy. Now I’ll jump from the late 1970s to 1992. I was by then married to my wife Amy, and we had two children, Emily and Gabe. I was an English professor at Penn State-DuBois, and we lived in State College, Pennsylvania. I was told by Jeffrey A. Savoye, of the Poe Society of Baltimore, of a collection of Poe-related papers that might be for sale. I called the owner, a woman in Tulsa, Oklahoma, who was emptying a room in her house—she wanted to move these papers out. I asked her what they were precisely, but she didn’t say. Perhaps she didn’t know. I offered the highest amount that I was willing to lose if the papers turned out to be more boondoggle than boon. It’s a modest amount today, but it seemed a lot then—two hundred dollars. She accepted my offer; I sent her a check, and she mailed me a cardboard box.The Box, as I soon thought of it, contained, in part, many clippings about Poe from turn-of-the-twentieth-century magazines as well as printed Poe-related ephemera. And it also contained manuscript letters that discussed Poe. The writer was the unknown Flora Lapham Mack, who referred frequently to the mysterious “Cousin John.” The recipient of these letters was the similarly unknown William Lanier Washington. I had no idea what I had. It might be important, I thought, but with my teaching and research and writing and editing and administering I just didn’t have the time. So—I put The Box away. I put it away in a safe place, a cedar closet in the downstairs playroom of our house. And it stayed there for a long time.Twenty years later, looking for something else—I forget what—I checked that cedar closet and found The Box. Aha. I withdrew it with some anxiety, reassuring myself that I could transcribe just one letter and see where it led.And so, I began.I transcribed on my computer a letter that related the story of young Edgar’s competing with a childhood friend in Richmond to tell the best fairy tale.2 That friend was John H. Mackenzie, whose mother Jane Scott Mackenzie had, with Frances Allan, visited Edgar’s dying mother Eliza. After Eliza died, Jane Scott took in Edgar’s sister Rosalie, and Frances took in Edgar.John H. Mackenzie was to become Poe’s lifelong friend. He would marry Louisa Lanier, who was the cousin of Mary Mattox, and Mary’s daughter was Flora Lapham—later Flora Lapham Mack. Flora was the writer of the letters about Poe. She grew up knowing John H. Mackenzie and referred to him as “Cousin John.” After Louisa died, John married her cousin Mary, so he became Flora’s stepfather. Flora would write about Poe to William Lanier Washington, who was a grandson of one of Louisa’s nieces. The Mattox cousins and later the Lanier nieces had lived with John and Louisa.Well, I’d never read elsewhere of the story of Edgar and John telling each other fairy tales. I checked the Poe biographies in my study to be sure, and I could not find the story. I realized then that I had an unknown story about Edgar Allan Poe.And I read and transcribed other letters. The handwriting became easier to read as I proceeded. And I found other new stories about Poe.In those months in late 2012, I would wake up and wonder, “What’s Poe going to do today?” And I would hurry downstairs, have a quick breakfast, and get to work. These were mornings of discovery and delight. There was much material; I would be transcribing intermittently over the next few years, through 2015.I read Flora’s long, detailed essay for William Lanier Washington on “Poe’s Appearance and Personality,” which begins by stating the view of John H. Mackenzie and his mother Jane Scott Mackenzie that Poe “was one of the most graceful persons they ever saw.”3 And I found in Flora’s additional letters, among the long-unknown stories about Poe in Richmond, an account of his delivering his early poem “Oh, Tempora! Oh, Mores!” and another of his later traipsing through the woods with his wife Virginia at John’s farm, and yet another of his much later encountering John’s objection to his engagement to Elmira Royster Shelton.4 I had a treasure trove of materials on Poe, as told to Flora Lapham Mack by her mother and her mother’s cousin and his mother and others in Richmond who had known Poe well. And the woman who had sold me the papers, Adele Garren, had sent me more—John H. Mackenzie’s written recollection of “Oh, Tempora! Oh, Mores!” I seemed to be in the midst of a reverse version of Henry James’s novella “The Aspern Papers”—not the wary withholding of manuscripts related to a great poet but rather the generous providing of such manuscripts.5I spoke on some of my new finds at the Positively Poe Conference at the of Virginia in the Poe Studies Association of the Association in in and the Poe in Richmond in And I from Richmond to Flora Lapham of I visited the of John H. Mackenzie at the It was with a A of Richmond, John H. Mackenzie was a friend of Edgar Allan Flora had written in one of her letters that John had her I visited Flora’s in as well. And I in of her at where she had written her letters about Poe in and The was for years, I from Penn I to transcribe the Flora letters. I began to work with my research at Penn has since her in English at the of I with my Poe on the Edgar Allan Poe to be in in And I thought more about on the Mackenzie I a in Allan Poe and the of “The The of Poe in and John.” I thought also about a full A Allan A was in that I visited of the Edgar A. and his Washington I at the of a next to in his about and and He that I do a of in of the and I the but that I was of on his Edgar Allan Poe. I told of my Flora Lapham Mack letters about Poe, and he was very had a when it I and to the with the I turned and knowing that this would be the time. And he said, with the I was and have been ever the Association Conference in in I asked the great for a to and he the of Virginia the Association in in I to the at the and made my to He and seemed I that I could and the Flora letters for a I could write a of Poe, from her letters in “The he the the was I the knowing that my years were I had a sent the book And by I had a I began and and writing Allan A read and the Poe writing “Poe’s for Jerry Kennedy and Scott of Edgar Allan I my Mackenzie I a which of Flora’s stories would which I began writing the and I wanted to a I thought of myself as on a a and to in to a on Edgar and John and and I research on her at the I that her was I’d to see it just in time. I to the Poe in Richmond, another and I also Richmond and at the of I additional letters from Flora Lapham Mack to William Lanier Washington, at the of Virginia for the Poe at the Poe And I began to the and the Virginia of and I then as a in teaching Poe, and And I to my Poe of the of Poe’s and Eliza at the for the at in I read the manuscript letters of H. to Mary Phillips at the and of the had visited Flora in but she tell him her were for William Lanier and I stayed in by and Mary I would the Washington the and to the of the of in the I was there to read the and Allan some of the Poe-related materials in this collection of the papers of Poe’s John Allan and Charles were I wanted to was my And, with support from Penn State research I to the in and at an in a by the the I on the of a in the the was very it There was the of the and And there were the of my and here we my best were John for young Edgar of the book at with the of “The of and “The and to the and the from the of the of The Narrative of Arthur Gordon There was also much early in and his in And there was the that would a in my of four for for with and the of the of John H. Mackenzie and his wife Louisa on that they to the but Allan, the that John that John had to of these were research that to A is for a I from the of with hundred of in was some at this poet had I was to have to him a He had been the reader on my and we had over the years, about Poe. My wife and I had been happy to him in and later in where he had been a I’d been to see that in his study he had a Poe I’d dedicated Edgar Allan Poe and the Dupin to He was a great reader of Poe as an and as a months my of research were to I the and a long with and scholarly I then began to write a in in is a I a I to my study and the on my is And, of I then was very for The Flora letters were for my telling of the Richmond and Edgar’s fairy with John in And the and Allan my account of the of the which and Allan the and Allan materials were for my in in of when Allan and Richmond in And for the and Allan my story of John in The Flora manuscripts my telling about the that Edgar in Richmond and the of his “Oh, Tempora! Oh, a poem that one an Edgar’s this I also and in I the Poe and Hawthorne in with the support of a Virginia I the of research at the of Virginia in I lived in an on not from the of Elmira Royster Poe had early He called her a and the of John and his and I the at the of on Richmond of Poe’s of my were that in and in Richmond, had on and the one of these had been and by a a for and have known of the and might well have at that possibility in of his speaking in on “The in and in the the discovery at the of Virginia was a poem in in the Richmond the and the that the work was I was to from a Richmond that where Edgar had lived at the and was on the where the Richmond had been and I have since this poem of and to Poe in of my I his published of Virginia had many other Poe-related the journal of a who had a on Poe’s I would on this journal in a later at the of Virginia for my next about Poe at the of and I this work with to the at the of in and especially the and where I of Poe’s at The of the and the of the of the I and found in the of a of poem in which her a poem that Poe’s “The “The in the in which a There was also a letter from John Allan to John H. a of the of at the of to Edgar A. And there was William Lanier Poe of Edgar Allan which and on Washington had on the letters from Flora Lapham Mack, some of which I some of which at the Poe The of very on Poe. And I found it very to work at the of where Poe is the honored It was great to the that he had to his room at and to see a of Poe in the is the of the of Edgar Allan Poe is one of in the story about Poe’s on in “Oh, Tempora! Oh, Mores!” I to the in in of I found that was of the and that was called And I more in such Richmond as the the Virginia of and of the Poe I of other Virginia in the Virginia room in and I a there on my research at the of Virginia and the of was called I my of Poe in the Poe in to John’s where Poe’s mother is and to on the of the Richmond which on The Allan at could four so I in four of the to that I where Edgar had a with by my friend and his wife I visited Richmond Poe I to Jane Scott Mackenzie’s where Poe had And with I the of John H. Mackenzie’s later Poe had also to the Flora and my in Richmond, I about Poe’s months at the of Virginia and his few months in Richmond he for in I to the Richmond there was a Poe by a advocate for one my I my Poe research and began writing there was another we were soon to move from State to to the where my wife had I my of and and my papers and and my That work in the early months of and in the and I up to to be by my wife in I had a Poe study with on four I was And I was to get to the and early of I on that Poe in in he published and and as a at and at from through he was a and in in and he published and I scholarly and and as well as Flora’s letters. I on the of John H. Mackenzie and Louisa Lanier and on the of Edgar Poe He in to for my on Poe as a I visited the at the I read a of in the of the Poe’s to his I as well, to the for the of the of the of to which Poe is and of to The of for that each had for the of and the The later for to Edgar A. fellow to Poe’s at the as was a of The a an account of the in Poe’s of in the the Poe a from his poem about the of to to Poe a yet a a of an yet a for The seemed to a for the in later years, had his faults, but I had a at the with my friend It was to see him and have our After I I the and through a of the Mack we had an I forward to in on a to Virginia in the that didn’t because the wife and I stayed to the at our and the on on from I also read biographies of other from And and I could not we could I found a and through the and I up my with Poe’s to John Allan in Richmond, for this on the Flora letters. And I then turned to the at my Poe more than a the I would have to become a was early and I began to more about my with the of Virginia but no I on Poe in two on Poe in from through the of his Poe’s his with Mary his the story with in a his to John and his with the of the took on the and and in my study, and my was by my I checked for in which Poe had published as well as Jeffrey A. my here and the was of Poe’s in had later in his The Flora letters with John and Louisa’s the Mattox and with John’s with in of My work at the of and the of Virginia with my And an earlier with at the of an in the of which Charles entry for up the of and a very by Edgar would have been the The response to Poe’s work was to writing was especially because of the of new Flora Lapham Mack, through the about Poe in Richmond he was She offered stories about John’s Virginia the she and Edgar married and his her the Mattox the John H. Mackenzie’s Edgar about his Mackenzie at his to her and Edgar’s with Virginia and the Mattox through the Flora to the the for the the an to the they as of for the very of There is a about Poe’s his and by the of the and doing the Jane Scott Mackenzie that these with Edgar at were for Virginia of her It was a great for me to the great of Edgar and the it was to that the was a on in in a in my early of this of this the of at the Poe was because of his William He later Poe as of the most and I have with my and through of the I had a for a in a story I had written about an Perhaps the best on is a to a William and I had at the of the an of book and the two of had discussed and he had his to another my of the I had of and he had me to transcribe the of the rare that he had for that also an I later sent me a of that I was to such in my account of the as and of The provided for the a of lived in for years, from 1838 through and my next four would that It was that I’d been a book since graduate could on a of from A. H. The and to in And I could additional A of the and rare book would The for contained, in to Poe’s story William story “The a for “The as well as a of The contained about Poe and those with I had, among my scholarly a of the journal Poe which a study of Poe’s and a of the journal Poe which an on Poe’s were very and And an entry from and and Henry about his poem as of and the from the by the Virginia of and the John on the a for John A. in Poe’s story “The That And made and of me of entry at about his reading “The in the and professor and by Poe out of from English in the The for The of English It was clearly to research in And I could of Poe’s a the two Poe’s with “The and his with the I was by a collection of that I had Poe’s I had from not the where the had been published as if but also the where had the up to the of “The I had of the and the not by Poe and his and the mysterious but also a story that Poe had related in a letter and to in Poe’s to English and had by at the as his had his as I on of Poe’s I could also on my of the Poe-related I had a of the And I had a collection of of scholarly some of which I would my study and my I but I And much had I began to to I was happy to find at in a of of and with an on “The and the of the in his Poe And I was to find at the in book Studies of with an account of Poe’s at his and his with the that they been the of some asked for on each from my wife and my And I a reading of the on “The for my I on and from the and the move to to Virginia Poe’s and Poe’s poem of I on such as Poe’s as well as such as John and the of Poe in the of I began writing a is for A And I began at with friend and fellow Poe He and I were The Edgar Allan Poe in had of a was a great not for his wife but also for his many in the of literary He had long been a scholarly for as well as an He had about Poe in his scholarly Studies in the two of which were And who had The Poe book by and also the one who had the of Virginia for my of Poe in the My would be by his his telling me that never a who that his her had lived a made on and in the few months of Poe from the of with to the of his of and his for Richmond, to his to and his to in Richmond, to the of great of and and And in I at the I was to see my in the Poe my friend and with I would have at the in He had long in my work on Poe. And another was the great Poe also my who later visited and me in and my Poe I was honored to have her the I was to my to I had to the of the Society, in many over the I read the of the with Poe as well as the of the novel that Poe in a letter to on to but by Henry And I was to see the in in it was a and image of a had been the had written about it, the of that had on his it was very final in then in Richmond, and the of and I of his to the of Our much by my of of that I his poem so to find that had it in a as an of I discussed the literary “The which Poe had and and And I told of Poe’s final on “The in Richmond and It was to from a of a letter from Poe to his by and on his his Elmira Royster and his for And it was to for the on Flora’s Poe and John H. Mackenzie had had a out over the engagement with The also John’s but to no the of her for My of Poe’s was in by the of of Poe’s by Poe view and also that of his with I had an Poe was told in Richmond that one more would in was that one more I the which from Poe’s to the of to from to so I my of the and I I read over the to my mother and to was in own And mailed of the with and her and my daughter a of Virginia and of I thought about made and the manuscript to the of the of Virginia of my then I if a a might I just a to be It was at the was in the and the was on the in the I it could have been the by with that that it to be you what like you what like The I was I my said, I’ll your and to I had had my