A spot of Poe-etry

Submitted by barefootedsurf… on Sun, 10/31/2021 - 19:36

Let us turn our attention, before we close for the night, to Edgar Allan Poe, who was born on January 19th, 1809  in Boston, USA. He only lived for forty years, but fitted in short story writing, poetry, literary criticism, and editing of the Broadway Journal, whilst some say it was he who invented the detective story, with his 1841 story, "Murders in the Rue Morgue".

He penned his most famous poem "The Raven"  to tell another version of the story of Grip, the raven which appeared in Charles Dickens` "Barnaby Rudge", published in 1841. Edgar Allan Poe said he would have liked a raven for a pet, but made do with his fictional friend. This is not a long poem, and appears online at https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/48860/the-raven 

It seems that Cope Bros of Liverpool also had a soft spot for Grip, because he is the only non human on his own card in the whole set of "Dickens Gallery", sadly the set is backlisted, for it would have been fun to read a larger text, though a small snippet of his words appear in the border at the front. In case you were wondering, this verse, often taught to parrots and parakeets, was indeed first recorded in this exact words in "Barnaby Rudge", though some of the words date from the 1790s as a plainsong and the tune to which it is sung dates from at least twenty years earlier

There is now much speculation as to the final fortnight of Edgar Allan Poe, which you can read at https://www.biography.com/news/edgar-allan-poe-death-facts - at the bottom of this page is a link to the author`s personal museum, which is fascinating. And you can sign up for a newsletter! 

Cards of Edgar Allan Poe include  Duke  "Great Americans" (1888) Burdick reference N76 - J. Millhoff & Co. "Men of Genius" (1924) 19/25 - plus a most unusual modern card by Tristar Obak which can be seen, in its various versions, at 
https://www.tcdb.com/Person.cfm/pid/131377/col/1/yea/0/Edgar-Allan-Poe?sTeam=&sCardNum=&sNote=&sSetName=&sBrand=

Duke also issued a miniature booklet which tells the entire story of his life, which may be seen at
https://wakespace.lib.wfu.edu/handle/10339/90