KNOW YOUR POE: The Life of Poe? . . . OH, NO!

(In my recent quest to find a decent or even a complete biography of Poe, I was disappointed - twice. I was upset enough to do something I would not normally do - write and post a book review, FOR FREE. For, no matter what people assume, I was paid for my reviewing, and had a modest but steady income as a writer for more than thirty years. In this case, I was upset and disappointed enough to post a couple of freebies on Amazon.)

The Reason for the Darkness of the Night: Edgar Allan Poe and the Forging of American Science 

by John Tresch

1.0 out of 5 stars

This is not about Poe at all!

This is NOT a true biography of Poe at all, only a dull synopsis of his life events and some of his stories (with spoilers galore for people who have not read them all). The author strains to connect Poe to "science" (a tenuous connection at best), and recounts in page after page the “discoveries” of lesser scientists, one of whom made “astonishing” discoveries that it turned out had ALREADY been discovered a year earlier by someone else! 

He forces his thesis into the narrative like someone trying to make a jigsaw puzzle with pieces that do not fit. Finally it became so tedious that I told myself I'd skip any passages that WEREN'T about Poe, and several times had to skip four or five or SIX pages, as it turned out Poe had no connection to these "scientists" and their amazing "discoveries" at all. At one point he is commissioned to write a textbook about shells, and a few people read it and he made all of $50.00. 

But the narrative stops and starts, derailed by all these long science detours, and the writing style is unengaging – I’ve read textbooks which were more interesting than this. And after reading it, I still know virtually nothing about Poe and his life, relationships, and the inner man. When he marries his 13-year-old first cousin (and she takes up maybe one small paragraph, then drops out of sight), his only remark is that since other biographers have commented on it extensively, he will not (!!). So he is also lazy, letting other biographers write the material for him, quoting their ideas as if they are gospel truth - meaning he has nothing new to bring to the table. 

In between the long drones about science, he will drop things such as that he and his aunt and wife are starving to death and living on bread and molasses, even though he always seems to be gainfully employed. I was never clear as to how this money was drained away, and there was no enlightenment to be found here. Wasn't he a compulsive gambler? I'm not sure, because it isn't mentioned here at all! But not only was he gainfully employed virtually all his adult life, he was employed in his own field as a literary critic and editor of his own magazine. 

Thus he was quite well-known and even well-respected as an author, a poet and a literary critic: a very fortunate situation for someone living on bread and molasses! His interest in “science” was peripheral at best, and largely in the realm of the speculative and the mystical, actually running counter to real science. I can’t return it, though I tried to, because – the “window of return is closed” – which I have never seen before! Means I can’t unload it and get my $25-some back. 

This is NOT about Poe, and we have no sense at all of the man, his convoluted relationships, or why he was so chronically destitute. I read in a review about an early engagement to a woman, which I had to look up in the index because I did not remember even seeing it, and found, once again, her name mentioned exactly twice, with NO EXPLANATION and nothing at all about their romance. Period. So I am shelving it, but only because I can’t return it.

Edgar A. Poe: Mournful and Never-Ending Remembrance

by Kenneth Silverman

3.0 out of 5 stars

Rich in detail, but a hard slog

This is the SECOND time I've been disappointed by a Poe biography. The first one (The Reason for the Darkness of the Night) tried to tie him to the scientific discoveries of his time - and didn't, because there was no real connection. Silverman's bio is detailed to the point of agony, but mostly recounts in microscopic detail his work as a magazine writer, editor and critic, which he seems to think took up far more of his time and energy than writing his famous tales and poems. 

But what was truly dismaying was the fact I just could not get a good sense of Poe the man. His life could be as creepy and disturbing as his stories, in that he married a blood relative who was basically a little girl, lived with his aunt who comes across as unpaid help, and was a shameless opportunist and even a hypocrite, savagely criticizing the noted authors of the day, then sucking up to those same authors for writing opportunities and even money. 

The fact that Poe was constantly broke is also baffling: surely he was gainfully employed through most of his life, and in his own field of literature - so where did all the money go? Silverman does not explain it. His mental illness and alcoholism were tremendous obstacles, though Silverman does not get around to writing about them in detail until about mid-book.

The main fault of this bio is that he spends too little time on Poe's complex, contradictory personality, his spirituality, his sexuality, and all those deeper traits that make a biographical subject come alive. Poe worked, drank, and swindled people, often plagiarizing writers while railing against OTHER writers who did the same thing. After all this, I find there really isn't much that I like about Poe, but I am reading this mainly as a biographical introduction to a massive tome I bought featuring all his tales and poems. 

I have read enough Poe to realize he was brilliant, subtle, mercurial, sly, and undoubtedly a genius - in his work. As a person, he was pretty dreadful. Though his life was cut short, It truly amazes me he managed to live for forty years. It's hard to determine just what Silverman thought of his subject, and by mid-book I got the distinct impression he wished he hadn't committed himself to writing this. The hard-slog feeling is difficult to push past, and the sense of "homework assignment" gives the narrative a labored quality. 

Worst of all, his writing style is so ponderous that I often had to go back and read sentences twice to figure out just what he meant. "Where's the verb?" This should NEVER happen in ANY book! Do anything, but don't bore or confuse me. Overall, it's a doorstop, and has helped me get to sleep on many a midnight dreary, which I hope I will not be able to say about Poe's complete works when I finally get to them.

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