What are some of the legends about Edgar Allen Poe? Please give many examples.

-- Anonymous, February 14, 2002

Answers

As did Baudelaire, Poe enhanced his own legend, borrowing travel experiences of his deceased older brother Henry, a sailor. The Russian trip, the duel etc, never happened. In all likelihood he ownly spent school time in Britain and received his scar from a brawl with a contest publisher.

Though he visited Virginia's grave in a distraught state he was no "necrophiliac". He responded poorly to even one drink and was an alcoholic of typical proportions but not the crazed delusional lunatic that found inspiration in bottle visions. We know little or nothing of his sexual exploits- if any. He probably lied a lot about how he wrote the Raven and teased many naive people with deliberate falsehoods. He did meet with Dickens briefly and Dickens made some effort to introduce Poe in England. He took some opium in a half-hearted suicide-for-attention attempt during those last sad years. The myth that Poe was a crazy, delusional writer of Gothic horror misses the mark by a country mile. A brief perusal of www.eapoe.org will show a lot of details about Poe and his wide ranging variety of work. Someone enthusiastically engaged in American literary life, American style.

-- Anonymous, February 14, 2002