Edgar Allen Poe...West Point Cadet...

[5fish]

I believe few know that Edgar Allen Poe was in the U.S. Army and then a cadet at West Point...He join the army in 1827 and by July of 1830, he was at West Point. By Feb. 1831 he was expelled form West Point. I looked at the West Point classes form 1830 to 1835 to see if he served with any of the Civil War greats but he did not. Robert E. Lee graduated the year before he arrived at West Point and George Meade arrived a year after he was expelled. He would have been in the class of 1834...He most likely if he had stayed in the army would served in the Seminole Wars in Florida and the Mexican American War...The question is "If Poe had lived would he had been a supporter of the Confederacy or of the Union. He grew up in Richmond, VA and Baltimore, MD and worked in both. His last years he lived in the Bronx, NY....

Links tell about Poe's time at West Point and in the Army...

http://www.stripes.com/blogs/the-ru...r-allan-poe-kicked-out-of-west-point-1.133805

http://www.dean.usma.edu/math/people/rickey/dms/x1834-Poe.html

http://www.eapoe.org/papers/misc1851/18671100.htm

Link to the West Point Class of 1834...

http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer...tes/Army/USMA/Cullums_Register/1834/home.html

 

[5fish]

EDGAR ALLEN POE---Pro-SLAVERY??

He made Poe a southern sympathizer....Aghast!.... I picture Poe being on the union side personally...He was is considered to be pro-slavery based on some critics of books with slavery in them...He wrote what is considered an anti-slavery satire called "The black cat"....In truth I think he would have sat out the war. I think he would have stayed working at a newspaper as an editor either in New York or Baltimore....Think, he would have been in his fifties....

 

[5fish]

Poe's friend a Secessionist---wrote a book predicting the Civil War 25 years before it happened....

Poe had a friend Nathaniel Tucker a successful man and pro secessionist years before the war. He and Poe never met but corresponded in letters and both wrote antonymous articles for the Messenger...The interesting thing is Tucker wrote a book about a Civil War between the North and South 25 years before it happened. In it, Virginia defending herself against Federal forces and is joining other Southern states that already had seceded. Its a short read...

Here is a link to a article about Tucker about half way down through the article is where Poe and the book are mention...with a link to the book...

http://www.history.org/foundation/journal/autumn01/tucker.cfm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Partisan_Leader

 

[5fish]

One of his claims to fame, it was Superintendent Col. Robert E. Lee that had to dismiss him form West Point. Interesting thing is, he claims chemistry but some claim misconduct in drawing class?? In map drawing he was taught by American artist Robert Weir, who can claim to be one of two people to have painted a portrait of Robert E. Lee before the civil war....

Whistlers time at West Point, he did rack up 218 demerits....I wonder what the record for demerits is at West Point...

I found this gem on Poe's court marshal....it short read...He had only 106 demerits but 66 in one month...the link..

http://blogs.archives.gov/prologue/?p=3600

It is said Custer had 97 demerits and made it through West Point....

 

[5fish]

From link on post#4

A 1998 Archives exhibit, “American Originals,” displayed Poe’s court-martial record, and the curator noted that “Poe did well academically but was soon undone by continuing quarrels with his foster father and money problems. During his first term, he decided to leave West Point but could not resign without the consent of his foster father. When Allen did not consent, Poe set out to get himself court-martialed and dismissed.”

“Charge 1 . . . Gross neglect of Duty.”
“Charge 2 . . . Disobedience of Orders.”

On January 28, 1831, a court-martial convened at the U.S. Military Academy found the defendant guilty of these charges and “adjudg[ed] that the Cadet E. A. Poe be dismissed.”

He had been admitted to the academy on July 1, 1830, and nearly seven months later, he was out.

 

[5fish]

From post #3

Correction: Beverley Tucker , Nathanial is his first name...

Through his work with the Messenger, Tucker embarked on a brief but significant association with its assistant editor, Edgar Allan Poe. Already recognized for his literary criticism, Poe was beginning his career in fiction. Tucker had met Poe’s poor deceased mother when she was but a girl, and he took a fatherly as well as a professional interest in her young son.

Though they never met face-to-face, correspondence between Poe and Tucker shows Poe admired Tucker’s literary abilities and sought his advice. Tucker was among the first to recognize Poe’s genius, and readily admitted it was greater than his own. Tucker did suggest, however, that Poe abandon his dabbling in horror tales, a genre Tucker considered beneath the dignity of a gentleman. To Thomas White, Tucker wrote of Poe: “He is made for better things than to cater to the depraved taste of the literary vulgar, the most disgusting and impertinent of all vulgarians. . . . Mr. Poe has taught me to expect from him something more than the physique of the horrible.”

I like how Tucker does not want Poe to write Horror but he gets to write Sci Fi what if novels ...

 

[5fish]

Here this gem...Whistler in 1890 made a painting honoring Poe's poem Annabel Lee.......

Annabel Lee: ca 1890

a

James Abbott McNeill Whistler (/ˈwɪslər/; July 11, 1834 – July 17, 1903) was an American artist, active during the American Gilded Age and based primarily in the United Kingdom.

He too was dismissed from West Point as well... by Bobby E. Lee...

 

[5fish]

I found a list of West Point cadets. Who did not graduate...

List of United States Military Academy non-graduate alumni - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

.

 

[5fish]

I found a list of West Point cadets. Who did not graduate...

List of United States Military Academy non-graduate alumni - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

.

 

[diane]

I always heard Poe's court-martial charges were exactly that but stemmed from his being out of uniform at roll call. Well, he did have his sword on... Desperate measures. Getting demerits at West Point didn't exactly mean you were stupid or rowdy - Jeb Stuart racked them up to a point, usually for fighting. He did so deliberately - the fewer he got the more likely he was to end up an engineer. Wanted to be a cavalryman!

Interesting about the Black Cat - I've seen that interpretation, too. Some also include the Fall of the House of Usher as representative, in part, of the fall of the planter aristocracy. Poe thought he might have African ancestry himself but could never discover if that was really so.

I think Mr Turner misunderstood Poe's horror writing - it wasn't to appeal to the low brows. It was bringing to light things within all of us that nobody wants to know is there, especially the people of Poe's time.

 

[5fish]

Poe was in the army before he went to West Point... He was in an artillery unit...

Edgar Allan Poe & West Point

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After accumulating massive gambling debts at the University of Virginia and leaving without a degree, Edgar Allan Poe moved to Boston where, at age 18, he published his first book of verse, Tamerlane and Other Poems, in 1827. It was a slim affair, drew little attention, and made no money at all for its nearly destitute author. Orphaned at an early age, Poe had deeply alienated his wealthy guardian, John Allan, and needed to earn a living. On a whim he enlisted (using an alias, “Edgar A. Perry”) in the Army as a private for a five-year term in the First Regiment of Artillery. Through the fall of 1827 he remained in Boston at Fort Independence but in November relocated to Fort Moultrie, South Carolina. There he prepared shells for artillery and seemed to flourish. Thirteen months later he transferred again, this time to Fortress Monroe at the entrance to Chesapeake Bay. After just two years of military service, Poe attained the rank of Sergeant Major for Artillery, the highest enlisted rank open to him. Then, abruptly, he found a substitute and quit the Army to pursue an appointment to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Allan intervened on Poe’s behalf one last time and used his considerable influence to secure the appointment.

The 21-year-old poet entered the academy in March 1830. Well-schooled and quick-witted, he excelled at classwork, particularly French. But—despite his experience in the Army—he buckled under the harsh discipline, long marches, and miserable food. “The study requisite is incessant,” he grumbled to Allan, “and the discipline exceedingly rigid.” His keen wit sustained him for a time and, according to his classmate, Thomas Gibson, “poems and squibs of local interest were daily issued [by Poe]… and went the round of the Classes.” One surviving stanza ridiculed the instructor of tactics and inspector of the barracks, Joe Locke, who was tasked also with reporting all cadet violations:

John Locke was a very great name:
Joe Locke was a greater in short;
The former was well known to Fame,
The latter well known to Report.

In January Poe quit his classes with predicable results. He was court-martialed and formally dismissed from the academy on March 6, 1831. As a parting shot, he secured a cadet subscription of $170 to underwrite the publication of his third book of poetry. It was mostly a rehash of his earlier work and was received, as one former roommate remembered, “with a general expression of disgust.” Another wrote in his copy, “This book is a damn cheat,” and that presumably because it contained not one of the humorous squibs and satires that had fed his reputation for genius at the academy. A fair number of cadets flung their copies into the Hudson River.

Poe went on, of course, to become one of America’s most celebrated authors, known particularly for his treatment of mystery, science fiction—and perhaps most famously—the macabre.

 

[5fish]

Here is a link to the Poe family in Boston...

https://www.masshist.org/object-of-the-month/objects/the-boston-roots-of-edgar-allan-poe-2009-01-01

In this pair of newspaper playbill advertisements from January and February 1808, we find listed among the cast of actors two people best known not for their own theatrical talents, but for the literary accomplishments of their second child, one Edgar Allan Poe. As we mark the bicentennial of Poe's birth this month (he was born 19 January 1809), it is fitting to remember that while Philadelphia and Baltimore may lay claim to Edgar Allan Poe's legacy, his life began here in Boston (although Poe himself tended to be none too proud of the fact).

And here is a timeline of Poe's life... he may have met Lafayette... He lived in England as a child...

Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore - General Topics - Chronology of the Life of Edgar Allan Poe

1824 (October 26-28) - During his tour of American, General Lafayette visits Richmond, Virginia. The Richmond Junior Volunteers partake in the ceremonies welcoming him. Poe is a lieutenant of the Volunteers.

1824 (November ?) - Poe writes a two-line poem: “— Poetry - Edgar A. Poe — Last night, with many cares & toils oppres‘d, Weary, I laid me on a couch to rest —.” (This is Poe’s earliest surviving poem. It was never published during his lifetime, nor used as part of a longer poem.)

 

[5fish]

Here is an article about Poe's time in Charleston... Annabel

Edgar Allan Poe’s mysterious time in Charleston

We explore the writer spending time here under a false identity.

chstoday.6amcity.com

Annabel Lee (1849)

Two days after Edgar Allan Poe died, “Annabel Lee” was published. The narrator of the poem describes his love for a woman named Annabel Lee who lives ‘in a kingdom by the sea.’ The poem describes the pair as falling in love in their youth, and sharing a bond so pure that it is envied even by angels in Heaven. Annabel Lee dies, but his love for her does not. He dreams of her every night, and believes their souls share an unbreakable bond.

The popular consensus among scholars is that ‘Annabel Lee’ represents Poe’s wife (/cousin) Virginia, whose early death Poe may have never recovered from. But some Charlestonians contend the poem may be a reference to the story of Charleston’s Anna Ravenel.

Legend has it, a 14-year-old girl named Anna Ravenel fell in love with an 18-year-old man stationed at Fort Moultrie in the 1800s (sound familiar?). Her father didn’t approve and did everything in his power to keep the two apart. Still, the two would carry on their forbidden romance via secret meet-ups. Not long after, the soldier was transferred away from Sullivan’s Island, while Annabel died and was buried in an unmarked grave in the Unitarian Church graveyard.

Today, the graveyard is open to the public during the day– and some say they’ve seen Anna Ravenel’s likeness appear there near an unmarked grave, perhaps searching for her long-lost love.

You can also find references to Charleston in “The Gold Bug,” which takes place on Sullivan’s Island (though it was published years after Poe left), + in “The Oblong Box,” a short story about a sea voyage that departs from Charleston.

 

[Matt McKeon]

Poe's time at West Point are the subject of a book by Louis Bayard, and a film "The Pale Blue Eye" as well as a cheaper horror flict "Raven's Hollow."

 

[5fish]

Here is an article about Poe's time in London as a child...

Edgar Allan Poe’s English Gothic Inspiration | Spooky Isles

RICK HALE links American writer Edgar Allan Poe's English connections as a young man to his love of the Gothic Horror

www.spookyisles.com

.

Here is another article about his time in London...

A look back at Edgar Allen Poe's childhood in east London

At No 172 Stoke Newington Church Street, a Brown Plaque produced by the London Borough of Hackney was unveiled on 4 June 2011.

www.inyourarea.co.uk

 

[5fish]

Look what I found @rittmeister , @Wehrkraftzersetzer ... Poe wrote a German story...

Metzengerstein - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

"Metzengerstein: A Tale in Imitation of the German" is a short story by American writer and poet Edgar Allan Poe, his first to see print. It was first published in the pages of Philadelphia's Saturday Courier magazine, in 1832. The story follows the young Frederick, the last of the Metzengerstein family, who carries on a long-standing feud with the Berlifitzing family. Suspected of causing a fire that kills the Berlifitzing family patriarch, Frederick becomes intrigued with a previously unnoticed and untamed horse. Metzengerstein is punished for his cruelty when his own home catches fire and the horse carries him into the flame. Part of a Latin hexameter by Martin Luther serves as the story's epigraph: Pestis eram vivus—moriens tua mors ero ("Living I have been your plague, dying I shall be your death").

I found the text of the story so you can read it...

Metzengerstein: a Tale in Imitation of the German

 

[rittmeister]

Look what I found @rittmeister , @Wehrkraftzersetzer ... Poe wrote a German story...

Metzengerstein - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

"Metzengerstein: A Tale in Imitation of the German" is a short story by American writer and poet Edgar Allan Poe, his first to see print. It was first published in the pages of Philadelphia's Saturday Courier magazine, in 1832. The story follows the young Frederick, the last of the Metzengerstein family, who carries on a long-standing feud with the Berlifitzing family. Suspected of causing a fire that kills the Berlifitzing family patriarch, Frederick becomes intrigued with a previously unnoticed and untamed horse. Metzengerstein is punished for his cruelty when his own home catches fire and the horse carries him into the flame. Part of a Latin hexameter by Martin Luther serves as the story's epigraph: Pestis eram vivus—moriens tua mors ero ("Living I have been your plague, dying I shall be your death").

I found the text of the story so you can read it...

Metzengerstein: a Tale in Imitation of the German

what else is new?

 

[5fish]

what else is new?

Here is a German girl...

Ligeia - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

"Ligeia" (/laɪˈdʒiːə/) is an early short story by American writer Edgar Allan Poe, first published in 1838. The story follows an unnamed narrator and his wife Ligeia, a beautiful and intelligent raven-haired woman. She falls ill, composes "The Conqueror Worm", and quotes lines attributed to Joseph Glanvill (which suggest that life is sustainable only through willpower) shortly before dying. After her death, the narrator marries the Lady Rowena. Rowena becomes ill and she dies as well. The distraught narrator stays with her body overnight and watches as Rowena slowly comes back from the dead – though she has transformed into Ligeia. The story may be the narrator's opium-induced hallucination and there is debate whether the story was a satire. After the story's first publication in The American Museum, it was heavily revised and reprinted throughout Poe's life.

Here is the text to the story you can read...

Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore - Works - Tales - Ligeia (reprint)

 

[5fish]

Here is an article about Poe and his political views. He seems to be a Whig... Yes, a Whig... not a Jacksonian Democrat... It seems some of his shorts stories were making fun of them...

Stories of Edgar Allan Poe Summary

This detailed study guide includes chapter summaries and analysis, important themes, significant quotes, and more - everything you need to ace your essay or test on Stories of Edgar Allan Poe!

www.bookrags.com

More obvious in revealing Edgar Allan's political sentiments is that he published some of his work, such as "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar," in The American Whig Review, a periodical directed at a Whig audience. Poe wouldn't have done this, if he had shared views of the Democrats, who were the Whigs' political rivals. This revelation further supports the argument that Poe is mocking the Jacksonian Democrats in this humorous tale.

He was a Virginian... he pronounced... He most likely supported the Confederacy...

The Political Thought of Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe vigorously denounced the Jeffersonian ideal of democracy. He had no sympathy with abstract political notions such as those which had produced liberal republican theory in America and elsewhere. Like Edmund Burke, Poe was highly suspicious of the “well-constructed Republic.”...

theimaginativeconservative.org

“I am a Virginian,” declared Poe; and “the distinguishing features of Virginian character at present-features of a marked nature—not elsewhere to be met with in America-and evidently akin to that chivalry which denoted the Cavalier—can be in no manner so well accounted for as by considering them the debris of a devoted loyalty.”

 

[5fish]

Here is a good story about Poe trying to get a government job...

Poe's Washington Excursion

Seeking a stable government job, Edgar Allan Poe embarked on an ill-fated trip to Washington

boundarystones.weta.org

In 1841, Poe’s friend and fellow writer, Frederick William Thomas, had secured a clerkship at the United States Treasury Department in Washington, D.C. Thomas was rewarded with this position by President John Tyler as compensation for the campaign work Thomas had done in support of the late President William Henry Harrison.