Edgar Allan Poe - Biography - a relevant and creative path. Edgar Poe - biography, information, personal life

A plaque erected at approximately the location in Boston where Edgar Allan Poe was born.

Having received freedom, Edgar Allan Poe again turned to poetry. He again visited Baltimore and met his paternal relatives there - with his sister, grandmother, uncle George Poe and his son Nelson Poe. The latter could introduce Edgar to the editor of the local newspaper, William Gwin. Through Gwyn, Edgar was able to reach out to the then prominent New York writer John Neal. Both Gwyn and Neil the novice poet presented his poems to the court. Review, with all the reservations, was the most favorable. The result was that at the end of 1829 a collection of Poe's poems was republished in Baltimore under his name, entitled " Al-Aaraaf, Tamerlane and small poems". This time the book arrived in stores and in the editorial office, but went unnoticed.

Meanwhile, John Allan insisted that Edgar complete his education. It was decided that he would go to the Military Academy at West Point. In March 1830, at the request of Allan, Edgar was nevertheless admitted to the number of students, although he did not fit in age. His adoptive father signed an obligation for him to serve in the army for five years. Edgar reluctantly went to the academy. Normally, he could not leave its walls. With his usual vehemence, he set to work and managed to achieve that in March 1831 he was expelled. With this, the young poet regained his freedom again, but, of course, he again quarreled with John Allan.

Literary creativity

Poe began his literary activity with poetry, publishing a volume of poems in Boston in 1827. "Al-Aaraaf, Tamerlane and other poems"("Al-Aaraaf, Tamerlane and other poems"). As a prose writer, Poe spoke in 1833, writing "The Manuscript Found in a Bottle" ( "A manuscript found in a bottle").

Poe's work was influenced by romanticism, which was already completing its journey in the West. “Gloomy fantasy, gradually disappearing from European literature, flared up again in an original and bright way in“ scary stories ”. For that was the epilogue of romanticism” (Fritsche). Poe's work was strongly influenced by English and German romantics, especially Hoffmann (no wonder Poe was fond of German literature and idealistic philosophy); he is related to the sinister-gloomy shade of Hoffmann's fantasies, although he declared himself: "The horror of my stories is not from Germany, but from the heart." Hoffmann's words: "Life is a crazy nightmare that haunts us until it finally throws us into the arms of death" express the main idea of ​​Poe's "terrible stories" - an idea that, together with a peculiar style of its expression, was already born in Poe's first stories and only deepened, processed with great skill in his further artistic work.

In the poem “Ulyalum”, the hero, wandering together with his soul Psyche through the mysterious terrain of gray skies and dry leaves, comes to the crypt where a year ago he buried his beloved Ulyalum. He recalls the "October night without a light" when he brought the "dead burden" here. But the main thing in the poem is not a vague plot, but hypnotic music, immersing the reader in the world of shadows, rustles, eternal autumn, ominous lunar flicker. And again the refrain sounds like a spell:

In The Bells, Poe's sound writing reaches the limit of sophistication. In each of the four parts of the poem, the ringing of “silver” sleigh bells for merry sleighing, “golden” wedding bells, “copper” alarm bells, and “iron” funeral bells are melodically recreated. And each of them corresponds to some stage in a person's life: the joy of childhood, the happiness of love, the suffering of the adult world and death. The ringing of bells symbolically embodies the tragic fate of man. The great Russian composer S.V. Rachmaninov wrote music for the Russian text of the poem - a poem for orchestra, choir and soloists.

(V. G. Prozorov)

Life Fears

The hopeless horror of life, reigning supreme over man, the world as the realm of madness, death and decay as the lot of man predetermined by a cruel supreme power - such is the content of Poe's "terrible stories". Death as a manifestation of the supernatural (the death of a beautiful woman in a mysterious setting) is the theme of the story "Ligeia" (Ligeia,), one of Poe's best stories.

It poses the problem of overcoming death, the miraculous, mysterious resurrection of Ligeia. In the story "Berenice" (Berenice), the contemplative hermit Aegeus was imbued with the manic idea that he should have the beautiful teeth of his dying bride Berenice, and breaks them out, committing this blasphemy over the still living, still trembling body. In other stories, the theme of the loss of a beloved (“Eleonora”, “Morella”, etc.) is given, which arose long before the death of Poe's beloved wife - Virginia (d. in).

The problem of the struggle between good and evil, the splitting of the psyche, a person’s craving for evil is posed in the story about the double “William Wilson” (William Wilson), the same craving for crime, evil and destruction characterizes the heroes of the stories “The Imp of the perverse” (Demon of perversity, ), "Metzengerstein" (Metzengerstein), "The black cat" (Black cat,), "The tell-tale heart" (The tell-tale heart,) and others. Metampsychosis, thought transmission at a distance, is the theme of The Rocky Mountain Tale and an essential component of one of Poe's most impressive stories, The fall of the house of Usher. In an ancient, gloomy castle full of some special oppressive atmosphere, its last owner lives - Roderick Asher; with a painfully nervous, sophisticated susceptibility, through the noise of a thunderstorm, he hears how his sister, who was buried alive by him in the family crypt, is trying to escape from the coffin, but is unable to go and help her - he has a manic "fear" of horror. The sister appears in a bloody shroud, horror kills her brother, they both die, and Asher Castle falls, destroyed by a thunderstorm.

Roderick is, in fact, Poe's main and only hero, repeated in different ways in other stories: he is a nervous, painfully receptive contemplator who loves rare books, a hermit who is afraid of life; he is just as conventional as the beloved heroine Po - a mysterious, mysteriously wise, fading beautiful woman. Heroes of Po - in the power of fate, which predetermined their death; they are weak-willed, they do not have the strength to protest against life, felt as a nightmare and evil. Each of them is a victim of some obsession, they are not living people with real feelings and passions, but abstract figures, almost schemes, to which only the exceptional skill of the artist gives vitality.

Poe is trying to overcome the lack of will of his heroes: endowing them with the power of thought, he glorifies the will. The words of Joseph Glanville: "Man would not have yielded to the angels, nor to death itself, if it were not for the weakness of his will," he put the epigraph to Ligeia. But if the most unnatural and incomprehensible, developing with strict logical sequence in Poe's stories, makes the reader believe in the incredible, then Poe's skill did not help here - his heroes remained weak-willed. But he is inattentive to the average human character, to the psychology and life of an ordinary person, he is only interested in the unusual, the abnormal. From the very first line of the work, all the elements of style - composition, choice of words, logic of narration - are aimed at achieving a certain, pre-calculated effect that strikes the reader at the climax of the story - it is not for nothing that such terrible moments as premature burial, immuring alive, etc. .

Science for Po is only a means of manifesting the incomprehensible, helping to give this incomprehensible (a ship growing like a body, an abyss absorbing ships at the South Pole, etc.) a greater degree of probability through the use of accurate geographical data, chemical recipes, information about maritime affairs and etc. Science plays a decorative role here, since Poe seeks only to be scientific and to mystify the reader, and in science fiction stories the same theme of the inevitable death of heroes unfolds. Poe, being the finalist of romanticism in horror stories and poetry, influenced a number of Western European writers in the field of fantasy. From the Golden Beetle with treasure hunts and cryptograms, literature comes to Stevenson's Treasure Island, from Hans Pfall to Journey to the Moon by J. Verne, to the geographical decorativeness of a number of novels, etc.

Poe's propensity for speculative analysis, for a sequentially logical unfolding of events, even incredible ones, was clearly manifested in his detective stories - "Murder in the Rue Morgue" ( The Murders in the Rue Morgue, ), "The Secret of Marie Roger" ( The Mystery of Marie Roget, ) and "The Stolen Letter" ( The Purloined Letter, ). As in science fiction, Poe tries to give his detective stories the character of facts that actually took place, introducing police reports, exact dates, references to periodicals, etc. into the narrative. a harmonious system of logical analysis, before which any riddles are powerless. It is characteristic that the motif of private property, which is undividedly dominant in the bourgeois detective genre, does not find a place for itself in Poe's stories. Also, he is not interested in questions of morality, the psychology of a criminal and a crime - he is only interested in the technical side of the matter (one of his stories is called “Fraud as one of the exact sciences”), the plot knot of the riddle and leading the reader to the moment of solution, which plays the role of a culminating item "scary stories". In his detective stories, Poe tried to get closer to reality, but instead it turned out to be an escape into the realm of analytical thought. His Dupin is the forerunner of both Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes and Chesterton's pastor Brown, and Nero Wolfe, and Hercule Poirot.

Standing apart in Poe's work is his "Eureka" (Eureka,), in which he gave a mystical-pantheistic system, outlining the foundations of his philosophy. At the same time, it is interesting to note that this poem outlined the Big Bang hypothesis, which became a generally accepted theory only in the 20th century.

It should be noted a number of critical articles by Poe, who fought against the bourgeois literature of the North - against Lowell, Longfellow and others.

Creativity score

The originality of Poe's style found no followers in America. At the same time, Poe's work was reflected in the poetry of the French symbolist Baudelaire, who translates Poe, introduces Europe to him, and from here Poe's influence on the literature of decadence and symbolism begins - on Villiers de Lisle-Adam, Mallarme, Maeterlinck, Wilde, Howard Phillips Lovecraft , Evers, etc., up to the Russian symbolists.

The French poet Charles Baudelaire, a kindred spirit of Poe, described the situation thus: “The United States was for Poe only a huge prison through which he feverishly tossed about like a creature born to breathe in a world with cleaner air - a huge barbaric corral lit by gas” . A. J. B. Shaw put it this way: "Poe didn't live in America, he died there."

Particularly much attention was paid to Russian decadents (“The Raven”, translated by D. Merezhkovsky, in the “Northern Messenger”, , Ї 11; “Ballads and Fantasies”, “Mysterious Tales”, translated by K. Balmont,; “Raven”, translated by V Bryusov, in "Questions of Life", , Ї 2). Especially popular among the decadents was the size of the "Crow" (Balmont, Bryusov, "Althea" by V. Golikov).

• A crater on Mercury is named after Edgar Allan Poe.
• Every year, on Poe's birthday, a secret admirer visits his grave.
• The Beatles' song, I Am The Walrus (Magical Mystery Tour album) mentions Edgar Poe.

Bibliography

• The Virginia, ed. by J. A. Harrison, 17 vv., Boston, ;
• E. C. Stedman a. G. E. Woodberry, 10 vv., N. Y., ;
• Sobr. sochin., 2 vols., ed. Panteleeva, St. Petersburg, ;
• Extraordinary Stories, 2 vols., ed. Suvorina, St. Petersburg, ;
• Mysterious stories, trans. K. D. Balmont, M.,;
• Sobr. sochin., 2 vols., ed. "Bulletin of Foreign Literature", St. Petersburg,;
• The same, trans. K. Balmont, 5 vols., ed. “Scorpio”, M., - (in the last volume, an essay on the life of E. Poe, compiled by K. Balmont, and letters from E. Poe);
• Poems in the best Russian translations, St. Petersburg,;
• Stories, 3 vols., trans. M. A. Engelhardt, ed. "World Literature", Berlin, ;
• Stories, trans. K. D. Balmont, Rostov-on-Don, ;
• Complete collection of poems and poems, trans. and foreword. Valery Bryusov with a critical and bibliographic commentary, ed. "World Literature", M.-L.,;
• The Last Joke, Stories, ed. "Spark", M.,;
• Whitman S. H., E. A. Poe and his critics, N. Y., ;
• Gill W. F., Life of E. A. Poe, 5th ed., N. Y., ;
• Lauvrière E., Un génie morbide, 2 vv., P., ;
• Woodberry G. E., Life of E. A. Poe, 2 vv., Boston, ;
• Seylaz L., E. Poe et les premiers symbolistes français, P., ;
• Mauclair C., Le genie d'E. Poe. La légende et la vérité, Paris, ;
• Stanard M. N., The dreamer, Philadelphia, ;
• Alterton M., Origines of Poe's critical theory, Jowa city, ;
• Phillips M. E., E. Poe the man, 2 vv., Chicago, ;
• Krutch J. W., E. A. Poe, N. Y., ;
• Allen H., Israfel, The life a times of E. A. Poe, 2 vv., N. Y., ;
• Lloyd J. A. T., The murder of E. A. Poe, L., ;
• Lemonnier L., E. Poe et les poètes français, P., ;
• Krasnoselsky According to A., In the fight against the prose of life, "Russian wealth", XI-XII;
• Gorlenko V. G., A new work on E. Poe, in the author's book "Reflections", St. Petersburg,;
• Anichkov E.V., Baudelaire and Edgar Allan Poe, "The Modern World", 1909, II (reprinted in the author's book "Forerunners and Contemporaries", vol. I, St. Petersburg,);
• Baudelaire C., Edgar Allan Poe, transl. L. Kogan, Odessa, 1910;
• Brazol B. L., Critical Facets, St. Petersburg, 1910;
• Friche V. M., Poetry of nightmares and horror, M.,;
• Bryusov V., Edgar Poe, in the book "History of Western Literature" (-), ed. prof. F. D. Batyushkova, vol. III, M.,;
• Dinamov S., Science Fiction Novels by Edgar Allan Poe, "Literature and Marxism", , III;
• His own, Novels by Edgar Allan Poe, "30 Days", XI-XII;
• His own, Edgar Allan Poe - the artist of death and decay, "October", , IV.

Works by Edgar Allan Poe

A forerunner of decadence and modernism, whose work was marked by boundless melancholy, author Edgar Allan Poe is known to many as the creator of iconic dark stories with mystical overtones. The writer, who is trying to lead readers beyond the limits of trivial thinking, in his short stories, philosophical fiction and rationalizations, was engaged in an artistic study of the activity of the human intellect. The formation of the detective and psychological thriller genres is a direct merit of the prose writer.

The best minds of the 19th century, including symbolist writers and, admired the realism of the mental suffering described in the works of the “damned poet” and the professionalism with which Poe balanced between the horror of life and the joy of death. Even during the life of Edgar, people who were not devoid of figurative thought declared that the name of the creator shrouded in a halo of a romantic sufferer would go down in the history of world literature.

Childhood and youth

The future spiritual mentor was born on January 19, 1809 in the northeastern United States in the capital of Massachusetts - the city of Boston. The poet's parents, Elizabeth Arnold Hopkins and David Poe, were creatively gifted people. His mother is an English actress who emigrated to America, and his father is a law student from Baltimore, who preferred the path of acting to a well-paid legal profession. From the biography of the genius of the literary arabesque, it is known that, in addition to him, two more children were brought up in the family: older brother William Henry Leonard (1807–1831) and younger sister Rosalie (1810–1874).

The head of the family left his wife when Edgar was barely a year old. Nothing is known for certain about the fate of the man. In 1811, the poet's mother died of consumption. All three children officially found foster parents. Edgar fell into the family of John Allan, co-owner of a cotton and tobacco trading company, and his wife Francis. The spouses, being highly respected personalities, had a great influence in the elite circles of Richmond, where they lived before leaving for England.

In the Allan house, the boy, who knew neither warmth nor affection, found the care that he lacked so much. Frances did not cherish the soul in Edgar and did not refuse anything to the child, whom she considered her own. John did not share his wife's enthusiasm. The man did not understand why his beloved preferred adoption to the natural process of childbearing. Despite some misunderstanding, the merchant also spoiled his adopted son. As a child, Edgar had at his disposal whatever he wanted. Parents at that time did not set a price limit on whims and needs.

Edgar showed early learning abilities, and at the age of 5 he was sent to school. In 1815, the Allan family left for Great Britain to work. There, Poe's educators were the harsh climate and the no less harsh customs of English educational institutions. He returned to America as a stronger, precocious teenager. The knowledge gained by the future poet in the Old World made it possible to enter the local college without much difficulty in 1820. However, the financial difficulties that the family faced upon returning to their homeland, and the conflicts that periodically arise between Francis and John, had a negative impact on Poe.

The once cheerful guy increasingly retired to his room, preferring the company of books to noisy peer groups. During the period of voluntary seclusion, Edgar's interest in poetry manifested itself. Allan did not understand the young man's new hobby. In the opinion of the uncreative man, Edgar's best occupation would be to work hard in the family shop, where Poe could later win a share in the business. During quarrels, which were caused by different life priorities, John constantly reminded his adopted son that his life was entirely dependent on the guardian.

As a college student, Poe fell head over heels in love with his friend's mother, Jane Stenard. Communication of a respectable age of a lady and an ardent young man was reduced to behind-the-scenes meetings and conversations all night long. Subsequently, Edgar dedicated the poem "Elena" to his beloved (as the prose writer called the chosen one). For the first time in his life, Po was happy. True, the prose writer did not enjoy the delights of mutual love for long.

In 1824, Jane contracted meningitis, lost her mind, and died. Heartbroken, Edgar began to suffer from nightmares. Most of all, the young man was frightened when, in the pitch darkness of the night, it seemed to him that someone's icy hand lay on his face. A well-functioning imagination repeatedly drew the terrible face of a hitherto unknown creature approaching him from the predawn twilight.

According to biographers, it was at this time that the first symptoms of the writer's mental disorder began to appear, which subsequently transformed into a frequently occurring apathetic state, persecution mania and thoughts of suicide. In the spring of 1825, the writer's stepfather received $ 750,000 from his deceased uncle as an inheritance and became one of the richest people in Richmond. Poe decided to take the opportunity and persuaded Allan to pay for his studies at the University of Virginia. True, John, who became greedy for money in his old age, decided to save money. Instead of the $350 needed to pay, he gave the young man only $110.

Upon arrival at the educational institution founded, Edgar found himself in a bourgeois environment alien to him. In a society of wealthy boys and girls, Po tried in vain to match them, but the handouts sent by the guardian were only enough to pay for housing. Edgar decided to make money by playing cards, exacerbating an already precarious state of affairs. In December 1826, John Allan received numerous bills from Edgar's creditors. In a terrible rage, the merchant arrived in Charlottesville and informed his adopted son that this was the end of his university epic, which had not had time to really begin.

Despite Poe's obvious academic success and successfully passed the exams, the young man could no longer stay at the university, and after the end of the academic year on December 21, 1826, he left it. The aspiring poet was acutely worried about his shame. The stepfather, on the other hand, added fuel to the fire and every day accused the former student of irresponsibility, and after another quarrel, he kicked Po out of the house. Edgar settled in the Court-House tavern, from where he wrote letters to Allan, continuing to sort things out in epistolary form. After spending a couple of days in the room of a grocery establishment, Poe went to Norfolk, and then to Boston.

Literature

In his hometown, the writer, by chance, met a young typographer, Calvin Thomas, who agreed to print his first collection of poems, Tamerlane. The work was published in 1827. In the preface, Poe apologized to readers for the dampness of the works published in the book and explained that he wrote these masterpieces at the age of 12–14.

In 1829, the second poetry collection "Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane and other poems" was published, in April 1831 the poet's third book, "Poems", was published, which included previously unpublished works ("Israfel", "Paan", "Condemned City ”,“ To Elena ”,“ Sleeping ”). The success of The Crow at the beginning of 1845 enabled Edgar to collect his new poems in a separate edition of Stories, which hit the shelves in the same year.

It is worth noting that in the work of Allan, the main place has always been occupied by the short story genre. Poe's novels can be conditionally divided into several thematic groups: psychological ("Black Cat", "Ligeia", "Keg of Amontillado", "Oval Portrait"), logical ("Golden Beetle", "Murder on the Rue Morgue", "The Secret of Marie Roger ”, “The Stolen Letter”), humorous (“Glasses”, “Without Breathing”, “The Thousand and Second Tale of Scheherazade”) and science fiction (“The Extraordinary Adventure of a Hans Pfaal”, “Sphinx”, “The Story of the Balloon”) .

With four logical works of the writer, in which the detective Auguste Dupin became the main character, the era of detective literature began. Born of Edgar's fantasy, the detective became the prototype of famous bloodhounds: Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. Although it was the stories that made Poe popular, it was only in poetry that the writer showed his true self to the world. With the help of poems, Edgar established closer contact with readers.

Personal life

The writer met his first and only wife in the year when his stepfather kicked him out of the house. Upon learning that her nephew had nowhere to live, Aunt Clemm gladly received Poe at her estate in Baltimore. It was then that love broke out between the melancholy Edgar and the good-natured Virginia. The wedding took place on September 12, 1835. The wedding was secret. Edgar at the time of his marriage was 26 years old, and his chosen one was only 13 years old. Mrs. Clemm's relatives opposed the marriage.

In their opinion, depriving Virginia of her childhood by marrying her off to an idler (at that time, poetic work was not considered an occupation for a worthy man) was extremely unreasonable. The elderly woman thought differently: from the very beginning she saw a genius in Edgar and knew that she could not find a better match for her daughter.

Virginia became the guiding star of Poe's life, inspiring him to create outstanding creations. The young lady loved her Eddie so much that she put up with poverty, which stubbornly did not let go of their family, and with the heavy character of the writer. It is worth noting that Edgar, in a strange way, depended on the well-being and mood of his wife. When his beloved Poe died of tuberculosis in January 1847, the writer fell into a protracted depression. The widower preferred strong drinks to work and the hugs of other women. Only alcohol allowed the creator to forget the horror that he had experienced.

Death

Edgar Allan Poe died on October 7, 1849 in a Baltimore hospital. According to the testimony of a doctor who observed the writer's condition in the last days of his life, the author of the story "The Frog" was taken to the hospital on October 3, 1849. Disoriented in space and time, the writer was dressed in clothes from someone else's shoulder and did not remember either his last name or first name. The man, who had lost his mind, was placed in a room with barred windows. After a couple of days in the hospital, Po never regained consciousness. He was tormented by hallucinations and convulsions, he mentioned his long-dead wife, and also repeatedly uttered the name of a certain Reynolds, whose identity could not be identified.

After four days in a medical institution, the poet died. His last words were: "Lord, receive my poor soul." All medical records, including Poe's death certificate, have disappeared. Newspapers of that time explained the death of a writer by a disease of the brain and inflammation of the central nervous system. In the 19th century, these diagnoses were often given to people who died from alcoholism. What actually caused the death of the legend of world literature is still unknown. The funeral procession, which was attended by only a couple of people, took place on October 8 of the same year. Poe was buried in Baltimore's Westminster Cemetery in a cheap coffin without handles, nameplates, bedspreads, and pillows under his head.

On October 1, 1875, the ashes of the writer were transferred to the grave located closer to the entrance. Also, at the expense of the admirers of the writer's work, a monument was made and erected. The literary heritage of the hoaxer is preserved in collections of poems, poems and stories. Among other things, the works "The Well and the Pendulum", "The Fall of the House of Usher", "Mask of the Red Death", "Berenice", "Murder in the Rue Morgue" and "Metzengerstein" formed the basis of the plot of modern films and television series.

Bibliography

• "Spirits of Death" (1827);
• "Dreams" (1827);
• "Romance" (1829);
• "Metzengerstein" (1832);
• "Manuscript found in a bottle" (1833);
• "The Fall of the House of Usher" (1839);
• "Silence" (1840);
• "The Well and the Pendulum" (1842);
• Lenore (1843);
• "Mask of the Red Death" (1843);
• "Premature Burial" (1844);
• "The Raven" (1845);
• "Enigma" (1849);
• "Annabelle Lee" (1849);
• "Jump-Skok" ("The Frog") (1849).

The most famous poem by Edgar Allan Poe "The Raven" was first published on January 29, 1845 in the newspaper "Evening Mirror" ... And immediately brought great fame to the author.

Perhaps E. Poe relied on the medieval Christian tradition, in which the Raven was the personification of the forces of hell and the devil, in contrast to the Dove, which symbolized paradise, the Holy Spirit, and the Christian faith. The roots of this perception go back to pre-Christian mythological ideas about the Raven as a bird that brings misfortune.

This poem is so rhythmically diverse that translators have a place to show their abilities. "The Crow" was translated into Russian by many poets. Some translations are musically close to the original, but lose something in content, while others, on the contrary, are true to the content, but do not reflect the musical originality.

Here is a translation by Dmitry Merezhkovsky, which was published quite rarely. In general, this poem was translated by Valery Bryusov, and Konstantin Balmont, and Vasily Fedorov, and Mikhail Zenkevich, S. Andreevsky, L. Palmin, V. Zhabotinsky, V. Betaki, M. Donskoy ...

In translation, it is more difficult for us to catch the "undercurrent of meaning", but in the original, as Baudelaire wrote, the poet "beyond any philosophical systems comprehends first of all the internal and secret relationships between things, correspondences and analogies."

Edgar Poe entered American literature as a poet, novelist, and critic. He paid much attention to the theory of art: he developed the aesthetics of "short forms" in poetry and prose. He was one of those who laid the foundations of modern science fiction and the detective story.

He simultaneously admired the human mind and despaired of its impotence, admired the sublime beauty of the world and was drawn to pathological states of the psyche. In his work, he strove for a mathematically accurate "construction" of works and an emotional impact on the reader. Desires and aspirations tore him apart. Edgar Poe lived like a gap. Perhaps, hence the semi-insane state of his mind in the last years of his life, drunkenness, constant wanderings, throwing, moving.

Edgar Poe was born in Boston on January 19, 1809. The father left the family almost immediately, and the mother died when the boy was not even three years old. He was brought up in the family of a wealthy merchant Allan, who moved to England, where Edgar was sent to study at a closed London boarding school. In the 1820s he was already attending college in America.

In college, Edgar fell in love with his friend's mother. On his part, it was a very passionate love, but it ended tragically - the mother of his friend Mrs. Stenard died in 1824.

After college, Poe entered the University of Virginia, where he studied for only a year, since his breadwinner and tutor, John Allan, flatly refused to pay Edgar's gambling debts.

There was a quarrel. Edgar left the Allan house. First, the poet went to his native Boston, where, under the pseudonym "Bostonian", he published his first book of poems. In total, during his lifetime he published four collections of poetry and two collections of short stories. His most famous book was The Raven and Other Poems published in 1845.

The publication of the first book consumed all of Edgar's savings. Lack of money forced him to become a soldier. Then he tried to get a job in a military academy, in a theater, copied papers in the offices of Boston and Richmond ...

Poems did not bring him success. On the other hand, his very first novel, "The Manuscript Found in a Bottle", sent to a competition in one of the magazines, won first place.

Need drove Edgar Allan Poe, he now worked in various periodicals for wear and tear.

In 1835, the poet married fourteen-year-old Virginia, the daughter of his aunt, Maria Clemm. The maintenance of the family further complicated the life of the poet. And yet he kept writing new poems, wonderful short stories, The Tale of the Adventures of Arthur Gordon Pym. At that time they paid five or six dollars for a story, much less for a poem, so the need was constant.

In 1838, E. Poe moved to Philadelphia, where he became editor of the magazine. Life began to improve. He worked for six years in Philadelphia. During this time he published his prose in two volumes - "Grotesques and Arabesques", published many literary critical articles. In 1844 the writer moved to New York. Exceptional success brought him the publication of the poem "The Raven" in 1845. Edgar was invited to a new prestigious magazine. But the bright period did not last long - after four months the publication went bankrupt. Virginia soon died.

E. Poe became addicted to opium, began to drink, something happened to his mind ... And yet, in the last years of his life, he worked a lot. He wrote, lectured, and recited excerpts from his philosophical work, Eureka, in Richmond bars.

On October 3, 1849, Poe was found unconscious on the road to Baltimore, and died four days later.

Such was the life of the great romantic, who, as many believe, greatly influenced the world literature of the 19th and 20th centuries, especially the Symbolists, as Alexander Blok wrote about.

Edgar Allan Poe believed that the creation of a masterpiece and familiarization with Beauty is sometimes more important for an artist than the artistic result and even life itself. This, for example, is evidenced by his short story "The Oval Portrait", which in the first version was called "Life in Death".

“She was a virgin of the rarest beauty, and her gaiety equaled her charms. And the hour was marked by evil fate when she saw the painter and fell in love with him and became his wife. He, obsessed, stubborn, stern, was already betrothed - to Painting; she, a maiden of the rarest beauty, whose gaiety equaled her charm, all light, all smile, playful as a young doe, hated only Painting, her rival; she was afraid only of palettes, brushes and other powerful tools that deprived her of the contemplation of her lover. And she was horrified to hear the painter express his desire to paint a portrait of his young wife. But she was meek and obedient, and for many weeks she sat in a high tower, where only light oozed from above onto a pale canvas. But he, the painter, was intoxicated with his work, which lasted from hour to hour, from day to day. And he, obsessed, unbridled, sullen, indulged in his dreams; and he could not see that from the terrible light in the lonely tower the spiritual strength and health of his young wife were melting; she was fading, and it was noticed by everyone except him. But she kept smiling and smiling, without complaining, for she saw that the painter (glorified everywhere) drew a burning rapture in his work, and worked day and night in order to capture the one who loved him so much and yet every day became more dejected and weaker. . Indeed, some who saw the portrait spoke in a whisper about the resemblance as a great miracle, the testimony and gift of the painter and his deep love for the one whom he depicted with such unsurpassed art. But finally, when the work was nearing completion, outsiders were no longer allowed into the tower; for in the heat of his labor the painter fell into a frenzy, and seldom took his eyes off the canvas even to glance at his wife. And he did not want to see that the shades applied to the canvas were taken away from the cheeks of the one sitting next to him. And when many weeks had passed and it remained only to put one smear on the lips and one semitone on the pupil, the spirit of the beauty flared up again, like a flame in a lamp. And then the brush touched the canvas and the semitone was laid; and for just one moment the painter froze, fascinated by his creation; but the next, still not looking up from the canvas, he trembled, turned terribly pale, and, exclaiming in a loud voice: “Yes, this is truly Life itself!”, he suddenly turned to his beloved: “She was dead!”

“Language, ideas, artistic manner - everything is marked in Edgar Poe with a bright stamp of novelty ... Having aptly determined that the origin of poetry lies in the thirst for more insane beauty than that which the earth can give us, Edgar Poe sought to quench this thirst by creating unearthly images ”, - so wrote our Konstantin Balmont, who translated Poe a lot.

Edgar Allan Poe

American writer, poet, critic

Born January 19, 1809 in Boston, was the second child of actors David Poe Jr. and Elizabeth Arnold Poe. Poe's parents died shortly after his birth, and the boy was given to the wealthy merchant John Allan of Richmond to raise. The surname Allan became Poe's middle name.

1815-1820 - receives a classical education at a private school in Richmond, England, where he lives with the Alans. At an early age, he began to write poetry.

1826 - enters the University of Virginia, where he studies for one semester (during which time his fiancee Sarah Elmira Royster marries a certain Shelton) and returns to Richmond, having made gambling debts. Po quarrels with the Allans and leaves their house. Shortly before this, he suffered a traumatic brain injury, which caused periodic nervous seizures.

1827 - Poe returns to Boston, where his collection "Tamerlane and Other Poems" (Tamerlane and Other Poems) is published in early summer. In the same year, he enlisted in the army and served at Fort Moultrie.

1829 - Shortly after the death of his adoptive mother, Allan helps Poe retire from the army. In November 1829, the second collection Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane, and Minor Poems was published.

1830 - Poe enters West Point Military Academy, but is expelled early next year.

1831 - Arriving in New York, he publishes the book "Poems" (Poems), which includes the first versions of his best works, incl. "Israfil" (Israfel) and "To Helen" (To Helen).

1832 Poe's novels appear in the Philadelphia magazine The Saturday Curier.

1833 - MS Found in a Bottle, a short story about a ship rushing to destruction in "immeasurable depths of the ocean," wins the Baltimore Saturday Visitor Award. In 1833 Poe writes the tragedy "Politian" (Politian), fully published only in 1923.

1835 - Begins editorial work in the Southern Literary Messenger, where he publishes informative and often scathing articles and reviews and stories about the bizarre and terrible.

1836 - married in Richmond with his cousin Virginia Clemm, who was not yet 14 years old.

1837 - cooperation with "Messenger" is terminated due to Poe's drunkenness. The writer moves to New York.

1838 - The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym is published, in which a realistic basis is combined with fantastic fiction.

1839 - Poe moves to Philadelphia, edits Burton's Gentlemen's Magazine. Forced to engage in literary day labor, writing books on natural history, incl. "The Conchologists" First Book.

1840 - Poe writes a series of famous papers on cryptography. In the same year, a two-volume collection of short stories "Grotesques and Arabesques" (Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque) was published.

1841-1842 - Poe works as an editor at Graham's Magazine, publishing The Murders in the Rue Morgu, the first detective story in world literature. The novella The Gold Bug, which won a prize from one of the Philadelphia newspapers, is a huge success with readers.

1843 - the stories "The Masque of the Red Death", "The Black Cat", "The Tell-Tale Heart" are published, which, together with the story "The Cask of Amontillado" (The Cask of Amontillado, 1846) are classic horror stories.

1844 Poe moves to New York, publishes Balloon Hoax, works for the New York Mirror.

1845 - The New York Evening Mirror published the poem The Raven, which strengthened Poe's poetic fame. Soon he becomes an employee of the Broadway Journal, where he prints most of the previously published short stories in revised form. A prose collection (“Tales”) and “The Raven and Other Poems” (The Raven and Other Poems) are published.

1847 - after the death of his wife Poe is ill for a long time, the only significant work published in 1847 is the poem "Ulalume" (Ulalume).

Edgar Poe, whose full name is Edgar Allan Poe, born January 19, 1809. Poet, critic and editor. The work of this writer is a vivid example of American romanticism.

He gained popularity mainly due to his "gloomy" stories. The work of this writer contributed to the emergence of such a genre as science fiction. Edgar's parents were actors of a traveling troupe and died when the boy was still very young. His mother was English, and his father was Irish-American. After the death of his parents, the orphan was adopted by a wealthy man - merchant John Allan.

As a child, Edgar had everything. He studied at an expensive boarding school, then went to college, which he graduated in 1826. From childhood, Poe developed very well, was physically strong and had a passionate character.

The rich life of Edgar Allan Poe ended shortly before he was 17 years old. In 1826, John Allan had a violent quarrel with his adopted son because he did not want to pay Edgar's gambling debts. From that moment on, Edgar Allan Poe began to lead a wandering lifestyle. After leaving home, he went to Boston. Already, while in Boston, he wrote his debut collection of poems, entitled "Tamerlane and Other Poems", which was never published. Having no shelter, out of hopelessness, Edgar went to serve as a soldier in the army, and after serving there for a year, he asked his adoptive father for help to hire a deputy, and Edgar was released.

As a result, the newly free Edgar Allan Poe returns to poetry. In 1829 he published his second collection of poems. In 1830, at the insistence of his father, Poe enters the Military Academy to complete his education, but a year later he is expelled. The exclusion of the adopted son was the reason for another quarrel. Edgar Allan Poe leaves for New York, where he is already writing his third collection of poems.

From 1831-1833 the writer went through a very difficult period in his life, he lived in poverty.

In 1835 he married his cousin Virginia Clemm. From that moment on, the poet wrote a lot. Until 1840, he published a large number of stories and poems.

In 1847, Edgar's wife dies, and the poet is going through a serious shock. For the next two years, Poe tossed about, experienced the joy of success and the bitterness of falling, endured slander and was in a semi-mad state. The attacks of alcoholism brought the writer to a severe nervous breakdown, and as a result, on October 7, 1849, he died.

In the history of poetry and memory, Poe will remain as an artist who could, with a simple verbal word, reflect an elusive shade of thought and subtle feelings.

EDGAR ALLAN PO
(1809-1849)

Edgar Allan Poe - South American poet, prose writer, critic, editor, one of the first prof. US writers, who lived only by literary work, who knew fame and popularity, which they did not immediately realize and appreciate in their homeland.

Edgar Allan Poe was born in Boston on January 19, 1809 to a family of actors. Descended from an old Irish family. This year was a stellar year in the historical calendar: the poets Elizabeth Barret-Barret (Browning), Alfred Tennyson, Charles Darwin, Chopin, Mendelssohn, Lincoln, Gladstone were born, 2 months later, Gogol, close in spirit to Edgar Poe, the most breathtaking of Russian writers, was born . When Edgar was only two years old, his mother and father almost immediately died of consumption, leaving three kids. Edgar was adopted by a wealthy Scottish merchant from Richmond, John Allan, the smallest baby was a Scotsman Mackenzie, and the elder boy William was adopted by his grandfather, General Poe. Little Edgar was distinguished among the children by a lively mind, and Allen's wife, fascinated by the child, assured her own husband to adopt him. She and her sister Anna Valentine, "Aunt Nancy", surrounded the little boy with care and love. Edgar ended up in a rich house. His adoptive mother adored the little boy until her own death. At the age of five or six, Edgar was able to read, write, draw, recite poetry to entertain guests at dinner. He was dressed like a prince, had a pony to ride, had his own dogs to accompany him, and a livery groom; he always had a sufficient amount of pocket money, and in children's games he always had some favorite, which he bombarded with gifts. The adoptive father was proud of the adopted offspring, although sometimes he severely punished the little boy. Edgar did not always obey Mr. Allen, and when he was threatened with punishment from time to time, he showed unusual ingenuity. Once he asked Mrs. Allen to protect him, but she replied that she could not interfere in this. Then he went to the garden, picked up a whole bunch of oak trees, returned home and silently handed them to Mr. Allen. To the question: "What is it for?" he replied, "To flog me." Mr. Allan was won over by this courage.

Staying with the Allens in Great Britain (1815 - 1820), where Poe studied at a prestigious English boarding house, instilled in him a love for British poetry and words in general. Charles Dickens later referred to the writer as the only guardian of the "grammatical and idiomatic purity of the British language" in America. In 1820, the Allens returned to their homeland in Richmond. Here, Poe makes new friends, with whom he travels, including on boats. An enthusiasm for adventure, a passion for everything unknown, awakened in him early. After returning from the UK, Edgar was sent to the British Traditional School, where English literature was excellently taught, which stimulated Edgar's creative talent. Then he went to study at the Virginia Institute (1826), but soon had to leave it, because he had done "debts of honor." There were several fundamental turns in the life of Edgar Allan Poe. One of them, which to a large extent determined his fate, was the decision of the eighteen-year-old Edgar, which he made on "a sleepless night from March 18 to March 19, 1827." The events of this decision are not entirely clear, but one February night in 1827, a stormy, difficult conversation took place between him and his stepfather. A brilliant student at the Virginia Institute, a young poet who shows promise, a favorite of his comrades, Edgar did not behave in the best way.

Perhaps Edgar was fond of playing cards at the institute and got into debts that he could not repay; a big loss put him in a very difficult position, from which only a wealthy and influential guardian could get him out. During the conversation, the guardian, perhaps, put forward the conditions that he would pay the "debt of honor", but Edgar from now on will have to obey his will, follow his advice and instructions. The guardian put his own adopted son, an ardent and proud nature, in a difficult position. This was joined by bitter feelings caused by the rude intervention of the guardian in the intimate feelings of his own pet. The guy could not humble his pride and left the secure house in which he was brought up, - the “impudent upstart”, in response to an uncompromising demand, answered with a resolute “no”, and “there was something fierce, “unrecognizable” in his steadfastness, and, but, it was a worthy and courageous decision. Putting well-being on one side of the scale, and pride and talent on the other, he realized that the latter was more important, and preferred fame and honor. Moreover, although he could not know everything in advance, hunger and poverty were chosen for that. In general, they could not frighten him either. ”

Thus, for the first time, the main conflict in the life of Edgar Allan Poe showed itself correctly and sharply - the conflict of a creative, generous personality and rude utilitarianism, which subordinates everything to benefits. What was concentrated in the nature and appeal of the guardian soon became for Edgar a system of unshakable forces expressing the leading interests and tendencies of South American society.
The wandering streak begins. He sails to Boston and there at his own expense publishes the first collection of poems "Tamerlane and Other Poems", which had practically no demand. Hopeless poverty, which reached complete poverty, could not help but suppress Edgar Allan Poe. She caused indescribable nervous tension, which towards the end of his life, he tried to relieve with alcohol and drugs. Later there were classes at the West Point Military Academy (1830), which lasted only six months. And despite the rather frequent periods of inactivity, Poe worked with great perseverance, as impressively evidenced by his huge creative legacy. The main reason for his poverty is "the very small remuneration he received for his work." Only a small part of his work - journalism - had any value in the then literary market. The best of what he did with his talent was of little interest to buyers. The tastes that prevailed in those years, the imperfection of copyright laws and the constant flow of British books into the country, deprived the writings of any hope of commercial success. He was one of the first American professional writers and lived only at the expense of literary work and the work of an editor. He made uncompromising demands on his own work and on the work of his brothers. “Poetry for me,” he wrote, “is not a profession, but a passion, but in passion it should be treated with respect - it is unrealistic to awaken it inside oneself at will, thinking only about a miserable reward even more than the insignificant praises of the crowd.”

The first recognition that helped Edgar Allan Poe to believe in himself took place in 1832, when a local magazine announced a competition in which he received a prize for the story "Manuscript Found in a Bottle", and attracted the attention of the then famous writer John Kennedy. In the summer of 1835, Poe began working in the journal Southern Literary Bulletin. This strengthened his reputation. But exhausting work always sucked, deprived the ability to seriously create.

The meeting of Edgar Allan Poe with his seven-year-old cousin Virginia, who became his wife six years later, had profound consequences for his life. This meeting, and then the wedding, had a wonderful effect on Po. Virginia was an unusual person, she "embodied within herself the only possible compromise with reality in his relations with the ladies - so complex and sophisticated."

Languid heredity, orphanhood, unbearable struggle with obstacles that stood in the way of a freedom-loving spirit and great aspirations, clashes with actual trifles, heart disease, extreme vulnerability, an injured and unstable psyche, and most importantly, the impossibility of resolving the main actual conflict shortened his age. The illness and early death of Virginia was a terrible blow for him, the beginning of a deep spiritual illness. Death As before remains hidden. In September 1849, he gave a lecture on "The Poetic Principle" with great success at Richmond, from where he left with fifteen hundred dollars in his pocket. What happened later is unclear, but he was found in a tavern in a languid, sickly state, then transported to Baltimore to a clinic, where he soon died.

The work of Edgar Allan Poe

One can consider the heroes and heroines of Edgar Poe's works only as polysemantic incarnations of Poe himself and his beloved ladies, twins, whose world he filled with suffering, trying in this way to alleviate the burden of hesitation and disappointment that burdened his life. The palaces, gardens and chambers inhabited by these ghosts amaze with their chic decoration, it is like an unusual caricature of the poverty of its real inhabitants and the atmosphere of those places where fate threw the writer.

The writer's work, as if his personality was reflected in it, is not limited to "psychic autobiography". As a novelist, Poe showed himself seriously in the story "The Manuscript Found in a Bottle" (1833). In the tradition of extraordinary sea voyages, the story "Falling into the Maelstrom" (1841) and the only "Tale of the Adventures of Arthur Gordon Pym" (1838) were written. In the "sea" works there are stories about adventures on land and in the air: Julius Rodman's Diary - a fictional description of the first trip through the Rocky Mountains of North America, made by civilized people (1840), "The Unusual Adventures of a Hans Pfaal" (1835), " The story with a balloon ”(1844) about a flight across the Atlantic. These works are not only stories of amazing adventures, but also adventures of creative imagination, an allegory of an unchanging dramatic journey into the unknown. Thanks to a painstakingly developed system of details, the recollection of the authenticity and materiality of fiction was achieved. In the Conclusion to Hans Pfaal, Poe laid down the principles of the kind of literature that would later be called science fiction.
The artistic meaning of such stories as “Li-geya” (1838), “The Fall of the House of Asheriv” (1839), “The Mask of Reddish Doom” (1842), “The Well and the Pendulum” (1842), “Dark Cat” (1843), The Barrel of Amontillado (1846), of course, is by no means limited to pictures of horrors and physical suffering. Depicting various extreme situations and showing the characters' reactions to them, the writer touched those areas of the human psyche that science is currently studying them.

Poe called his first published collection of short stories "Tales of the Grotesques and Arabesques". The title of the works guides the reader and critic, orients them, gives them the key to enter the sphere made by creative fantasy. they can be called "stories of riddles and horrors." When Poe wrote his stories, a similar genre was very common in America, and he knew its features and the best standards, knew about its popularity and the reason for the sensation among the reader.

Edgar Poe was practically the founder of the detective genre, he gave a number of its traditional samples. The Golden Beetle, for its genre qualities, is usually attached to Edgar Poe's famous detective stories - "Murder in the Rue Morgue", "The Secret of Marie Morde" and "The Stolen Letter", the hero of which is a cross-cutting figure, amateur detective C. Auguste Dupin, who helps to reveal the crime. In these stories, the power of logic and analytical awareness manifests itself with special effect. Naturally, these stories begin with a statement of the fact of the crime, and then excursions into the past are made, where all the incidents of its commission are revealed, material confirmations arise. In general, Poe extensively uses the motif of understatement of individual details and episodes in short stories, appealing to the imagination and fantasy of the reader. Valery Bryusov called the creator of these stories "the ancestor of all Gaborio and Conan Doyle" - all writers of the detective genre.