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Poe's
Life at Fordham
In 1846, Edgar Allan Poe, then a noted but struggling poet and writer,
moved from crowded New York City, which he disliked, to the rural
village of Fordham, then a part of Westchester County. He hoped
its healthier atmosphere would cure his wife Virginia who was dying
of tuberculosis. Poe, Virginia and her mother, Mrs. Maria Clemm,
moved into this simple wood frame farmhouse that had been built
around 1812. He paid owner John Valentine a yearly rent of one hundred
dollars. The move, however, failed to save her. As Poe sat in vigil,
she died in the small bedroom of the cottage on January 30, 1847.
Her death drove the poet into a profound melancholy. Poe found intellectual
stimulation from students and teachers at St. John's College nearby,
known today as Fordham University. In this time of trouble, Poe
was fed by kindly neighbors while he and the cottage were looked
after by the writer's devoted mother-in-law, Mrs. Clemm.
In 1849, Poe died suddenly in Baltimore on his return trip to the
Cottage from a lecture tour in Richmond, Virginia. Mrs. Clemm stayed
in the Cottage for a short time to sell Poe's meager possessions,
and eventually returned to Baltimore, her birthplace.
(We
thank The Edgar Allan Poe Cottage at Fordham for providing the text
of the above section.)
One
of Poe's friends and a member of the Literati, Mrs. Mary Gove Nichols,
gave an accurate description of the cottage in an article she wrote
titled: "Reminiscences of Edgar Allan Poe," and published
in the Six Penny Magazine in February 1963 (see bibliography). The
following lines are excerpts from this publication:
"Some
sixteen years, ago, I went on a little excursion with two others...
We made one excursion to Fordham to see Poe. We found him, and his
wife, and his wife's mother who was his aunt living in a little
cottage at the top of a hill. There was an acre or two of greensward
fenced in about the house, as smooth as velvet and as clean as the
best kept carpet. There were some grand old cherry-trees in the
yard, that threw a massive shade around them. The house had three
rooms-a kitchen, a sitting room, and a bed chamber over the sitting-room.
There was a piazza in front of the house that was a lovely place
to sit in the summer, with the shade of cherry-trees before it.
There was no cultivation, no flowers, nothing but the smooth greensward
and the majestic trees. On the occasion of my first visit to the
poet had somehow caught a full-grown bob-o-link. He had put him
in a cage, which he had hung on a nail driven into the trunk of
a cherry-tree.... "The cottage had an air of taste and gentility
that must have been lent to it by the presence of its inmates. So
neat, so poor, so unfurnished, and yet so charming a dwelling I
never saw. The floor of the kitchen was white as wheaten flour.
A table, a chair, and a little stove that it contained, seemed to
furnish it perfectly. The sitting-room floor was laid with check
matting; four chairs, a light stand, and a hanging bookshelf completed
its furniture. There were pretty presentation copies of books on
the little shelves, and the Brownings had posts of honour on the
stand.... "The Autumn came, and Mrs. Poe sank rapidly in consumption,
and I saw her in her bed chamber. Everything was so neat, so perfectly
clean, so scant and poverty-stricken... There was no clothing on
the bed, which was only straw, but a snow white spread of sheets....[Poe]
at this time was greatly depressed. Their extreme poverty, the sickness
of his wife, and his own inability to write, sufficiently accounted
for this."
Poe's
writings while living in the Cottage
While Poe lived in the cottage at Fordham (from 1846 to 1849) he
wrote and published Poetry, Tales and short stories, Essays and
Criticism. The following listings of Poe's writings have been compiled
according to the opinion of the most pre-eminent historians (see
Selected Bibliography).
Poetry
Model Verses, 1846-1849
To Miss Louise Olivia Hunter,
February 14, 1847
Deep in Earth, 1847 (2 verses),
presumably written soon after, his wife's funeral.
To Mrs. M.L.S., (Marie Louise
Shew), manuscript dated February 14, 1847
The Beloved Physician, ca. April
1847, a fragmentary poem, inspired by his own illness. An Enigma,
autumn 1847
To --- (Marie-Louise.) According to Professor Mabott, the
date of this poem, inspired by Marie-Louise Shew, is uncertain but
it was probably written between December 1847 and January 1848
Ulalume Ballad. The poem, inspired by his wife death, was
published in The American Whig Review in December 1847. According
to Willis Campbell, it was conceived in the summer or even earlier,
and re-thought in the spring or summer of 1847. The name is a Poe
creation.
To --- (Marie Louise Shew), ca. March 1848
To Helen (Whitman) (1848-49)
Lines on Ale, May 1848
A Dream Within a Dream, 1848
The Bells. A Song. According to Willis Campbell, the first
draft dates from the summer of 1848. The fourth and last draft was
completed before November 1849, when the poem was published in Union
Magazine
For Annie, (Mrs. Annie Richmond), ca. February-March 1849
Eldorado, early spring 1849
To My Mother, [Sonnet to my Mother],1849, a sonnet for Maria
Clemm
Annabel Lee, first version achieved by May 1849, revised
in September 1849
Tales
and Short Stories
The Cask of Amontillado. According to Professor Mabott, probably
written in the late summer or early fall of 1846, and published
in November
The Domain of Arnaheim. According to Professor Mabott, completed
by October 18, 1846
Mellonta Tauta describes a balloon voyage started on April
1, 2848--a thousand years in the future; subtitled: On Board Balloon
Skylark. Written before January 17, 1848
A Remarkable Letter, a rewritten form of Mellonta Tauta ,
partially included in Eureka
A Prediction. February 29, 1848. Professor Mabbott included
this short piece in Poe's Tales because of its fictional character
A Would-be Crichton. A short story, written ca. January 21,
1849
Landor's Cottage. A pendant to The Domain of Arnaheim , written
before January 21, 1849, a story in which Poe gives an idealized
description of the cottage
Hop-Frog. February 7, 1849, a tale of horror
Von Kempelen and His Discovery. Achieved by March 8, 1849,
inspired by the gold rush in California
X-ing a Paragrab. Achieved before May 12, 1849
The Light-House,1849, his last tale of terror. Unfinished
A Reviewer Reviewed. Summer 1849. An article included as
a short story by Professor Mabbott because of its fictional elements.
Essays
Eureka: A Prose-poem, a long prose book started in 1847 and
finished in January 1848
"The Rationale of Verse" published in the Southern Literary
Messenger in October 1848. (A first version, not so elaborate, was
published as "Notes on English Verse" in The Pioneer, March 1843.)
"The Poetic Principle" published in the Southern Literary
Messenger in December 1848. In this essay, Poe defines poetry as
"the rhythmical creation of beauty."
Criticism
While at the cottage, Poe wrote a large number of articles published
in different newspapers and magazines. They offer his views on literature,
writers and critics. They include "The Literati of New York City"
(a series of six papers titled by Poe, written between May 1846,
when Poe moved to the cottage, and October 1846. They were published
in the magazine Godey's Lady's Book. Thirty eight writers, poets,
critics and journalists are discussed), other articles, "The Brevities"
(a series of short articles collected under the title suggested
by Poe himself. In "the Brevities" Poe defines his views on culture,
language, history, science and past as well as contemporary writers,
including Homer, Pascal, Eugene Sue and others. "The Brevities"
include: "Marginalia" (a word invented by Poe), "Pinakidia" (a classical
Greek word for an anthology, as Poe explained in the Southern Literary
Messenger in 1836.)
During
his stay in Fordham, Poe wrote the eighteen "Supplementary Pinakidia,"
all published in the Southern Literary Messenger and "Fifty Suggestions".
1846
"The
Literati of New York City"
I.
May 1846: George Bush, George H. Colton, N.P. Willis, William M.
Gillespie, Charles F. Briggs, William Kirkland and John W. Francis.
II.
June 1846: Anna Cora Mowatt, George B. Cheever, Charles Anthon,
Ralph Hoyt, Gulian C. Verplanck, Freeman Hunt, Piero Maroncelli
and Laughton Osborn.
III.
July 1846: Fitz Greene Halleck, Ann S. Stephens, Evert A. Duyckinck,
Mary Gove, James Aldrich, Thomas Dunn English, Henry Cary, Christopher
Pearse Cranch.
IV.
August 1846: Sarah Margaret Fuller, James Lawson, Caroline M. Kirkland,
Prosper M. Wetmore, Emma C. Embury, Epes Sargent.
V.
September 1846: Frances S. Osgood, Lydia M. Child, Elizabeth Bogart,
Catherine M. Sedgwick, Lewis Gaylord Clark and Anne C. Lynch.
VI.
October 1846: Charles Fenno Hoffman, Mary E. Hewitt and Richard
Adams Locke.
1847
"Tale Writing, Nathaniel Hawthorne." Twice-Told Tales by Nathaniel
Hawthorne. James Munroe & Co., Boston. 1842. ¤ Mosses from an Old
Manse by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Wiley & Putnam, New York. Godey's
Lady's Book, November, 1847. (First published in Graham's Magazine,
April, 1842.)
1848
The Child of the Sea and Other Poems by S. Anna Lewis, author
of "Records of the Heart, etc." Southern Literary Messenger, September
1848.
1849
A Fable for the Critics. New York: George P. Putnam. Southern Literary
Messenger, March 1849. (First published in Graham's Magazine, March,
1844)
"Frances
Sargent Osgood" Southern Literary Messenger, August 1849.
1850
"About Critics and Criticism" by the late Edgar A. Poe. Graham's
Magazine, January 1850.
The
Sacred Mountains: By J. T. Headley ¤ author of "Napoleon and His
Marshals," "Washington and His Generals, etc." Southern Literary
Messenger, October 1850.
The
Short Articles : "The Brevities"
Marginalia
From May 1844 to September 1849, Poe wrote a total of 122 "marginalic
notes" ("marginalic" is another of Poe's created words). They were
published in installments in different newspapers and magazines.
1846
Installment VII, July 1846, United States Magazine and Democratic
Review, XIX, 30-32, 6 items, nos. 170-175.
Installment
VIII, November 1846, Graham's American Monthly Magazine of Literature
and Art, XXIX, 245-48, 5 items, nos. 176-180.
Installment IX, December 1846, Graham's American Monthly Magazine
of Literature and Art, XXIX, 311-13, 8 items, nos. 181-188.
1848
Installment X, January 1848, Graham's American Monthly Magazine
of Literature and Art, XXXII, 23-24, 8 items, nos. 189-196.
Installment XI, February 1848, Graham's American Monthly Magazine
of Literature and Art, XXXII, 130-31, 3 items, nos. 197-199.
Installment XII, March 1848, Graham's American Monthly Magazine
of Literature and Art, XXXII, 178-179, 1 item, no. 200.
1849
Installment XIII, April 1849, Southern Literary Messenger, XV,
217-222, 12 items, nos. 201-212 (Marginalia 201 is a reprint of
the introduction of November 1844).
Installment XIV, May 1849, Southern Literary Messenger, XV, 292-296,
10 items, nos. 213-222.
Installment XV, June 1849, Southern Literary Messenger, XV, 336-338,
34 items, nos. 223-256.
Installment XVI, July 1849, Southern Literary Messenger, XV, 414-416,
33 items, nos. 257-289.
Installment XVII, September 1849, Southern Literary Messenger, XV,
600-601, 2 items, nos. 290-291.
"Supplementary
Pinakidia"
1848
Supplementary Pinakidia 29-34: titled: "Excerpa." Southern Literary
Messenger, vol. XIV, 96, February 1848.
Supplementary Pinakidia 35: Southern Literary Messenger, vol. XIV,
228, April 1848.
Supplementary Pinakidia 36: Southern Literary Messenger, vol. XIV,
319, May 1848.
Supplementary Pinakidia 37: Southern Literary Messenger, vol. XIV,
376, June 1848
Supplementary Pinakidia 38: titled: "Ranz des Vaches," Southern
Literary Messenger, vol. XIV, 376, June 1848.
Supplementary Pinakidia 39: titled: "Epigram," Southern Literary
Messenger, vol. XIV, 654, November 1848.
Supplementary Pinakidia 40-41: Southern Literary Messenger, vol.
XIV, 671, November 1848.
Supplementary Pinakidia 42-43: Southern Literary Messenger, vol.
XIV, 698, November 1848.
Supplementary Pinakidia 44: Southern Literary Messenger, vol. XIV,
726, December 1848.
Supplementary Pinakidia 45: Southern Literary Messenger, vol. XIV,
752, December 1848.
Supplementary Pinakidia 46: Southern Literary Messenger, vol. XIV,
760, December 1848.
"Fifty
Suggestions"
A two-part article published in Graham's Magazine in May-June 1849,
vol. XXXIV, 317-319, 363-364.
Selected
bibliography used for the classification and dating
The Poems of Edgar Allan Poe. Edited by Killis Campbell. New York:
Russell & Russell, Inc., 1962.
The
Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe. Edited by James A. Harrison,
Professor at the University of Virginia with textual notes by R.A.
Stewart, Ph.D., 17 vols. New York, NY: AMS Press, Inc., 1965.
Collected
Works by Edgar Allan Poe. Edited by Thomas Ollive Mabbott. 3 vols.
Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1969,
2nd edition published in 1979.
Collected
Writings of Edgar Allan Poe, vol. 2: The Brevities: Pinakidia -
Marginalia - and Other Works. Edited by Edgar R. Pollin. Published
by Gordian Press: Staten Island, NY, 1985.
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