It is said that Edgar often played in the churchyard of Irvine Parish Church. In those days, school students were sent there to record epitaphs on the gravestones. It is quite likely Poe found inspiration from the memory of the touching words and graphic representations on these headstones when he later came to write his horror stories and melancholy poetry. He stayed on in Irvine for a while before joining the Allans in London, attending boarding school in Chelsea in 1817, eventually returning to the US in 1820.
As a boy, I was familiar with all Poe’s work - The Pit and the Pendulum, The Tell Tale Heart, The Cask of Amontillado, The Gold Bug, Murders in the Rue Morgue, and poems like Annabel Lee and The Raven. I knew all about him without having ever read any of his books. This was thanks to my love of ‘Classics Illustrated’ - adaptations of all the best literary classics in comic strip form including biographical sketches and background material. I used my pocket money to buy a new one every week and stored them in some sturdy box files. It wasn’t till I was much older I took the time to read anything by Poe and learn more about this complex dark and mysterious man.
He is regarded by many critics as the architect of the modern short story. He demonstrated a brilliant command of language and technique as well as an inspired and original imagination. Although usually associated with the genre of horror and the supernatural, it would be more accurate to say he pioneered the deep analysis of the human psyche. He himself battled poor mental health, financial ruin, the devastation of bereavement and alcoholism. He was disowned and reinstated several times by his foster father before having to make his own way in life. Poe blamed John Allan for failing to provide for him financially, while Allan blamed Poe’s profligacy for his failings.
He struggled to succeed first in Richmond, then Boston and finally New York before dying in mysterious unexplained circumstances in Baltimore at the age of 40 in 1849. He had only limited literary recognition during his lifetime, but he is now widely regarded as an author of great merit and recognised as an inspiration for many who came after him. His detective character, C. Auguste Dupin, in ‘Murders in the Rue Morgue’ was the prototype for Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes. Robert Louis Stevenson borrowed material from the ‘The Gold Bug’ for his ‘Treasure Island’. Dostoyevsky, H.G Wells, Jules Verne and Herman Melville all acknowledged their indebtedness to Poe. Even Alfred Hitchcock admitted Poe was the main influence for several of his films including ‘Psycho’ and ‘Vertigo’.
And that’s why people gathered in Irvine last week for ‘An evening with Edgar Alan Poe’ and to hear the winners announced of the short story competition in his honour. If you were in the bar at the interval and lingered on after everyone else had gone back to their seats you might just have glimpsed through the window the shadowy black form of a raven perched on an outside table and heard it croaking - ‘Nevermore’.