In Search of Edgar Allan Poe: Meet the Man Behind the Myth (Part 2)

[@jeffjerome4805]

Truly a masterpiece! No stupid myths about Poe. Exceptionally well done! No cringe worthy moments. I'm proud to be part of this fine telling of Poe's life.

[@gregorymifsud5389]

one of my favorite writers. Thank you.

[@JCPJCPJCP]

I have the feeling i have seen this film before. But I just now finished watching part two, and I found it absorbing and inspiring. This excellent film does Poe justice. I have learned from it and I will watch both parts again. I lived in Providence for years, and I know very well all the Providence locations mentioned and pictured in your film, Whitman's home, the cemeteries, the Atheneum. Poe is a legend in Providence, and some people claim they've seen him walking alone along Benefit Street in the wee hours on foggy nights. Thanks.

[@eastrockfilms1229]

Thank you. We haven't seen Sarah Helen Whitman mentioned in a documentary on Poe before, so we wanted to make sure she was included, as she was an important figure in his life!

[@eastrockfilms1229]

We hope you enjoy this film, which we consider to be the definitive documentary on Edgar Allan Poe. The film is in two parts and will be coming soon to various platforms and film festivals! Hopefully the documentary will air on many PBS stations, as did our previous film on Walt Whitman. Please enjoy and let us know what you think!

[@ssake1_IAL_Research]

I have watched and taken careful notes on Part I, and Part II up through that section concerning "The Raven." I find this an impeccably-produced documentary, though it seems to glorify Poe to the point of indulging in myth, at times. For example, we are told that Poe as a young man was given to pranks and to "raiding orchards," but the narrator seriously believes that Poe actually swam six miles against the current in the James River. Far more likely, it was a hoax, and he secretly rode most of the way. It is extremely implausible that this 15-year-old boy still holds the record, today, even against trained athletes! But nobody, seemingly, has questioned Poe's veracity on this claim. The reason I took the better part of a day to study this film so carefully, is that I fundamentally disagree with it. As an independent researcher, I have discovered that Edgar Allan Poe was not the author of "The Raven." It was all a scam. The real author had been Mathew Franklin Whittier, younger brother of the Quaker poet John Greenleaf Whittier. He had written it based on a real-life event, and real-life circumstances, which occurred in December of 1841. Mathew would then have naively shared it with Poe in a private meeting, in early 1842. It was Mathew, not Poe, who published it in the Feb. 1845 edition of "American Review," under the pseudonym "---- Quarles" (not mentioned in the film). Poe merely scooped it by three days, having presumably seen it in an advance copy. He pretended to have permission from the editor of "American Review." But all this is extremely improbable. Poe did not use pseudonyms. No newly-launched literary journal would ever give such permission to a pedestrian daily newspaper. It would also have been the height of cruelty for Poe to publish a poem about grief, while Virginia was still alive and battling consumption. This is a real grief poem, but it is also a poem describing a faith crisis. Poe had no faith to begin with, so he could not have experienced a faith crisis. It's obviously a poem written by an actual grieving widower--it is not a poem about Poe's preoccupation with past losses, nor is it written in anticipatory grief. Finally, if one becomes as familiar with Mathew Franklin Whittier's literary legacy as I am, the matter is obvious. The reasons that Poe scholars cite for Poe supposedly writing this poem, are only the reasons he chose to plagiarize it--why he was attracted enough to it, to steal it. But he didn't fully understand it. Poe had never written any poetry in this style, but Mathew Franklin Whittier had published several poems of very high quality in a similar style. This was, in fact, his preferred style of many years. Finally, Poe's essay, "The Philosophy of Composition," is childish nonsense intended as damage control, to prove that he could possibly have written "The Raven." All he did was to reverse-engineer the poem. The film chooses to ignore this issue--and while many scholars have concluded that Poe wrote this essay as a "hoax," actually it was yet another *scam.* This entire issue is not dealt with in the film.

[@alfredroberthogan5426]

We appreciate your interesting comments. You sure have some wholly unexpected and extremely hostile reactions to this in-depth documentary. It was quite painstakingly researched I can assure you. Mr. Poe was unquestionably a prolific and uber-influential literary giant of the 19th century, whose legacy endures powerfully into the 21st century. Mr. Poe could have been writing about his heart-wrenching pain at the deep suffering of his young wife from consumption, which had a grim prognosis in those times. But thank you for your input. Matthew Franklin Whittier is a new name to me, though I have known about John Greenleaf Whittier since boyhood.

[@jeffjerome4805]

🙄