Exhibit Talk: Edgar Allan Poe at the Morgan

Although Edgar Allan Poe left behind a wide and impressive collection of works when he died at the age of forty, most readers know little about his life unless they actively try to learn about it.  His short stories and poems are usually allowed to speak for themselves, earning him a reputation as one of America’s most important writers of the mystery and macabre.  Recently, the Morgan Museum in Midtown Manhattan hosted an exhibit of Poe’s letters and manuscripts, shedding light on the reclusive writer’s personal life and professional endeavors.

In “Edgar Allan Poe: Terror of the Soul,” which closed on January 26^th, the Morgan displayed an impressive collection of handwritten items from Poe, drawn primarily from their own collections as well as from the New York Public Library.  For Edgar Allan Poe fans, the exhibit provided a fascinating view at Poe’s work.

Handwritten manuscripts of poems such as “Dreams,” “The Lake,” and “The Spirits of the Dead” from 1828 were on view, as well as published editions of Poe’s early works, such as “Tamerlane and Other Poems,” a pamphlet published in 1827 when Poe was eighteen and primarily containing poems he wrote at the age of fourteen – an impressive detail that highlights the writer’s recognizable talent at an early age.

Poe’s letters serve to both illuminate his personal life and provide a commentary on his poetry.  Although in one letter, Poe transcribed a copy for “Ulalume” for a woman at her request and wrote that he will not bother to explain the poem further since he believes it is best to allow the reader to interpret it, in a letter to George W. Eveleth, the first major student of Poe’s work, Poe explained “The Raven,” a rare look into the writer’s thinking process.

Aside from the objects themselves, examining Poe’s elegant, decorative handwriting is interesting as well.  His letters and poems are written in a tiny neat script, while some of his short stories are written in an experimental handwriting resembling a printed font.

But although the exhibit’s collection of letters and manuscripts was impressive, it could have benefitted from artifacts from Poe and more contextual information on his life to provide a more complete picture of the writer.  The Morgan’s previous exhibits on writers such as Charles Dickens provided this sort of intimate glance at a writer’s personal life, which this exhibit was unfortunately sometimes lacking.  Nonetheless, the letters and manuscripts that were exhibited, along with the reactions of later writers and important figures, provided a look at Poe that readers do not often have.

Furthermore, the exhibit portrayed Poe’s relationship to both past and future writers.  A letter from Charles Dickens to Poe showed that Poe correctly guessed in his review of Dickens’s Barnaby Rudge how the murder mystery would be resolved.  In later editions of the novel, Dickens hid the clues that Poe had identified to make it less easy for readers to solve the mystery.

Later writers were also influenced by Poe, such as Vladimir Nabokov, who included allusions to Poe in his works, and Oscar Wilde, who visited one of the houses in which Poe had lived to see the room where Poe allegedly wrote “The Raven.”  Allen Ginsberg, one of the most visionary poets of our generation, wrote that all literary art can be traced back to Poe’s influence.

The effect of Poe’s writing on readers and writers alike is undeniable, and the Morgan Museum brought the experience to visitors in this detailed, text-oriented exhibit.