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Understanding 9/11tv Edgar Allen Poe Museum CSPAN August 23, 2017 12:49am-1:20am EDT
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it's been is slow move back. but i like the people who come here to encourage the process by which we get back the position of having that leadership and all the communities working forr the common good. >> located in downtown richmond, the white house of theth confederacy is were confederate president jefferson davis and his family lived from 1861 until the evacuation of richmond in 1865. following the end of the war it became a headquarters for the u.s. army, in 1870 it was given back to the city of richmond. the home has been restored and is open to the public is amusing. up next, we visit the edgar allen poe museum. the only museum dedicated to a literary figure. >> edgar allen poe is the writer who put american literature on a the map. he's the one who is the first
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internationally influential american writer he invented the detective story, is a pioneer of science fiction. he developed the psychological terror. he wrote the only poem that so famous it has an nfl team nameds after. a he was also instrumental in the concept of art for art's sake. the idea that a work of literature piece for ten have to teach you something, didn't have to make a better person, it was enough of a story that scares you because it's doing his job. this also meant that because the story didn't have to teach you something, the villain could actually win in the end. richmond is where a place where he called his hometown. he referred to himself as a virginian. this is where he was here in he grew up with foster parents.
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it hadn't been for him then we don't know what his middle name would've been. this is where he first will level where he wrote his first poetry. it's where he had his inspirations that inspired literature for years to come.'tn this is where he was married and where he had his first job in journalism. it hadn't been for richmond, hee won to produce a lot of his best work wonder had a chance to experiment in his early 20s and find his literary voice. >> the poe museum has been open since 1922. this is the word's largest collection of pose artifacts, manuscripts, clothing, personal items, the museum consists of four buildings and surrounding an enchanted guarding laid out 1920. it re-creates the pole to one i.
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paradise. [inaudible] when the founders of the museum opened it, it was rich in his first museum and first monument to a writer, not to military political leader, but to a writer. show that virginians cared about the power of words the power of the imagination to shape her destiny. this is edgar allan poems boyhood bed. this is where he used to dream d dreams that no one ever dared to dream before. and it's been passed down fromfo his fosterfather to his business partner, down through the family until he came to the poe museum. the furniture in our collection have those stories, the chain will ownership that lead to thep so that we can verify what theyy
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are. but we also had chairs from his home including this piece, this is the poster that would've been there and posed a. we also have our work including a painting the holy family and life portraits of john and francis allen. there's only one other note portrait of john allen and that's where the only place that has life portraits of both his foster parents together. that's quite appropriate becausa richmond is where they live. they lived in homes all over the neighborhood. this is the street he would'vee known well in this lifetime. he would've seen this house on multiple occasions. they get better yet, we have the bed where he would have slept.
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post fosterfather was a wealthy tobacco export when he died he was worth about three quarters of a million dollars. he was wealthy and had a huge mansion in downtown richmond. had a plantation, had property in rock rockwood county. he had an extensive library and that was a great advantage for poe. he was able to read from theim. library but allen never quite warmed up to him. seems to have been the foster mother's idea to take in edgar. francis was from the wealthy class of society, she had been orphaned herself at the child so she could sympathize. when she heard the poe's mother, was dying and needed help, course she jumped at the chance to take in any.. she couldn't have children, she wanted someone to take care.
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unfortunately, john alec could have children inherited with other woman was paying for them to go through school trying to keep them secret from his wife and didn't want to take care of someone else. someone told him there there'ste for so they were included in the will but allen was never included in it. he he said that he was disrespectful. there's just not one good thing about that boy. poe seems to have develops interesting storytelling earlier. one of his friends, john hill hamilton mckenzie fell out of a tree and broke his arm. and then, before they had a chance to heal he was on the bed, fell off the bed and broke his arm again. his mother told him, don't go outside, stay home and just entertain this kid, edgar. so they entertained each other
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by telling stories. john hamilton recurs telling edgar the standard stories of re robert singh crusoe but poe would tell stories and embellish them. he would create new stories they had in her before but eventually poe got an interesting poetry and by the age of 13 he compiled enough of his poetry that he wanted his foster father to get them published in the he showed them to the headmaster and the headmaster said you don't want to feel his ego by publishingpul his poetry. by the time he was 18 he published his first book, a lot of what's in table and was promptly written while he was growing up in richmond early on, poe probably felt that hubie like most writers of the day and
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live off of family money or a teaching job or government job in a customs house, he became the first american writer to make his living slowly off his writing. i don't think that was in high early by choice. he wouldn't have loved to inherit john allen's fortune but john allen gently return.afte after poe was expelled from west point allen went taken back when it fund his wild dream of becoming a poet. suppose started submitting short stories to magazines and entering literary contests and then got himself a job at a magazine. before you know it he was a magazine this. he was editing different magazines in richmond, philadelphia, new york and he had a struggle. his salary was about $500 a year which today is about 17000.
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when he got to philadelphia he worked at graham's magazine. in the years time he brought that from circulation of 6000 to about 40000. minute the most popular journal in the country. in a truly mass audience. was mn he was making a salary of $800 a year while the owner was getting $25000 a year. so the owner was getting wealthier for poe's works. poe had a dream of starting his own magazine but it never worked out for him. there were times years at a stretch where he's living hand to mouth. he might make $5 off this poem or $10 off this. the right event, 15. longer stories would get more money. room b he entered the short story
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contest for 100. but it's been estimated from the time he was 18 and published his first book until the time his 40 he made a little over $6000. so he wasn't fabulously wealthy but he was famous. as soon as his works got printed in one magazine others reprinted it. nobody paid to reprint his stories. even in europe the reprinting histories left and right making him a household name in france while he was still struggling to feed his family in the unitedisy states. even during his lifetime he was a celebrity, he made it to the newspapers and magazines and people reported on every little thing he did. he was a public figure. one of the events today from his life it seems to us it wasn't a
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scandal at the time was his marriage. when he married virginia he was 27 and she was 13. he was over twice her age. he was also her cousin but back then it was fairly common for cousins to where mary one another but the age difference was unusual. average any a girl of 12 with her father's could get married with her father's permission. her father was dead but her mother who is supposed biological sister encourage thet match. when she was finding a home for her daughter she was also finding home for so because poe took in both of the women and give them a home. . . me. if you look closely shouldn't sign a marriage bond sheathing could decide the legal document was not to her that poe decided to go on with her he does say
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that he was 21 years of age so she doesn't have to get the mail guardian, by this time her father and brother were both dead so she doesn't have somebody to get permission to get married to edgar. the ceremony they recalled oppose what did look a little younger than 21. there seems to have been genuine affection between edgar and virginia and that poe had doubts with depression. she provided him the support he needed and they said night no matter how poor he was he made sure she had a piano to play he would play the flute they would sing around and they would have concerts together. seems like a fairly happy home life while your writing stories about shopping or wife into
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little this addresses rumors that opposed alcohol and drug use and in that time it made the news. the journal right here. it was portrayed as a drunkard and in one of them he was proposed as marmaduke hammerhead and the doom of the drinker. during his lifetime he was developing a reputation as a heavy drinker and he went through most of the time without touching alcohol and had a single glass of wine.
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maybe he was diabetic we just don't know but he drank less than people nowadays think heini did. he went on to become an evil despicable person and his biography he has episode after episode to train him as a hopeless drunk but his friends and family came to his defense and said this isn't true.
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his enemy said it is just a baseless slander. they showed up at the house terrified.body would then later he said it was all hallucination it wasn't real, never mind.
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he didn't find inspiration by using this. that is the popular reputation. he needed to go to the big cities and make a name for himself. after his wife died, he was struggling to make a living and he found a financial backer willing to start and he was raising money by selling subscriptions on a lecture tour
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and it eventually brought him back to richmond where he encountered his sweetheart. he had been seeing her when they were teenagers but now at age 40 he would turn to richmond became successful poet and he gave well attended lectures in richmond. little kids would recognize and clap his arms like a big bird, so he finally made himself and
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he showed up at the house. she had gone through six years already and was about tricky to remarry and he showed up one day unannounced to the house. he left a calling card and announced that he was visiting and started arguing until she came out and saw him and they said is that you and she said go away but he kept coming back again and again. in the last night of richmond he spent most of the evening with his new fiancée but afterwards
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she said he was very sick and wk after leaving he visited doctor john carter and left his walking stick taking the sword cane with him instead we do know he was going to philadelphia the next morning. from september 1989. he caught the steamship from richmond to baltimore zoo is
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catching the train but disappeared for five days. it was dressed in somebody else's clothing, chief rags, c nothing like he would have worn and people were at a loss to figure it out. one of the theories was the victim of coping that is the practice which they would find people that just got off the boat and use them as repeat voters. they delivered a lecture about
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his life, genius and death and he helped popularize it. he went to washington college hospital for four days. in the final days he was delirious in and out of consciousness talking to shadows on the wall not making any sen sense. where was his change of clothes. then he started screaming the name reynolds over and over again and we never figured out who he was. then he called down and his las words were bored help my poor soul. the doctor said it was a case of nerve power. newspapers at the time said everything from mania or a drug
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reaction to brain fever or congestion of the brain. the statistic at the time said per night s. which means inflammation of the brain and we don't really use any more symptombutthe symptoms are simio meningitis and encephalitis so that gives more theories about what could have happened but his doctor was emphatic saying he didn't appear to be drinking or suffering so then it raises the question what did kill him and at the time of his death but held most of the worldly possessions but he left it in richmond when he was traveling to baltimore it said that the key to his trunk was found in his pocket after his death. we know before he left richmond he had been staying at the hotel on main street but this was
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found in the small tavern building some of his possessions and people wondered for years why he had his trunk here. maybe he had a smaller piece in baltimore wit but his sister eventually acquired this and had a big legal better to pick a battle. his aunt and sister who was aelb close relative fought over the estate and finally they shouldn't have had their rights to his works and they signed over at the executive griswoldat that they battled over the possessions that were contained within and it was only recently discovered in one that had been in a private collection the reason he left his trunk at the tavern was he hadn't paid hiss
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hotel bill and they said they wouldn't give it back until he paid the remainder of the money so that does explain why his trunk was still here and his sister eventually got a hold of. it. she passed it down to her foster niece who sold it to the museum back in 1923 for $35 now it is one of the prizes of our collection. this is another one of thee scas scandals, who is buried under his monument. for years people have questioned did edgar allan poe is buried under the monument or did they put the wrong person and a lot of the confusion is that he was married to his unmarked grave in this 26 yearhis 26 years after a teacher and her students started a campaign to raise money to gem a nice monument in a cemetery
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that is pictured here and i thought it would be appropriate if instead of having it way back in the family plot if he were next to the sidewalk for everyone to see him as a placean of honor as the most famous resident in the cemetery is the one people should really want to see. they said most of his skin dry up except for a little bit on his arm. he had a little teeth around his school and they complemented his teeth. he had very good hygiene. they scooped up pieces and put it in the new spot and some people said they moved the wrong body but this isn't where we remembered him being into that
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caused a lot of confusion over the years and then to makthec matters worse, a painter placed this monument on the site of the original grave, but he got the location wrong. in anticipation of the new monument he knew exactly whereme his body was before he moved it. he is buried under his monument, his mother-in-law is also with him, and his wife they moved her down from the bronx. his wife died two years before he he did and by the time it was decided to build the monument, they already built over the cemetery and moved all the
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bodies that the biggest fan ever personally went to the cemetery and rescued virginia's bones but they kept little boxes now they are buried next to her husband so that is why there are three bruises because they are under the monument.try so it it helps preserve literary heritage and reminds us a big part of what makes us who we are is our culture not just thet visual arts but also the arts bh literary arts.
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he truly is an international literary figure. as he belongs to the world he's everybody's writer and that is the great thing about the museum is that it brings about everybody.
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that's what is so wonderful to have the calling his people can actually participate. everybody can sneak it physically in washington, d.c., but to be able to view and participate with the authors live while it is happening and so much and gives everybody the experience and they feel part of it. >> join us for the book festival from washington, d.c. saturday september 2 on c-span2. we are at the rotunda at the university of virginia. up next, the university professor and former laureate. [applause] 2011 national medal of arts for
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