In this issue: Re: Re: Off-topic: Names for the Next Decade Today in History - March 17 now, wait a gosh darn minnit! Raffles, Singapore and gin slings CHAT: Wild, wild waste Today in History - March 16 Today in History - March 18 Etext avail: Curtis' "The monster of Lake LaMetrie" Re: Etext avail: Curtis' "The monster of Lake LaMetrie" J. Meade Falkner URLs the elasmosaurus story Re: the elasmosaurus story Re: CHAT: Wild, wild waste Re: J. Meade Falkner Re: CHAT: Gettysburg and blurb from Yeats Re: CHAT: Gettysburg and blurb from Yeats Re: CHAT: Wild, wild waste Re: the elasmosaurus story Correction to the elasmosaurus story HTML file Re: the elasmosaurus story Today in History - March 19 Re: Today in History - March 19 Finding the elasmosaurus story Re: Finding the elasmosaurus story Chat: Too good to hide Re: the elasmosaurus story Re: Chat: Too good to hide -----------------------------THE POSTS----------------------------- Date: Wed, 17 Mar 1999 16:02:37 -0500 (EST) From: Zozie(at)aol.com Subject: Re: Re: Off-topic: Names for the Next Decade My guess is, in America at least, it will come from what most people do with phone numbers. Zero becomes oh. Thus probably: 2000, two oh oh one. hmmm phoebe
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Date: Wed, 17 Mar 1999 10:54:08 -0700
From: Jerry Carlson <gmc(at)libra.pvh.org>
Subject: Today in History - March 17
1868
Postage stamp canceling machine patent is issued.
1884
John Joseph Montgomery makes the first glider flight in
Otay, Calif.
1886
Carrollton Massacre in Mississippi occurs. 20 Blacks are
killed.
1891
The British steamer Utopia sinks off the coast of Gibraltar.
1905
Eleanor Roosevelt marries Franklin D. Roosevelt in New York.
1914
Russia increases the number of active duty military from
460,000 to 1,700,000.
Born on March 17
c.389
St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland who allegedly
drove all the snakes [one account says it was
Scandinavians he drove out - details available on request]
out of Ireland [which date may have
influenced the naming of..]
1828
Maj. Gen Patrick R. Cleburne, the "Stonewall" of the West
1832
Daniel Conway Moncure, U.S. clergyman, author, abolitionist
1902
Bobby Jones, first American golfer to win the U.S. and
British championships in
the same year in 1930.
1919
Nat *King* Cole, American jazz pianist and singer famous
for Unforgettable and
Mona Lisa.
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Date: Wed, 17 Mar 1999 18:32:30 -0500 From: Linda Anderson <lpa1(at)ptdprolog.net> Subject: now, wait a gosh darn minnit! Jerry Carlson just posted: >c.389 > St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland who allegedly drove all the snakes [one account says it was > Scandinavians he drove out - details available on request] out of Ireland [which date may have > influenced the naming of..] > Hey- Norway don't got no snakes. Must be them daggone Swedes Paddy be talking about. Long mustaches looking like golden snakes? Is we reaching here for a similie? Braids like snakes? Me needum more info, dearest Jer. Linda Anderson a Jensen twice on her mother's side (both maternal father and mother were Jensens, but not related......she's told! <G>)
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Date: Wed, 17 Mar 1999 17:22:24 -0800 From: Patricia Teter <PTeter(at)getty.edu> Subject: Raffles, Singapore and gin slings The name Raffles has long been associated with gin slings served on the verandah of the Singapore hotel in the heyday of British colonialism. However, Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles (1782-1826) was a renowned colonial administrator who shaped the history of South-East Asia, the founder of Singapore in 1819, scholar and humanist, and author of the monumental _History of Java_ (1819). The British Museum has organized an exhibition which celebrates Raffles, his achievements, his writing, and what survives of his remarkable collection of antiquarian and ethnographic Javanese items. If you happen to be in London, and want to know more about this exceptional man, visit the British Museum. The exhibition ends April 19. best regards, Patricia Patricia A. Teter The Getty Provenance Index PTeter(at)Getty.edu
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Date: Mon, 15 Mar 1999 09:59:40 -0700
From: sdavies(at)MtRoyal.AB.CA
Subject: CHAT: Wild, wild waste
I'm probably behind in realizing this, but a recent movie promo mag shows the
upcoming movie _Wild, wild West_ (1999) is going to be a techno-bang movie
instead of a western.
It's possible to think of the movie as more of a Frank Reade Jr. tribute; that's
the pulp series which celebrated robots and other inventions, but this movie
also seems to focus more on noise and the grandness of the scale of destruction
rather than characters. The awe of inventing and discovering is far outscaled
by the evil fireworks at the heart of the movie.
Here's some links which tell more:
The official movie website contains what's called the SuperBowl promo:
http://www.wildwildwest.net/
Two movie review sites are full of opinions and gossip about the show:
http://www.cinescape.com/links/mvwwwestnr.html
http://upcomingmovies.com/wildwildwest.html
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Date: Tue, 16 Mar 1999 11:38:54 -0700
From: Jerry Carlson <gmc(at)libra.pvh.org>
Subject: Today in History - March 16
1833
Susan Hayhurst becomes the first woman to graduate from a
pharmacy college.
1865
Union troops push past Confederate blockers at the Battle
of Averasborough,
N.C.
1907
The British cruiser Invincible, the world's largest, is
completed at Glasgow
shipyards.
1913
The 15,000-ton battleship Pennsylvania is launched at
Newport News, Va.
1917
Russian Czar Nicholas II abdicates his throne.
Born on March 16
1751
James Madison, fourth U.S. president (1809-17) and
president during the War of
1812.
1787
Geoge S. Ohm, German scientist who gave his name to the
unit of electrical
resistance.
1861
Maxim Gorkei, Russian dramatist
1912
Patricia Nixon, first lady to Richard Nixon.
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Date: Thu, 18 Mar 1999 13:15:32 -0700
From: Jerry Carlson <gmc(at)libra.pvh.org>
Subject: Today in History - March 18
1865
The Congress of the Confederate States of America adjourns
for the last time.
1874
Hawaii signs a treaty giving exclusive trading rights with
the islands to the United
States.
1881
Barnum and Bailey's Greatest Show on Earth opens in Madison
Square Gardens.
1911
Theodore Roosevelt opens the Roosevelt Dam in Phoenix, Ariz.,
the largest dam in
the U.S. to date.
1913
Greek King George I is killed by an assassin. Constantine I
is to succeed.
1916
On the Eastern Front, the Russians counter the Verdun assault
with an attack at
Lake Naroch. The Russians lose 100,000 men and the Germans
lose 20,000.
1917
The Germans sink the U.S. ships, City of Memphis, Vigilante
and the Illinois,
without any type of warning.
Born on March 18
1782
John C. Calhoun, U.S. statesman who the prohibition of
slavery in new states.
1837
Stephen Grover Cleveland, 22nd and 24 president of the United
States, only
President elected for two nonconsecutive terms.
1869
Neville Chamberlin, British Prime Minister (1937-40) who
tried to make peace *in
our time* with German Chancellor Adolf Hitler, but instead
made it easier for Hitler
to take over continental Europe.
1858
Rudolf Diesel, German engineer who designed the
compression-ignition engine.
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Date: Thu, 18 Mar 1999 15:40:50 -0700
From: sdavies(at)MtRoyal.AB.CA
Subject: Etext avail: Curtis' "The monster of Lake LaMetrie"
(LAMETRIE.HTM) (Fict, Chronos, Scheds)
Wardon Allan Curtis' "The monster of Lake LaMetrie" (1899)
lametrie.sht
Finally, a new etext. For immediate discussion is Curtis'
ticklish story of man, beast and man/beast.
To retrieve the plain ASCII files send to: ftpmail(at)MtRoyal.AB.CA
with no subject heading and completely in lowercase:
open aftp.mtroyal.ab.ca
cd /gaslight
get lametrie.sht
or visit the Gaslight website at:
http://www.mtroyal.ab.ca/gaslight/lametrie.htm
Sorry about the large graphic filesize. I'll reduce them soon.
Stephen D
mailto:SDavies(at)mtroyal.ab.ca
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Date: Thu, 18 Mar 1999 18:56:13 -0500 (EST)
From: Robert Champ <rchamp(at)polaris.umuc.edu>
Subject: Re: Etext avail: Curtis' "The monster of Lake LaMetrie"
Pretty nifty illustrations, Stephen, although in one the head of
the monster looks rather like that of a plucked chicken. Is this
a comment on the presumed relation between the lizard and the fowl?
Bob C.
_________________________________________________
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
Robert L. Champ
rchamp(at)polaris.umuc.edu
Editor, teacher, anglophile, human curiosity
Whatever things are pure, whatever things are
lovely, whatever things are of good report, if
there is any virtue and if there is anything
praiseworthy; meditate on these things
Philippians 4:8
rchamp7927(at)aol.com robertchamp(at)netscape.net
_________________________________________________
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
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Date: Thu, 18 Mar 1999 16:59:59 -0700
From: sdavies(at)MtRoyal.AB.CA
Subject: J. Meade Falkner URLs
We have been mentioning J. Meade Falkner's _The lost Stradivarius_ again. Here
are a couple of URLs which tell us more about the extremely accomplished author
of this book and _Moonfleet_.
This page describes Falkner as an alumni of Hertford College, Oxford:
http://www.hertford.ox.ac.uk/alumni/falkner.htm
A different slant is offered by a member of his family, along with many photos:
http://www.island.net/~rjbw/JMFalkner.html
Stephen
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Date: Thu, 18 Mar 1999 19:34:57 -0500 From: Linda Anderson <lpa1(at)ptdprolog.net> Subject: the elasmosaurus story No, I'm not going to be the professional paleontologist and complain about the scientific (or lack of same) parts in the story. I liked it! Seemed to end a bit abruptly though. sigh. I'd rather have more of the beast learning to talk and exploring and so on. I have only one complaint- I read the story first off the html website. it took forever! to load the pictures. and, my major complaint, is that one of the pictures obscures part of the text! so I'm downloading the ascii text to see the few words I'm missing. Such a nice change from gorillas and my buddy Godzilla stories.... Go Chessie! Go Nessie! Go Ogopogo! Yes!!!! Linda Anderson
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Date: Thu, 18 Mar 1999 19:03:33 -0700 (MST) From: "p.h.wood" <woodph(at)freenet.edmonton.ab.ca> Subject: Re: the elasmosaurus story This story, and many others from the late Gaslight period, are available in "The Rivals of H.G. Wells: Thirty stories and a novel", published by Castle Books in 1979 (no ISBN cited). The novel is the excellent Atlantis story by Cutcliffe Hyne "The Lost Continent", and in addition the completing parts of Grant Allen's "A Honeymoon in space". I haven't checked the table of contents against the Gaslight ToC on the webpage, but I think there are several others. The book is long o/p, but I found my copy in a Goodwill store for $10, and it's worth every cent. Peter Wood
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Date: Thu, 18 Mar 1999 22:28:47 -0500 From: "S.T. Karnick" <skarnick(at)INDY.NET> Subject: Re: CHAT: Wild, wild waste Patricia wrote, >Stephen wrote: ><<I'm probably behind in realizing this, but a recent movie >promo mag shows the upcoming movie _Wild, wild West_ >(1999) is going to be a techno-bang movie instead of a >western.>> >After hearing the recent results of a poll indicating that the >majority of theater-goers are teenagers, I guess this change >is not a complete surprise. The majority who attend this >movie will know nothing about the original anyway....and, >I suspect the majority of the people making the film >also know very little about the original. This sounds like the rest that I've heard about the film, all of which makes it sound quite faithful to the spirit of the TV show. After all, TWWW was one of the original genre-benders, with generous portions of private-eye fiction, science fiction, Golden Age detection, and the like, including as much "techno-bang" as the limited budget would allow. The show's writers were usually up to some amusing trick or other, so why a big-budget movie cannot successfully do the same is unclear to me. Best w's, S.T. Karnick NOTE: See next week's issue of THE WEEKLY STANDARD for my review of the new SCARLET PIMPERNEL film and a discussion of twentieth century heroes. -- SK
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Date: Thu, 18 Mar 1999 22:44:47 +0300
From: cbishop(at)interlog.com (Carroll Bishop)
Subject: Re: J. Meade Falkner
Thanks, Stephen, for all these John Meade Falkner goodies. He's one of my
favorite writers, and it's gorgeous to find these e-trails to JMF. I have
always been fascinated by the story of the novel he lost on a railroad
train or ship? -- ( all those famous MSS. lost in trains, taxis, fires,
etc.) -- I went back to grad school with the intention of doing a
thesis on Falkner, and then got diverted by Hardy, Henry James, Lawrence etc.,
though I never ceased my affection for
Falkner. Remember corresponding with a museum in Dorset which had his
papers and Hardy's (they were friends and had many mutual interests,
including music, folklore, and preservation of ancient buildings in
Wessex).
Also, the idea of this intriguing novelist involved in arms manufacture
and sales and espionage? -- MOONFLEET is a novel my son loved and maybe
still does, I'll have to ask him. Reminds me of the TV movies my kids
and I watched, sitting on the Danish sofa, wrapped in my old grey
borgana coat, which I think my daughter Kate still has -- running out to the
kitchen in the commercial breaks for shared food and reality-checks.
("We're real, it's fun being scared as long as we're scared together.")
Henry James' THE INNOCENTS, Shirley Jackson's HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE,
and MOONFLEET are three I remember we enjoyed particularly in this
series of scarey family treats.
The film of MOONFLEET, wasn't as good as the book, but it was pretty good.
I like Falkner's THE NEBULY COAT the best of all of his stories. The
architect's apprehensions about the church restoration, the organ chords....
good stuff. It is, or was, available in the Oxford Classics series.
A lot of famous writers are Falkner addicts, I believe.
Carroll
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Date: Thu, 18 Mar 1999 21:14:18 -0800 (PST)
From: charles king <lit57(at)hotmail.com>
Subject: Re: CHAT: Gettysburg and blurb from Yeats
Good day from lurkdom,
By a twisted turn of events I saw Gettysburg recently, and thought to
chime in with a few personal observations about it. Daniels was very
good as noted, but Sheen was absurd . . . I half expected him to whip
out a rabbit's foot as he detailed Picket's charge to Longstreet. And if
I never see another fake beard again it will be too soon. Ken Burns was
also in the film. The famed Pbs series creator claimed the battle began
when a rebel scouting party raided the town for boots. In closing I
would like to post this bit from Yeats basically because it sent me off
hmmming, and second . . . well he's Irish. It's his touchstone for
judging the literary greatness of a work:
. . . Character isolated by deed. To engross the present
and dominate memory. . . .
Hmmm.
signed: charles king
lit57(at)hotmail.com
and for movie reviews when the hmmm strikes you:
www.barbarycoast-mysteries.com/page.48.html
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com
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Date: Fri, 19 Mar 1999 01:26:54 -0500 (EST)
From: Robert Champ <rchamp(at)polaris.umuc.edu>
Subject: Re: CHAT: Gettysburg and blurb from Yeats
On Thu, 18 Mar 1999, charles king wrote:
> Daniels was very
> good as noted, but Sheen was absurd . . . I half expected him to whip
> out a rabbit's foot as he detailed Picket's charge to Longstreet.
I agree that casting Sheen in the role was very strange. Sheen
seemed incapable of bringing life to a man of such moral character and
personal charisma that men would "follow him into hell." He did
a good job within his limits, but his limits were noticeable.
Part of the problem is the writing, which generally serves the cast
very well indeed.
And if
> I never see another fake beard again it will be too soon.
Yes, you couldn't help notice that the Longstreet beard was a fake. Why
didn't the actor (Berenger) simply grow a beard for the part?
Another thing I noticed: overweight Confederate soldiers. Just don't
think that the army of Robert E. Lee got enough calories to make them
as chubby as were some of the reinactors (much as I applaud them for
their expertise in bringing Gettysburg to life).
I have to say, though, that even with these faults, the films virtues
are enormous.
> signed: charles king
Bob C.
_________________________________________________
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
Robert L. Champ
rchamp(at)polaris.umuc.edu
Editor, teacher, anglophile, human curiosity
Whatever things are pure, whatever things are
lovely, whatever things are of good report, if
there is any virtue and if there is anything
praiseworthy; meditate on these things
Philippians 4:8
rchamp7927(at)aol.com robertchamp(at)netscape.net
_________________________________________________
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
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Date: Fri, 19 Mar 1999 06:54:56 -0600 From: Marta Dawes <smdawes(at)home.com> Subject: Re: CHAT: Wild, wild waste I'm also on a Wild, Wild West discussion group, and you should hear all the disparaging comments about the new movie. No one on that list has any hope that it will be anything like the series, for these two reasons: Robert Conrad and Ross Martin are not in it (we've come to the general concensus that their incredible rapport was responsible for the major part of the series' success), and the fact that Robert Conrad was offered a small part in the movie, read the script and turned it down cold. He told one of the people on the list (a former stuntman with WWW) that he couldn't do anything that wasn't faithful to the old series. I'm going to add that while I like Will Smith alot, I've also heard that a rap mix is being put out for the movie's premiere. This fosters my major concern: What does rap have to do with WWW, and what else have they changed to fit the stars personas? I'm also a huge Avengers fan; I didn't see the movie because I was afraid of what they would do to the story. I was glad I didn't see it, and I don't think I'm going to see the new WWW, either. I still enjoy the series too much and I don't want that ruined. Marta "S.T. Karnick" wrote: > > Patricia wrote, > > >Stephen wrote: > > ><<I'm probably behind in realizing this, but a recent movie > >promo mag shows the upcoming movie _Wild, wild West_ > >(1999) is going to be a techno-bang movie instead of a > >western.>> > > >After hearing the recent results of a poll indicating that the > >majority of theater-goers are teenagers, I guess this change > >is not a complete surprise. The majority who attend this > >movie will know nothing about the original anyway....and, > >I suspect the majority of the people making the film > >also know very little about the original. > > This sounds like the rest that I've heard about the film, all of which makes > it sound quite faithful to the spirit of the TV show. After all, TWWW was > one of the original genre-benders, with generous portions of private-eye > fiction, science fiction, Golden Age detection, and the like, including as > much "techno-bang" as the limited budget would allow. The show's writers > were usually up to some amusing trick or other, so why a big-budget movie > cannot successfully do the same is unclear to me. > > Best w's, > > S.T. Karnick > > NOTE: See next week's issue of THE WEEKLY STANDARD for my review of the new > SCARLET PIMPERNEL film and a discussion of twentieth century heroes. -- SK
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Date: Fri, 19 Mar 1999 08:36:16 -0600 From: Chris Carlisle <CarlislC(at)psychiatry1.wustl.edu> Subject: Re: the elasmosaurus story I liked this story too, and did manage to read the obscured text by dint of positioning myself at the spot and then reloading. There was time to do it before the graphic came back. I want to recommend the following web sites: http://www.studiowerks.com/ues/gallerye.htm (watercolor and verse by an elementary student who likes elasmosaurus) and http://homepages.together.net/~ultisrch/Theusearch.htm (a cryptozoology site by someone who thinks "Champ" of Lake Champlain may be an elasmosaurus or something similar) http://www.cs.ruu.nl/~hansb/d.origami/dinosaurs.html (an origami elasmosaurus) None of these are scientific, but then neither is our story. The only word I can think of to describe it is that wonderful obsolete one, "bully"! This is a bully story. My favorite passage is: ...suddenly there burst forth with all the power and volume of a steam calliope, the tremendous voice of Framingham, singing a Greek song of Anacreon to the tune of "Where did you get that hat?" Oh, wow! I don't know the tune to "Where did you get that hat", but I did find myself humming "To Anacreon On High", aka "The Star Spangled Banner" in honor of this passage. Great fun, though I think Framingham would have been better advised to take a trip to Vienna and see Dr. Freud rather than trying to treat his ulcer, or whatever it was, by wandering about in the mountains eating unsuitable food. Kiwi
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Date: Fri, 19 Mar 1999 11:58:52 -0700
From: sdavies(at)MtRoyal.AB.CA
Subject: Correction to the elasmosaurus story HTML file
I've returned to this week's story on the Gaslight website, "The monster of Lake
LaMetrie", and removed one of my more unsual codings <BR CLEAR=all>, so that,
altho the pictures are still large, they no longer obscure the text.
Is this story too fantastic to raise any ethical dilemma of whether a person was
murdered when the elasmosaurus was killed? Was the story untypical for its day
in suggesting that the body might overwhelm the mind, i.e. the beast would win
out over the man?
Stephen
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Date: Fri, 19 Mar 1999 16:41:01 +0300 From: cbishop(at)interlog.com (Carroll Bishop) Subject: Re: the elasmosaurus story Stephen (or some kind soul) -- I can't find this on the Website -- blind spot I guess -- can you repost directions once I arrive there. It's not under Current Schedule or as far as I can tell under the e-texts for Fiction I can access by clicking in the first column. When I try to get to Gaslight menu or whatever it's called for searching, I keep getting a list of departments of the university. Help! Carroll
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Date: Fri, 19 Mar 1999 15:52:38 -0700
From: Jerry Carlson <gmc(at)libra.pvh.org>
Subject: Today in History - March 19
1822
Boston is incorporated as a city.
1831
The first recorded bank robbery in the United States occurs
at the City Bank, in
New York. Some $245,000 is stolen.
1879
Jim Currie opens fire on the actors Maurice Barrymore and
Ben Porter near
Marshall, Texas. His shots wound Barrymore and kill Porter.
1903
The U.S. Senate ratifies the Cuban treaty, gaining naval
bases in Guantanamo and
Bahia Honda.
1916
The First Aerosquadron takes off from Columbus, NM to join
Gen. John J.
Pershing and his Punitive Expedition for Pancho Villa in
Mexico.
1917
The Adamson Act, eight hour day for railroad workers, is
ruled constitutional by
the U.S. Supreme Court.
1918
Congress authorizes Daylight Savings Time.
Born on March 19
1589
William Bradford, governor of Plymouth colony for 30 years.
1813
David Livingston, explorer found by Arthur Stanley in
Africa.
1848
Wyatt Earp, U.S. marshal, who fought at the Gunfight at the
OK Corral
1849
Alfred von Tirpitz, Prussian admiral who commanded the
German fleet in early
World War I.
1860
William Jennings Bryan, orator, statesman, known as "The
Great Communicator."
1891
Earl Warren, governor of California, appointed 14th Supreme
Court Chief Justice
(1954) who led the commission investigating the
assassination of President John F.
Kennedy.
1904
John J. Sirica, U.S. Federal Judge who ruled on Watergate
issues
1906
Adolf Eichman, Nazi Gestapo officer who was captured in
Argentina and put on
trial in Israel.
1912
Adolf Galland, German Luftwaffe pilot and youngest German
General at the age of
33.
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Date: Fri, 19 Mar 1999 18:00:01 -0500 (EST) From: Zozie(at)aol.com Subject: Re: Today in History - March 19 busy busy day!!! phoebe
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Date: Fri, 19 Mar 1999 16:36:04 -0700
From: sdavies(at)MtRoyal.AB.CA
Subject: Finding the elasmosaurus story
For Carroll and others, I've added the "Monster of Lake LaMetrie" on the
Gaslight website current reading schedule, altho I think it would be searchable
thru the Search feature on the bottom left.
Stephen
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Date: Fri, 19 Mar 1999 23:22:20 +0300 From: cbishop(at)interlog.com (Carroll Bishop) Subject: Re: Finding the elasmosaurus story >For Carroll and others, I've added the "Monster of Lake LaMetrie" on the >Gaslight website current reading schedule, altho I think it would be searchable >thru the Search feature on the bottom left. > > Stephen Thanks, Stephen. I finally figured out why I was having trouble when I clicked on the Search feature -- the box for clicking "search" on the right (after you've typed what you want searched) was completely covered, the Netscape screen is so wide on my computer. I finally unburied it. (Another Gaslight thriller.) Carroll
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Date: Sat, 20 Mar 1999 00:25:52 -0500
From: "James E. Kearman" <jkearman(at)mindspring.com>
Subject: Chat: Too good to hide
Sorry for the bandwidth, but I'm sure everyone will want to read this. From
the NY Times, Friday, March 19:
Underestimate Poe's Legacy? Nevermore
By MICHAEL FRANK
NEW YORK -- Reviewing the life and career of Edgar Allan Poe can be a
hall-of-mirrors-like experience. There are as many Poes, it seems, as there
are people to make, calumniate and rehabilitate his reputation, with some
observers doing double duty as both foe and friend.
There is Poe the hybrid of genius and charlatan whose literary criticism was
"the most complete and exquisite specimen of provincialism ever prepared for
the edification of men" (Henry James). There is Poe who possesses "the
intellect of a highly gifted young person before puberty" yet whose "variety
and ardor" of curiosity nevertheless "delight and dazzle" (T.S. Eliot).
There is Poe who "endows imagination with Godlike power" and "anticipates
the special hell of modern man" (Allen Tate by way of Daniel Hoffman).
There is Poe the poet, Poe the pauper, Poe the mourner, Poe the alcoholic.
There is Poe the working writer (less generously referred to as hack) and
frequent magazine contributor, and there is Poe the inventor of the
detective story and the science-fiction tale and tales of ratiocination.
There is the Poe who applied himself to graphology, ciphers, cryptograms,
puzzles, labyrinths and mesmerism. There is Poe who quarreled with editors
and colleagues, made friends of his enemies and enemies of his friends.
Bringing up the actual man from the erosive, turbulent sea that has been
Poe's particularly ill-fated mixture of life and legend is no easy task, but
it is one that, in a modest way, the Pierpont Morgan Library has set about
doing with "Poe: The Ardent Imagination," an exhibition mounted in
commemoration of the 150th anniversary of his death.
Edgar Allan Poe had one of the most unfortunate executorial experiences in
the history of American letters. He entrusted his posthumous opus to the
Rev. Rufus W. Griswold, whose blackening of Poe demonstrated "a sustained
hatred," as Auden once put it. Auden characterized Griswold's treatment of
Poe as subtle, but it's hard to see much that is subtle in a man who, albeit
after praising Poe as a skilled writer of faultless taste, maligned him as
erratic, unprincipled and immoral; portrayed him flailing his arms and
speaking to spirits; falsified letters to "prove" his treachery to his
friends; alleged that he had deserted the Army and had been expelled from a
university, and intimated that he was the lover of his mother-in-law, who
was also, as it happens, his aunt.
It is little wonder that upon Poe's death a representative obituary (in The
New York Daily Tribune) described him as "pale even to ghastliness" and
reported that his heart was "gnawed with anguish" and his face "shrouded in
gloom," thereby helping to inaugurate the mythic, tortured Poe whom
Christine Nelson, the curator of the exhibition, seeks to rein in with her
presentation of manuscripts and memorabilia drawn entirely from the Morgan's
collection.
Ms. Nelson follows in the path of other rescuers of Poe, notably Arthur
Hobson Quinn, who exposed Griswold's libel; Kenneth Silverman, who is the
author of a superb recent biography, "Edgar A. Poe: Mournful and
Never-Ending Remembrance," and the poet Daniel Hoffman, whose eccentric "Poe
Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe" joins in a jazzed, delirious dance with the man and his
work. Ms. Nelson's goal, she said, was "to look at Poe's importance in his
own time, when he was a vibrant critic, a vocal magazine writer and a
beloved teller of tales." She was less interested in Poe the tragic hero.
This Poe, it turns out, is not substantially represented in the Morgan
holdings, which helps Ms. Nelson emphasize the productive over the pained
Poe, but the latter does makes an appearance here nonetheless, in sections
titled "Love and Death" and "Personal Suffering."
Loss is one of the great unavoidable themes of Poe's life and work. Both of
his parents were actors; his father, who drank, abandoned the family, while
his mother died of consumption when Poe was a small boy. Separated from his
brother and sister, Poe was raised by a foster mother, who also died of
consumption, and a foster father, who cruelly rejected the emerging young
writer. Loss came again with the early death of Poe's wife, Virginia, who
was Poe's first cousin and 13 years old when he married her. At 25 she, too,
died of consumption.
"Of all melancholy topics, what, according to the universal understanding of
mankind, is the most melancholy?" Poe once famously asked himself. Death was
the reply. When is this most melancholy of topics most poetical? "When it
most closely allies itself to Beauty: the death, then, of a beautiful woman
is, unquestionably, the most poetical topic in the world."
In support of this "most poetical" topic, we see an autograph manuscript of
"Tamerlane," the title poem in Poe's first book, which presents the Tartar
conqueror's deathbed recollections of young love. Nearby are fair copies of
"Ulalume" and "Annabel Lee," two further examples of Poe's
death-of-a-beautiful-woman poems. "Ulalume" is accompanied by an interesting
letter to Susan Ingram, who had heard Poe recite the poem in Virginia in
September 1849, a month before his death. She asked him to interpret the
obtuse verse; he replied with a handsomely penned copy of the poem and a
letter gently refusing the task: "I remember Dr. Johnson's bitter and rather
just remarks about the folly of explaining what, if worth explanation,
should explain itself."
Early in this century, in her advanced old age, Ingram visited J.P. Morgan,
who had bought the manuscript from her in 1906, and asked to see it one more
time before she died. Thus at least one woman, though no longer young and
perhaps not still beautiful, survived to remember Poe and remain attached to
him long after he himself had turned to dust.
The living Poe had some palpably hard times, to be sure. He was a "victim of
melancholy," says a letter from his employer at The Southern Literary
Messenger, where Poe was an editor. He drank, as his father did, but
frequently renounced alcohol. In this sad letter to George Eveleth, a
medical student admirer, Poe wrote in February 1848: "The causes which
maddened me to the drinking point are no more, and I am done drinking,
forever."
Alas he was not. Later that spring he was observed there by another editor
"in a debauch." "No influence was adequate to keep him from the damnable
propensity to drink," that editor remarks in a Morgan letter. "He spoke of
himself as the victim of a preordained damnation, as l'ame perdue."
But there were many periods in his life when Poe's soul was found and
redeemed and when his mind crackled with invention and rigorous (if
occasionally loopy) thinking, as case after case at the Morgan attests. A
career as fertile and varied as Poe's time and again vanquishes the damnable
propensity to (actually, of course, the illness of) drink.
Consider his notes, for example, for a proposed book about the American
literary scene. With many deletions and corrections Poe works up "some
honest opinions" on the subject. He comes out against the kind of cliquerie
represented by the Transcendentalists ("perhaps the worst feature we have")
and in favor of establishing international copyright law. He rails against
the depreciation of Southern and Western talent, "which upon the whole is
greater, more vivid, fresher, than that of the North."
Poe was not all prickles and burrs and barbs. He was the author of the
wildly popular "Raven," which, interestingly, made an early appearance on
the back page of a newspaper, embedded among ads for pens, Turkish pipe
bowls and Southern Balm, "The Great American Remedy." More reverential
treatment came in time: translations by Mallarme (who, along with
Baudelaire, was among the French writers greatly influenced by Poe);
illustrations by Manet, Gustave Dore and even Matisse; bindings tooled and
gilded like jewels.
Poe was also a pioneer of the short story, in which he believed a certain
unique or single effect should be wrought out -- and was, by him, in several
genres that he virtually created, detective and science fiction among them.
The Morgan displays a rare pamphlet copy of "The Murders in the Rue Morgue,"
stained with brown spots like drops of blood. Nearby is "The Tell-Tale
Heart," which first appeared in James Russell Lowell's short-lived magazine
The Pioneer.
Hanging by itself, like a hallowed scroll, is "A Tale of the Ragged
Mountains," one of several exceedingly curious autograph manuscripts Poe
produced for reasons unknown to Ms. Nelson. In his clearest and most crisp
adult hand, he wrote out the story on narrow sheets of paper, then joined
them together with sealing wax into a long roll that resembles a mummy's
bandage or toilet paper.
Poe was a vigorous, disciplined, driven fellow, hard-working, not above
taking mundane jobs for money, a tale spinner and sentence weaver to the
marrow. He loved, lost, drank, ached and mourned and struggled with a psyche
of much complexity. These two Poes, two of dozens to be sure, hover like
specters over the glass cases in the exhibition. But, perhaps ineluctably,
none is as haunting as the daguerreotyped Poe, whose likeness was taken in
Providence in 1848, four days after he attempted suicide the year before his
death.
Beneath the finely scored surface, a baggy-eyed, heavy-browed,
marble-skinned Poe shimmers in silvery enigmatic silence. He had come to
Providence to persuade a woman, a fellow writer, Sarah Helen Whitman, to
marry him. He had promised to abstain from drink but had broken his pledge
and lost his love. Whitman "bade him farewell," she wrote, "with feelings of
profound commiseration for his fate."
Ending a visit to the Morgan on this note would affirm the turbulent,
troubled Poe. But this man, intricate in courtship as in his other human
relations, remains his fierce, slippery, paradoxical self. "From this day
forth I shun the pestilential society of literary women," he wrote a friend.
"They are a heartless, unnatural, venomous, dishonorable set." He added,
"How great a burden is taken off my heart by my rupture with Mrs. W."
Edgar Allan Poe died on Oct. 7, 1849. "Lord help my poor soul" were the last
words he spoke.
Michael Frank is a book critic, essayist and short-story writer.
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Date: Sat, 20 Mar 1999 08:00:02 -0500 From: Connie Hirsch <Connie_Hirsch(at)HMCO.COM> Subject: Re: the elasmosaurus story On Thursday night, the Discovery Channel reran the excellent documentary "Geysers of Yellowstone" which went into the various water phenomena of this region most excellently, so it was with some amusement that I read the LaMetrie story, which sounds like the author heard various second- and third-hand tales of the Yellowstone region and synthesized those. There are 'bubbling' lakes in Yellowstone, naturally carbonated by escaping carbon dioxide. Some of the geyser eruptions are presaged by the water level rising and/or falling in a nearby body of water. There is at least one -- I think it was called "The Dragon's Cauldron" where the eruption causes not a great spout, but the massive churning of water in its basin, much like water being violently splashed back and forth in a basin. No elasmosaurs, though! - -connie. connie_hirsch(at)hmco.com
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Date: Sat, 20 Mar 1999 07:46:40 -0700 From: Deborah McMillion Nering <deborah(at)gloaming.com> Subject: Re: Chat: Too good to hide >Sorry for the bandwidth Not a waste, thank you very much for sharing. >Hanging by itself, like a hallowed scroll, is "A Tale of the Ragged >Mountains," This story was read last year, for those who missed it--should be in Gaslight archives. Deborah Deborah McMillion deborah(at)gloaming.com http://www.gloaming.com/deborah.html ------------------------------ End of Gaslight Digest V1 #56 *****************************