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Poe and Alcohol
From a purely medical perspective, it might be fair to say that
Poe was an alcoholic. Unfortunately, the common use of this term
carries
more than its merely clinical meaning. First, it suggests that Poe's
life
was one long series of drunken sprees, which is both unkind and
inaccurate.
Secondly, it is used to dismiss Poe as a writer, as if his poems and
stories
are better or worse depending on his personal habits. (The fact that
Richard
Wagner was, by most accounts, a rather despicable anti-Semite does not
make his music any more or less beautiful.) It is reasonable to say
that
none of Poe's stories or poems were inspired by or written under the
influence
of alcohol. The proof of this statement is self-evident. Imagine
reading,
let alone writing, one of Poe's long, flowing and carefully constructed
sentences while anything less than sober. At the very least, it seems
that
high-minded (and often hypocritical) moral indignation should give way
to sympathy and understanding.
We must be careful accepting every statement about Poe's drinking at
face value. Poe's enemies, and others who should know better, often
attributed
any reference to Poe being ill as another occasion of drinking.
Although
it appears that more than one or two drinks made Poe very ill, it is
unreasonable
to assume that he was never ill from other, and more commonplace,
causes.
One must also be careful not to count every repetition of a single
event
as an independent incident. There are also such obvious questions as
the
character of the witness and, as recollections were often recorded more
than a decade after the events described, the reliability of teller's
memory.
Second hand accounts may generally be dismissed as hearsay.
Certainly, Poe drank and often drank more than was good for him,
even
after he had promised himself to stay away from alcohol. It also seems
likely that Poe's father (David Poe, Jr.) and brother (Henry Poe) were
hard-core drinkers. On August 10, 1829, Poe wrote to John Allan, ". . .
Henry is entirely given up to drink & unable to help himself"
(Ostrom, Letters, p. 29). Such familial ties to drinking may
suggest a
genetic
predisposition, which is certainly consistent with our modern
understanding
of alcoholism. Poe's own repeated, and often failed, promises that he
was
"done with drinking forever" must also be acknowledged as a familiar
echo
of many an alcoholic.
Poe's flirtation with alcohol, however, was mostly intermittent -- a
few days of drinking followed by months or even years of abstinence. In
April of 1841, Poe wrote to Dr. J. Evans Snodgrass defending himself
against
W. E. Burton's accusations, ". . . I am temperate even to rigor. . . .
At no period of my life was I ever what men call intemperate. . . . My
sensitive temperament could not stand an excitement which was an
everyday
matter to my companions. In short, it sometimes happened that I was
completely
intoxicated. For some days after each excess I was invariably confined
to bed. But it is now quite four years since I have abandoned every
kind
of alcoholic drink -- four years, with the exception of a single
deviation
. . . when I was induced to resort to the occasional use of cider,
with the hope of relieving a nervous attack" (Ostrom, Letters,
pp.
155-157). Poe's admission of "a single deviation" speaks in favor of
his
honesty in this letter.
Prior to 1841, there is little documentation about Poe and alcohol.
Most of what exists is only from recollections written long after the
facts
they purport to record. His first introduction to drinking appears to
have
been in 1826, when he attended the University of Virginia. Away for the
first time from the control and influence of their parents, many of the
young men there quickly fell under the spell of wild living. Drinking,
gambling and even pistol fights became common problems. Poe was not
immune
from these temptations. In 1880, one of Poe's classmates, Thomas Goode
Tucker, recalled that Poe ". . . would seize a full glass, without
water
or sugar, and send it home at a single gulp. This frequently used him
up;
but if not, he rarely returned to the charge" (Letter from Tucker to
Douglas
Sherly, April 5, 1880, quoted in Woodberry, 1909, vol 1, p. 33 and The
Poe Log, p. 70). How much and how often Poe drank while at the
University
may be disputed. In 1868, William Wertenbaker noted that "I often saw
him
[Poe] in the Lecture room and in the library, but never in the
slightest
degree under the influence of intoxicating liquors. Among the
Professors
he had the reputation of being a sober, quiet and orderly young man" (The
Poe Log, p. 76).
Poe seems to have stayed away from drinking for some time after
leaving
the University. When he left the army in 1829, he was given three
letters
of recommendation. Lieutenant J. Howard noted "His habits are good, and
intirely [sic] free from drinking." Captain H. B. Griswold said more
simply
that Poe was "exemplary in his deportment" and Lt. Colonel W. J. Worth
that Poe "appears to be free from bad habits" (The Poe Log, pp.
90-91). By some accounts, he began drinking again once he entered West
Point. Timothy P. Jones recalled that Poe "was certainly given to
extreme
dissipation within a very short time after he entered school." Thomas
W.
Gibson gives the somewhat self-contradictory statement in 1867 that "I
don't think he was ever intoxicated while at the Academy, but he had
already
acquired the more dangerous habit of constant drinking." Neither Jones
nor Gibson are completely reliable witnesses as both were
court-martialed
and dismissed from West Point by 1832, Jones for gross neglect of his
academic
and military duties, and Gibson for setting fire to a building near the
barracks (The Poe Log, pp. 108-109). It should also be noted
that
Jones recorded his recollections in 1903, over seventy years after
their
days at West Point.
The next record we have of Poe drinking is in Baltimore in 1832. His
friend Lambert A. Wilmer recalled in 1866 "On one occasion, when I
visited
him at his lodgings, he produced a decanter of Jamaica spirits, in
conformity
with a practice which was very common in those days. . . . Poe made a
moderate
use of the liquor; and this is the only time that I ever saw him drink
ardent spirits. On another occasion I was present when his aunt, Mrs.
Clemm,
scolded him with some severity for coming home intoxicated the
preceding
evening. . . . I judged from the conversation between Mrs. Clemm and
Poe,
that the fault for which she reproved him was of rare occurrence, and I
never afterwards heard him charged with a repetition of the offense"
(Lambert
A. Wilmer, "Recollections of Edgar A. Poe," the Daily Commercial
(Baltimore), May 23, 1866, p. 1. Reprinted by T. O. Mabbott, Merlin,
p. 30). In 1860, Wilmer included a reference to Poe in Our Press
Gang:
"I have been in company with him every day for many months together;
and,
within a period of twelve years, I did not seen him inebriated; no, not
in a single instance" (Reprinted by Mabbott, Merlin, p. 27).
The first certain reference to Poe's drinking occurs in Richmond in
1835. On September 8, 1835, T. H. White, owner of the Southern
Literary
Messenger, wrote to Lucian Minor, "Poe is now in my employ -- not
as
Editor. He is unfortunately rather dissipated, -- and therefore I can
place
very little reliance upon him. His disposition is quite amiable. He
will
be of some assistance to me in proof-reading -- at least I hope so . .
." (Jackson, Poe and the SLM, 1934, p. 98. Also The Poe Log,
p. 167.) Poe did not fulfill this hope and White was forced to let him
go only a few weeks later. By the end of September, Poe asked to be
reinstated,
promising to avoid drinking. On December 25, 1835, White wrote again to
Lucian Minor, "Poe . . . I rejoice to tell you, still keeps from the
Bottle"
(Jackson, Poe and the SLM, p. 107. Also The Poe Log, p.
185).
On January 22, 1836, Poe wrote to J. P. Kennedy, "Although I have never
yet acknowledged the receipt of your kind letter of advice some months
ago, it was not without great influence upon me. I have, since then,
fought
the enemy manfully, and am now, in every respect, comfortable and
Happy"
(Ostrom, Letters, p. 81). By the end of 1836, however, Poe
seems
to have lapsed and White was forced to give him notice. In 1875, R. M.
T. Hunter, who had known Poe at the University of Virginia, recalled
"Here
[in Richmond] his [Poe's] habits were bad. . . . Poe was the only man
on
White's staff capable of doing this [proofing classical quotations] and
when occasionally drinking (the habit was not constant) he was
incapacitated
for work" (The Poe Log, p. 237). Poe himself admitted to his
failings
during this time. In his April 1841 letter to J. E. Snodgrass, Poe
notes
". . . for a brief period, while I resided in Richmond, and edited the
Messenger, I certainly did give way, at long intervals, to the
temptation
held out on all sides by the spirit of Southern conviviality" (Ostrom, Letters,
p. 156).
Having left Richmond, Poe and his family moved to New York, where
they
shared a floor with William Gowans. In 1870, Gowans recalled, "For
eight
months, or more, 'one house contained us, us one table fed.' During
that
time I saw much of him . . . and I must say I never saw him the least
affected
with liquor, nor even descend to any known vice. . ." (Gowans, Catalogue
of American Books, No. 28, 1870, p. 11, quoted by A. H. Quinn in Edgar
Allan Poe, p. 267). On July 19, 1838, Poe wrote to James Kirke
Paulding,
"Intemperance, with me, has never amounted to a habit. . . . I have
been
fully awakened to the impolicy and degradation of the course hitherto
pursued,
and have abandoned the vice altogether, and without struggle" (Ostrom, Letters,
pp. 517-518). In 1896, Dr. Thomas Dunn English
recalled
finding Poe intoxicated in 1839, "I was passing along the street one
night
on my way homeward, when I saw some one struggling in a vain attempt to
raise himself from the gutter. . . . To my utter astonishment I found
it
was Poe. He recognized me, and . . . I volunteered to see him home. . .
. Three days after when I saw Poe -- for if I remember rightly the next
two days he was not at the office -- he was heartily ashamed of the
matter,
and said that it was an unusual thing with him, and would never occur
again.
. . . It was several weeks before I observed any other aberration. Then
I heard through two or three persons that Poe had been found gloriously
drunk in the street after nightfall, and had been helped home" (The
Poe Log, pp. 263-264). It should be noted that after 1845, Poe and
English were bitter enemies, and that the second incident given here is
merely hearsay.
Late in January of 1842, began the long and serious illness that
would
eventually cause Virginia's early death in 1847. The emotional strain
of
her illness, with its intermittent improvements and relapses, drove Poe
to fits of depression and excessive drinking. "During these fits of
absolute
unconsciousness I drank, God only knows how often or how much. As a
matter
of course, my enemies referred the insanity to the drink rather than
the
drink to the insanity. I had, indeed, nearly abandoned all hope of a
permanent
cure when I found one in the death of my wife" (Poe to George
W.
Eveleth, January 4, 1848, Ostrom, Letters, pp. 354-357). This
letter
confirms that of other reports, that the five-year period of January
1842-January
1847 contains the most serious incidents of Poe's drinking. On May 20,
1843, Lambert A. Wilmer wrote to John Tomlin, "Edgar A. Poe . . . has
become
the strangest of our literati. He and I are old friends -- have known
each
other from boyhood and it gives me inexpressible pain to notice the
vagaries
to which he has lately become subject. Poor Fellow! -- he is not a
teetotaler
by any means and I fear he is going headlong to destruction, moral,
physical,
and intellectual" (Mabbott, Merlin, p. 37). Poe heard of this
letter
and wrote angrily to Tomlin on August 28, 1843, "he [Wilmer] has
returned
my good offices by slander behind my back" (Ostrom, Letters,
pp.
235-236).
On March 16, 1843, Poe wrote to his friends F. W. Thomas and Jesse
E.
Dow, "Please express my regret to Mr Fuller for making such a fool of
myself
in his house, and say to him (if you think it necessary) that I should
not have got half so drunk on his excellent Port but for the rummy
coffee
with which I was forced to wash it down" (Ostrom, Letters, p.
229).
To Maria Clemm, on April 87, 1844, Poe wrote, "I feel in excellent
spirits
& have'nt drank a drop -- so I hope so to get out of trouble"
(Ostrom, Letters, p. 252). To Dr. Thomas H. Chivers, Poe wrote
a
letter
on
August 29, 1845, including the postscript "I have not touched a drop of
the 'ashes' since you left N.Y. -- & I am resolved not to touch a
drop
as long as I live" (Ostrom, Letters, p. 296). On July 22, 1846,
Poe wrote again to Chivers, "There is one think you will be glad to
learn:
-- It has been a long while since any artificial stimulus has passed my
lips. . . . I am done forever with drink -- depend upon that -- but
there
is much more in this matter than meets the eye" (Ostrom, Letters,
p. 326).
Alexander Crane, an office boy for the Broadway Journal, recalled in
1902 an occasion of Poe's drinking in April of 1845. Poe was scheduled
to deliver a lecture, which was canceled due to bad weather and low
turnout.
The next morning, Poe came to the office "leaning on the arm of a
friend,
intoxicated with wine" (The Poe Log, p. 526). James Russell
Lowell
recalled, in 1879, visiting Poe at his lodgings in May of 1845 and of
finding
"him a little tipsy, as if he were recovering from a fit of
drunkenness"
(The Poe Log, p. 536). Lowell's account is verified by a letter
from C. F. Briggs, July 16, 1845. To Lowell, Briggs wrote, "Poe's
mother
in law told me that he was quite tipsy the day you called upon him, and
that he acted very strangely, but I perceived nothing of it when I saw
him in the morning." Briggs then adds, "He was to have delivered a poem
before the societies of the New York University, a few weeks since, but
drunkenness prevented him. I believe that he had not drunk anything for
more than 18 months until within the last 3 months, but in this time he
has been very frequently carried home in a wretched condition" (The
Poe Log, p. 551). The last story seems to come from an item Dr.
English
printed in the Morning Telegraph for June 23, 1846: "Mr. Poe
accepted
an invitation to deliver a poem before a society of the New York
University
. . . [but] he could not write the poem . . . [and] as he always does
when
troubled -- drank until intoxicated; and remained in a state of
intoxication
during the week" (The Poe Log, p 540).
Poe's October 16, 1845 misadventure at the Boston Lyceum would prove
to be one of the most unfortunate of his public appearances, providing
great fodder for his enemies in the press. Poe had accepted an
invitation
to read a poem, with the understanding that it would be an original
piece
written expressly for the occasion. He was paid $50 as an honorarium.
As
the time approached, Poe found the pressure of the deadline quieting
his
muse. Unable to produce a new poem, Poe read instead "Al Aaraaf,"
retitled
as "The Messenger Star of Tycho Brahe." At the reception that followed,
he privately admitted the humble nature of the poem, apparently
thinking
it a great hoax on the self-important snobs of the Lyceum. The news
spread
quickly and the Frogpondians (as Poe called the Boston literati) did
not
take kindly to a joke at their expense. The Boston papers were
indignant
and spared nothing in denouncing his performance. About November 15,
the New England Washingtonian added a new accusation to the
debate:
"he [Poe] should bow down his head with shame at the thought that he,
in
this day of light, presented himself before a moral and intelligent
audience intoxicated!" (The Poe Log, p. 590). Poe's
defiant
response
to this attack was ill-considered and did him no credit "we are
perfectly
willing to admit that we were drunk -- in the face of at least
eleven
or twelve hundred Frogpondians [Bostonians] who will be willing to take
an oath that we were not. . . . We shall get drunk when we
please.
As for the editor of the 'Jefferson Teetotaler' (or whatever it is) we
advise her to get drunk, too, as soon as possible" (Pollin, ed, The
Collected Writings of Edgar Allan Poe , Volume 3 - Writings in the
Broadway
Journal, Part 1, The Text, p. 315). Poe may have had a glass of
wine
or some champagne at the reception. The fact that even the most
negative
commentary over the next few weeks made no claim that he was drunk
strongly
suggests that he was not. Once the charge had been made, however, it
became
an indelible part of the myth of Poe as a drunkard and would haunt him
to his grave.
Had Poe never taken another drop of alcohol for the rest of his life
the accusations probably would not have gone away. Regrettably, Poe
appears
to have continued his occasional lapses. Robert D'Unger recalled, in
1899,
that in the Spring of 1846 he had seen Poe in Baltimore. "As Mr. Poe
stood
up to the 'Bar' and drank off a big whiskey, (I believe this
was
his favorite tipple) . . . I formed the opinion that the poet had, in
his
time, seen many a barkeeper's countenance. . ." (The Poe Log, p.
628). D'Unger also claimed that in 1847, Poe and William M. Smith
visited
the house of Mary Nelson with a bottle of champagne (Mabbott, Poems,
p. 570). As with a number of those who provided recollections about
Poe,
D'Unger's trustworthiness has often been questioned, though never
expressly
disproved.
Replying to Poe's comments about him in "The Literati," Dr. English
published an item in the Morning Telegraph (June 23, 1846) in
which
he accused Poe of "having been guilty of some most ungentlemanly
conduct,
while in a state of intoxication . . ." and included a charge of
forgery
(The Poe Log, pp. 647-648). English's article was copied in the
New York Mirror and this literary battle escalated. Eventually,
Poe took the matter to court, although he sued the Mirror
rather
than Dr. English, presumably because the Mirror had deeper
pockets.
On February 17, 1847, the case was heard. Dr. English had fled to
Washington
D. C. and the defense presented no witnesses. Testifying for Poe,
Freeman
Hunt and Mordecai M. Noah stated that they "Never heard anything
against
him except that he is occasionally addicted to intoxication" (The
Poe
Log, p. 689). Poe won the suit and was awarded the sum of $225.06
in
damages (Moss, Literary Battles, p 238). He felt vindicated,
but
the "addicted to intoxication" statement was widely repeated by Hiram
Fuller,
one of the owners of the Mirror, and the whole episode merely
encouraged
Poe's enemies to outdo one another in satirical depictions of him.
On August 6, 1847, Louis A. Godey (of Godey's Lady's Book)
wrote
to George W. Eveleth, noting that he had seen Poe "quite sober," but
had
"heard from him elsewhere when he was not" (Mabbott, Poems, p.
563).
On February 29, 1848, Poe wrote to George W. Eveleth, "I rise early,
eat moderately, drink nothing but water, and take abundant and regular
exercise in the open air. . . . the causes which maddened me to the
drinking
point are no more, and I am done drinking, forever" (Ostrom, Letters,
p. 360).
In 1848, Poe called on his fiancee, Sarah H. Whitman, after breaking
his promise to her that he would not drink. Within a few months, she
called
off the wedding plans, but never spoke ill of him.
On July 7, 1849, Poe wrote to Maria Clemm from Philadelphia, "I have
been taken to prison once since I came here for getting drunk; but then
I was not. It was about Virginia" (Ostrom, Letters, p. 452).
From
Richmond, Poe wrote again to Maria Clemm, "For more than ten days I was
totally deranged, although I was not drinking one drop; and during this
interval I imagined the most horrible calamities. . . . All was
hallucination,
arising from an attack which I had never before experienced. . . . I
have
not drank anything since Friday morning, and then only a little Port
wine. If possible, dearest Mother, I will extricate
myself
from
this difficulty for your dear, dear sake. So keep up heart"
(Ostrom, Letters, p. 455). This admission has often been
interpreted as a
case of delirium tremens, induced by alcohol withdrawal.
Late in August of 1849, Poe was initiated into the Sons of
Temperance,
Shockoe Hill Division, in Richmond (The Poe Log, p. 829.) In
1900,
W. J. Glenn, formerly an officer of the Sons of Temperance, reported to
James A. Harrison that "the statement was made and too busily
circulated
that his death was the result of a spree commenced as soon as he
reached
Baltimore. We of the temperance order to which he belonged exerted
ourselves
to get at the facts, and the consensus of opinion was that he had not
been
drinking, but had been drugged" (Harrison, Complete Works, vol
I,
p. 321). One of those who said that Poe had strayed from his pledge was
Bishop O. P. Fitzgerald, who claimed that Poe attended a birthday party
in Baltimore and, out of courtesy, could not refuse the drink a toast
to
the hostess (Mabbott, Poems, p. 568). Whether or not alcohol
was
involved with his death has been hotly debated, but as all witnesses
for
both sides have shown themselves willing to modify the facts, no
certain
conclusion can be reached.
In addition to the specific cases related above, there are general
comments
about Poe's drinking, mostly from his literary enemies. As one example,
the Knickerbocker Magazine for November of 1846 carried a
satire
on Poe which ended with the lines: "The crusty critic, all conjecture
shames;/
Nor shall the world know which the mortal sin,/ Excessive genius or
excessive
gin!" (The Poe Log, p. 669). As another example, Dr. English
savagely
attacked Poe by casting him as a drunken and dissolute character named
Hammerhead in a sixteen part serial carried in the New York Mirror
(The Poe Log, p. 670). These incidents, however, do not depict
actual
events and only reflect the hostility of the writers. It would hardly
be
reasonable to use them to build a case against Poe.
That, then, is the sum of our information about Poe and alcohol.
Whether
or not it is fair to call him an alcoholic will have to rely on your
own
judgment. |
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