Weidenfeld and Nicolson first edition - 1978
Where does one start?! I think with a quotation from Mankowitz nearly at the end of this morbidly compelling biography: The Imp of the Peverse. To say that Poe was his own worst enemy is an understatement, as it was a lifelong affliction. If he wasn't soused in drink, he was unnaturally 'enhanced' with laudanum. Born on 19 January 1809, to parents who were struggling financially, Poe had an awful childhood. His father finally absconded that same year (he died of consumption - who didn't in those days? - in October 1810). His mother, Elizabeth, also had tuberculosis; Mankowitz describes her as mercurial, brilliantly painted, exquisitely ethereal, who loved her son. Although star of a small travelling theatre company, the Charleston Players, she was increasingly absent due to her declining health. The wife of a wealthy Scottish merchant, Mrs Frances Kelling Allan, was recommended as a surrogate mother. Elizabeth Poe, aged only twenty-four, died of pneumonia on 8 December 1811. Edgar was to be haunted for the rest of his own short life by the spectre of the 'Red Death'.
Whilst the childless Frances Allan, adored and spoilt Edgar. her husband John - authoritarian in his make-up - increasing grew to dislike, even hate, his 'foster' son. Much of the grimness in Edgar's life can be traced to the appalling treatment, both mental and financial, that John Allan meted out to him. Certainly if Poe had never fallen out with Allan then the horrifying poverty which dogged and crippled him from student days until his death might have been easily and quite inexpensively eradicated. When the Allans travelled to Scotland - where most of the Allan relations lived - Edgar was sent to school in Irvine. He hated the discipline and soulless curriculum. He finally got his wish to join the Allans in London. But Frances' health declined, as did John's business affairs. So back they went to Richmond, USA. Mrs Allan's case was hopeless; and was linked in Poe's mind to another woman's ill-health. Mrs Stanard became a fixation, even though she was twice his age. She died in 1824. Edgar's melancholy had deepened during her illness and he was said to have haunted her grave at night.
Sent by his foster father to Charlottesville, Virginia, there is now evidence that Edgar had become a 'serious' drinker. He had no resistance to alcohol...since he was of a markedly manic depressive type, this excitement would certainly be followed by depression...Poe was an extremely 'unstable creature'. The rest of Mankowitz's biography reads like one of Edgar's own horror stories. In addition to his copious bouts of drinking, Edgar had now added usage of laudanum (opium). Out of this cocktail, and allied with his own morbid character, came a succession of poems and stories now regarded as Classics of their genre included. The Gold Bug; Ms Found in a Bottle; Tales of the Folio Club are full of opiate fantasies; The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, Edgar's single long work; The Fall of the House of Usher; The Devil in the Belfry; The Murders in the Rue Morgue; The Mystery of Marie Roget; A Descent into the Maelstrom; The Masque of the Red Death - the emblematic story of Edgar's destined subjection to tuberculosis; The Tell-Tale Heart; The Pit and the Pendulum. And his poems, such as Al Aaraaf, Lenore, The Conqueror Worm, Ulalume and, the most famous, The Raven.
John Allan (now married to a second wife, who hated Edgar) continued to be totally mean spirited. At his death, in 1834, he had left nothing to Edgar in his Will. During the 1840's Edgar was also spiralling towards his own demise. One of the strangest episodes in his life was his marriage to his thirteen-year old cousin, Virginia. The marriage bond of Edgar and Virginia, dated 16 May 1836, stated that Virginia to be 'of the full age of twenty-one years'! Her mother, Maria Clemm, became Poe's third 'mother' and, as far as she was able, tried to keep him on the straight and narrow. His evil genius ensured he meandered widely. When Virginia died, coughing, choking and smothering herself, on 30 January 1847, Edgar was in a state of collapse. He remained numb for several weeks. He had just two years to live. Regularly inebriated, he was unable to fulfil engagements to read his works; he was a confused and tortured soul. Exhausted and depressed, all this planning and work seemed, once again, to be coming to nothing. His heartbeat was erratic, and he complained of a headache that lasted for months. These symptoms. and the 'brain fever' from which he suffered from time to time, would seem to have been symptomatic of the lesion of the brain discovered after his death.
Finally, on arrival at Baltimore to give a talk, he was already intoxicated. Further drinking bouts followed He collapsed; a Doctor Snodgrass was sent for, who noted Edgar's appearance: His face was haggard, not to say bloated, his hair unkempt and his whole physique repulsive... No wonder, on the morning of 7 October 1849, he whispered 'Lord help my poor soul' and expired.
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