I need to do an interview of someone who knows a lot about edgar allan poe. Please answer these few easy questions for me i would be SO grateful!

1. Some people call Edgar Allan Poe the 19th century Stephen King. Do you think this title suits him well?

2. Almost all of Edgar Allans Poems are about death, deception, and depressing subjects. Do you think Edgar was a dark and gloomy person himself? Or do you think that that is just what he liked to write about?

3. If Edgar was alive today, what do you think he would be writing about?

4. If Virginia hadn't of died, do you think Edgar Allan Poe would of died so soon? And do you think since he had so many fiances so soon after Virginias death, was he really THAT in love with her?

5. If you could describe Edgar Allan in one sentance, what would that sentance be?

6. Does Poe have any children?

7. I've heard many rumors about his death. How do you think he died?

8. If Poe could only pick one of his poems to do a movie about, which poem do you think he would pick and why?

9. Do you know of Poe having any beloved pets?

10.I never hear anything about Poe's brother, what did he do and what was he like?

-- Anonymous, June 05, 2002

Answers

1. No. Very misleading in regards to his accomplishments. Poetry, literary criticism. Short vs. long works. Use of violence and the supernatural very much more accentuated in King. Does injustice actually to BOTH of them in that the popular image is of famous writers of "spooky, scary stuff." But read King's "On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft" and you will see more important likenesses and differences. Poe never would have been so open and at ease to write an auto-biography. Plus Poe didn't get the big bucks.

2. Again this question falls short of reality. Poe did choose, consciously, for artisitic and emotional reasons to plumb the current trends of romantic melancholy in a way unique to himself. I think the tragedies of his hard life and his honesty about being stuck, Faust-like, in a mournful state, comes out in much of his work. At the same time he was proud to use and reuse artful poems as real accomplishments not just personal cris de coeur. Some evidence I think of a type of depressive, manic? personalty, but there were more facets to his works and his character than the dark side. His humor actually shows his inner rage a little more clearly in contrast to the "lightness" of wit. After all, Gothic was a popular genre all kinds of people wrote for the magazines.

3. I think that is extremely difficult. His poetic instincts would have been greatly stifled and been buried in an even deeper ocean of mediocrity since so much modern verse is on its face, experimental, personal. And Poe could be too shy about rejection and not getting through the garbage. His personal career might have been more diastrous, or creative in a different. His inability to do the long stuff would have relagated him to columns, essays and the small market for short fiction. He might have never distinguished himself which is perhaps why in our very educated, populous, rich environment it is curiously hard to find extraordinary quality, innovators, literary greats in touch with reading public.

4. Think he would have lived somewhat longer. His wildness and troubles after her death really hurried him to disaster. As to those new loves, they didn't pan out too well. Virginia had encouraged him to do so, since Poe had a huge personal void to fill. He did love Virginia, but it might be said as with many other marriages, that they did not share this or that especially at the beginning. Poe always centered on the ethereal ideal that floated in that void, but seemed genuinely in love and happy while she was alive. He certainly did not love any living woman more.

5. Too hard for me.(Neither this or that is the sentence.) 6. No offspring. Zero. 7. Hijacked during an election scam for multiple voting. "Cooped" up forced to drink, change clothes. His health gave out. See www.eapoe.org. But no witnesses or evidence came forward.

8. Considering the medium, probably "The Raven". Go with your biggest hit. Good visuals, plot, dialogue, dramatic structure. But short, not like the movie they did make. 9. Poe had a couple of cats. Names escape me. 10. William Henry Leonard Poe, Edgar's beloved elder brother turned sailor, also wrote poems. Some portraits online or in books. Died young from alcoholism. Called Henry.

-- Anonymous, June 06, 2002

There are no authenticated portraits of Henry.

-- Anonymous, June 06, 2002

3. What would he write about today: A)our fears: He'd probably still write tight-knit, chilling stories that would tap into today's fears; probably might have produce "Twilight Zone"-type stories. He might deal less w/a 19th-cent. fear such as being buried alive, & might veer more toward, say, the 21st century fear of being ruled by machines. Perhaps he'd write a version of "Pit/Pendulum"---in which the tormentors are not the Spanish Inquisitors, but rather some government of machines. (I dunno...) (B) His satire/comedy woud probably remain rooted in current events. So he'd probably be ridiculing the mediocrity of TV writing, how the internet is affecting our language & grammar. A 2003 Poe would probably be very popular today---but, by 2153, could be difficult to comprehend. (C) Science fiction. Poe'd have a blast! For one thing, at least now we have a term, for what he was doing. He'd probably be quick to point out any details of moon travel that he guessed correctly in, say, "Hans Pfall." 7.) I'd go with the Cooping Theory, too. 8.) The above answer ("Raven") may very well be right---at times Poe had good marketing strategies. Then again, Poe might come back still believing that "Eureka" held the key to understanding the universe, and everything in it. In that case---I can see Poe's making a cosmological documentary on "Nova." As colleagues, Poe might want to bring back Einstein, for a chat together with Stephen Hawking. Poe would probably be delighted, to see how his story "Mesmeric Revelation" seems to hint at black hole theory: "that space itself...swallows up the star-shadows- blotting them out..." Due to the length of the movie/series "Eureka," maybe Ken Burns would take it on. And how would Poe update the pun-laden humor of "Eureka"--- perhaps he'd get Terry Gilliam to do something rather odd. Or maybe the producers of "Dr. Who." 10. Henry showed great literary promise. Some of his poetry shares his brother Edgar's sorrow over the loss of their mother. Had Henry lived---maybe the 2 would have been, say, the Gershwin Bros. of literature.

-- Anonymous, September 30, 2003

1 he wasent in the 19th century!! im doing a report so that cant be right read books

-- Anonymous, April 05, 2004