was edgar allan poe clostrophobic? i heard he locked himself in closets to write if you know where i could double check this information (web address) that would be great

-- Anonymous, November 25, 2002

Answers

The way he writes about vast spaces and hreights and abyssess suggests a touch of vertigo or agoraphobia, at least enough to make the snesation interesting. According to him he had no trouible as a boy at sea crossing to England thinking himself superior to Byorn in that regard. His physical disabilities plus alcoholism may have worsened these sensations which were more of a symbolic exagerration in his stories. Themes of the abyss(Maelstrom, Ms in A Bottle,) the closed space of many house stories and both together in "The Pit and the pendulum" where the pit conbtains the worst terror. Poe mined his minor phobias the same way Stephen King does. I don't know as it made him particularly odd or debilitated in his own behavior though.

-- Anonymous, November 26, 2002