Edgar Allan Poe in Science Blog # 2—September 2014 by Murray Ellison
(illustration courtesy of an M.S Office Royalty Free Clip)
Perhaps Edgar Allan Poe’s most overlooked contribution to English literature is that he is one
of the earliest American writers to comment on many of the ways that the emerging technological
trends of the nineteenth-century effected everyday citizens. My study of Poe’s science writing reveals
the relationships between a writer who was looking for an audience interested in expressing his
attitudes about science writing, and an audience that was looking for a writer who could explain the
emerging developments of nineteenth-century science to them. Thus, there was an important
relationship between Poe’s science writing and the public: The topics that Poe chose to write about
were often influenced by the public’s interests in science, and his writing inspired their continued
interest in science. His works, then, not only reflect the range of scientific topics that the public was
most enthusiastic about, but they also document their concerns about the ways that technology was
changing their lifestyles. Although Poe’s science narratives show that he was excited about many of
the new developments of nineteenth-century science, they also express an uncertainty and a cautionary
attitude about the value he placed in technology, and the ways that writers, including himself,
sometimes misrepresented the ‘facts of science.’ Despite his concerns and ambivalent attitudes, Poe
became a significant nineteenth-century professional journalist who had immediate access to the most
popular science news stories of the day, and wrote about science in each of his major writing styles,
i.e., poetry, non-fiction, and fiction. Despite the existence of these factors, Poe’s importance as a
nineteenth-century science writers has not been acknowledged even by his present-day followers, or by
many scholars of literature or science history. Therefore, the present blog will examine the themes and
attitudes of Poe’s science narratives in each of his major styles of writing. My hope is that this series
will provide both interested readers and scholars of Poe’s work a clearer understanding of the complex
ways that technology effected the lifestyles and culture of the nineteenth-century public.
I will consider a science narrative to be a work of Poe’s poetry, non-fiction, or fiction in which
Poe provides an account of scientific inventions or issues, or where he tells a story that highlights
popular scientific themes which he presented in journals or newspapers. For example, in his earliest
published work of fiction, “MS Found in a Bottle,” Poe recounts a narrator’s experiences during a sea
expedition. His vessel is dramatically propelled to the then unexplored waters of Antarctica and the
South Pole. He records the scientific details of this story in the realistic style of a technical journalist
assigned to the voyage, and at the same time explores issues of the uncertainties of the ship’s mysterious
adventure, and of the unexplored spaces between reality and imagination. Poe also added a touch of
suspense and Gothic-style horror in his story, which likely helped help to generate additional strong
public interest in this already popular topic. “M.S. Found in a Bottle” was first published in 1833 by the
Baltimore Saturday Visitor Newspaper. This story first thrust Poe into national notoriety after he won
the paper’s first place prize for fiction writing. This recognition undoubtedly encouraged him to write
many other science narratives in each of his major styles of writing. In this column, I will explore Poe’s
themes and attitudes about science as he expressed them in each of these styles, i.e., poetry, non-fiction,
and fictional works. In addition, I plan explore: Poe’s educational background; his little-known
experiences in the United States Army related to science; the scientific and literary contexts which were
in place at the beginning of his writing career; his experiences as a journalist in Richmond, New York,
Philadelphia, and Boston; and the extraordinary culminating and enigmatic science book he wrote at the
end of his career and life—entitled, Eureka A Prose Poem. Poe believed that Eureka was the most
important work of his career, and considered it “the culmination of his life’s work” (Broussard 52). He
boasted “Newton’s discovery of gravity was a mere incident compared to the discoveries revealed in this
book” (Thomas and Jackson 731). He also wrote a letter to his aunt and mother-in-law, Maria Clemm,
on July 7, 1848 stating, “I have no desire to live. Since I have done Eureka, I could accomplish nothing
more” (Ostram 820). Ironically, Eureka also turned out to be the last work he published under his
supervision. There have been several attempts to evaluate the complex language and puzzles posed in
Eureka, but most have come up short because the work is written in a complex, and almost cryptic
language. When I get around to discussing Eureka, I plan to use some of the “code-keys” provided in
several of Poe’s other writings to help unravel some of its mysteries. Please send comments and
suggestions to me about this blog through murray@poemuseum.org or at ellisonms2@vcu.edu
Works Cited:
Broussard, Louis. The Measure of Poe. Norman: The University of Oklahoma Press, 1969.
Poe, Edgar A. The Letters of Edgar Allan Poe. Ed. John Ward Ostram. Cambridge: Harvard University,
1948.
Thomas, Dwight, and David Jackson, Eds. The Poe Log- A Documentary Life of Edgar Allan Poe 18091849. Boston: G.B. Hall and Company, 1987.