A mystery of mysteries The death and life of Edgar Allan Poe

Review by Booklist Review

The origin of the mystery genre is widely credited to Edgar Allan Poe, author of such seminal stories as "The Murders in the Rue Morgue," "The Fall of the House of Usher," and "The Tell-Tale Heart," and his poem, "The Raven," which brought him much sought-after fame. However, there is one mystery that even the most ardent Poe fans have been unable to solve, that of Poe's death in 1849 at 40. Dawidziak cleverly employs two timelines, one following Poe's last days, the other tracing Poe's childhood, career, and family. This structure builds suspense while challenging many long-held perceptions of Poe. The iconic author whose dark-eyed, mustachioed visage peers out from countless tote bags, mugs, and T-shirts was in fact a sensitive aesthete and fleet-footed athlete. He loved with abandon and lost friends as easily as he made them. He was his own worst enemy. Dawidziak's thoroughly researched investigation meticulously explores the various theories surrounding Poe's death while vividly capturing the public's ongoing fascination with this quintessential tortured soul. As Poe presciently wrote in his story, "The Assignation," "Ill-fated and mysterious man!--bewildered in the brilliancy of thine own imagination and fallen in the flames of thine own youth!"

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.

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Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

In this intrigue-filled offering, Dawidziak (Everything I Need to Know I Learned in the Twilight Zone), a former television and film critic, achieves the difficult feat of delivering a fresh biography of Edgar Allan Poe. Dawidziak cleverly frames his narrative as an investigation into the writer's puzzling demise: Poe died in Baltimore in 1849 at age 40, apparently delirious and by some accounts calling out for someone named Reynolds. These murky circumstances have sparked enduring fascination among fans and scholars, and Dawidziak surveys the most commonly proposed causes of death, which include "binge drinking, rabies, murder, a brain tumor, encephalitis brought on by exposure, syphilis, suicide, heart disease." The author builds tension by alternating chapters between Poe's final days and his earlier life, dispelling myths about Poe (such as that he was addicted to opium or had a sullen demeanor) and asserting that, despite his reputation as a "sickly, pasty guy with... a raven perched on his shoulder," he was best known as a critic during his lifetime and wrote many "satires, hoaxes, and humorous pieces." Though Dawidziak resists offering a definitive cause of death (even as he identifies tuberculosis as the prime suspect), his sharp analysis of how Poe's macabre pieces came to overshadow the rest of his work will give readers a fuller understanding of Poe's varied artistry and character. This has revelations to spare. (Feb.)

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Review by Kirkus Book Review

A new life of the enigmatic writer. TV and film critic Dawidziak draws on published and archival sources, including more than 50 interviews with Edgar Allan Poe scholars and other experts, to create a colorful portrait of the poet, critic, and story writer. The author structures his biography as parallel timelines, interweaving a chronology of significant periods in Poe's life with a close investigation of the mystery of his sudden death. Seeing his subject as "a creature of contradiction, duality, and ambiguity," Dawidziak examines the myths that swirl around Poe's career, reputation, and relationships. Orphaned as a young child, he was adopted by the "aloof and exacting" John Allan and his benevolent wife, Fanny, whose frequent illnesses made her inaccessible to her young ward. Although the couple provided a home, Edgar never felt truly loved; after Fanny's death in 1829, his relationship with Allan grew increasingly contentious. At 17, Poe enrolled at the University of Virginia, where a classmate found him to be "very excitable & restless, at times wayward, melancholic & morose, but again--in his better moods frolicksome, full of fun & a most attractive and agreeable companion." He soon left college life for a stint at West Point, where his waywardness again got the better of him. A devotee of Lord Byron, Poe saw himself as a romantic, "separated from the masses not by class but by intellect, sensitivity, and genius. Yet, at the same time," Dawidziak writes, "he craves a place in the august circles where he is granted admittance but never full acceptance." He also craved love, which he found from his devoted aunt, Maria Clemm, and her daughter, Virginia, whom Poe married in 1836, when she was 13. Offering a sympathetic, if not revisionist, portrait, Dawidziak does rule out several theories about Poe's death--rabies, carbon monoxide poisoning, a drug overdose, epilepsy, apoplexy, and liver disease, to name a few--to defend a well-grounded conclusion. A brisk, satisfying biography of a literary icon who still fascinates. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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